Center for Social Media

QUESTION: Dear CSM: I'm editing a documentary about an aspiring young football player. An interview occurs in a hotel room, where he happens to be watching an NFL game on broadcast TV. In referencing the Documentary Filmmaker's Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use--in particular the section about capturing copyrighted media in the process of filming something else and the section on when the captured content doesn't constitute the scene's primary focus of interest—I feel comfortable that when the TV and the game appear in the background, it's fair use. But when the filmmaker captured close-up material of the copyrighted game and wants to use this while we hear the subject talking, is this still "fair use?" Thanks, Ted ANSWER:…

QUESTION: Dear CSM: I'm editing a documentary about an aspiring young football player. An interview occurs in a hotel room, where he happens to be watching an NFL game on broadcast TV. In referencing the Documentary Filmmaker's Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use--in particular the section about capturing copyrighted media in the process of filming something else and the section on when the captured content doesn't constitute the scene's primary focus of interest—I feel comfortable that when the TV and the game appear in the background, it's fair use. But when the filmmaker captured close-up material of the copyrighted game and wants to use this while we hear the subject talking, is this still "fair use?" Thanks, Ted ANSWER:…

Every year, there’s more to learn than you can absorb at Silverdocs, between the conference, which is organized by Diana Ingraham of US Independents, and the superb curating, by Sky Sitney. One of my conference faves was the workshop that Dennis Palmieri from Independent Television Service (ITVS) ran about outreach strategies. He linked goals (start a conversation, see action, change the world) with strategies, tactics and types of partners. If you didn’t make it, his Powerpoint is here. Also, over on the moviegoing side of the festival, my personal favorite won the top prize, the Sterling US Feature award. Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s The Garden chronicles the fight to keep a neighborhood garden in Los Angeles’ devastated South Central district. A…

Will public TV survive into an era when everyone is a digital native? That was the question of the day at a panel I chaired at the conference the Silverdocs film festival (aka SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival) hosts every year. Answer? Probably, with some work. PBS’s John Boland believes PBS is not only ready but in the forefront of change, with in-place deals for iTunes and other digital distribution for independent work. The Center for Asian American Media’s Steve Gong believes that public broadcasting’s so-called “minority consortia”—representing five federally-designated ethnic categories—are becoming essential interfaces to America’s emerging “majority minority” culture. But Ernest Wilson, dean of the Annenberg School at University of Southern California and a board member of the…

Widely credited with coining the term "the digital divide," telecommunications consultant Larry Irving formerly served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information under the Clinton administration. In his remarks at the June 17, 2008 Beyond Broadcast conference, he urged public broadcasters and their allies to craft a clear policy agenda for the next administration that reflects both technological and demographic shifts. He suggested that "new media" has now become simply "media," and that public media makers will need to adjust quickly while maintaining a commitment to serving a diverse array of Americans through high-quality noncommercial productions. Read more in the transcript of his remarks.

On June 3, 2008, the day that Barack Obama became the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic party, Republican presidential candidate John McCain gave a speech to a small group of followers in front of a green screen. The next day, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert declared this a challenge from McCain to edit the images on that green screen in order to "make him seem interesting." Practically a national call to expand fair use. Colbert's challenge sparked a quickly growing and often outstandingly creative meme, known as the "Make McCain Exciting" project. This meme offers a strong argument for fair use as makers reframe segments of this speech with images from popular culture in order to comment on McCain's own…

“Move from a mentality of broadcasting, move to a mentality of media,” Larry Irving, President of the Irving Information Group, urged participants at Beyond Broadcast’s closing keynote address. As part of this transition, Irving made a case for public broadcasters to avoid commercial alliances and appeal to a broader demographic. “When I read about [PBS adding content to] Hulu.com, I read it with dread,” he said. “Generally people have an agenda when they give you money. It is a very slippery slope, Irving said. “If we start letting commercial dictates get in front, we’re going to have a problem as a nation.” Pointing out that ad dollars are lower on commercial programming aimed at black and Hispanic viewers, Irving said,…

As participatory media and user-generated content continues to grow, public media broadcasters need to move rapidly to find ways to monetize content and imagine new business models, panelists said at Beyond Broadcast’s afternoon session "Mapping the Money." Diane Mermigas, Editor-at-Large, Media Post, said that public broadcasting and commercial media are all faced with the same issues and that public media must begin to take action. This might mean making moves such as putting content up on a major online clearinghouse site as PBS has just done with some of its content on Hulu.com –feeds that are bookended by 30-second commercials. It is also imperative, she noted, to build rapport with users, allowing sponsors to connect with a target audience. Henry…

As the role of traditional news aggregators changes as technology emerges to allow ever-increasing numbers of people and communities to create their own media, Calvin Sims, Program Officer at the Ford Foundation and moderator of this morning's panel "Visualizing Public Media Futures," began the discussion by asking “Who will curate this new space?” Dennis Haarsager, Interim CEO at NPR, said that as more people create content, the goals and mission of traditional media outlets are changing. “We’re trying to envision a world in which everyone can be a producer, but thinking about how to visualize this new world can be a challenge. Haarsager said his organization is looking at thei work in layers, the top being the goal of “enhancing…

While traditional maps have often been a tool of colonialism and top-town government, maps are becoming a form of public media and a democratic tool, noted Future of Public Media Project Director Jessica Clark. With the emergence of free and open source tools that make mapping and visualization much easier, maps are a “rising and vibrant form of participatory media,” she said. The panel’s moderator, Jacquie Jones, President and CEO of the National Black Programming Consortium pointed out that maps are being used far beyond their traditional geographic purpose and that map interfaces now encompass social networks, media maps, and that election maps have almost become their own genre. Lee Banville, Editor-in-Chief of the Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, presented…

I had the great pleasure of presenting at the National Conference for Media Reform this past weekend, on a panel called "Copyright Wars: Will Filtering Censor Free Speech and Kill Net Neutrality?" Joining me on this panel were Alex Curtis of Public Knowledge, Robert Millis of Hudson Street Media, and Elizabeth Stark of the MIT Free Culture Group. We discussed the effects of filtering video for copyright infringements on the evolution of online video, and how net neutrality can protect its future. This culture of online video is explored in Recut, Reframe, Recycle, which demonstrates how new culture grows from existing culture, increasing the value of fair use practices in online video. Filtering tools block videos that contain copyrighted material…

Each experiment creates new pathways for future media makers. With their Virtual Bali project, OneWorld organizers are hoping their efforts will show other non-profits that the virtual world can be an effective tool to draw in new global publics and connect existing ones. Read the report>>

Beyond Broadcast’s stellar line-up of participatory public media demonstrations will include a community media hub – a showcase of community, independent and ethnic media maps, resources and interactive experiments. Many maps of community media are straightforward in that they primarily show where community media stations, makers or organizations are located. Mapping Access, an online directory of over 200 cable access television stations in 28 states, uses a Google map to help users quickly find the location, contact and affiliation information for their local PEG (public, educational, government) station. Prometheus Radio is a non-profit organization that seeks to build a strong community of low-power FM (LPFM) stations and listeners. The Prometheus Radio site features a map that shows full- and low-power…

How can public media makers and outlets support themselves in an era of free access and user-generated content? This is the question that Diane Mermigas, editor at large of Mediapost, tackles for us in "Mapping the Money in Public Media." Mermigas, who will be leading our final conversation at Beyond Broadcast, suggests that public media makers have plenty of opportunities if they can change their mindset. "Public media can build community where commercial media manipulates consumers," she notes. "As such, digital interactivity can be a catalyst to reshape public broadcasting, create new forms of public media and develop new methods for sustainable funding." The shift in thinking will be more "revolution than evolution," predicts Mermigas. As the visualization above illustrates,…

One of the signature roles that public media projects can play is to compensate for cuts in international news coverage by commercial journalism outlets. As noted on the Beyond Broadcast site, PRI President and CEO Aliza Miller uses maps to effectively demonstrate the paucity of global coverage in TV news: Distortions in coverage aren't limited to the U.S., however. Check out these comparative coverage maps, a joint project of the Online Journalism Blog and L'Observatoire des Medias So, how can readers interested in a more balanced picture of global events overcome such limitations? One answer is to pull together streams of content from a variety of global sources, and let readers slice and dice what they see based on their…

With less than a week to go before the 2008 Beyond Broadcast conference, we’re looking forward to a fantastic line-up of public media leaders and innovators, offering the chance to learn about the latest emerging practices and technologies in media for public knowledge and action? As platforms becomes increasingly mobile and personalized, how will publics communicate around shared issues? Join us for panels, demos, and conversations with experts and leaders in the field, including: Dennis Haarsager, Interim CEO, NPR Jacquie Jones, President and CEO, National Black Programming Consortium Katrin Verclas, Co-Founder and Editor, MobileActive Paula Le Dieu, Director of Open Media, Magic Lantern Productions Persephone Miel, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School Stamen Design-the co-creators…

If you're in Minneapolis--or following the National Conference for Media Reform online--don't miss us! This afternoon, CSM Projects Coordinator Alison Hanold will be discussing Recut, Reframe, Recycle as part of a panel called "Copyright Wars: Will Filtering Censor Free Speech and Kill Net Neutrality?" Tomorrow, I'll be unpacking our FAQ at a panel called "New Directions in Public Media." It's impossible to keep up with all of the interesting panels at NCMR, but I'm doing my best! Follow my live tweets from sessions and speeches at http://twitter.com/beyondbroadcast

In a recent ruling, judge Sidney Stein stated that the filmmakers of Expelled, a film supporting intelligent design, were likely to win a fair use claim if Yoko Ono persued her suit against them. The filmmakers used a 15 second clip of John Lennon's song "Imagine" to make a statement on religion in our culture--read the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog entry on the subject: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/02/yoko-onos-injunction-request-denied-in-federal-expelled-case/?mod=googlenews_wsj Also, here's AJ Schnack's concise summary: http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2008/06/expelled-fights.html

For public broadcasting stations, “[c]ommunity engagement is part of [the] mission statement,” notes Chad Johnson, web producer at Salt Lake City’s KUER. Public Interactive’s new online community engagement tool, Public Action, is “a strong online tool that is helping us to fulfill [that] mission," making it easier than ever for public broadcasting stations and producers to integrate participatory platforms on their own websites. Stations can use existing content as a basis for forming interactive communities that allow members to contribute their own original content and open dialogue on important issues that can inform future programming. After only one year since the program’s launch, 24 stations and programs - both local and national - are now using Public Action. For example,…

QUESTION: Dear CSM, I'm a reporter for public radio. Is it "fair use" to use a short clip from a TV show or film in order to make a point in a given story, even if I'm not commenting directly on the clip? If so, what is the maximum amount of material I am allowed to use of a given TV show or film. My understand is that if 10% or less of the story is devoted to that material, it's "fair use." Is that true? Thanks, -Sean ANSWER: There is no “10 per cent rule,” unfortunately. The question always is: how and why are you using the material. According to the documentary filmmakers who created the statement, you must…