In prepping my presentation for WOSU Public Media last week, I spent a lot of time reviewing other people’s recent presentations, stories, blogs, data and so on. Really, I read stuff every day related to digital media, so tracking it all back down is kind of hard. But I wanted to make sure I gathered a list of links and other resources folks could review if they wanted to dig deeper than my presentation alone allowed. So here they are, in no particular order…
From Broadcast to Broadband: Redesigning public media for the 21st Century
Discusses how public media must change to meet the challenges of a 21st century media universe. Jake Shapiro, PRX and Ellen Goodman, Rutgers; presented at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Note: The pie chart showing CPB expenditures is incorrect. There’s an extra $71M included in the TV programming slice that shouldn’t be there.
The Future of News
This was a conference held at MPR in St. Paul, MN in November 2009 bringing together journalism leaders and pundits from public and commercial media in all formats. Lots of video and other resources. Props to Julia Shrenkler for tons of work on this one.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Michael Rosenblum offers a critique of the folks that appeared at The Future of News, as linked above.
A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009 (Jeremiah Owyang)
A frequently-updated list of social media statistics, including links, for all the major services.
The Chaos Scenario (video)
The Chaos Scenario (blog / book)
Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s “On the Media,” has written a book and built a wide-ranging presentation on how current media companies are faced with a chaotic world that’s changing the fundamental models of media economics. It’s a long video, but a good one.
CPB will seek unified case for reauthorization
Current, 23 Nov 2009
FTC should consider policy reform to support public media
MediaShift, Dec 2009 — Jessica Clark makes a case for changes in federal rules to increase public media funding while simultaneously requiring public media do more public service work and less broadcasting.
New Public Media
The public broadcasting system is getting pressure — and ideas — from outside the system, and this is one of the more prominent sources.
Future of Public Media (Center for Social Media)
Library Bytes / Helene Blowers
Columbus Public Library’s digital strategist is one of the foremost leaders in new library thinking nationwide and keeps her thoughts — and presentations — on her blog. WOSU Public Media and stations nationwide trying to make the leap to public service media need to be working with libraries. And libraries need to be working with public broadcasters. It’s a match made in heaven and I hope to be writing more about this.
The End Game for Traditional Media (25 Nov 2009)
Public media consultant Robert Paterson writes about the point at which things change, and how public broadcasters — and all of the traditional media — are at a major historical inflection point. Great ideas, as always.
Sagan: TV Survival Means Hyper-Local Online Video (25 Nov 2009)
Diane Mermigas writes incessantly about media and especially the TV business. Here she makes the point that the TV world is about to get the same disruption that has rocked the recorded music business.
FreePress: Public Media
The advocacy group freepress has a special focus on public media issues that public broadcasters or aspiring public service media leaders should watch.
The Art of the Start (video / presentation / book) — Guy Kawasaki
Public broadcasters are old businesses, largely stuck in their ways. What we need is a wave of entrepreneurial activity. We need a startup mentality. Guy Kawasaki gave this talk based on his book and it’s got tons of fantastic advice for startup-minded people, and yes, it applies to public broadcasters on the path to public service media.
KETC
The traditional public TV station in the St. Louis area is evolving beyond broadcast. They started with a major outreach effort surrounding The War a few years back. But they built a break-out project with Facing the Mortgage Crisis — a project later picked up by the CPB and replicated to stations across the country. Their partnership with the new online-only news service The St. Louis Beacon, is also ground-breaking. Finally, they’re building a video training school for the public, getting them involved in media production and helping with distribution. Where everyone else is yapping about finding a new way forward, KETC is actually doing it. Watch them for more cues on how to tackle the mission of public service media.
The Reconstruction of American Journalism — Columbia Journalism Review
This is a major report issued late in 2009 that addresses the perceived national journalism problem and goes into some specific recommendations as to what should happen with public broadcasting. Important reading.
The Cluetrain Manifesto
First published in 1999, there are lessons in here that still need to be learned. Of particular interest are the 95 Theses.
Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism Both Within and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting — Sep 2009 / Center for Social Media
Digital Public Media Networks to Advance Broadband And Enrich Connected Communities (PDF) — 6 Nov 2009 / Ellen Goodman, Rutgers
In Service of Democracy: Achieving Public Radio and Public Media’s Potential (PDF) — Nov 2009 / Bill Kling, MPR
Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age — The Knight Commission
This is perhaps one of the most important reports on news and public broadcasting’s role in the past 5 years, maybe 10. There’s an outline of the public service media mission in here. Required reading.
Media Re:public – News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age
“a series of papers exploring the potential and the challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment”
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Tons of reports spanning years of the growth of the Internet in the U.S. Charts, analyses, articles, presentations — tons of stuff.
NPR Digital Think In –9 Oct 2009
Presentation from the “Think In” event from this fall. Good info for folks that know and don’t know NPR.
Sustaining Public Engagement: Embedded Deliberation in Local Communities
Elena Fagotto and Archon Fung
Next year’s news about the news: What we’ll be fighting about in 2010 (10 Dec 2009)
Umair Haque
This is the brilliant economist I love to quote. But he doesn’t post dry analytical papers. He a bomb-thrower for creating real, durable value rather than destroying ourselves and our world in the short-term pursuit of profits. A must-read guy almost every time, and with recommendations for anyone looking to develop real community value with media. Here are some of his best pieces from this year alone:
- Generation M Manifesto
- HBR IdeaCast: Can Good Journalism Also Be Profitable?
- The Digital Economy’s Coming Subprime Crisis (And What You Can Learn From It)
- The New (New) Mediaconomy
- The Nichepaper Manifesto
Nonprofit News Projects
I mentioned several nonprofit news projects in my presentation. Here are some links to those projects.
- Bay Area News Project (KQED + UC Berkeley)
- at Facebook
- covered by Mother Jones
- covered by editorsweblog.org
- covered by NY Times
- covered by KQED itself (radio piece)
- covered by PaidContent.org
- California Watch / Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR)
- ProPublica
- Texas Tribune
- Spot.us
- MinnPost
- St. Louis Beacon (in cooperation with KETC)
- Voice of San Diego
- Christian Science Monitor (it’s not new, but it’s definitely a mission-driven nonprofit, and they’ve gone all-online this year)
Books
Tribes — Seth Godin
A seminal book on the thinking of how tribes (communities) are critical to business in the 21st century. It’s not a how-to book, but it’s a fantastic why to book.
Here Comes Everybody — Clay Shirky
Shirky writes about how the Internet and its tools enable communication and communities that could never have existing before now. Lots of examples.
The Art of Community — Jono Bacon
The book is free to download as a PDF (!), and the blog keeps updating community leaders on ideas and discussion around the topic. You can also buy the physical book. This is a much more prescriptive book, explaining how to form and manage communities.
Additional links are provided inside the WOSU presentation from 11 Dec 2009. Download the PDF version and note the URL links posted on the right-hand side of pages that contain data from other sources.
Gravity Medium 
Excellent work, John! You really have found your voice here. Some great resources that I’ve known about and some that I am glad to discover. I especially like that you recently shined a spotlight on Rosenblum’s presentation from 2007. I remember sitting in the audience during the presentation and I thought, here is an industry that is about to wake up! Thanks!
Thanks John! I love that speech Rosenblum gave and he gives an even better speech these days where he hands local TV news a major spanking, one they richly deserve. But I must admit that here we are, 3 years later, and so little has changed in either action or attitude.
I know it takes people a long time to change, and the process is painful because those that built their careers — indeed their identities — on the old model feel as though their work is being tossed out in the trash. But a changed world demands a changed media to serve its needs.
I’m wondering whether the only way forward is for some bold movers to make some bold moves outside the traditional system. That said, the CPB’s talks and actions in the last couple of years have been encouraging. They seem to understand something is up.
Hope all is well down there in Arizona!