Future Tense from American Public Radio

What is the
Public Insight Network?

The Public Insight Network is you and thousands of others like you who have agreed to share what they know to help public radio cover the news, find stories, and add depth to our reporting.

As part of Future Tense's Public Insight Network, you have an open line into our newsroom. We'll send you about an e-mail a month asking for your knowledge on issues and stories we are pursuing.

Future Tense is American Public Media's daily "Journal of the Digital Age."

Produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, Future Tense keeps pace with the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules from electronic privacy and digital democracy to spam and computer worms.

American Public Media also produces Marketplace,Marketplace Money, Weekend America, Speaking of Faith and other programs.

American Public Media puts audiences first.

American Public Media's mission, vision and values express a commitment to serving the 16 million listeners and over 100,000 contributing members who are better informed, enriched and inspired by the content we provide.

MISSION

Our Mission is to enrich the mind and nourish the spirit, thereby assisting our audiences to enhance their lives, expand perspectives and strengthen their communities.

VISION

We will be the most relevant, innovative and insightful media company in America.

OUR STRATEGY

We will create indispensable content that engages with diverse audiences to connect people with each other, their communities, their country and the world.

The Commonwealth Club of California

Mission

The mission of The Commonwealth Club of California is to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation.

The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum, bringing together its more than 18,000 members for over 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.

Founded in 1903, The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor Alec Baldwin and author Christopher Hitchens in recent years. Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have all given landmark speeches at The Club.

As a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, The Commonwealth Club relies on the support of its membership, the Business Council and foundation grants to continue its role in fostering open public discussion in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the nation via radio, Internet and television.

The Club has offices in San Francisco and San Jose, with regular events in both cities, as well as programs in the East and North Bay.

For members outside the Bay Area, The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations. Our web site archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history.

The California Report

KQED Radio, in collaboration with public radio stations throughout California, launched The California Report, a statewide radio news program, on October 2, 1995. Distributed by satellite from the KQED Radio studios in San Francisco, The California Report provides daily coverage of issues, trends, and public policy decisions affecting California and its diverse population. It is carried by more than 30 public radio stations from Arcata to San Diego. Many local station reporters are regular contributors to the program.

The daily morning edition of The California Report, a 9-minute program, airs on KQED 88.5FM Monday through Friday at 5:50am, 6:50am and 8:50am. The Friday afternoon edition, a half-hour magazine, airs on KQED 88.5FM at 4:30pm, 6:30pm and 11:00pm, and brings you in-depth analysis of the week's top news stories, sound-rich radio excursions and commentaries from voices around the state. Please see the California Report tune in page for information about where and when to tune in to The California Report in your area.

About PRI - PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL

At Public Radio International, we invite listeners to hear a different voice with content that provides unique perspectives on our interdependent world.

Partnering with public media's most talented producers and hosts, we offer distinctly global voices on PRI's "The World" and BBC World Service. We offer singular, diverse voices on "The Tavis Smiley Show." We present voices of culture, contemporary American life and artistry on "This American Life" and "Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC." And we provide decidedly fresh takes on "WireTap" and "The Sound of Young America."

Mission

Public Radio International's mission is to serve audiences as a distinctive content source for information, insights and cultural experiences essential to living in our diverse, interconnected world.

Core principles

Public Radio International recognizes as core principles:

• the central role played by diversity in our nation's past and its importance to our future
• the urgent need to understand connections between American life and cultures around the globe
• the responsibility of public media to encourage the exchange of ideas and search for common principles fundamental to a civil society and
• the power of sound and of the spoken word to engage the mind and nurture the human spirit.

PRI productions

The Takeaway
PRI's Sound & Spirit with Ellen Kushner
Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC
PRI's The World

Distributed programs (sampler)

BBC World Service
Bob Edwards Weekend
Capitol News Connection with PRI
Living on Earth
Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Sound of Young America
The Tavis Smiley Show
This American Life
To the Best of Our Knowledge
To the Point

National Center For Media Engagement

National Center for Media Engagement
Mission

The mission of the National Center for Media Engagement is to ensure public media as essential to building community connections across multiple platforms. We provide resources for stations and producers that engage and educate citizens, build sustainable community relationships and stimulate citizen participation.

Our Vision

National Center for Media Engagement is the recognized catalytic leader for community engagement by public broadcasting across all platforms.
We provide vigorous leadership, timely guidance, and finely tuned resources on multiple platforms
We maintain a constant focus on the changing needs of both radio and television stations, as well as national producers of content, and public broadcasting leadership organizations
We carefully follow and experiment with new technologies and what might be considered “best practices” and models, to both create and deliver community engagement initiatives on every platform.

Our Guiding Principles

Accelerate change within public broadcasting from one-way communicators to essential community institutions
Encourage public broadcasting to put community first and content second
Actively support public broadcasters to convene, connect, and collaborate on all platforms: on-air, online, in person

Services We Provide

For Stations
An online portal of essential community engagement knowledge, resources and links

• A multitude of resources including a station directory, stories of impact, an online planning tool and common grant application, as well as hands on tools to engage citizens
• Outcomes assessment tools to gauge community impact and station investment

Continuous Learning Opportunities

• Peer-to-peer Network: Including monthly dialogues that convene, connect, and encourage collaboration among public broadcasting peers
• Pipeline, Pipeline Plus & annual videoconference to access engagement initiatives
• Coaching and consultation from our staff to help you strategize and problem solve.

For National Content Producers & Initiatives

Partnerships for Learning

• Grants administration and management through our online tool
• Promotion and system-wide communications
• Coaching and technical assistance in rolling out a national initiative
• Professional development assistance

Customized Fee-Based Services

• Assessment and Survey Development (including online tool design & construction)
Partnership Management
• Community Engagement Research and Development
• Overall Project Management of Community Engagement Endeavors

A taste of TED

Every Year TED comes to Long Beach, CA, and for two days speakers are requested to give the speech of their life in 22 minutes.

The People's Post

The People's Post - from Voice of San Diego

The People's Post is a project of The San Diego Foundation's Regional Information Initiative, a venture launched in partnership with the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation to inform and engage the region's diverse communities through innovative use of digital media. Nonprofit partners include the voiceofsandiego.org, Media Arts Center San Diego and the San Diego County Library.

The People's Post strengthens civil society by enabling San Diego County residents to record, share and value their own stories. It fosters a broader, deeper understanding of the insights and experiences of others in the region. It encourages public dialogue, builds community knowledge and empowers positive social change.

The People's Post is made possible through the support of the Gertrude H. & Arthur C. Anderson Fund, the Mary E. Hield and Robert R. Hield Endowment Fund, the Colonel Frank C. Wood Memorial Fund and the Woolley Fund of The San Diego Foundation; and a matching grant from the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation.

For more information or to access the growing collection of stories, visit ThePeoplesPost.org or a San Diego County Library.

The People’s Post gives San Diegans a way to record and share their unique, personal and true stories. It’s easy to record your story.
1. CONTACT the San Diego County Library at 858.495.5037 or info@thepeoplespost.org to schedule an appointment with a community videographer.
2. DEVELOP your story idea about local happenings:
an important event an inspiring person a significant place a meaningful personal item
3. RECORD your story for free with a community videographer; get a free DVD of your finished video.
4. SHARE your story with family and friends. Your story may also be shared online at The People’s Post. For more information, or to view the growing collection of stories, visit www.ThePeoplesPost.org.

About Miro Community

Miro Community helps communities gather their videos into one place. It's a project of the Participatory Culture Foundation.

HULU.com

Company

Founded in March 2007, Hulu is operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Beijing. NBC Universal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Company, Providence Equity Partners and the Hulu team share in the ownership stake of the company.

 

Mission

Hulu's mission is to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love.

Overview

Hulu is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites — anytime in the U.S. For more details on Hulu's service, check out the Hulu product tour.

Content: Hulu brings together a large selection of videos from over 200 leading content companies, including FOX, NBC Universal, ABC, ABC Family, Biography, Lionsgate, Endemol, MGM, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Digital Rights Group, Paramount, PBS, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. and more. Users can choose from more than 1,700 current primetime TV hits such as The Simpsons, 30 Rock, LOST, Glee and The Office the morning after they air; classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The A-Team, Airwolf and Married...with Children; movies like Last of the Mohicans and Basic Instinct; documentaries like Super Size Me, Crawford and The Times of Harvey Milk; and clips from Saturday Night Live; web originals like Dorm Life; and other popular TV shows and movies.

User Experience

Hulu is focused on quality and convenience and strives to create the best possible online video experience.

• Hulu gives users the ability to customize their viewing experience online.
• Hulu allows users to watch favorites or discover new shows anytime — at home or on the road.
• Hulu's search feature helps users find any premium video online even if it is not directly available on Hulu.com.

Hulu is easy to use and share. Simply go to www.hulu.com, and click on a video to watch right away.

• Hulu does not require a download of any software. Users only need a Flash 10.0.22 enabled computer and an Internet connection to enjoy.
• Hulu offers the freedom to share full-length episodes or clips via e-mail or embed on other Web sites, blogs and social networking pages.
• Hulu's clipping feature allows users to select a portion of the video they would like to share.

Hulu is free and legal through an advertising supported model.

• Videos are available for unlimited streaming; watch favorite shows and clips over and over, for free
• Videos contain fewer ads than on TV. Advertisements appear during normal commercial breaks
• Hulu acquires the rights to distribute its videos, making them available to users legally

Distribution: Hulu allows users to enjoy great videos on Hulu.com and on 35 other popular Web sites across the Web. Hulu videos are available on AOL, IMDb, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo! in the U.S. as well as a growing network of personal blogs, fan sites, and other Web sites where users choose to embed the Hulu video player.


Advertising: Hulu gives advertisers an opportunity to associate their brands with premium online video content, connect with highly engaged consumers and extend their reach beyond Hulu.com to Hulu's distribution network. Additionally, Hulu offers and is committed to the continued development of innovative, new advertising experiences. Currently, Hulu partners with over 250 Fortune 500 advertisers including Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Visa, American Express, Best Buy, Chili's, DirectTV, GM, Intel, Nissan, State Farm, Unilever, Wal-Mart, Cisco, and Procter & Gamble.

TED vs. FORA

TED vs. FORA




TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 500 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
Click here to subscribe to TEDTalks video:


Our mission: Spreading ideas.
We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you.

FORA.tv

FORA.tv helps intelligent, engaged audiences get smart. Our users find, enjoy, and share videos about the people, issues, and ideas changing the world.
 
We gather the web's largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world's top universities, think tanks and conferences. We present this provocative, big-idea content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share --when, where, and how they want.

With our community of savvy users and an extensive, growing library of smart videos, FORA.tv is at the forefront of the ongoing integration - and transformation – of the traditional media, TV, cable, and online industries from mass-market to high-quality, high-value content.
 
FORA.tv was founded in 2005 and is funded by a select group of investors including William R. Hearst III and Adobe Ventures.

ProPublica

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.

Profit-margin expectations and short-term stock market concerns, in particular, are making it increasingly difficult for the public companies that control nearly all of our nation’s news organizations to afford—or at least to think they can afford—the sort of intensive, extensive and uncertain efforts that produce great investigative journalism. 

We have created an independent newsroom, located in Manhattan and led by some of the nation’s most distinguished editors, and staffed at levels unprecedented for a non-profit organization. Indeed, we believe, this is the largest, best-led and best-funded investigative journalism operation in the United States.

The Sandler Foundation has made a major, multi-year commitment to fund ProPublica. Other philanthropic contributions have been received as well, and more are needed. Click here to donate.
ProPublica is a non-profit corporation, and is exempt from taxes under Section 501(c)(3). It has its own Governing Board, chaired by Herbert Sandler. Mr. Steiger is a member of the Board. A Journalism Advisory Board of leaders in the field has also been assembled.

This American Life

This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 1.7 million listeners. It is produced by Chicago Public Radio, distributed by Public Radio International, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards. It is also often the most popular podcast in the country, with more than a half million people downloading each week. From 2006-2008, we produced a television version of This American Life on the Showtime network, which won three Emmys. We're also the co-producers, with NPR News, of the economics podcast and blog Planet Money. And a half dozen stories from the radio show are being developed into films.
The radio show and TV show follow the same format. There’s a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It’s mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There’s lots more to the show, but it’s sort of hard to describe. Probably the best way to understand the show is to start at our favorites page, though we do have longer guides to our radio show and our TV show. If you want to dive into the hundreds of episodes we’ve done over the years, there’s an archive of all our old radio shows and listings for all our TV episodes, too.
There are several ways to get the show:

• Stream radio episodes for free from the archive
• Subscribe to the free weekly podcast
• Download the most recent episode a la carte, free, from the homepage
• Download old episodes for $0.99 on iTunes
• Stream episodes through our iPhone app
• Listen on the radio
• Purchase CDs of radio episodes and greatest hits collections
• Purchase DVDs of our TV seasons
• Download TV Season One or Season Two on iTunes

You can also read about shows we're doing on the road, about our staff, about how to submit a story idea, about how to learn to make radio, about our internship program or about about press coverage, check answers to frequently asked questions, or join our group on Facebook.

Story Lab: from the Washington Post

The Lab is, as you'd expect from the name, an experiment. This is a place for people who are not only curious about what's going on in the world, but also about how the news is gathered and packaged. With the media landscape in turmoil and readers empowered to construct their own windows onto the world, the role of traditional news organizations is ever more in question. We want to add to those questions, and maybe provide some answers along the way.

Story Lab has four main elements:

1) Humility: It's a place where stories will be born, grow and occasionally die. Reporters from the Story Lab team and throughout The Post will come to you with story ideas and ask for the collective wisdom of the readers: Is a concept for a story right? How should it evolve? Can readers help reporters find the sources and scenes that might take us closer to the truth?

2) Transparency: Story Lab is where you can learn more about how stories are reported. "How I got that story" will be a regular feature on Story Lab--including interviews with reporters covering some of the top stories in the news and insights on the journalistic and ethical challenges that we face. Another feature, "What we left out," will be a place for reporters to present aspects of stories that may add depth or insight to the main article.

3) Consequences: In a feature called The Blowback, reporters will open a window onto what happens after a story appears in print and online. As much as we appreciate readers adding their voices in the online comments at the bottom of each article, reporters hear much more from readers by phone, email and even good old snail mail. The discussions that follow publication of a story sometimes add a whole new dimension to the original report, and you'll see those debates unfold here.

4) Craft: If you've come along this far, you're someone who enjoys the craft of writing--and Story Lab's writers are eager to share the best stories of the day. Every weekday morning, we'll present our Pick Story of the Day, which could be from The Post or anywhere else in the world of great writing. And you're invited to add your suggestions of stories that readers shouldn't miss. Post writers will also use Story Lab to talk about their craft and to present interviews with some of the country's top non-fiction writers.

Wikileaks.org

The internet can be a great leveler, making information available to the common man on the street, but even so there is a price to pay. We can't know what is true until we test it. Wikileaks.org is changing the game.

Powerful forces have come after the site, but without much luck. In 2008, after WikiLeaks posted documents alleging money laundering at the Swiss bank Julius Baer, the firm unsuccessfully tried to shut down its California servers. When the site posted a secret list of websites blacklisted by the German government, including several child pornography sites, the student who ran the German WikiLeaks site was arrested for disseminating kiddie porn. Even the hyper-litigious Church of Scientology has failed to get its materials removed from the site.

If you know something that others should know, keep WikiLeaks.org on speed-dial.

Private For-Profit Corporations VS. People

Please Listen to this dialog at the Center for Media Justice:

The Stories That Never Get Told

Each week, each day, each minute, there are important stories that are ignored and buried by the corporate media. These are the stories that offend the rich, that slam the powerful, that hold them to account and reveal the secret systems of influence and finance that underlie our capitalist society.

These unknown tales are often complex and detailed, require time and work to tell. They are not the easy, emotional, shock-jock type stories that, like junk food, leave you entertained but empty. They are the underground stories about illegal and illicit power structures, immoral and fraudulent schemes, that pulse beneath the surface.

These omissions, hidden behind the opaque edges of the screen, are the kind of accounts we discover after a lifetime of suffering and call wisdom. But these stories are we loose, all the time.

Why are we so bereft of real news? Why do the major news outlets choose not to cover these stories, why do editors walk away from them? These are hard stories to tell, it takes talent, and that costs. The resources necessary to do one investigative report can equal all the resources required to produce the entire 22 minute news cast (not including commercials).

Add the influence of those who fund commercials, the corporate businesses that employ most of the people in any area, and you can see why an editor at a corporate media outlet might choose a shallower, less challenging story. Why examine the unprofitable details of an ethnic minority problem, or the confusing financial accounts of a corporate land developer, when you can talk about the blond girl who was showing her woo-hoo while getting out of the car?

• In San Diego, KPBS did an in-depth report about California Prop.13, but completely omitted from their coverage the fact that holding companies and shell corporations avoid billion$ in property taxes using the Prop.13 tax loop-hole. Why would they omit that?
• In San Diego, African-American Media is all but non-existent, yet that community makes up about 10% of the population? Why aren't minority communities represented proportionally in the media?
• How many stories do you know about that are un-represented in the traditional press? If you can't think of any, why do you think that is?

Do you feel me?

Check out this web site: Project CENSORED

Welcome to the San Diego Media Justice Log

The County of San Diego, California, is one of the most embattled areas of nation in terms of the media. Our political and ideological debate is nearly non-existent. The conversation, civil or otherwise, has been shut down by our (mostly right leaning) local media.

The Television Channels are all main-stream or right-leaning in their biased opinions and choice of 'news'. Faux News is the most unbalanced offender, of course, but all the local channels rely upon conservative corporations for their advertising dollars, and thus are very reluctant to offend or investigate any corporate or political wrongdoing. Their concerned with offending their audience of conservative business and military viewers.

Their are glimmers of hope. KPBS our local NPR Radio and TV station at SDSU attempts to be journalistically neutral regarding most issues (with some seriously questionable omissions) . Other on-line sources of news, like Voice of San Diego and the East County Magazine, also attempt ethical journalism. But these fringe sources of good news content must be sough out, and lack a broad audience.

In San Diego County, we lack the resources and the will to work together to produce progressive media models. Non-profit media and social businesses only evolve when the soil they grow out of is fertile and the sunlight is bright. Without water, in the desert of conservative San Diego, every new media attempt seems to wither and die.

In other parts of the country, other communities inflicted by unbalanced media have begun to organize and make change. This website will attempt to log these communities, to link you to them, and provide hope for the San Diego Community.