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Integrated Media — are we there yet?

WGBH President Henry Becton inaugurated the 2007 Integrated Media Association conference with a talk on the strengths and weaknesses of public broadcasting today. He speaks with ThoughtCast about the definition – and purpose – of public broadcasting, and how it’s responding to the pressing realities of the new online media landscape.
Click here: to listen to the interview (13 1/2 minutes)

Some mildly subversive questions to think about: Are all the old parameters out? Need only revolutionaries apply? What’s worth saving, indeed savoring, from the MSM? And what does traditional media do that the newcomers can’t? Will anyone miss the good ol’ days once they’re gone?

To listen to a discussion on “Open Content and Public Broadcasting” with Henry Becton on the WGBH Forum Network, click here.

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Posted on February 22, 2007 in Public Media
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Economist Amartya Sen on “Identity and Violence”

Note: this interview was broadcast on WGBH Radio.  And here’s a PRX review of the program!

Amartya Sen, the distinguished economist, philosopher, Nobel laureate and Harvard professor, talks with ThoughtCast about “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.”

This new book examines the unfortunate connection between violence and our tendency to identify with one key trait — our ethnicity, or religion, for example — to the exclusion of all others. Sen argues that we can combat this tendency by rejecting this narrowly defined, limited sense of identity, and embracing a broader, richer and more complex understanding of ourselves.
Amartya Sen was born in West Bengal, India (now Bangladesh) and teaches economics at Harvard University. He is known in the wider world for his work on the causes of famines.
Note: Susan Wennemyr served as associate producer on this program.
Click here: to listen (28:30 minutes).
To listen to a panel on “Combating Global Poverty” that includes Sen, click here to access WGBH’s Forum Network.

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Posted on November 19, 2006 in Economics, Harvard Luminaries, Ideas, Philosophy
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The Future of Public Radio: Part 5

This is the final series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Maria Thomas is the VP and general manager of NPR digital media. As such, she oversees the development and distribution of NPR content to the Internet, mobile phones and the like. Need I say more?
Click here: (3 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Lucio Mesquita is the head of the Americas and Europe for the BBC World Service. He is thoughtful, almost philosophical, and in this interview he takes me to task for my quest for ‘purity’ in public broadcasting. He also discusses opera, soap opera, Shakespeare, silent movies, and of course, the BBC! I had to save the last word of my ‘Future of Public Radio’ series for Lucio.
Click here: (11:30 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.

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Posted on September 26, 2006 in Public Media
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The Future of Public Radio: Part 4

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.Todd Mundt is one of the Young Turks in public media — he even has an influential blog. Todd recently left Michigan Public Media to take a job in his home state at Iowa Public Media. I’d keep your eye out for some upheaval there (in a good way!)
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Program director Jackie Sauter admits she’s no pro when it comes to newfangled Internet contraptions. But that hasn’t kept her from moving North Country Public Radio online.
Click here: (5 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview, and click here to read a PRX review of my interview with Jackie Sauter.

Andrew Haeg is the senior producer of Public Insight Journalism at Minnesota Public Radio, which is a fresh new way to interact with — and learn from — your audience.
Click here: (4 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

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Posted on September 25, 2006 in Public Media
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The Future of Public Radio: Part 3

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Liliane Landor is the commanding editor of news and current affairs at the BBC World Service. And as a member of the BBC’s Creative Future for journalism team, she’s already devoted a good deal of time to the questions bedevilling public broadcasting. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why she has some tough comments to make about public broadcasting here in America…
Click here: (6 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Eric Nuzum is NPR’s refreshing, colorful director of programming and acquisitions. We spoke in an exceedingly noisy room, so this interview is short and loud. If it leaves you hungry for more, try this.
Click here: (2 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Karen Shiffman is senior associate producer for On Point, the smart, approachable NPR program hosted by Tom Ashbrook and produced at WBUR in Boston. She gives us a glimpse of its inner workings.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

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Posted on September 24, 2006 in Public Media
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The Future of Public Radio: Part 2

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia. George Boosey, the program director for North Carolina Public Radio, is a bigwig in public broadcasting. Might he also be a contrarian? Certainly he’s more circumspect than many of his colleagues when it comes to the bells and whistles of the new ‘new media’.
Click here: (9 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Nikki Shields is the program manager for Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Hers is a loyal audience — for the time being. And Nikki plans to keep it that way.
Click here: (4 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Michael Arnold is the director of programming for Public Radio International, which distributes Christopher Lydon’s Open Source, the BBC World Service, This American Life and more. PRI’s the newer kid on the block, and as such, may well be scrappier — and quicker at adapting to the new world of the Web 2.0.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, Elisabeth Perez-Luna, and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman, and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Public Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

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Posted on September 23, 2006 in Public Media
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