Tag Archives | Technology

Turbulent Times for Truth Tellers? Just ask the Nieman Foundation…

This year’s Narrative Journalism conference, sponsored by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, was titled “Telling True Stories in Turbulent Times.” With magazines folding and newspapers shrinking, these are hard days for narrative journalists: they need space, time and funding to do their work, all of which are in short supply in today’s web-driven media economy. ThoughtCast spoke with several of the presenters at the conference, including keynote speaker and Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, award-winning author and journalist Adam Hochschild, and Nieman’s own Joshua Benton. The title does indeed appear to be apt…

To watch this ThoughtCast program on the Forum Network, click here!

Posted on April 3, 2009 in Public Media
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Public Radio goes Hollywood!

Note: This piece has been picked up by KYOU Radio, in San Francisco, and it’s also been mentioned on Current.org and the PRPD site — thanks for that!

Public radio could easily be described as a smashing success story. Take NPR, for example. From its counter-cultural roots in the early 1970s, it has grown to become one of the most trusted sources of journalism in the United States. Although it still is accused of liberal bias, an equal number of liberals and conservatives find themselves drawn to its reassuring sound. So – what’s the problem? Like newspapers and symphony orchestras, public radio has a graying audience and it is having trouble attracting younger people and minorities. So today, in order to stay viable, public radio’s job is to reach out to new listeners. But at what cost, if any?
ThoughtCast attended the Public Radio Program Directors Association conference this September in Hollywood, and spoke with:

Jeff Hansen, program director at KUOW in Seattle
Mike Crane, COO of Wisconsin Public Radio
John Voci, the general manager of WGBH radio in Boston
Jennifer Ferro, assistant general manager of KCRW in Santa Monica
Sam Fleming, managing director of news and programs at WBUR, Boston
Chris Bannon, program director of WNYC in New York City.

Click here: to listen (7 minutes).

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Posted on October 8, 2008 in Public Media
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“The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It”!!!

Note: This program was broadcast on the public radio station WCVE.
Cyber law expert Jonathan Zittrain is one of the canniest thinkers out there, pondering the wide world of the web, and his new book is called The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It. It’s a call to arms. Before it’s too late, he says, we must make sure the Internet stays in our hands – not in those of industries like Verizon, or Apple, seductive as their services might seem at times. Anybody say iPhone??
Click here: to listen (5 1/2 minutes).
For those to whom Jonathan is a new phenomenon, he is the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, a professor at Harvard Law School, and also the Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. He’s an expert on Internet law.

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Posted on July 19, 2008 in Harvard Luminaries, Public Media
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Doug Kaye at the IMA

Doug Kaye, who spoke at the 2007 Integrated Media Association conference, is the co-founder of the pioneering podcast on information technology called IT Conversations, the CTO of GigaVox Media, and the CEO of the Conversations Network. But Doug is hardly resting on his laurels, as you’ll hear in this ThoughtCast interview. (Oh yeah, he blogs and writes books too!)
Click here: to listen (4 minutes)

P.S… photo credit goes to Chris Pirillo!

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Posted on February 26, 2007 in Public Media
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Integrated Media — are we there yet?

Henry Becton (courtesy WGBH) 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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Beyond Broadcast: more state of mind…

A key panelist was Terry Heaton, the president of Donata Communications. He’s part rebel, part businessman, part visionary:
(5:30 minutes)

Here’s my interview with Jamie Biggar, the young but wise senior developer at WGBH Interactive:
(4:30 minutes)

Dan Fellini, managing producer, Public Interactive Now here’s a man with a mind of his own!
(5:30 minutes)

Donna Liu, Founder and Executive Director of The University Channel. This distribution network provides academic lectures and conferences, over the Internet, in video format. It’s unadulterated, and it’s free!
(4:30 minutes)

Second Life guru John Lester of Linden Lab. Rather light-hearted talk about sexually ambiguous avatars and virtual 19th century islands with ‘steam robots.’ That was John’s avatar…
(7 minutes)

and Mark Anderson, the author of “Shakespeare By Another Name“, who covered the conference for Wired News. Here’s his article, and here’s our interview:
(2:40 minutes)

To hear MORE podcast interviews from Beyond Broadcast, check out Audio Berkman‘s line-up!