Rob Bole spoke at our past event on Tuesday, March 22. We caught up
with the Vice President of Digital Media Strategy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to get his thoughts on storytelling in a digital age and the role of public media.
How is public media different than other media outlets?
There are two core differences between public media and the rest of the media enterprise. The first is that we were founded and funded as a free universal public service for the American public; our content and services are open for everyone to enjoy. Our job as a media enterprise is to improve the lives of Americans and promote a strong, civil society. (For more on public media’s mission see http://cpb.org/aboutpb/). The second difference is that we are not structured as an integrated media network. Public media is made up of over 800 small local businesses (stations) that reach every state, town and community in America. That is our core strength, but also a challenge in the evolving media ecosystem.
In what ways are public media outlets using digital technology to enhance their stories for viewers, listeners, and readers?
The use of digital media is an extension of public media’s mission, so stations and producers are looking for ways to not only publish content to all platforms for the convenience of the user, but also use technology to deepen the value of the story. Off-hand I would point to NPR’s Robert Benincasa, who utilizes his journalism skills, an editorial eye and a strong team to produce high quality news stories from data and visualizations. His work on the unintended acceleration of Toyota cars, the mining disaster in West Virginia and the US electrical grid system are wonderful ways in which digital media extended and enhanced hard news.
Another innovator in the radio/digital space is Brian Lehrer of WNYC, who has created crowd-sourcing gold with his Uncommon Economic Indicators that asked listeners to notice and then catalogue with photos, videos, audio any indications of the economic downturn in their neighborhoods. He then used this content to inform and construct his on-air content. This is just one of many innovative broadcast/digital programs coming out of WNYC and other public media stations. (WNYC even wrote a great crowd-sourcing guide!)
On the television side I am particularly enamored of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and their work in digital media. They ran a very successful alternative-reality online game called World Without Oil, which proposed a severe, permanent oil crisis and asked “players” to help describe how they would cope with the week-to-week events announced in the game. They also have been building a new video platform that will enable live online community screenings that then drive deeper discussion and engagement around the films they show.
However, the most exciting thing that has happened recently has been Andy Carvin’s coverage of the youth movements across the Middle East. As the Senior Social Media Strategist at NPR, Andy used Twitter, Facebook, Storify and other online tools to live curate a reliable stream of information and news about what was happening on the ground. Andy is a rock star and a visionary of what digital media means in the news space.
However, the most exciting thing that has happened recently has been Andy Carvin’s coverage of the youth-movements across the Middle East. As the Senior Social Media Strategist at NPR, Andy used Twitter, Facebook, Storify and other online tools to live curate a reliable stream of information and news about what was happening on the ground. Andy is a rock star and a visionary of what digital media means in the news space.
How has today’s technology presented new challenges for public media?
To be frank, public media is not capitalized nor organized to take full advantage of emerging connective technologies. We have a reliable, strong broadcast infrastructure that provides free, universal service to every American. However, we are not funded to the appropriate level to build the same strength in the digital media space. While digital media infrastructure is less expensive to build, operate and maintain, it is not free. In an ideal world we would identify increased and sustained funding to enable publishers, producers and stations to increase their use of digital media, as well as have access to increased, skilled staffing.
In a past presentation, you outlined the Public Media Platform, an API that brings together all the public media content. Tell us about that and how you think it will change the way we consume public media.
Just imagine an opportunity to pick up your favorite tablet as you sitting on the train going to work. You open your Public Media Magazine application that then prompts you with “where do you want to go today?” Since you have a deep and abiding interest in the issues of globalization and human rights that Magazine auto updates with the best of public media content on this subject: news headlines from NPR, clips from the latest ITVS film, a discussion on the Tavis Smiley Show, archived content about women’s issues and the best local stories from across the country. That will be helpful, but also very, very cool.