Visiting Filmmaker - Heather Courtney, “Where Soldiers Come From”
Join us TODAY, March 1, for a Master Class with filmmaker Heather Courtney at 2:35pm followed by a 5:30pm screening of her latest documentary "Where Soldiers Come From," an Indie Spirit Award winning film, with Q&A. Read more...

ONADC March Meetup - Fair Use & Copyright
Last year, Pat Aufderheide and grad fellows Jan Boyles and Katie Bieze interviewed 80 journalists who had questions, complaints, and even horror stories, and issued a report. On March 26, 2012 at American University, they'll share the challenges journalists described, and then test your fair use IQ. All are welcome, but in order to attend, you need to RSVP through this link.

Screening of Waking The Green Tiger & Discussion with Filmmaker Gary Marcuse
Canadian filmmaker Gary Marcuse will lead a discussion following a screening of the DC Environmental Film Festival documentary “Waking The Green Tiger”. Beginning at 6pm, both the screening and discussion will be in the Founders Room of the SIS Building at American University on Monday, March 19. To learn more about the film visit the website.

Innovate / Activate 2.0
New York Law School’s Institute for Information Law & Policy and Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology, & Public Policy Clinic are pleased to present Innovate / Activate 2.0. The conference takes place April 20-21, 2012 at Sutardja Dai Hall at UC Berkeley, and is co-sponsored by The Center for Social Media. Follow @innact and check out www.innovateactivate.org to learn more about last year's event and how you can get involved.

Now Available: Media That Matters 2012 Rapporteur’s Report  
In case you missed this year's awesome Media That Matters conference, you can now read the 2012 Rapporteur's Report on the Center for Social Media's website. Visit the Center for Social Media's Facebook page to join the conversation, share media, and receive updates.  Read more...

Visiting FIlmmaker Pull Focus Interview - Suzan Beraza
The Center for Social Media’s sat down with visiting filmmaker Suzan Beraza (“BAG IT”) to talk about the inspiration for her film, her outreach strategy, and the key to social change and action.  Read more...

Harassed in the Classroom: A Film for the Bullied
Graduate Fellow Katie Bieze recently interviewed filmmaker Lee Hirsch about his film, Bully, for Documentary magazine. They have generously agreed to let us republish the article here.  Enjoy!  Read more...

National Communication Association Endorses Fair Use Code for Scholarship
The National Communication Association (NCA), a leading academic assocation for communication teachers and scholars, has endorsed the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication. The Code, created by a scholarly committee in the International Communication Association, helps scholars decide how to employ fair use when they are quoting copyrighted material to study it, using it as illustration in a scholarly argument or point, when they are employing it within an experimental setting, or collecting it in a research archive. Read more...

Fair Use Question of the Month: Copying a VHS to a DVD for Educational Purposes
February's Fair Use Question of the Month comes from a university librarian who has been asked by a professor to copy a VHS to a DVD. Read more...

Pop Culture Critic Elisa Kreisinger’s Fair Use Video of the Month: “For Your Consideration”
In this month's Fair Use Video, Elisa Kreisinger directs attention to the Oscar-themed "For Your Consideration". With a focus on the Academy of Arts and Sciences whose voting population is 94% white, 77% male, and 62 is the average age, the supercut places clips of each women-made movie back to back, illustrating how women have moved beyond the problems of ‘not creating enough work,' the often cited excuse for women's missing place at the content-creators' table. While the footage used falls under Category #5 of the Code of Best Practices for Online Video, the use of the music in the video goes beyond what any of the Codes of Best Practice describe, making it a riskier judgment as the practioner is acting beyond the consensus of peers.  Read more...

Critical Commons: “Television: Critical Methods and Applications”
This month's fair use feature from the media sharing site Critical Commons presents a Do-it-Yourself sound exercise from the online supplement to Jeremy Butler's book: Television: Critical Methods and Applications. In this series of clips posted on Critical Commons, a single 2-minute Dodge commercial from 1957 is radically transformed into a horror thriller, an upbeat comedy, a rousing ballad, a melancholy lament, and a ponderous melodrama. Although the original video is in the public domain, this exercise relies on the protections of fair use for the use of the copyrighted music to enhance student learning.

Public Media Puts Civic Mission in Center Stage
What standards do public broadcasters hold themselves to, in the era of foreclosure news beats, the Arab spring, and #DowntonAbbey? Or, to ask the question another way, what is public broadcasting's mission? Read more...

New Release from The Editorial Integrity for Public Media project: Code of Editorial Integrity
The Editorial Integrity for Public Media project has released a new Code of Editorial Integrity for local public media organizations that reflects a more participatory and exclusive news ecosystem. The Center's Pat Aufderheide and Jessica Clark served as advisors to the process; project leaders are now encouraging public media organizations to adopt or adapt the code. Read more...

AU’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking 7th Annual Spring 2012 Film Series
Hosted by Chris Palmer and Justine Schmidt, events for the 7th Annual Spring 2012 Film Series will be held in Wechsler Theater in American University’s Mary Graydon Center. March’s events include Chris Palmer on the Best and Worst of Wildlife Films, the Student Envirionmental Short Film Festival, and Kevin Bachar, Emmy-award winning filmmaker and founder and director of Pangolin Pictures. To learn more, visit environmentalfilm.org.

Save-The-Date: ScraperWiki Data Journalism Conference March 30-31, 2012
American University's School of Communication, in partnership with ScraperWiki and The Washington Post, will host the two-day event in The Post’s conference center. This event is designed to help media professionals, students of journalism, community based organizers, government representatives, software coders, designers, and data scientists to gather, work with, and create stories, applications and knowledge from publicly available data.

American University Social Media Club Social Learning Summit
The American University Social Media Club’s mission is to create a network of social media users, to advance media literacy, encourage ethical behavior online, learn from media professionals, share the lessons they have learned, and advocate for revolutionary new teaching methods utilizing social media and new technologies within American University.The American University Social Media Club will be hosting their second annual Social Learning Summit March 30-31 at American University. For more info, go to www.ausmcedu.org.

ITVS Community Cinema presents "Revenge of the Electric Car”
ITVS Community Cinema [DC] presents two free screenings of "Revenge of the Electric Car", by the maker of "Who Killed The Electric Car", Chris Paine.  Screenings will be 5:00 pm on March 11 at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th St NW) and 3:00 pm on March 18th at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th St NW - Q St entrance). Reservations are recommended. Visit www.communitycinema-dc.org or call 202-939-0794.

Link Media Celebrates International Women's Day
From March 1- 8, Link Media will be showcasing stories of women from around the world. Watch Iranian women activists risk their safety to confront political candidates, a Senegalese rapper using music to wage a campaign against female genital cutting, and women trading their comfortable Western lives for an experience as a tribal wife. For more information, please visit www.linktv.org/women.

Call for Entries: 15th UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival)
UNAFF celebrates the power of international documentary films dealing with human rights, the environment, protection of refugees, famine, homelessness, racism, disease control, women's issues, children, universal education, war, and peace.  Early deadline for entries is May 2, and the regular deadline is May 22. For more information, visit www.unaff.org