JMS

The Center for Social Media, with help from PRX, has released Public Radio’s Social Media Experiments: Risk, Opportunity, Challenge (download PDF), a report and survey that looks at a variety of projects underway at stations.

From my forward to the study:

I believe public radio can play a transformative role in participatory media. The Internet enables interactions and connections that can greatly extend the educational and cultural goals of public service media. Public radio brings considerable strengths to bear – a large and loyal audience, strong brands and programs, and a local presence in communities across the country.

While new platforms are enabling content creators and new intermediaries to connect with audiences – and audiences with each other – far beyond the physical boundaries of local broadcast spectrum, local public radio stations remain the primary point of contact for most of the nearly 30 million people who tune in to public radio every week.

In the first decade of the web even the most ambitious stations had an online presence that was barely a fraction of the reach and relevance of their broadcast service. Station websites have often acted as informational supplements to broadcast offerings, with occasional examples of unique content and some interactive features such as message boards.

While there are many disruptive aspects of new media and technology, including a new mingling of geographically defined communities and self-selected interests, stations now face new opportunities and incentives to engage the public online.

There are obstacles – limited resources, the biases of the broadcast business, unfamiliar rules of engagement. But the same low barriers to entry that enable remarkable digital innovation also make it possible for stations to make relatively low-cost experimentation part of their strategy going forward.

I do believe public radio can have a transformative role on the web, but it’s far from clear that it will seize the opportunity without some fundamental changes that go far beyond the current level of innovation. Earlier this week I was at a meeting partly about the FCC’s upcoming full power non-commercial FM radio station licensing window, but also exploring ambitious new models for operating stations with a web presence as the driver of strategy. More on that soon.

Just have to say, ning is kind of blowing my mind right now. The deeper you go… There’s nothing new under the sun, no breakthrough features, but just really damn smart and concise, so thinking about some of the organizations we’re working with and how they could and should use this…

Russia is on the brain, not just because Vladimir is hanging out in Maine with George. NPR did a good piece this morning on the Azerbaijan Radar Base that Russia is offering up for joint missile defense — which is crazy on so many levels.

And Julie Shapiro (no relation, other than as a sister in the public radio Shapiro Mafia, although I do have a cousin Julie Shapiro too) writes about her trip to Moscow to the “Vmeste Radio” festival, organized by the Foundation for Independent Radio, which must have been fascinating. I’m intensely interested and would love to have gone too, having lived in Moscow for over 3 years in the early 90s and just generally following the place. Some day soon I hope to cross the wires of PRX and my Russian connections…

In the meantime Julie — who is behind the remarkable Third Coast International Audio Festival and knows whereof she speaks — is starting to unpack her impressions of the trip here:

about 200 producers from all across russia (including eastern siberia, northern-most points and a secret city or two) gathered for the happening, and spent three days talking about, listening to, debating, praising and challenging all aspects of radio documentary/feature making. even though i couldn’t understand a word of the conversations, it was clear that the producers were passionate and serious about the radio medium - and the power it has to reveal, describe, ponder, define the world

Also this past week On the Media did an excellent hour on the state of Russian media, including a fascinating blunt interview with a mainstream media manager who is totally upfront and as persuasive as he could be about his reasons for siding with the state. Here’s that segment from the show (kudos to WNYC for making these MP3 excerpts available to embed; but note to self & fellow public radio podcasters - 40 seconds is feeling too long for front-loaded promos/brands/credits, especially if it’s just a show segment):

From the interview:

Nowadays as editor-in-chief of Izvestia, I want to see it as a definitely conservative, definitely pro-government newspaper, and there is no desire on my part to conceal that.

It seems to me that it is within the boundaries of the freedom of speech to follow this line. And I think those people who inform you that there is something wrong with Izvestia are, in fact, exactly the people who want to monopolize the very notion of freedom of speech and who do not want to tolerate any opinion different from their own.