Mountain Lake PBS Productions

Colin Powers reflects on PBS programming for the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, & Quebec, public broadcasting, and the future of media distribution.

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Entries Tagged as 'Public Affairs'

Sundance Award winning Documantary “If a Tree Falls” – watch now on PBS

September 19th, 2011 · No Comments · Digital Television, Documentary, Filmmaking, PBS, Public Affairs

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front Watch the full episode. See more POV. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the [...]

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Tom Cruise’s Minority Report computer interface is pretty much here…

September 6th, 2011 · No Comments · Fun Stuff, Multi-media, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

This segment is a few months old, but creative hacking is pretty timeless. How ‘gesture technology’ like Microsoft Kinect will change the way we live | Need to Know Here’s a term you may not have heard yet — but we can just about guarantee that you will. It’s called “gesture technology” — using our [...]

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Flight of Young Adults Is Causing Alarm Upstate

August 12th, 2011 · No Comments · Journalism, Local stories, Mountain Lake Journal, News, Public Affairs

Though this article is five years old the problem remains as intractable today as then. The region needs to look to other areas of the country that have succesfully combined a great quality of life with up-to-date amenities like broadband access and cultural programming to attract the knowledge workers of tomorrow (and today!) Upstate New [...]

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“Rules of Engagement,” – a critical change of mindset for pubmedia

August 11th, 2011 · No Comments · Future of public media, Journalism, Local stories, News, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

“We had to learn — and we have to keep reminding ourselves — to start by listening to the community and sometimes leave the camera at home,” said Nashville Public Television President Beth Curley about the station’s Next Door Neighbors project. Pictured: scene from Next Door Neighbors program about the city’s Somali refugees. Rules of [...]

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Joe Berlinger’s case yields preliminary “wins” for both sides

July 17th, 2010 · No Comments · Documentary, Future of public media, Journalism, News, Public Affairs, Public Media

Both sides have claimed early victories in the case of documentarian Joe Berlinger vs. Chevron over access to the raw footage he shot for his expose “Crude” on Amazonian oil exploitation. I’ve blogged about the case and the filmmaking community reaction here. On Thursday, the appeals judge ruled that Berlinger must turn over Crude footage [...]

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Appeals Court Hammers the FCC on inconsistent indecency rulings

July 16th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

Today the States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision that found the the FCC’s 2006 decision to punish broadcasters for Cher and Nicole Richie’s “fleeting expletives” was based on vague and inconsistent standards. It is likely that this decision and possibly the upcoming decision on Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” in the [...]

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Reinventing reporting and “crowd-sourcing” your stories

May 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, Journalism, Local stories, Multi-media, Public Affairs, Public Media

This chain of newspapers is boldly striking out into digital territory that no other legacy media has ventured in (switching to free online tools and more), but I’m eager to consider how our station can adopt this idea: Telling the Stories A cornerstone of the Ben Franklin Project is the inclusion of everyone in the [...]

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Let’s Put the ‘Public’ back in Public Broadcasting

May 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, News, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

I usually try to shorten reposted blogs, but this Gwen Ifill/Jay Rosen dialogue has really caught my interest. I’m convinced that public media needs to be looking at itself HARDER and with more real concern than we are. Because the tidal wave is about to wash over us… (for more background on the Ifill/Rosen story [...]

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Coffee with your news? Beverage revenues the answer for pubmedia newsrooms?

May 16th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, Journalism, Multi-media, News, Public Affairs, Public Media

Hyperlocal ‘news cafes’ are taking the Czech news scene by storm By Teri Pecoskie While newspapers scramble to figure out how to turn a profit in a quickly evolving industry, a small group of Czech publications might just hold the solution: Hyperlocal news. A year after the successful launch of a hyperlocal journalism project in [...]

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Judge Rules That Filmmaker Must Give Footage to Chevron

May 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Documentary, Journalism, Multi-media, Public Affairs, Public Media

This ruling represents a shocking setback for investigative documentary journalism. The IDA and filmmaker Patrick Creadon (I.O.U.S.A., Wordplay) are circulating an open letter to show suport for freedom of the press. More info to come in this space about how to sign on to the letter. Juan Diego Pérez/Entendre Films An Ecuadorean cancer victim’s reflection [...]

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