Center for Media & Social Impact

The Center for Media & Social Impact is an innovation lab and research center that studies, designs and showcases media for social impact. It focuses on social documentaries for civil society and democracy, and on the public media environment that supports them. The Center is part of the School of Communication at American University. • Facebook • Twitter

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This January, join the first DC Global Game Jam! A full weekend of hard work, a crazy deadline, and the kind of creative inspiration that only comes at 2:00 am. Think pizza, white boards, Mountain Dew, and aha moments.

Check it out!

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For established and aspiring filmmakers, nonprofit communication leaders, funders, and students who want to learn and share cutting-edge practices to make their media matter. 

Click here to learn more!

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Tonight: VALENTINE ROAD. 5:30 Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington, DC.

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Tomorrow: Watch VALENTINE ROAD at the Human Rights Film Series.

5:30pm, Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington, DC

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Tonight. 5:30. Katzen Arts Center in DC.

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DIRTY WARS. Screening Oct 3, 5:30-8pm at American University's Katzen Arts Center. AUHumanRightsFilmSeries.org 

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Join the 2013 Media Rise Festival on September 23-29. This weeklong series of events in Washington, D.C. celebrates how storytelling, design, art and media can contribute to a peaceful, just and sustainable world. Events include include nightly networking lounges, an opening party, a "Doc in a Day" 48-hour video challenge, a pitch night for entrepreneurial creatives, a daylong discussion forum, and a youth festival. Click here to register.

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14th Annual Human Rights Film Series: http://auhumanrightsfilmseries.org

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Media That Matters Panel Speakers (Part 3!)

The third Media That Matters conference panel is called “The Long View: Strategizing impact and measuring success in multiplatform projects.” Here are links to our panelists and their previous work: Caty Borum Chattoo, moderator

Caty Borum Chattoo is an American University professor of Public Communication. She has previously worked at the Norman Lear Think Tank and at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Entertainment Media & Public Health program. Her expertise ranges from documentary film production to social change communication, and she has produced or co-produced multiple investigative documentary works. Nancy Schwartzman, panelist

In her own words, Nancy Schwartzman’s “work explores the intersection of sexuality, new media, and the complexities of modern relationships.” She has directed and produced the documentaries xoxosms and The Line, and was responsible for the creation of the award-winning “Circle of 6” app designed to prevent sexual violence towards women. She is also the founder of The Line Campaign, a campaign which works to end sexual violence. Paco de Onís, panelist

Paco de Onís is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011) and The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court (which premiered at Sundance 2009). He is currently a partner at Skylight Pictures, a company dedicated to creating documentary films that continue their message using long-term media outreach campaigns. In the past, he has also produced documentaries for PBS and National Geographic. Roland Legiardi-Laura, panelist

Roland Legiardi-Laura is the director of To Be Heard, a powerful documentary following three students in the Bronx as they use poetry to transform their lives. He has also previously created the documentary Azul, and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He is also the founder of the cafe’s Fifth Night Screenplay Reading and Short Film series, which has produced over 190 screenplay readings that have gone on to make 36 films. Be sure to check out MTM 2013 and the Center for Social Media’s free screening of To Be Heard (details here)!

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Introducing a new series on our website that covers the filmmaking process from conception to birth with Brigid Maher and "The Mama Sherpas."

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Media That Matters Panel Speakers (Part 2!)

The second Media That Matters conference panel is called “How to Change, Grow and Survive: Sustaining the documentary vision over generations.” Here are some samples of our panelists’ previous work: Andrew Taylor, moderator      Check out his blog, available here! Andrew Taylor is an American University professor in the Arts Management Program. He has worked as a consultant throughout the the continent, including at the Overture Center for the Arts and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He was previously the director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration in the Wisconsin School of Business and president of the Association of Arts Administration Educators. He currently also works as a consulting editor of multiple journals. Justine Nagan, panelist

Justine Nagan is the Executive Director and an Executive Producter at Kartemquin Films. She is the director of the documentaries Typeface and Sacred Transformations, and has previously worked on the documentary Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and the series The Learning Chronicles. She has previously taught at Chicago’s Hyde Park Art Center and is currently working as an executive producer on several Kartemquin films. Mable Haddock, panelist

This video is an example of the work done by the Producers’ Lab, a program for which Mable Haddock is the director. She is also a founding president and former CEO of the National Black Program Consortium. She worked with the development of over 200 hours of work for national public television, Matters of Race and Free to Dance. She has spoken and written extensively on black film production, funding, and aesthetics, and has worked as a panelist numerous times, including with the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Humanities Endowment. Katy Chevigny, panelist Katy Chevigny is a social activist working to create socially engaged documentaries. She is a co-founder of Arts Engine and its production arm, Big Mouth Productions, which has been responsible for many feature-length documentaries, including the Emmy-nominated film Deadline. She has worked collaboratively developing and understanding new tools that are available to documentary filmmakers, creating MediaRights.org, which grew into one of the most comprehensive databases of social-documentaries available. Be sure to sign up for MTM 2013 to hear them speak in person!

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He took the slam poetry of urban teens and made it into a movie. Filmmaker Roland Legiardi-Laura will kick off this year’s Media that Matter’s conference, “Measure for Measure,” with a free screening of his documentary, “To Be Heard” on February 14. Legiardi-Laura will join the audience for a discussion on filmmaking, along with “Green Corps” producer Lance Kramer. In this free session, learn “How do you tell a story that makes a difference?” and learn how to turn your community into a compelling interactive documentary.

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Media That Matters Panel Speakers

The first of the panels for the Media That Matters conference is called “The Hottest News and Latest Tools in Impact.” We have gathered videos of our panelists to give you a taste of their previous work: Patricia Aufderheide, moderator

Patricia Aufderheide has a background working with fair use provisions of copyright law and is a co-director of the American University’s Center for Social Media. She has worked as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival and has published many works on documentary films and on copyright fair use, including Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright and Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Johanna Blakley, panelist

Johanna Blakley is the managing director and director of research at the Norman Lear Center and performs research in a variety of diverse fields ranging from journalism to fashion. She has had two presentations published on TED.com and has been cited by many diverse sources including The New York Times and Reuters. She is currently researching the effects of feature films and documentaries on viewers’ attitudes and behaviors. Katie Delahaye Paine, panelist

Katie Delahaye Paine is the CEO of KDPaine & Partners and works extensively with the measurement of social media as a marketing tool. She has also authored and co-authored many works on the subject, including Measuring the Networked Nonprofit and Measuring Public Relations. She is a founding member of the Institute for Public Relations special commission on measurement and evaluation and the Society for New Communications Research. Sheila Leddy, panelist

Sheila Leddy is the executive director of the Fledgling Fund. In addition to her work at there, she has also co-authored the white paper, Assessing Creative Media’s Social Impact, and is a member of the Association of Small Foundation’s Impact Working Group. Previously, she was a senior associate at The Crimson Group, a company developing management education programs for healthcare organizations. Be sure to sign up for MTM 2013 to hear them speak in person!

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Awareness by itself is not social change, but it is an important step in fostering social change. Can a campaign be successful if it relies solely on online activity? In Blake's words, "We need to ask ourselves these things when we're talking again about action beyond awareness."

MTM 2013 will target specific ways to move your media beyond awareness. On Feb. 14, AIR Media Strategist Jessica Clark will host a group strategy session, "Get Your Impact Strategy Humming."

If you already have a media project you want to make matter, you can submit your project details for a chance to have Clark analyze it and improve its strategy. Learn how to design cross-platform projects that involve and inspire audiences.

Stay tuned for more MTM 2013-related posts.

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What is social change? In last year's Media that Matters conference, "Change for Good," keynote speaker Meredith Blake challenged filmmakers and media professionals to understand what social change really means, and she outlined specific tactics filmmakers can use to reach their audiences and foster lasting impact. 

So what is social change? Keep your eyes peeled for the answer in our next post. But in the meantime, learn more about MTM 2013, "Measure for Measure."

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When Twitter user @MindofAndre sent Nancy Schwartzman a message on Twitter alerting her to the Apps Against Abuse challenge launched by Vice President Joe Biden, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, her first thought was "I don't have time to make an app…I'm a filmmaker!"

After further consideration, however, the filmmaker and activist behind The Line Campaign, in collaboration with Deb Levine of the Internet Sexuality Information Services, created Circle of 6, an app that takes advantage of GPS mapping, group SMS messaging, and preprogrammed resource hotlines to help college students keep themselves and their friends safe. In November of 2011, the app was chosen as one of the winners of the challenge and has been downloaded 30,000 times since the launch of the app in late March. Schwartzman spoke with the Center for Social Media about the inspiration for the app, the upcoming Healthy Relationships Toolkit, and plans for the future. Read more...

photo via http://www.circleof6app.com/

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We are excited that Benevolent Media Festival is coming this week! Another joyful celebration for us media enthusiasts/believers. Take a look at the agenda and see what interest you the most.

But in the mean time, stay tune for our beloved Media That Matters! 2013 is not so far away!