Where BECA graduate students & alumni make media
Focal Point
Focal Point is a talk show about the media that focuses on lively, no-nonsense conversation with the best media practitioners around. The show is independently produced at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and aired on public access channels across the San Francisco Bay Area and online.
The Focal Point team would like to thank the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts (BECA) department at SFSU for its kind support and equipment provision.
Contact Focal Point at FocalPointTV@gmail.com.
Access the links below to jump to an episode of your choice.
EPISODE 5: Censored!
EPISODE 4: Future TV
EPISODE 3: Journalism in Crisis
EPISODE 2: The New Face of Friends
EPISODE 1: Making The Dollar-Lite Documentary
EPISODE 5: Censored!
(30 mins, added 2/2/09)Leave a message for the Focal Point team here (Digital Lounge members only) or by email at FocalPointTV@gmail.com.
For insider Focal Point blogs by Adam Greenfield, see here.
The US invasion of Iraq, based on what many
consider be fraudulent evidence that lacked investigation by
journalist outlets across the country, dented public confidence in
the media. But according to Peter Phillips of Project Censored, a nonprofit
organization that advocates free press rights in the US, the
mainstream media has long been failing the public by neglecting to
publicize countless critical stories. To highlight the issue,
Project Censored has been publishing a much discussed and highly
controversial Top Censored Stories of the Year list for
decades.
In this episode of Focal Point, Peter Phillips joins host Adam
Greenfield to announce Project Censored's top 5 censored stories
for 2009. Peter also responds to the ongoing and high-profile
controversy from across the media surrounding both the Top Censored
list and Project Censored itself. How does Peter take on the
industry's fire? Watch the episode to find out!
EPISODE 4: Future TV
(30 mins, added 12/23/08)
Leave a message for the Focal Point team here (Digital Lounge members only) or by email at FocalPointTV@gmail.com.
For insider Focal Point blogs by Adam Greenfield, see here.
Online show Break a Leg is the world's
first adventu-com, a unique mix of wit, adventure, and murder. With
a monthly audience of one and a half million viewers Break a Leg is
a hit, but with internet video content rapidly gaining ground on
traditional television, the future is murky. In the new online
world, how are audiences going to find programs, how anyone's going
to make any money, and what's going to happen to the old television
industry?
Three internet television insiders join host Adam Greenfield to
offer their opinions. Jim Louderback is CEO of web TV pioneering
company Revision3, which
produces its own suite of web TV shows. Damon Campolo represents
Purple Truck Media, a
digital studio that develops web content and "webesodics." And, of
course, Break a Leg joins Focal Point in the shape of producer
Justin Morrison.
EPISODE 3: Journalism in
Crisis
(30 mins, added 12/08/08)
For insider Focal Point blogs by Adam Greenfield, see here.
The media is in crisis. Plummeting revenues
are hitting the industry hard and the ramifications include job
losses, fewer reporters, threats to journalist diversity, more ads,
and compromised media quality. Why have things gotten so bad, could
this situation have been averted, and what forms might future
journalism adopt to survive?
Three media experts join host Adam Greenfield to discuss these
questions. Alan Mutter has occupied high ranks at the Chicago Sun
Times and the San Francisco Chronicle and is now managing partner
of Tapit Partners where he combines his two loves of journalism and
technology. Alan is best known for his popular media blog "Reflections of a Newsosaur."
Linda Jue is director of New Voices in Independent Journalism, a
national initiative working to build a diverse pool of independent
investigative journalists. David Cohn is the founder of Spot.Us, a website that uses micro-financing
to fund reports by independent journalists.
EPISODE 2: The New Face of Friends
(30 mins, added 11/19/08)
For insider Focal Point blogs by Adam Greenfield, see here.
Millions of people around the world build and
maintain friendships through Facebook, Myspace, and other online
social networks, a stunningly recent development. But questions are
being asked about what we are getting ourselves into. Online, can
we really see someone for who they are? What kind of techniques do
people use, perhaps unconsciously, to control their image? And is
privacy out the window when we sign up?
Host Adam Greenfield puts these questions and more to Internet
specialist Lisa Rein and social researcher Michelle Wolf. Lisa has
developed for, taught about, and reported on the frontiers of the
Internet and is currently bringing the personal archives of Dr.
Timothy Leary into the digital realm. Michelle is a renowned
professor and researcher on media literacy, electronic media, and
social issues, based at San Francisco State University. Amongst
many works, she is well-known for her work on body image.
EPISODE 1: Making The Dollar-Lite Documentary
(30 mins, added 11/12/08)
About Episode 1
Documentary-making can get the best of even the
pros, let alone the rookies. Ideas that flop, hellish weather,
uncooperative interviewees, partnership nightmares... the hurdles
to a finished documentary are many. And one of the biggest woes?
Money.
In this episode of Focal Point, host Adam Greenfield asks, "Is it
really possible to make a documentary on a small budget?" Joining
Adam to share some very surprising stories are documentary-makers
John Hewitt, who's been in the business for 40 years, and Vidyut
Latay, who's just starting.
John Hewitt, a veteran independent documentary producer, has
produced a library of films including “Landmines of the Heart”, a
piece about political reconciliation in Cambodia, and is shortly
releasing a book entitled “Documentary Film-Making: A contemporary
Field Guide”. Vidyut Latay is a graduate student at San Francisco
State University and is currently editing her first documentary,
entitled “Beyond Silence”, an insight into India's marginalized
deaf community.
About
Badge
© 2009 Created by Becagrad on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
