Winning the rural vote has usually been a safe bet for Republicans. This election, pollsters say Democrats are likely to do better in rural areas in battleground states, making it a much more competitive environment.  read more »

It's conference season and it seems that over the last few months and over the next few months Melinda or I (or Eric, or Katie, or Ari) have been or will be attending quite a few of these events focused on public radio, non-profits, or web development. Sometimes exhausting, sometimes exhilarating, these conferences -- like Beyond Broadcast and Netsquared -- are a great place to meet people and track developing trends.  read more »

People from around the public broadcasting world descended on DC today to discuss the future of their industry. Particularly, radio and television broadcasters, content producers, and social benefit groups were talking about how the ever increasing presence of the Internet is changing what and how they do what they do. 

The theme for this year's Beyond Broadcast conference was mapping public media. This theme played out in a number of ways: most concretely one panel looked at how public content sites are using maps (like the NewsHour's) to channel information; and in the more abstract one panel mapped web-based distribution models for content. The consensus seemed to be that the descriptor 'public broadcasting' is becoming increasingly irrelevant as media creation and distribution collide on the Internet. A more apt term suggested by some panel members was 'public media', which includes media created by traditional content creators as well as the public.   read more »