Exploration #145

Hi all, and welcome to our new readers from Alaska, Detroit, Houston, Erie, L.A., and the Bay Area! This edition we’ve got new editorials on the post-CPB future of public media, as well as stories on AI’s environmental impact, the inherent ageism of AI, whether the AI bubble is about to burst, and, finally, the digital rebirth of Agatha Christie. The (literal) headline though, is that we’ve finally shipped our newest general audience video game, Powwow Bound: A Menominee Homecoming.

But First…

We’re excited to announce our September webinar: Creating a Thriving Digital Community. In public media, we pay a lot of lip service to the concept of serving our communities, but this is often framed in the context of a broadcast ideology. KQED, no surprise, is experimenting with a new approach. You can register here, or read more about the webinar in the Webinars section below.

Public Media Innovators at the NETA Annual Conference

We’re equally excited to announce the five sessions we’re sponsoring at NETA’s annual (and now virtual) conference. There are lots of great sessions coming your way, but these are the ones we worked with NETA to hand select (links to session descriptions below, all times Eastern):

• Monday, September 15 

  • 1:15 PM - Playing With a Hire Purpose: Leveling Up Workforce Readiness Through Career Video Games 

  • 3 PM - CTRL+ALT+IMAGINE: Using GenAI to Power Learning & Creativity

• Monday, September 16

  • 3 PM - From Data and Organization Intentions to Implementation: Transforming Culture

• Wednesday, September 17 

  • 1:15 PM - Powwow Bound: Developing an Indigenous Video Game for Public Media (you’ve heard from me, now hear from the creators!)

  • 2:30 PM - Getting Started on Substack 

The full list of sessions is also online. Conference registration is free, but you do have to still register. So, register here!

Powwow Bound

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of joining a small group from PBS Wisconsin for a moving weekend of community, culture, and joy at the annual Menominee Powwow in northern Wisconsin.

If you’ve seen Amber Samdahl and I present at any conference in the last two years, you’ve probably heard something about the all-ages video game our stations were co-producing (with some generous funding from Vision Maker Media), Powwow Bound: A Menominee Homecoming. Launched at the powwow on August 1, we think this is the first time two local stations have collaborated on the in-house self-production of a video game (I know readers will keep us honest on that point). Our core thesis behind the game is that all of the mission rationale that you’ve heard applied to linear video content for decades is just as relevant (maybe more so) in the world of games.

That’s because video games are a huge industry. They are bigger than TV, film, and music…combined. They are also a largely self-regulated industry. For example, accessibility in games is not mandated. And when it’s done well, its celebrated because that is so rare. It’s also a very white, very male industry. When you multiply the size of the industry by the homogenization of the industry you get a media space that is just as in need of pro-social media creation as television and radio were in the 1960s.

Of course, public media has created games for kids. PBS Kids is a leader in that space, and as I’ve gotten to know the video game landscape of public media, I’ve been surprised at how many individual stations have made multiple games. Most of those come through station education departments, which ends up putting an box around the potential of the medium in a lot of people’s minds. A surprising number of us seemingly have the desire, skills, and/or connections to make video games. But to make games for all ages, or general audiences, is in some way ‘not what we do.’ Even at PBS, no one outside the Kids team and their supporters seems to see PBS’s potential as a gaming company.

The future of media is games. As I’ve said here before, the New York Times acknowledges this, The Atlantic acknowledges this, Netflix acknowledges this. YouTube acknowledges this. LinkedIn acknowledges this. In general, electronic media acknowledges this. That doesn’t make games mutually exclusive with linear audio and video. You can do both. Both sectors of the media landscape are in need of public media’s values.

Back in the Menominee nation, that anxiety that always comes with launching a new creative work into the world was quickly replaced by the warm embrace of a community who had never imagined they would see their people and their culture represented in this medium. Great care (meaning time, energy, and detail orientation) was taken by the Powwow Bound team to honor the people and traditions that inspired the story. Folks at the powwow were genuinely moved that public media invested the resources in telling their story this way, and very much appreciated public media’s commitment to getting the details right. (That should sound familiar to you documentary folks.)

The narrative for that game is built around this specific powwow and these specific grounds, and to debut the game at the powwow was a real treat. A happy accident, our booth for the weekend was unintentionally at the same location on the grounds where players spawn into the game. And the environmental design was so spot on that the littlest kids thought the game was live in real time and kept trying to see themselves in the game (which is as adorable as it sounds).

We even inspired some budding game designers. One young man came back to us on our second day with extensive production notes and recommendations for future feature enhancements. And on the last day, the game’s creator, designer, and co-producer, Jacob Schwitzer, held an impromptu tutorial session for a group of young boys who wanted to see under the hood in the Unity game engine.

The reaction at the powwow showed us that we succeeded in what we set out to accomplish: represent a community authentically as they live their lives today (not filtered through threadbare media clichés). Parents and other adults sometimes needed bit of coaxing to give the game a try. But many who stepped out of that comfort zone went and found a friend or family member after and brought them back to show them the game. And, no surprise, the game was an even bigger hit with kids (“general audience” games can still be appropriate for kids). Even the ones too little to follow the storyline enjoyed “running” and “jumping” around the semi-open world environment.

If you’re ever in Wisconsin at the beginning of August, I highly recommend you take a day, get some lemonade and some fry bread, and take in what is a gigantic and open family reunion at the Menominee Annual Contest Powwow. In the meantime, play Powwow Bound. It’s the next best thing…and its the next generation of public media.

Okay, on to the links.

Webinars…

Creating a Thriving Digital Community (Thursday, September 11, 1pET/10aPT) 
Are you looking to cultivate a thriving online community for your audience? Healthy digital communities are more than a collection of “likes” or followers – they’re inclusive, uplifting, and collaborative spaces that involve direct partnership between media professionals and members of the public. This session will introduce concrete tools for starting a new digital “public space,” practices to improve social trust and belonging in your online community, and strategies for establishing meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with audience members online.

In 2023, KQED launched an innovative digital community on Discord to reimagine social media and strengthen public conversation across the Bay Area. We’ll share lessons learned from that launch, case studies from our California newsroom partners, and insights that apply across digital media platforms and station sizes.

Reimagining the Station of the Future: Organizational Structures for a New Era (Thursday, Oct 2, 2pET/11aPT) 
From our friends over at the NETA’s Content Peer Learning Community. Join your peers for an open, candid conversation about how station organizational structures are evolving in response to recent funding cuts and shifting audience expectations. We’ll explore how content teams are adapting roles, workflows, and cross-department collaboration to stay nimble, creative, and resilient. This is not a presentation. This session is a peer exchange where folks can share real-world org charts, discuss lessons learned, and imagine what the “station of the future” could look like. Bring your insights, questions, and examples. Together, we’ll explore how to align structure with mission, break down silos, and build capacity for what’s next. NOTE: This session will not be recorded.

Thoughts on Public Media…

Let’s Make the End of CPB the Start of Public Media’s Revival (Craig Aaron - Pressing Issues) 
Key Line: "A public media worthy of broad public support — and billions of dollars — must focus on civic media, community engagement and accountability journalism. Investing in local voices and giving people the tools to tell and amplify their own stories is the answer to the journalism crisis and the antidote to disinformation. We must protect the public airwaves while challenging ourselves to find new ways to distribute content and reach audiences that don’t rely on secret algorithms and the whims of tech billionaires. Most of all, we must recognize that the fight for public media’s future is a fight for democracy and against authoritarianism."
Why It Matters: A lot of what Aaron wrote here resonated with me. One point in particular (my runner up for the key line) is that one solution to ensuring public media's survival is to expand the definition of what is public media. The non-profit journalism entity in your market? To me that should be public media. Our definition tends to be self-servingly boxed as 'stations receiving CPB support.' Let elimination of that support free your mind. Right now, "public media" contains stations. It should contain multitudes.
Related: Doug Chang's With CPB funding gone, public media must lean on creativity and community in Current.
Also Related: Steve Bass’ second installment (in what I’m beginning to think of as “The Bass Cycle”) of think pieces, Why public media must rethink assumptions shaped by CPB funding 

PBS and NPR are generally unbiased, independent of government propaganda and provide key benefits to US democracy (Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin - The Conversation) 
Key Lines: 'And then there are public media’s critical benefits to democracy itself. A 2021 report from the European Broadcasting Union links public broadcasting with higher voter turnout, better factual knowledge and lower susceptibility to extremist rhetoric. Experts warn that even small cuts will exacerbate an already pernicious problem with political disinformation in the U.S., as citizens lose access to free information that fosters media literacy and encourages trust across demographics. In many ways, public media remains the last broadly shared civic commons. It is both commercial-free and independently edited. Another study, by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School in 2022, affirmed that “countries with independent and well-funded public broadcasting systems also consistently have stronger democracies.”'
Why It Matters: There may not be much to learn in this one, but there is much to consider. Personally, I'm a fan of Democracy. It's not perfect, but I’m a contrarian and I like to think for myself. So, it beats authoritarianism. More to the point, it's unclear that public media, as we value and practice it, can exist outside a democracy that encourages public funding with editorial firewalls. Otherwise, "public" equates to state-run. And in that system, the media ethics we practice and content we create become the media of resistance.
Related: Of course not everyone shares this opinion, as seen in this piece by Heather Gann from AL.com: Alabama Public Television execs blame NPR, PBS ‘bias’ for funding cuts: ‘They’re in their echo chamber’ 

AI + the Future of Media…

Google And Pollster Scott Rasmussen Will Use AI To Survey Americans’ Political Views (Richard Nieva - Forbes) 
Key Line: "The goal is to uncover common ground, said Rasmussen, who cofounded ESPN with his father, Bill, in 1979. He argues that the U.S. political population is not 50-50, but more 10-10-80: the 10% that is MAGA conservative is warring with the 10% on the far left, he said. He’s hopeful that this project will highlight the rest....The problem with traditional polls, he said, is that closed-ended questions empower the asker to frame or tilt the discussion with yes or no answers, a binary that reduces nuance. “When you begin to ask people the questions in a different way — or begin to address their opinions in a different way — you hear things you never thought to ask,” he said. The result is an ambitious project: As the United States turns 250-years-old next July, Jigsaw partnered with Rasmussen's Napolitan Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to the future of polling and analysis, on an initiative to use AI in a similar fashion to poll Americans about the future of the country."
Why It Matters: There’s been a lot of discussion about AI related to news and information in the past three years, but I hadn't thought about polling yet. Statistics tells us that a minimum number should yield a relevant sample. And then every election season brings polling surprises. It makes more sense to me that we'd see different surprises with this approach, but I’ll be watching out to see if it makes waves.

YouTube’s Sneaky AI ‘Experiment’ (Alex Reisner - The Atlantic) 
The Lede: "Something strange has been happening on YouTube over the past few weeks. After being uploaded, some videos have been subtly augmented, their appearance changing without their creators doing anything. Viewers have noticed “extra punchy shadows,” “weirdly sharp edges,” and a smoothed-out look to footage that makes it look “like plastic.” Many people have come to the same conclusion: YouTube is using AI to tweak videos on its platform, without creators’ knowledge."
Why It Matters: It's an interesting juxtaposition that the one thing that is supposed to get you credibility on YouTube, authenticity, is the one thing they seem to be trying to smooth out. Does this count as AI slop? Maybe. If adopted at scale, and industry-wide, it could also create a competitive opportunity for genuinely authentic media that was edited and color-corrected by a person + algorithms instead of just algorithms.
Related: Jason Koebler's 404 Media essay from earlier this year, AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality 
Also related: Ted Gioia's The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public This isn't innovation, it's tyranny 

AI + the Internet…

AI crawlers and fetchers are blowing up websites, with Meta and OpenAI the worst offenders (Gareth Halfacree - The Register) 
Key Line: "The story flips when it comes to AI fetchers, which unlike crawlers are fired off on-demand when a user requests that a model incorporates information newer than its training cut-off date....While AI fetchers make up a minority of Ai bot requests – only about 20%, says Kumar – they can be responsible for huge bursts of traffic, with one fetcher generating over 39,000 requests per minute during the testing period. "We expect fetcher traffic to grow as AI tools become more widely adopted and as more agentic tools come into use that mediate the experience between people and websites," Kumar told The Register."
Why It Matters: We're continuing to see a lot of this traffic slamming our sites in Nebraska, and occasionally slowing down site response times. So, I'd imagine your stations are as well. One thing to note though is the distinction between crawlers (bots seeking training data) and fetchers (agentic AI executing search queries in the pursuit of satisfying user search requests).

AI + the Environment…

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses (Casey Crownhart - MIT Technology Review) 
Key Line: "It’s the most transparent estimate yet from a Big Tech company with a popular AI product, and the report includes detailed information about how the company calculated its final estimate. As AI has become more widely adopted, there’s been a growing effort to understand its energy use. But public efforts attempting to directly measure the energy used by AI have been hampered by a lack of full access to the operations of a major tech company. ...The publication greatly expands what’s known about AI’s resource usage. It follows recent increasing pressure on companies to release more information about the energy toll of the technology."
Why It Matters: There are two ways to look at this. Google's perspective clearly is 'see, this isn't nearly as bad as you feared." Of course, then other end of the spectrum would argue that no advent of AI would result in no additional environmental impact (beyond what Big Tech was already incurring). All of it feels like a placebo to me. If you feel there's a problem here, the problem is capitalism. Yes, it's cynical, but that's the system in which we are pursuing our mission.
Not So Fast: Reports Justine Calma in The Verge's Google says a typical AI text prompt only uses 5 drops of water — experts say that’s misleading 
Related: Earlier this MIT published their own, independent study of the potential impact of AI on energy usage: AI and Our Energy Future. It was formulated by independent researchers but lacked access to industry data.
Also related: Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how much, by Peyton McCauley and Melissa Scanlan in The Conversation.
Still related: Hannah Ritchie's What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT? and What’s the impact of artificial intelligence on energy demand? 

AI & Us…

AI is inherently ageist. That’s not just unethical – it can be costly for workers and businesses (Sajia Ferdous - The Conversation) 
Key Line: "There are much deeper issues and structural barriers at play. These include access and opportunity – including a lack of targeted training. Right now, AI training tends to be targeted at early or mid-career workers. There are also confidence gaps among older people stemming from workplace cultures that can feel exclusionary. Data shows that older professionals are more hesitant to use AI – possibly due to fast-paced work environments that reward speed over judgment or experience."
Why It Matters: Normally, when we talk about AI bias, we talk about issues of race or gender. So, I was especially happy to see someone addressing the issue of age. This feels like an opportunity for public media, both in terms of training staff - who are loyal to our mission and often stay with station deeper into their careers - and in terms of raising the level of AI literacy with our traditional audiences.
Related: Robin Brewer's contribution to The Conversation, Older Americans are using AI − study shows how and what they think of it 

AI Doesn't Lighten the Burden of Mastery. (Gwendolyn - PlayTechnique) 
Key Line: "The AI had moved me forward, but it hadn't saved me the real work. I had thought I was mastering front end development, quickly. But mastery still required: building the model, holding it in my head, doing the thinking. False mastery is mistaking convincing syntax for real understanding."
Why It Matters: Part of the key to effectively using these tools is understanding and committing to a productive definition of "effective." In my experience, thus far, the thing that supposedly is happening faster, the task, isn't actually where the efficiency lies. For me, the efficiency rests in overcoming the psychological hurdles that come with creation and, more importantly, onboarding new ideas and thoughts that spark creation.
Related: Joshua Valdez's The Unbearable Slowness of AI Coding
Also related: Antonin's The Skill of the Future is not 'AI', but 'Focus' 
Still related: Pete Koomen's AI Horseless Carriages 

AI is a Mass-Delusion Event (Charlie Warzel - The Atlantic) 
Key Line: “Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with a different question: What if generative AI isn’t God in the machine or vaporware? What if it’s just good enough, useful to many without being revolutionary?...The models being good enough doesn’t mean that the industry collapses overnight or that the technology is useless (though it could)...Good enough has been keeping me up at night. Because good enough would likely mean that not enough people recognize what’s really being built—and what’s being sacrificed—until it’s too late.”
Why It Matters: It's occasionally good to step back and remind yourself that no one really knows what the effects of this exponential technology will be. And, if social media taught us anything, it should be that what we think we know isn't really what we'll learn about our reaction to this technology over time. Right now, the millions of experiments happening via AI interactions every minute have led us to think it is homogenizing our language, and maybe even our thought. I suspect what we learn in time about the impacts of this technology from 2023 forward will be quite different. And just as with social media, you should check in periodically with yourself and ask if using this tech is serving you.
Related: Rachael Hains-Wesson's Will AI pull the career ladder up out of reach – or just change what it looks like? in The Conversation.

Are we about to enter "AI winter?" Here's why the market sold off AI stocks... (Grant Harvey - The Neuron) 
Key Line: "...AI infrastructure kinda IS the economy right now. Here's what that actually means: AI data centers are adding between $93 billion and $163 billion to America's $23 trillion economy this year. Some estimates put the boost even higher in early 2025. Without AI spending, US growth would be nearly flat. Translation: AI isn't just part of the economy, it's doing the heavy lifting right now."
Why It Matters: There was some discussing on the Labs team Discord last week about whether we were in a bubble of not and whether that bubble was about to burst. Adapting a bit of what I wrote there, I still think we're in the phase where the talk of an AI bubble bursting is as much wishful thinking on the part of the ‘doomers’ as it is market unease (which is the "bubble"). The intentional lack of regulation around AI will continue serve as an accelerant for a still larger bubble. It'll burst at some point, to be sure. All bubbles do. But bursting bubbles don't often announce themselves. Regardless, this is very much like the beginnings of the internet, so when it does burst, I'd counsel against jumping on the "see, we told you" bandwagon. Downturns are usually the best times to dig in, better your skillsets, and make investments. AI is a new type of compute that we still haven't fully figured out how to best use. A lot of that will get figured out once the hype cycle ebbs and the bubble bursts.

Immersive Media

Blackmagic Releases Free Guides for Immersive Filmmaking 2025 (Andy Stout - Redshark News) 
Key Line: "[M]ost Immersive shots are captured with a zero degree, or near zero-degree tilt. As the camera captures a 180+ degree field of view, both horizontally and vertically, the audience is still able to look up and down. But instead of the filmmaker forcing the audience to look in a particular direction, the audience is in control. To encourage the audience to look at different parts of your image, you can use other techniques like lighting, aperture framing, and leading lines.”
Why It Matters: We're still very much in xR winter, though you can find green shoots if you look hard enough. It's been a while since I've seen a guide for shooting immersive. True, immersive is now considered 180-video, but this does take me back to the halcyon days of early-360 video (circa 2018). It's world a skim if it's been a while since you shot something immersive, or if this is a totally foreign concept to you.
Related: Jump straight to Blackmagic's Camera Guide.
Also related: Jump straight to DaVinci Resolve's Immersive Workflow Guide.

Games…

Voyages Into Native Worlds: Gaming Offers a Glimpse into Indigenous Cultures and Stories (Vincent Schilling - American Indian Magazine) 
Key Line: "Since [Oregon Trail], an estimated 2 to 4 million games have been created for a range of platforms and devices, from the smallest app games on phones, iPhones and tablets to games played on personal computers and consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation. Players can experience action-adventures, build virtual worlds, solve mysteries or learn about a range of topics. Yet despite the plethora of game types and storylines available, only a few of today’s video games are based on culturally appropriate Indigenous themes, characters or storylines."
Why It Matters: Just as public media has sought to increase the number of indigenous voices heard on television and radio, we have a unique opportunity to elevate similar voices from the world of video games. We're doing that with Powwow Bound and looking for indie game studios telling indigenous stories in a culturally sensitive way. When we find them, we'll try to connect them with local stations first.

And finally…

BBC Recreates Agatha Christie Using AI (Max Goldbart - Deadline) - And finally, cozy mystery, cozy AI? This is an interesting experiment. Could we in Nebraska bring Willa Cather “back” to answer questions about her life and literature? Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques mean that answer is probably "yes." But should we?

Have a creative, productive week, and a relaxing holiday weekend!