I earn a living as a strategic editorial consultant, and many of my clients are public media organizations. I used to work for PBS, and as a freelancer, I’ve worked with PBS, NPR, and indie film series P.O.V. (I wrote a column for P.O.V. about intersections between documentary storytelling and the web). I believe passionately in the importance of noncommercial media — media that treats people as citizens, not consumers. Today I attended the Free Press Summit, where I met fellow indie media true believers, and I’d like to give a shout-out to some of the creative talents I encountered:

Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)
Innovative crew of radio producers, ranging from NPR news reporters to indie “sound artists.” Their website offers radio production tips and they blog about radio producers’ efforts at interactive, web-based storytelling here. I met their talent manager, Julie Drizin, who I look forward to seeing tomorrow as well at the Making Your Media Matter conference at American University.

Farai Chideya
Chideya moderated a panel about new ideas in public media; her ideas were better than those of the panelists. A former NPR radio host, she is relaunching her Pop and Politics blog as a radio show. She’s also a novelist. Follow Chideya on Twitter.

The Media Consortium
…is “a network of the country’s leading, progressive, independent media outlets.  Our mission is to amplify independent media’s voice, increase our collective clout, leverage our current audience and reach new ones.” I had an extensive conversation with one of their staffers, Jeanne Brooks, over red wine and egg rolls at the conference happy hour, and was incredibly impressed with how smart she was. These are good people.

Other public media faves:

• The independent film series P.O.V. and Independent Lens
• FRONTLINE World – backpack journalism from around the globe
• WNYC - New York City’s public radio station

Do you watch PBS? Listen to NPR? Give to your local stations? Do you value independent media? What is the role of independent and/or public media in building and sustaining creative culture?