MARCH 29 | 1:00 PM ET Want insights into your student's level of speech anxiety & Communication apprehension and ways to help students through scholarship/tools? The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) and the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA), developed by the late Dr. James C. McCroskey, are both widely accepted instruments for assessing communication anxiety and apprehension. As a graduate student at the University of West Virginia, Dr. Teven worked closely with Dr. McCroskey and has used these instruments--both with his students and also in his life--to help understand and overcome communication anxiety. In this webinar, he will walk you through the history of these instruments, how to use them in your courses, and how to pair them with powerful learning content to support your student's development as confident communicators.   Watch the Recording RECORDING HERE *NOTE: You must follow this link to register. Responding above as "going" will not register you for this event. ... View more

February 26 | 2:00 PM ET In 2015 Joshua Gunn published Speech Craft, 1st edition with the inclusion of a groundbreaking chapter on Speaking for Social Change. In this session, he will explore The history of the Speaking for Social Change chapter and the decision to include it in the printed text.  Discuss our cultural challenge through a lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Present ways to address this challenge through strategies of active listening.  Examine how the principles of Activism and Advocacy have changed during the pandemic and postulate on how this might look in the future.   View Recording Watch Recording HERE   ... View more

February 26 | 12:30 PM ET   With the emergence of streaming and the onset of the pandemic, the future of film is truly unknown. Join Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White - coauthors of The Film Experience, as they examine what’s next for both the industry and for students and instructors of film courses. The shifting dynamic of the industry, and the ways this impacts students' understanding and enjoyment of movies, has been a consistent theme of The Film Experience. This will be addressed by both the presenters and by a brief showcase of Macmillan Learning’s resources provided at the end of the session.   View the recording VIEW THE RECORDING   ... View more

Blog and activity developed and written by Laura Sells, Communication Instructor, Nicolet College. Sells is the author of the Instructor's Manual for Joshua Gunn's Speech Craft.   At the start of every semester, I remind myself about the old saw “start as you intend to proceed.” Crucial to setting the tone for the semester, the first day of class is a rich opportunity that many instructors unknowingly misspend and then wonder why the semester proceeds with students who are disengaged or reticent to participate in discussion. If instructors kick off their class without meaningful engagement, students tend to limit their participation and investment. In online and Zoom settings, something we’re all a little more familiar with now, engagement can be difficult to cultivate, making the process of tone-setting even more crucial. Going over the legalese of the syllabus can set a pattern that we will lecture and spoon-feed students the instructions for the duration of the course. Yet we often feel pressured to cover syllabus material in great detail. Online instructors have the right approach when they quiz students over the syllabus and policies during the first week of class, because it shows students how to take responsibility for their own learning and requires students to engage with the material. But some may think this approach impractical and heavy handed for face-to-face and Zoom-style classes. What follows is an active-learning activity for the first day of class to get students talking in groups about the syllabus, processing policy statements, and thinking about what will happen in the course. It also serves as a productive ice breaker to get students conversing with one another. It circumvents legalistic droning, though it does not eliminate it entirely. It also reduces the number of first-day repeat questions, because students often answer their own questions for each other through their small group discussions.   ACTIVITY Setup: Have students review the syllabus and make notes or write questions in the margins. Tell students that you will be doing an activity with the syllabus instead of going over it with them the way it’s traditionally done in most classes, so they need to read the syllabus instead of waiting for you to cover it. If they try to ask questions, gently defer them for the group activity. Step 1: Write on the board, show a document/PowerPoint, or give a handout with the three questions below. Have students write the answers to the questions. Pace them. Depending on how much time you allot for this activity, it should take about 5 – 7 minutes to answer these questions. 1. What are your hopes about this class? 2. What are your fears about this class? 3. What are your questions about this class, the syllabus, the textbook, the assignments, giving speeches, the instructor, etc.? Step 2: Put students in small groups or breakout rooms of about 4 or 5. Remember, the larger the size of the group, the longer it will take to finish the activity. Tell students to introduce themselves, discuss what they wrote,, and pick someone to report back to the class. Tell them to also pick their #1 burning question that they had for question 3. So, for example, they are usually able to figure out the answers to most of their questions through discussion, but they’ll have one or two questions left over that become their questions to ask during the class discussion. Once students are in groups, be sure to check in at least twice to set the pattern of good group work. The first time, check for understanding, but deflect questions about class for the debriefing. The second time, check pacing and make sure the group picked someone to report back to class. This helps keeps students on task. Step 2 can be accomplished fairly quickly, in about five minutes, but if you allow longer time, the students have an opportunity to bond over commonalities and the activity becomes an icebreaker. Pay attention to the flow of conversation and regroup when the flow of conversation has shifted to general social talk or awkward silence. Step 3: Go from group to group and call on the student who volunteered to report back to class. Have that student: 1. Introduce the group’s members 2. Summarize the answers to questions #1 and #2 3. Ask the group’s burning question Step 4: After answering the group’s burning question, the instructor can ask for a second question from the group or go on to the next group as desired. Once all the questions are asked and answered, usually all the primary points that need coverage are addressed and the instructor can cover the finer points more quickly. Although covering the syllabus in this fashion is less linear, it is more interactive, and the students have a hands-on experience with the class documents and with peer interaction. This promotes a tone in class that is less dependent on the instructor for direction. It also stands in for an icebreaker that opens the air for discussion in the next class. Bonus Step 5: The instructor can collect the answers and review hopes and fears aloud anonymously and talk about the commonalities, pointing out the common threads of communication apprehension, desire for a good grade, keeping up with the work, and so on, and talk about how these will be handled in the class. This can help establish community in the class.   Managing the first day of class is crucial to a successful semester. Students are wondering what they have gotten themselves into and instructors are wondering how many times they will have to say “It’s in the syllabus.” This activity acts as a fun middle ground that sets a positive tone for all.   What are your strategies for covering the syllabus on the first day? Comment and let us know! ... View more

LaunchPad is now available for Corrigan & White's The Film Experience, 6th Edition. We are here to support you and your students no matter the format of your next Film class! Request access here. ... View more

LaunchPad is now available for Joshua Gunn’s Speech Craft, Second Edition. We are here to support you and your students no matter the format of your next speech class! Request access here. ... View more

May 27 | 12:00 PM ET As you consider courses for the coming fall semester, Macmillan is offering a brief, informative webinar on how to provide affordable and flexible options. Our LaunchPad platform has been used by thousands of adopters and hundreds of thousands of students in the past decade. It is proven to engage students, and offers a wealth of premade assessment that is simple to deploy.   Access the recording today! WATCH THE RECORDING   Access resources and slides here and here.  ... View more

Macmillan is proud to offer not only world-class texts for students but a wealth of instructor resources to better teach Public Speaking. Come spend 45 minutes with Joshua Gunn and Laura Sells as they walk us through an activity that can be used to teach in the Zoom environment many of us find ourselves in.   Access Recording View Recording   ... View more

This is the most exciting and challenging time to be teaching Mass Communication. Bettina Fabos and Chris Martin - coauthors of Media and Culture as well as Media Essentials - will provide a half-hour session that will present strategies as well as tools you can use to help your students understand "Fake News" and evaluate the election through that lens. The presentation will include a look at Macmillan’s Election Toolkit.   Access the recording today! WATCH THE RECORDING ... View more

An inclusive learning environment is essential to student success and persistence in college. In addition, embracing difference has been highlighted by the National Communication Association as one of the 9 essential learning outcomes in communication courses. What can you do in your online classroom to create a better sense of belonging for all students? This webinar will present 5 powerful, simple strategies instructors can employ in their courses to make an immediate impact on their students and their institutions. https://go.macmillanlearning.com/200416-5-Ways-to-Make-Your-Classroom-More-Inclusive.html ... View more

     Speak Up! employs various means to connect with students, including real-life speech examples and hundreds of hand-drawn illustrations that bring public speaking concepts to life with clarity and humor. The fifth edition of Speak Up!, newly published this year, includes a new “Speech Choices” case study feature to help students understand and relate to the concepts and principles behind speech preparation.       This feature presents a case study of one student, Rafaela, as she prepares for her persuasive speech assignment. In our book, we explain the speech preparation process to students as a series of manageable steps.  At each stage, we discuss how students can make smart choices that will help them craft and deliver a successful speech. The Speech Choices feature follows Rafaela as she considers and makes these decisions throughout the preparation of her speech.       Since the feature appears at the end of most chapters in the book, the boxes help students review the concepts of each chapter. They see the choices that Rafaela is faced with, and follow her as she uses the principles discussed in the chapter to make her decision. For example, in Chapter 5 on Audience Analysis, Rafaela considers how to make her speech about women running for office relevant to the men in her class. She ultimately decides to employ one of the methods recommended in the chapter, interviewing your audience, to get their perspective and incorporate that perspective into her speech. And in Chapter 7 on Evidence, Rafaela finds that she needs to check the credibility of her Internet sources.      The Speech Choices boxes include questions at the end, asking the students what they thought about Rafaela’s decision and a question about how they will use the principles to develop their own speeches.  The latter question helps students make connections between what they have read in the book and their own speech preparation. One typical use of these questions is to have students discuss the questions as a class or while working in groups. Students could also answer these questions for a short homework assignment, and even cite principles from the chapter that they used as the basis of their answer for even deeper understanding. This provides an alternative to quizzing students to see if they did the reading assignment and provides instructors with another way to determine what students have learned.      After following the various steps that Rafael has taken in her speech preparation, students can see the complete, annotated outline of Rafaela’s speech in the appendix. This can be used to show students an example of a completed preparation outline and give them a model as they prepare their own outlines. They could also watch a video of Rafaela’s full speech, which is available in LaunchPad.  Students can see how all her work and all the choices she made culminated in her final presentation. This video can also be used as a sample persuasion speech or as a speech to spark student discussion. There are sample questions and answers provided, or instructors can create their own questions. Finally, there are video clips of segments of Rafaela’s speech that did not go well as she was practicing. These can be used to show students problems that speakers sometimes encounter. There are also sample questions and answers for these clips.      The new Speech Choices feature in Speak Up! adds another tool to your public speaking toolbox. Whether you use the features in the text, the videos in LaunchPad, or both, Speech Choices provides a way to help students follow the development of a speech and consider how they can use textbook concepts to prepare their own speeches. Douglas M. Fraleigh is a professor and chair of the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno and serves on the faculty of the university’s Smittcamp Family Honors College. He has taught public speaking courses throughout his career and also coached intercollegiate speech and debate at CSU Fresno, UC Berkeley, Cornell, and CSU Sacramento. His research interests include freedom of speech, argumentation, and legal communication. For more information about Speak Up!, please visit our website at macmillanlearning.com. ... View more

“No textbook is created by one person,” writes Steve McCornack and Joe Ortiz, the authors of the groundbreaking new edition of the human communication textbook Choices & Connections. “What we teach, and how we teach it, can have a transformative impact on our students.” I’m proud to be one of the many people who helped Steve and Joe create this new edition, as a founding member of the editorial board for Diversity, Inclusion, and Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy (DICR). Collectively, what we accomplished with this new edition of Choices & Connections is to create a book that all of our students can see themselves in. In doing this, I believe this new edition will transform the lives of our students for the better. To me, that’s the ultimate mark of achievement. In 2018, the National Communication Association (NCA) published nine learning outcomes for courses in the communication discipline. The Learning Outcomes in Communication (LOC) project was a faculty-driven initiative to voice specific learning outcomes for the discipline and stakeholders—students, graduates, parents, employers, and even college & university administrators. In all, these nine outcomes form the essence of teaching and learning in our discipline. Of these nine LOCs, one in particular addresses a key issue often overlooked by publishers and institutions yet nonetheless fundamental to the notion of equity in education and society--embracing diversity and promoting inclusion: “LOC #8 Utilize communication to embrace difference.” This learning outcome, which can be read in its entirety here, was the foundation on which our DICR Board and the revision of Choices & Connections was built. The DICR board was formed by eight diverse communication scholars from around the country, including me, who have taken on leadership or demonstrated a passion for advocacy for diversity and inclusion. We had one distinct task: together, we would re-examine the photography, graphics, examples, and the text to create a better, more inclusive set of learning materials.  I believe that's what we did. Working with the editors at Macmillan Learning, and in partnership with Steve and Joe, we were able to collectively create a more diverse and inclusive text, through the photo program (see the photo of Serena Williams on the Chapter 2 opener, which I discussed in my previous blog), examples (see the example of Dolores Huerta in Chapter 1), and topic coverage (see new Chapter 3: Culture and Gender). For more on these examples, take a look at the DICR microsite here. So, I’m especially excited that together we are undertaking an effort that can exponentially change the publishing industry. We know that diversity and inclusive representation is sound, culturally-responsive pedagogy. We know that what this textbook looks like will matter to students. And, we are just getting started. The board has reconvened for a second term to work on another Macmillan Learning text that you will be learning more about in the future. We remain committed to our mission: "to advance and evolve our understanding of diversity, inclusiveness, and culturally responsive pedagogy to promote their fundamental, not ancillary, place in the development of learning materials.” I see our editorial board as the beginning of a movement to transform the development of higher education learning materials, one textbook at a time.              Professor Martin speaks on college success, as well as diversity & inclusion. Follow her on Facebook or Instagram at ThreePsPodcast.              Learn more about the DICR editorial board here. ... View more

In the introductory human communication course or public speaking course, it can be challenging for students to see speech preparation as a developmental process. Many students come into introductory courses having done oral presentations for other academic classes. For example, they may have had a presentation assignment in an art history or business class. As a result, these students are accustomed to planning their speeches and presentations by using a PowerPoint template or simply writing down a “grocery list” of topics to cover.   How to Prepare a Speech in 5 Steps   To encourage students to be more intentional in their speech preparation, I teach a five-step model: Think, Investigate, Compose, Rehearse, and Revise. Think about your topic and audience; investigate or research the topic; compose an outline; rehearse your speech, and revise the outline according to feedback received from your rehearsal. This five-step model for planning a speech is the basis for both lessons and learning activities. Teaching Students this Speech Preparation Process Students are expected to apply this five-step model in preparing their speech assignment and to make their preparation visible through a portfolio assignment. Specifically, written documentation of how the student has applied each of the five steps is organized into a folder and submitted for grading. Figure 1 below outlines the five-step model along with the type of evidence to be included in the portfolio.   The portfolio assignment encourages students to be more intentional in developing their speeches and helps them see speech-making as a developmental process. Additionally, it provides instructors with a complete “snapshot” of the preparation that went into the speech, which then supports meaningful and constructive feedback to students.   Five Steps in Making Your Speech Preparation Visible (Rubric Model)   What Evidence Think Brainstorm inspiration for the topic Analyze the situation and the audience Narrow the topic Develop a working thesis statement Brainstormed list or written rationale for topic choice. Complete audience analysis survey. Written notes that show the process of narrowing a topic and the development of a working thesis statement. Investigate Locate resources:  articles, books and websites Keep research cards or notes with bibliographic citations Frame your thesis statement Sampling of search terms, bibliographic citations, and notes to show research efforts. Final thesis statement. Compose Identify main points and supporting material Develop a working draft of the outline of the speech body Prepare introduction and conclusion Develop a polished draft of the speech outline Prepare presentation aids   Preparation outline drafts. Notes or outline drafts of speech introduction and conclusion. Notes on possible presentation aids. Rehearse Prepare necessary speech notes Give the speech aloud Practice with presentation aids Work on vocal and nonverbal delivery Obtain feedback from another person Drafts of speaker notes or delivery outline. Date/time record of rehearsal efforts. Written summary or notes from another person on rehearsal feedback.  Revise   Develop a final speech outline as indicated by practice feedback   Final speech outline.   What advice or lesson plans do you use for helping your students prepare for oral presentations? Let us know in the comments below! For more information on this and other communication topics, please see Choices and Connections, Third Edition, by Joseph Ortiz and Steven McCornack, newly available at macmillanlearning.com. ... View more

About three years ago, my former institution was considering a book adoption of a standardized introductory human communication textbook. This practice is fairly standard with textbook publishers across the country—we vote, we adopt and our college students are required to use the book. Our voting cluster was comprised of all full-time Communications Faculty.   My institution, Palm Beach State College, had just retired a black male president and we were now getting acquainted with our first female college president. We were progressive, I thought. Our faculty was smart, innovative, resourceful and forward-thinking. They were the best colleagues, some I still call friends.   However, when reviewing this textbook, I started noticing these small slights. Out of our top three selections, Macmillan’s Choices & Connections stood out above the rest...for all the wrong reasons. For example, the chapter “Self & Perception” included a brilliant photo of Serena Williams, seemingly taken after she won a match. By itself, the image was grand, powerful and authentic—she was shining as she does best, on the court, a successful professional athlete.   But in relation to the other images in this chapter on perception, she appeared angry. Most of the other images in the chapter featured non-black people smiling, happy, and glamorous. The chapter’s copy spoke about Serena’s condescending taunts to her opponents and her childhood in Compton, “the area of Los Angeles made famous by rappers for its poverty and violence.” Thus, Serena stood out, in a full page spread on critical self-reflection, looking like an “angry black woman... from the ‘hood.” I’m sure that wasn’t the intent. But perception matters. I know that Serena Williams is Compton, but she’s also Palm Beach Gardens, fashion, travel and philanthropy.   And this is where my colleagues and I disagreed. It’s not just the content of the materials for me. As a former journalist, I know that words and images matter. Images are especially important for the black community. We know that the media can be our friend and/or enemy. We also now know that if we can see something, we can believe in its possibilities. For this reason, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates stands out.   For almost 20 years, I’ve been teaching at colleges and universities throughout Florida. Just last year, I moved north to Atlanta, GA, and started working as a Visiting Professor at Georgia State University. Often times, I go unnoticed. I’m the quiet one, bespectacled, always in the back of a faculty meeting, convocation or graduation. I’ve only somewhat enjoyed the administrative highs and lows, but I have always loved the students. They bring something so unique to the classroom that makes the early years, late nights on campus, and even long hours grading speeches worthwhile. For me, it has always been about bringing 100% of my best self to my classroom. My students deserve this. And they have actually paid for this academic experience.   It was five years ago that I actually started noticing things in the media that made me uncomfortable. As a journalism educator then, these small slights to black women made me uncomfortable. Such as, in late 2014, when The New York Times said the beloved Viola Davis, a remarkably talented Academy, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress who shines eloquently against Denzel Washington, was “less classically beautiful.” It hurt. She looks like my girlfriends and female relatives. That is, she is brown-skinned.   It wasn’t just about black women. I recall that in 2016, Asher Nash, an adorable baby boy with Downs Syndrome, was denied an opportunity to model children’s clothing for OshKosh B’Gosh because, it was alluded, of his disability. Also in 2016, April Reign began her social campaign for #OscarsSoWhite. The campaign focused on more representation and recognition in film for black actors. Today, similar efforts include all people of color.   Back then, I was also a Palm Beach County resident, and two of our most famous sisters, Venus and more so, Serena, were often picked apart and critiqued in the media on things like appearance, body image, and physicality. So, when I saw that photo, I had had enough. I just couldn’t sit idly by being comfortable. Because these were people that could have easily been my students or my future students. As an instructor, my job is to teach and reach as many students as I can—so we can’t afford to lose one. These students often come from a range of backgrounds—age, race, gender (and gender identity), and religion—as like the real world around us. As faculty, we (hopefully) leave our biases and prejudices behind. Our goal is to educate and prepare them for the future.   As a woman of color, the Serena image was the same, hurtful. I am a black woman, tenured Professor and mother of five brown-skinned children. If that’s how they see her, how do they see me? My black- and brown students? My kids?   By the time Macmillan’s sales rep Allen Cooper made it to my office, I was already vehemently advocating against Choices & Connections, for this reason and others. I also learned that no one had ever asked for feedback from a diverse group of educators about diversity and inclusivity in the making of the book. And, one bundled copy of The South Side wasn’t going to win me over.   As Allen, a young white man, sat across from me, a seasoned communications professor, I had one question in mind: “Do the people making decisions look like me, or do they look like you?” Because, in my classrooms, many of our South Florida students look more like me, various shades of black and brown faces. Palm Beach State is recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. That only means, the institution has reached a 25% Hispanic student population.   Allen did his best in trying to understand, to reach out, and offer consultation with others at Macmillan. In the process, he wanted to learn too. Two years later, now an editor based in NYC, Allen reached out to me with a new idea, a concept for an editorial board of diverse faculty from around the county to review the previously mentioned college textbook.   From there, we took our weekly conversations and turned them into a learning experience. Today, about 10 unique and diverse faculty members from around the country consult and review college textbooks with Macmillan Learning staff. This editorial board for Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy, or the DICR board, crafted a mission statement: “To advance and evolve our understanding of diversity, inclusiveness, and culturally-responsive pedagogy and to promote their fundamental, not ancillary, place in the development of learning materials.”   Our recorded conversations on this experience reflects a first-of-its-kind undertaking in the publishing industry where we converse on diversity, inclusiveness and culturally responsive pedagogy. We know that change can happen slowly, but for all of us involved, the Choices & Connections review has resulted in one textbook that is richer, more accurate and inclusive. That’s a win-win for all of us. And yes, we did replace the photo of Serena, with a photo that better emphasized her beauty and her strength.     It’s important to know that our work is just beginning. This blog, my “Three Ps in a Pod” podcast, the Macmillan Learning video on diversity and inclusion, the DICR board and its review work, and this website are all a part of our efforts to educate and inspire action in colleges & universities for all of the students we serve. Join us on this journey.   S. Lizabeth Martin is a visiting professor of Communications at Georgia State University, Atlanta, and a member of Macmillan Learning's Editorial Board for Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy. For more information about , the DICR Board, or Choices & Connections, check out the Choices & Connections microsite here, or check out Lizabeth's video on the home page of this Community. ... View more

"To take from an artist is to take greatness from this world." So says Matthew Cuban in the following video from a group of Los Angeles street poets about copyright and its importance to creativity and innovation in America. We are thrilled to partner with Macmillan Learning to create this inspiring project, which will debut on the LaunchPad for Media Essentials, Fifth Edition, this fall. We hope its message will resonate with faculty and students alike as they create, research, cite, and consume content across the digital world. A bit of background about this project: My name is Ruth Vitale and I run CreativeFuture, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles. I started this advocacy organization almost seven years ago because I have worked with creative people my entire professional life (first-time filmmakers, musicians, artists, writers, etc.) and know that what they do takes enormous effort, talent, and love. As I watched the digital landscape change around us, I could foresee a world in the very near future when they would be unable to make a living. Why, you might ask? It all comes down to the dawn of the internet and the explosion of global piracy that has directly impacted our creative communities’ ability to earn a living. Here are two things I know for certain: first, most people think that piracy is a victimless crime or, at the very least, a crime only against very wealthy individuals or corporations. And, the second thing I know just as certainly: the people who are truly hurt by piracy are the millions of Americans who work in the creative industries who are not rich and rely upon their paychecks to afford the basics – things like feeding their families and paying rent. In 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) mandated that colleges take meaningful action to curb piracy over their campus networks. One of the requirements of the Bill is an annual disclosure to students describing copyright law and how violating it goes against federal law and campus policies. Every school must provide all incoming students with these materials. Unfortunately, this important message tends to get wrapped up in a lot of legal language that does little but scare or repel students and faculty, while failing to convey why anyone should care about copyright other than being caught. That’s where CreativeFuture’s collaboration with Macmillan comes in. We partnered to ensure that this message will not be a boring legal letter, but instead a positive message that can inspire students to do better in their daily content searches online. The LaunchPad for Media Essentials will now give teachers the ability to easily distribute this video to all of their students. And, hopefully, that will spark the type of conversation that changes attitudes and opinions in the next generation of creators and consumers.   If we can only cut through the legalese, we can impart to students that copyright is a creative right afforded to all Americans, a legal structure that helps creative people to be compensated for their work. Without it, there would be no marketplace for creativity – just creative people and their hobbies. As I said, copyright infringement doesn’t just hurt big companies and their profits, it prevents creative individuals from making a living. And, while that one stream or download may feel like a victimless crime, there are billions of people around the globe thinking and doing the same thing. Piracy isn’t victimless. In fact, the piracy ecosystem threatens the livelihoods of people everywhere.   With this new video, Macmillan and CreativeFuture have set out to create a resource that explains to students, in a compelling and engaging fashion, why copyright matters to them personally and why it’s worth protecting. Video Link : 2476 The street poets who appear in this video are Angelena Aguilera, Aman Batra, Matthew Cuban, Kito Fortune, Tonya Ingram, and Alyesha Wise. They represent the types of individuals that the copyright system is designed to protect. These Los Angeles-based performers are passionate, hardworking creators doing what they love. As you will hear in the video, they sell “CDs and chapbooks out of the trunks of their cars” – and a $10 purchase of one of their works can mean the difference between “feast and famine.” This video is a window into their lives, showing us how they make a living. For artists like these, even a small act of copyright infringement can affect their ability to pay even basic expenses, let alone pursue their craft as a viable profession. And yet, despite the basic obligation of federal law to educate students about copyright infringement, piracy on college campuses is more the norm than the exception. For most students, learning about something as nuanced as copyright is about the last thing on their list of priorities when going to college. What’s more, many have little disposable income, making piracy an appealing alternative. Add to that a culture in which creative content online has been devalued by the prevalence of free, and it is no wonder that copyright infringement is an everyday occurrence. With the rise of online streaming, digital theft has become easier and more prevalent. For many young people born and raised in this digital world, such consumption is an expectation, not a violation.   We can hardly blame students for this mindset, but we hope our video can convince them that it has serious ramifications. Copyright safeguards the original works of writers, musicians, filmmakers, software and gaming developers, and other innovators whose collective contributions keep our country strong and competitive and our culture fascinating and diverse.   This is what led the U.S. Supreme Court to single out copyright as “an engine of free expression.” What could be more important than protecting the vibrant creative industries that not only entertain, inspire, and provoke us, but that export our democratic ideals around the world and often reflect the best of America? Indeed, copyright is more than the fuel of a mighty cultural engine – it is the foundation of one of our economy’s most essential pillars. The core copyright industries (film, television, music, radio, books, photography, newspapers, and software in all formats) collectively added an estimated $1.3 trillion to the U.S. GDP in 2017 – or 6.85% of its total value.   Not surprisingly, revenues of that magnitude generate a massive number of jobs – jobs that many students may one day have. Core copyright industries employed over 5.7 million people in 2017, while total copyright industries employed nearly 11.6 million workers. Piracy causes massive harm to these individuals and companies. In some cases, such as the music industry during the era of Napster, it can become an existential threat. So, it has become more important than ever to educate students about the importance of copyright and the harms that occur when people minimize it. By putting a fresh and real spin on this urgent yet frequently sobering topic, we hope that our video will, if even just for a moment, snap students out of the overwhelming clamor of college life and allow them to spend a moment thinking about how infringement affects the lives of real people. Users of the Launchpad for Media Essentials will be able to access this video and an accompany activity when the LaunchPad goes live in November. In the meantime, please watch and share the video as seen above in this post. We hope that you, an invaluable community of educators, will use our video in your classroom, regardless of how directly copyright seems to impact your coursework. If you teach a creative subject, or a subject that might lead someone toward a creative career, this video and the accompanying materials are essential. But, even in a field that seems unrelated, it is always important to remind our next generation of professionals, creative or otherwise, that copyright law has allowed American creativity to be a beacon of hope around the world.   All of us should be setting an example for the next generation of how to use the internet responsibly. We are pleased to offer this one small yet impactful opportunity to do so. We only ask that, at a minimum, you devote a moment or two of your valuable class time to draw attention to this compelling video resource. That, at the very least, “you think,” as the poets implore, “before stealing from [their] plate.”   Ruth Vitale is the CEO of CreativeFuture, a nonprofit coalition of over 550 companies and organizations and more than 240,000 individuals devoted to promoting the value of creativity in the digital age. She has held top posts at Paramount Classics, Fine Line Features, and New Line Cinema.   ... View more