Media news digest archive for February 2005

Net publishers need protection (February 23)
The proliferation of website filtering and shutdowns across the world has prompted the Reporters sans Frontiers organisation to tell a world summit on the information society that online reporters and publishers should enjoy stronger protections. The organisation’s five recommendations on this issue are:
1. Any law about the flow of information online must be anchored in freedom of expression as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
2. Internet users alone must decide what material they can and wish to access online. Automatic filtering of online content, by governments or private firms, is unacceptable. Filters must only be installed by Internet users themselves and only on their personal connection. Any policy of higher-level (national or even local) filtering conflicts with the principle of the free flow of information.
3. A decision to shut down a website, even an illegal one, must not in any circumstances be taken by the site's host or any other technical provider of Internet services. Only a judge can ban an online publication. A technical service provider cannot therefore be held criminally or civilly responsible for any illegal material posted on a hosted website unless the service provider refuses to obey a ruling by an impartial and independent court.
4. A government's civil or criminal powers are limited to content hosted on its territory or specifically aimed at the country's Internet users.
5. The editors of online publications, including bloggers and those running personal sites, must have the same protection and be shown the same consideration as professional journalists since, like them, they exercise a basic freedom, that of freedom of expression. See this link.

Goodbye Gonzo (February 22)
Writer Hunter S Thompson, the man who was perhaps wrongly credited with developing a style of journalism where the author is a key player in the story, has passed away, at the age of 67. Famous for his on-the-edge activities and reporting (which sometimes involved sending wild advice to would-be and incumbent US presidents) plus his love of firearms, liquor and recreational drugs, he somewhat ironically died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Guardian in the UK has the pick of the tributes to Thompson at this link, while you can read reports on the story from his local newspaper, the Aspen Times.

Winning ways on the Web (February 20)
The Pandia Search Central, an online guide to Internet searching, has presented the Pandia Awards for 2004. These awards are given to sites that provide exceptional tools for Internet searching, and to sites that give useful information on Internet searching and search engine optimization. The winners for 2004 were:
* The best all round search engine: Google
* The best metasearch site: ixquick
* Best site on searching: Search Engine Watch
* Best search engine discussion forum: Webmaster World
* Best publication on searching: Web Search Garage by Tara Calishain
* Best publication on search engine marketing: Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars by Planet Ocean
* Best search engine weblog: Resourceshelf
* Best weblog on search engine marketing: Search Engine Journal
* Best desktop search tool: Copernic
See www.pandia.com/post/025.html for more info.

New toys & micropay will impact on media (February 15)
The Gartner consulting and research group has made some predictions which, if accurate, will have a significant effect on the development of multimedia services over coming years. It says the difference between assorted electronic info delivery devices will continue to narrow, while systems for delivering micropayments will expand. Here is an abbreviated version.
Prediction 1: Microcommerce opportunities for new products and services less than $5 will generate $30 billion in revenue per year by 2010.
The major trends driving microcommerce are:
» Widespread access to physical and social network infrastructures, providing a marketplace for buyers and sellers to locate each other.
» Low-cost models for completing transactions (such as micropayment infrastructures and low-cost delivery).
» Automatic location identification for targeted content and services.
Examples: Apple Computer's iTunes retail (pictured); Sales of mobile ring tones & screen savers; Success of Google's AdSense program.
Prediction 2: By 2008, the technological differences between PCs, mobile devices, e-books, TVs and cellular phones will be eradicated.
The confluence of:
» Electronic displays rivaling the readability attributes of paper
» Secure broadband wireless available in virtually every device at extremely low prices
» Extraordinarily inexpensive mass storage
» Always-connected, low-power-consumption electronics
will result in the core technologies between TVs, radios, PCs and mobile devices by 2008 being essentially identical.
See this link for the full report.

Media reform low priority for PM (February 15)
Reformation of the media ownership rules is a low priority for Prime Minister John Howard, according to a recent interview with The Bulletin magazine. He said, “I think the existing position has been beached by technological change. But it's not something that I'm going to dissipate a lot of political capital on. People should understand that. If we end up with everyone coming in for a chop and the thing being impossible to resolve, we'll just leave it as it is.” See this link for a wide-ranging talk on policy.

General Chat on Iraq TV (February 14)
A story in the India Times reveals one of the propaganda tools used by the American military is a weekly TV chat show, featuring senior soldiers, where viewers are encouraged to call with questions and concerns. See this link.

Should we charge for newspaper archives? (February 10)
From the Online Publishers Association (USA): One of the big takeaways from the recent Blogging, Journalism & Credibility conference at Harvard was that newspaper sites might well be ready to open up their archives for free – the better to join the online conversation and keep blog links fresh. Dan Gillmor went even further on his weblog, with a post titled Newspapers: Open Your Archives, in which he argues that newspaper sites could make up the money lost to pay archives with paid search ad revenues.
Not so fast, said New York Times Digital CEO Martin Nisenholtz, telling OJR that the Times derives substantial income from database companies such as LexisNexis and doesn't want to dilute the value of archives. "We're not about to give away something that the marketplace is paying a huge premium for already, unless you could get a lot more than that premium in some other way, which you can't, believe me, there's no way," he said. Plus, librarian Luke Rosenberger noted that libraries already serve up newspaper and periodical archives for free -- as long as you have a library card.

Fancy a mobile game? (February 8)
Interactive mobile gaming could be the next big thing according to the Mobile Media Company, which has just begun a trial of its services with a Taiwan phone which has 1.5 million subscribers. See this link from Yahoo.

Recording tech faces the music (February 6)
On March 29, in a case labeled MGM vs Grokster, the USA Supreme Court will hear the beginnings of a battle which will decide whether manufacturers could be held responsible for how recording devices (such as iPods, video and DVD recorders) are used. A group of entertainment companies has decided to battle both large scale recording (even for private use) and file sharing. A similar action over the use of video recorders was defeated 20 years ago. See the Electronic Frontier Foundation website, which has a section devoted to the case – click here.

Crikey - it's sold! (February 2)
Independent online newsapaper Crikey has been sold to Private Media Partners. Click here for the ABC story and here to see Crikey. Meanwhile the domain name crikey.com is up for sale, with the owners asking US$45,000.

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