Media news digest archive for January 2005

Mobile snapperazzi (January 30)
The Sydney Morning Herald has published a story speculating on the implications of mobile phones with cameras and their potential to invade people's privacy. It says, "Celebrity spotting, a favourite pastime of many, is being vaulted to new levels of possibility. Ordinary folk, already labelled in the US and Britain as 'snapperazzi', with mobiles poised and a gossipy nose for news, are making good pocket money selling their shots of celebs to supermarket weeklies." Click here for the full story. If that weren't enough to make the 'real' paparazzi consider a career change, actress Nicole Kidman recently won a restraining order against two photographers, preventing them from approaching her house. The case is due for a court hearing on February 11. Click here for the story.

A media-friendly crisis (January 26)
From the Reuters Foundation Alertnet: “The timing, scale and location of the tsunami crisis made this emergency of possibly unique media appeal. It filled the Christmas news void and caught the public and news executives at their most charitable.” Does this sound a little callous? Perhaps, but the piece provides an interesting examination of how the location and characteristics of a crisis can influence the coverage. See this link.

The kid or the mutt? (January 26)
Just to prove that colorful 'documentary' making is alive and well across the globe, we bring you this transcript from an Iranian TV report (Al-Alam TV on December 26, 2004) on women in the West. Voice over: “The young woman of the West is a consumer of fashion and drugs and is a profitable target for those who control the markets and the companies. A close-knit family, which gives its daughters sufficient love and affection, is the exception in a society that considers the cost of having a child compared with having a dog or any other pet. If the cost of the pet tips the balance, they will settle for it, instead of having a child.” Source: Middle East Media Research Institute.

New York Times at the crossroads (January 25)
The old curse of “may you live interesting times” has an all too familiar ring to it for the owners of the New York Times which is battling a combination of a difficult ad market, struggle for readership and the ongoing dilemma of whether of not to charge for internet content. Business Week in the USA has published a long piece on the situation, while CNN discusses the debate over charging for web content. It points out in this article that the Wall Street Journal now has over 700,000 paying subscribers.

Media invasion (January 25)
The St Joseph News-Press in the USA is running an interesting item on the effect of a media invasion on small communities. While it doesn’t reach any conclusions, it does explore the experiences and opinions of those who’ve been affected by the combination of trauma and media coverage. Or are they one and the same thing? See this link.

Oz media shuffle starts early (January 13)
Media companies are positioning themselves early for the federal government’s expected loosening of media ownership laws, some time after it gains control of the senate in the middle of this year. The Australian newspaper reports that Fairfax – which owns the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Review – is investigating re-entering the television market by purchasing the Ten network from Canwest. See this link.

Something old bought something new (January 11)
From the Online Publsihers Association: “In 1996, when Microsoft launched pioneering e-zine Slate (pictured), the talk was that Internet-based media would displace traditional outlets such as newspapers. How times have changed, as Slate was recently bought by the Washington Post Company for about $15 million to $20 million. Slate editor Jacob Weisberg wrote that readers would notice very little change, and the zine's promotion on the MSN portal would continue apace. Some employees were laid off, and the staff will be moving to New York and Washington, DC. While the sale was a sign of maturity for an online startup that had hit break-even, the Seattle Times noted that Microsoft itself probably only broke even on Slate over the years. 'Slate was not a financial home run,' the Times editorial contended. 'It did not displace old media. Old media is taking it over... The world has changed, but not as much as we thought.'” Click here for the Seattle Times piece.

Journalist or diplomat? (January 11)
Hindustan Times columnist Kanwar Sandhu suggests the role of media in the current thawing of relations between India and Pakistan is far greater than careful reporting. He offers a ten-point plan for journalists following the issue, while strongly suggesting they have an important diplomatic role to play. See this link.

Get blogged (January 11)
From the Online Publishers Association: "Tired of reading about blogs? You better get used to it. Pew Internet found that as of last November, 27 percent of Internet users read blogs, which is up 58 per cent from the 17 per cent of Net users who said they read blogs 9 months before. Also, 7 per cent of Net users – or 8 million people – have created their own blog, a percentage that's more than doubled since the spring of 2002." Click here for the Pew Report.

Publisher sued for leaks (January 11)
Reuters reports Apple is suing a popular website that publishes rumours about new products for distributing trade secrets. The computer company claims the publisher incited people to break confidentiality agreements. Could this have implications for any product-driven outlet that likes to publish new-model rumours? Click here for the story.

Cross-promo opportunities wasted (January 11)
A study by Ball State University in the USA says, “A survey of 372 newspaper editors found that about 30 percent of newspapers are involved in news-gathering relationships with television stations. While a small group of newspapers appears to be committed to promoting their stories on their partner's broadcasts, the study concluded that most newspapers are not taking advantage of the cross-promotion opportunities and give little attention to promoting the content of their television partners.” Click here for details.

Cash for comment in Washington (January 11)
In a story that is eerily reminiscent of the cash for comment scandal that hit prominent Sydney radio commentators over a year ago, USA Today reports a prominent journalist and commentator – Armstrong Williams – has accepted $240,000 from the federal education department to promote a national scheme for disadvantaged children. The subsequent storm has cost Williams dearly, with newspapers cancelling his syndicated column and questions being raised over his broadcast activities. Naturally the ethics of the Bush administration's handling of media has also been called into question. See this link.

Gates sees future in connectivity (January 7)
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates used his keynote address at a recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to promote increased connectivity between devices as the way of the future for digital media. He sees increased transfer of material from internet to television to phones to DVD players and even to cars as a key growth area. Click here to see the Microsoft feature on the address.

Sneak peek at 2005 media year (January 7)
(Via Benton.org) Forbes editors and writers take a look ahead in the media business. 1) Peter Newcomb On Media: The end of "reality TV" is in sight; illegal downloading is an overblown problem; Disney will buy Pixar. 2) Brett Pulley On Radio: The industry is both healthier than people think, but underestimating the potential impact of satellite radio. 3) Peter Kafka On The Music Industry: The music business may have an answer to its digital woes: subscription services. Consumers pay a monthly fee to rent all the digital music they desire, but can still buy tracks if they wish. 4) David Ewalt On Telecommunications: Expect to see continued consolidation and more heated competition in the telecommunications industry. Click here for the media story; And here for the telecoms story

Power lines can transmit fast internet (January 7)
(Reuters, via Benton) In a research paper released Wednesday, engineers at Penn State University said they had found a way for power lines to transmit data to homes at rates far faster than high-speed Internet connections from cable and telephone companies. Pouyan Amirshahi and Mohsen Kavehrad estimate that their system could deliver data at close to one gigabit per second over medium-voltage electrical lines in ideal conditions, with speeds of hundreds of megabits per second available to home users. Their system would uses repeaters placed every one kilometer, (0.62 miles) and requires power lines to have been modified to reduce interference with the data signals. The engineers said their estimates were based on computer models, and that the data speeds available in a real-world version would depend on how many repeaters a power company used. The Penn State study was funded with a grant from AT&T, which has taken part in prior trials of power-line broadband. [SOURCE: Reuters] Click here for the story

Benton update (January 6)
We've just completed a major update of our archive of Benton communication issues stories. Here are some recent highlights.

THE 'DADDY' OF TV TASTELESSNESS: "Reality TV" does not capture reality. Instead it creates fantasies (whether beautiful or grotesque) designed to appeal to dreamers, cynics and voyeurs. And, because those traits run though most people's personalities, millions tune in to watch all sorts of mortifying, salacious and occasionally heartwarming programs. A new show is bubbling up from the bottom of the barrel. In Who's Your Daddy?, a woman who was adopted as an infant wins $100,000 if she can determine which of eight men is her biological father. But if she guesses wrong, the impostor who fools her gets the cash. The producers of Who's Your Daddy? contend critics should hold their fire until they've seen the show, which they describe as a "fun and healthy way" for adopted people and their birth fathers to get to know each other. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute] Click here for the story (requires registration). Ed's note: The first episode of the show has been rated as an audience 'flop' (coming fourth in the timeslot, with 6.3 million viewers), according to numerous sources, including the Cincinatti Post – click here for the story.

THE STATE OF BLOGGING: By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. Two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November established new contours for the blogosphere and its popularity: 1) 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet say they have created a blog or web-based diary. That represents more than 8 million people. 2) 27% of Internet users (32 million Americans) say they read blogs, a 58% jump from February 2004. 3) 5% of Internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online. 4) The interactive features of many blogs are also catching on: 12% of Internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs. 5) At the same time, for all the excitement about blogs and the media coverage of them, blogs have not yet become recognized by a majority of Internet users. Only 38% of all Internet users know what a blog is. The rest are not sure what the term "blog" means. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project] Click here

GOOGLE AND GOD'S MIND: [Commentary] Google is digitizing library holdings to create the electronic equivalent of "the mind of God." Could this digital system be the death of libraries? Don't count on it. There's a big difference between "information" and "knowledge" and you can't deliver the latter with short passages of books. The books in great libraries are much more than the sum of their parts. They are designed to be read sequentially and cumulatively, so that the reader gains knowledge in the reading. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Gorman is president-elect of the American Library Association] Click here for the story (requires registration)

On the other hand... THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY: [Commentary] Last week, Google announced an ambitious new plan to start converting millions of books into digital files in partnership with several major libraries, including the New York Public Library and the libraries at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. This is a logical step for Google, which says its mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." The idea of making books available online is not new, but this plan represents an enormous shift in scale, so enormous that if it is carried out successfully, it may redefine the nature of the Internet and the university. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: NYT Editorial Staff] Click here for the story (requires registration)

Click here to see more Benton stories.

Blog advertising bursts into big time (January 5)
The trend towards advertisers making use of specialised weblogs has taken another step, with Burst Media in the USA announcing it can access 2000-plus specialist webs and making efforts to add to its portfolio. See this link.

Jury lottery costs a bomb (January 5)
A damning editorial about a public official has landed USA suburban newspaper the Chanhassen Villager in financial hot water, after the jury awarded a defamation penalty of $625,000. According to the story, “Media attorney Paul Hannah, who represented the Villager at the trial, said the jury award was much higher than other recent comparable cases and that it showed the danger of juries picking numbers out of the air." Click here for the story from the First Amendment Center.

Brit media more robust than US? (January 5)
“At a pair of British daily newspapers -- the Independent and the Guardian – plus the Observer on Sunday, journalists are far more willing than their US counterparts to repeatedly take on powerful interests,” writes Normon Solomon at the Common Dreams News Centre. See this link.

Pay TV the winner for 2005? (January 3)
The Sydney Morning Herald speculates that pay TV is likely to be the winner when it comes to advertising growth in 2005 that's expected to be less expansive than last year. Interactive features may assist in adding 7 per cent to the 2004 spend, while other mediums - including internet - might hover closer to 4. That aside, it promises to be an interesting year with new ownership rules expected. Plus May will see the start of a titanic court case between Stokes, Packer, Murdoch and many others over football broadcast rights. Click here for the story.

Big plans from China (January 3)
Beijing Media Corp, which is an arm of the first Chinese media company to list on the stock exchange (1000.HK), has announced the firm has aggressive expansion plans for the coming year – according to Yahoo Finance. In addition to the existing newspapers, it hopes to add a TV production arm and several magazines. See this story.

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