Media news digest archive for September 2005

National internet advertising at record levels (Sept 29)
Internet is now becoming an advertising medium too strong to ignore for businesses according to new advertising expenditure figures released by market research group, Roy Morgan.
The report on business activity and internet usage for the first six months of this year shows that growth in online marketing in Australia was 61.3 per cent on the last half of 2004, with $A263 million forked out by advertisers. These figures are set against a nine per cent rise in total national advertising expenditure.
Ninemsn Chief Executive Martin Hoffman, who commissioned the report, believes the figures are due to the large take-up rate of broadband internet services which are now around 60 per cent of all online service, from a rate of about ten per cent two years ago. Hoffman also saw this as in line with trends in other countries after Australia initially lagged behind.
The figures come amid the changing behaviour of Australians to their media usage. An earlier report by Morgan this year revealed that internet accounts for 14 per cent of total media consumption in Australia, with an average of seven hours and seven minutes a week spent on the internet in 2004.
In the 18-29 age group, 40 per cent of media take up is served by the net, suggesting that pay per click marketing is targeting a demographic increasingly accepting of online sales techniques. Morgan's report says pay per click marketing is expected to rise 85 per cent this year and at 28 per cent to 2010.
Media analyst Frost & Sullivan, was quoted in The Age newspaper as foreseeing continued innovation ahead, with the next area of interest being targeted search which is pitched at the habits of specific users.
Channel Nine program Business Sunday backs up this theme, saying internet advertising is growing at six times the rate than for other mediums -- admittedly off a low base figure.
By Barry Kennedy
Business Sunday video report

Media reform to be trimmed back (Sept 28)
The Australian newspaper today reports that the federal government's plans for media law reform may be trimmed back to the basics.
While the full package was to include legislation that encouraged existing free-to-air TV stations to offer multi-channelling and datacasting, industry figures have been critical of the idea. They claim it will damage investment in pay TV.
It now seems likely the government will stick to easing current cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions.
Australian home; Story

Digital TV to be delayed (September 28)
Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan has announced a review of the national switch from analogue to digital TV signals, scheduled to happen from 2008 in metro markets and 2011 in rural areas.
“Given the current level of digital take-up, an analogue switch-off date of 2008 in metropolitan areas seems unachievable. We need a Digital Action Plan to drive digital take-up and a plan for the transition to the point where Australia will be ready to end the expensive simulcast period,” Senator Coonan said.
Media release
Review documents

Benton update (September 27)
We've just carried out a major update to our Benton news thread. One of the 50-plus stories that have been added says: China said Sunday that it was imposing new regulations to control content on its news websites and that it would allow the posting of only "healthy and civilized" news. The new rules take effect immediately and will "standardize the management of news and information" in the country. Sites should post news only on current events and politics, according to the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and China's cabinet, the State Council.
See this link

Stokes plays for high stakes over C7 (September 26)
Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes will appear in a Sydney Federal Court today as the first witness in the civil case the Seven Network has brought against a who's who of Australian media companies over the collapse of its fledgling C7 pay television network in 2002.
Mr Stokes is expected to spend up to five weeks defending allegations he and his network have gathered over three years against 22 respondents including News Limited, Austar, Telstra, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, Optus and football administrations, the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League.
The crux of Channel Seven's case is that widespread collusion was carried out against it in 1999 and 2000 which left C7 without broadcasting rights for either of the main Australian winter football codes, nor access to the Foxtel cable network, run by Foxtel co-owner Telstra and that these events led to the collapse of the station.
Damages sought by Seven could top $1 billion with the case likely to define the pay television market in Australia and take a huge dent out of the coffers of any potential loser.  Speaking on ABC TV's Inside Business, analyst Peter Cox illustrated the risks for Seven, "The court case could cost hundreds of millions in the long term. It means that if channel Seven was to lose this case and all the costs were to go against Seven, it would wipe out the profitability of Channel Seven for anywhere from probably five years to ten years."
Seven's bitter battle has only just begun with many months of legal action and potential appeals to unfold. Stokes will be the first of many high profile witnesses that will include former Telstra Chief Executive Ziggy Switzokski, former head of Foxtel and now Ten boss Nick Falloon, AFL head administrator Andrew Demetriou and David Gallop of the NRL.
Stokes, who has a 43 per cent stake in Channel 7, will be answering sustained cross examination from a multitude of opposing lawyers in Federal Court 21, which has been refitted to accommodate 23 legal teams, ironically leaving no room in the court for media covering the case.
By Barry Kennedy

Look Ma, I'm on TV! (September 23)
From our Unintended Twists from Technology Department: Passengers on yesterday's JetBlue flight 292 over Los Angeles had the bizarre experience of watching themselves on TV as the airliner they were travelling in dealt with a potentially fatal emergency.
The aircraft had a stuck landing gear and was forced to circle around for a few hours to burn off fuel, before attempting a risky landing. Local TV networks of course homed in on the drama, covering it live -- something the passengers got to watch from the comfort of their seats.
We'd like to know if they complained when the captain switched off the TV monitors just before landing, which is a safety requirement but would have denied those on board by far the most spectacular footage…
CNN home; Story

Authors sue Google (September 22)
Google's ambitious plan to scan whole libraries and make them available online has hit a legal challenge from the Authors Guild in the USA. The organization has launched legal action claiming the search engine is breaching copyright.
According to the Guild, “The suit alleges that the $90 billion search engine and advertising juggernaut is engaging in massive copyright infringement at the expense of the rights of individual writers.
“Through its Library program, Google is reproducing works still under the protection of copyright as well as public domain works from the collection of the University of Michigan's library.
“'This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law,' said Authors Guild president Nick Taylor. 'It's not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied.'”
Google's response from its weblog, says, “Let's be clear: Google doesn't show even a single page to users who find copyrighted books through this program (unless the copyright holder gives us permission to show more). At most we show only a brief snippet of text where their search term appears, along with basic bibliographic information and several links to online booksellers and libraries.
“Just as Google helps you find sites you might not have found any other way by indexing the full text of web pages, Google Print, like an electronic card catalog, indexes book content to help users find, and perhaps buy, books. This ability to introduce millions of users to millions of titles can only expand the market for authors' books, which is precisely what copyright law is intended to foster.”
For the time being, it looks like being lawyers at ten paces…
Authors Guild
Google weblog

EU keeps phone & email data (September 22)
The European Union has decided it will co-ordinate the storage of telephone and email data as an anti-crime tool. Phone data will be kept for a year, and email for six months, while the organization claims it is sensitive to the privacy issues involved.
It statement says, in part, “As the investigations following the tragic events of Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005 clearly demonstrated, communications traffic data are essential for law enforcement agencies when investigating serious crime and terrorism because such data can disclose associations between persons and events by time and location.
“The retention of communications traffic data has therefore been identified by a number of different Council meetings as one of the most important instruments for preventing and combating (organised) crime and terrorism…”
EU release

Cadetships now open (September 21)
Cadet and traineeships at a number of high-profile media outlets are open. The organizations and their closing dates are: SBS, Sept 23; Clemenger, Oct 3; ABC, Oct 7; Fairfax, Feb 6, 2006. See our important dates page for links.

Merger mania for online big-guns (September 20)
If it ain't nailed down, it might just be sold tomorrow. That's the paranoid feeling gripping large and small publishers these days, as merger mania takes hold, bringing back the turn-of-the-millennium fever. News Corp kept up its acquisitive pace, buying game content network IGN for $650 million. AOL was in talks to make a strategic deal with MSN, while corporate parent Time Warner was announcing an internal merger of CNNMoney, Fortune, and Business 2.0's business-oriented sites. And the rumor mill was in overdrive, with wags predicting a Comcast/Viacom joint venture and Google buying out Reuters. But News Corp was one of the few walking the talk, buying out IGN when they found out that Viacom was making a bid, according to the New York Times. The purchase gives Fox Interactive Media 70 million uniques per month, more than eBay and Google, the Times said.
Time Warner was particularly busy on the interactive front. First, the combining of its business sites would push unique views to 9.2 million, jumping over the Dow Jones/MarketWatch combo at 8.5 million. The unspoken subtext was that Time is going for ad dollars over gated content online. And the AOL talks with MSN -- possibly for an equal stake in the AOL division, the New York Post said -- would bolster the two portals' positions vs. Yahoo and Google. Google, in particular, could take the biggest hit, according to TheStreet.com, which pointed out that AOL is Google's biggest customer, accounting for 11per cent of revenues in the first half of '05. Plus, combining AOL and Microsoft's instant messaging customers would give it a commanding lead over Yahoo.
By Online Publishers Association

Alliance sees defamation hope (September 20)
From the Media Alliance: Sweeping Changes To WA Defamation Laws -- The Alliance supports new legislation that will enact model provisions agreed to by the State Attorneys-General for adopting nationally uniform defamation laws. The key features of the legislation introduced in to WA state Parliament this week include preventing corporations from suing for defamation and introducing an Offer of Amends procedure to encourage early and voluntary settlement of disputes without litigation.
Protection On The Agenda -- Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls has said that a national, uniform approach is required to address the issue of legal protection for journalists and their right to protect sources. At a meeting initiated by the Alliance, Mr Hulls said he would put the issue on the agenda of the November Standing Committee of Attorneys-General.
Alliance home page

AOL tries podcast search, Google blog search (September 20)
While AOL's future ownership remains in doubt (see item above), that hasn't stopped the online behemoth from beefing up its podcasting lineup and search capabilities. AOL recently announced AOL Podcasting 101, a beginner's guide to podcasting that includes an original AOL podcast on sports and more on the way on music and movies. ClickZ reported that AOL also has added podcast search to WinAmp and will integrate Podscope's "spoken word indexing" in its AOL Search this fall.
Meanwhile, Google unveiled a beta of its new blog search engine, becoming the first major search engine to offer blog search. Danny Sullivan told both the SF Chronicle and Wall Street Journal that this would spell trouble for blog search startups such as Technorati and Feedster, because of Google's huge traffic advantage. "[The startups] can argue today that they are more mature and they can offer more tools," Sullivan told the Chronicle. "This isn't a death knell for the smaller services, but this is a door slamming for them growing more." The Telegraph did an unscientific head-to-head comparison of Google blog search and Technorati, giving a slight victory to Technorati.
By Online Publishers Association

Broadband breaks 2 million (September 20)
From the ACCC: The take up of broadband services has reached nearly 2.2 million, according to the latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Snapshot of Broadband Deployment issued today.
"The report shows that as at the end of June 2005, there were 2,183,300 broadband services connected across Australia", ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said.
"As with the results of the previous quarter, this represents an increase of over 1 million customers, or 108 per cent, over the preceding 12-month period".
Total quarterly growth in broadband was 18.7 per cent for the June 2005 quarter. This is broadly in line with the March 2005 growth (18.8 per cent).
"The take up of ADSL services continues to be significant, with more than 1.5 million customers connected to ADSL services in the June 2005 quarter".
ACCC home

Wired delves into Google’s copyright morass (September 20)
Wired magazine has taken an in-depth look at the copyright complications faced by Google in its ambitious plan to scan complete libraries of printed books.
Negotiations between the search engine, which turned over around US$1.3 billion last quarter are becoming increasingly complicated, sometimes because publishers have poor or even no records of what they published (and therefore might own copyright to) prior to the keeping of electronic records.
Wired home; Story

CNN puts TV news into a situation (September 20)
CNN in the USA is experimenting with combining news-gathering and commentary technologies with its Situation Room program. Host Wolf Blitzer finds himself running conventional news bulletins, mixed with live internet AV chats with bloggers, sessions cruising across assorted online RSS news feeds and referencing to resources such as Google Earth. The format is said to be chaotic, and has its critics, but its defenders are convinced this is the way of the future.
CNN Situation Room

Small Guardian a big hit (September 19)
The United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper is estimated to have enjoyed a perhaps temporary 40 per cent jump in sales last Monday after re-launching in a compact “Berliner” format.
"The change is in response to unambiguous research which shows that readers increasingly find broadsheet newspapers difficult to handle in many everyday situations, including commuting to work,” Editor Alan Rusbridger told a Guardian reporter.
The historically left-leaning paper is the only national printed on Berliner-size presses -- roughly midway between broadsheet and tabloid.
It is also the UK's third paper to ditch its broadsheet format, taking its lead from The Independent and The Times, both of which reversed their declining sales in 2003 after shrinking to tabloid size (or “compact”, as they prefer to be known).
The broadsheet tradition is believed to date from a tax imposed in 1712 on the number of pages in a newspaper.
The Guardian's decision to dump this tradition was hastened by poor sales, which had plummeted to 358,000 -- the lowest since 1978.
As part of the redesign, a three-tone blue and white logo replaced the bold masthead, and typefaces, headlines and layout were changed throughout, CNN Online reported.
Times editor Robert Thomson condemned the new look as "aspiring to be an installation in the Design Museum" and "designed by designers, for designers". But Rusbridger brushed off the comments as “silly sniping”.
“We started developing text typesetting and page makeup with readability at the front of our minds, and the typeface was developed for legibility as well as beauty. In truth it was designed by designers for readers. Any problem with that?" he said.
By Michael Lallo
Press Gazette home; story
CNN home; story
Guardian story

Jail threat for journos (September 16)
More than a dozen prominent Australian journalists, and the companies that employ them, face criminal proceedings for identifying a teenage boy divorcing his parents, The Australian newspaper has reported.
Today Tonight host Naomi Robson, Sunrise presenters Melissa Doyle and David Koch, and newsreaders Natalie Barr and Jennifer Keyte are among those who could be jailed for up to two years for breaching Section 26 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1989.
The Children's Court of Victoria web site states that media can cover Children's Court cases provided the participants are not identified or identifiable. Section 26 of the Children and Young Persons Act makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish any picture or account of proceedings that would lead to the identification of a child or any other person involved in the case, including a witness, or the particular venue of the Children's Court in which the proceeding was heard. It also prohibits the publication, except in special circumstances, of any material which is likely to identify a child as being the subject of a Children's Court order. These restrictions also apply to proceedings in any other court arising out of proceedings in the Children's Court.
The story, written by journalist Chris Tinkler for the Sunday Herald Sun, was picked up by the Seven Network's nightly news, Today Tonight and Sunrise programs.
Victoria's Sunday Herald Sun editor Alan Howe and NSW's Sunday Telegraph editor Jennifer O'Dowd also face charges over identifying the boy, as well as Channel Seven Melbourne and the Herald and Weekly Times.
The Age newspaper reported that none of the defendants attended the hearing on September 13, prompting Magistrate Steven Raleigh to state they should send a letter of apology to the Children's Court.
Mr Raleigh adjourned the matter for a contest mention on October 11, when the parties and the Magistrate will determine whether a case can be resolved by finding common ground.
Channel Seven told The Australian the company would defend the charges, and News Limited declined to comment.
By Michael Lallo
Children & young persons act

Yahoo goes to war (September 14)
Yahoo has hired a full-time war correspondent in its first big move into original online video programming, the New York Times has reported.
Television reporter Kevin Sites will produce a multimedia web site that will report on wars around the world. Called “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone” (hotzone.yahoo.com), it will focus entirely on his travels as a war correspondent, and use nearly every type of internet format.
Lloyd Braun, who oversees Yahoo's media group, said the company is not “building any kind of news organisation”. Rather, it is simply developing signature programming that will complement content from other providers.
But the Los Angeles Times described the project as “the clearest evidence yet that Yahoo feels ready to compete with TV networks for viewers and advertisers”.
The paper also said that to many observers, Yahoo “appears to be the most committed to becoming a next generation media giant”, particularly in light of its recent decision to lease a massive office building in Santa Monica.
Patrick Mahoney, an analyst in Los Angeles who follows digital media for Yankee Group, said, "Yahoo's starting to show their cards in respect to how they're planning on innovating upon the traditional media experience.”
By Michael Lallo
Hotzone
NY Times home; Story
LA Times home; Story

US media re-grows its spine (September 14)
Fury at the Bush Administration's handling of the hurricane Katrina disaster has prompted many American reporters to become emotionally involved in a story to the point of being enraged, The Age newspaper has reported. It says journalists are not just telling the story, they are becoming part of it.
“For God's sake, are you blind?” a reporter from MSNBC television in the US screamed at the head of America's Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown. “You're patting each other on the back, while people here are dying.”
Commentator Matt Wells from BBC News in the UK declared, “American journalism might just have grown its spine back, thanks to hurricane Katrina.
“The moral indignation against inadequate government began to flow from slick anchors who spend most of their time glued to desks in New York and Washington,” he said.
Wells singled out a reporter from the Fox News network, often derided by critics as unashamedly right-wing, as an example.
“With the sick and dying forced to sit in their own excrement behind him in New Orleans, (Fox's) early evening anchor Shepherd Smith declared civil war against the studio-driven notion that the biggest problem was still stopping the looters,” Wells said.
The Australian newspaper echoed similar sentiments last week, observing, “(The) sudden rise of adversarial and combative live interviews are everywhere to be seen on TV in the US, shaking loose something of a post 9/11, rally-around-the-flag and war-on-terror TV torpor that really wasn't doing anyone any favours.”
The paper reported that CNN anchor Anderson Copper, who normally maintains a “crafted air of cool chic”, could barely suppress his rage when interviewing Louisiana Democratic senator Mary Landrieu.
He interrupted Landrieu, who was thanking congressional colleagues for the support New Orleans was getting, telling her: “I haven't heard that, because for the last four days I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi.”
By Michael Lallo
The Age
The Australian
BBC News home; Story

Morgan alternative on the cards (September 14)
An alternative to the controversial Roy Morgan Readership surveys could soon be established by an as yet unnamed newspaper industry body, AdNews has reported.
News Limited and Fairfax will fund the body, and plan to have it up and running within weeks.
The move follows long-running criticisms from both publishers that the Roy Morgan surveys do not accurately measure readership.
The Australian Market and Social Research Society reported that a Fairfax-commissioned study by research company Ipsos found senior business executive readership of the Australian Financial Review was double that reported by Roy Morgan.
“It shows what we had expected,” said Fairfax business media group marketing manager Sue Kelly. “The audience that reads high-end products like the Financial Review and The Australian is higher than Roy Morgan shows.”
According to The Australian, News Magazines managing director Philip Barker said he was concerned about the “serious anomaly” in the Roy Morgan readership data, and that the company would conduct its own research into the readership of Inside Out magazine.
By Michael Lallo
Ad News
Australian Market and Social Research Society
The Australian home; Story

Terrorist TV 101 (September 13)
Is it just us, or is there really a TV presentation course for terrorists? We noticed the latest effort, first played by ABC News in the USA, showed the usual dark headgear and the arrogant wagging of the fundamentalist finger at the not-so-appreciative audience... See our new Spin City column at this link.

News net march continues (September 12)
News Corporation has bought leading online video game and movie fan web operator IGN Entertainment for A$840 million as part of its aggressive strategy to become a major internet player.
IGN is News Limited's third online acquisition in three months, and comes as Rupert Murdoch and senior executives headed to California for an internet brainstorming session.
News chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch, said in a written statement that the purchase of IGN and its 28 million users was a key step in becoming a profitable internet business.
“With the acquisition of IGN and its 28 million unique users, we have gone a long way toward achieving two of our key strategic objectives in our efforts to become a leading and profitable internet presence. First, we have significantly enhanced our online reach, strengthening our position as the fifth most trafficked presence on the web. We also become the fourth largest network in terms of monthly page impressions,” he said.
According to the News Corp statement, IGN's major video game-related properties include IGN.com, GameSpy, GameSpy Arena, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, 3D Gamers, Direct2Drive, GameStats.com and a number of web sites within the Vault and Planet networks. IGN also owns and operates two entertainment web properties focused on movie-related content, IGN FilmForce and Rotten Tomatoes, and a male lifestyle web site, AskMen.com. In addition, it provides technology for online game play in video games.
By Michael Lallo
News Corp statement

Uniform law on sources? (September 12)
From the Media Alliance: The Australian Law Reform Commission, the NSW Law Reform Commission and the Victorian Law Reform Commission have released a joint discussion paper on their Review of the Uniform Evidence Acts. The Alliance has written to support the recommendation that all jurisdictions in Australia adopt the NSW Professional confidential relationship privilege and that the privilege be extended to subpoenas, discovery and similar legal processes.
Media Alliance
Law Reform Commission link

Saudi Prince backs News Corp (September 12)
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia this week raised his stake in media giant News Corp boosting its share price.
The prince publicly backed News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch after increasing his share from 3 per cent of Class A non-voting shares, to 5.46 per cent of class B voting shares.
After the announcement was made public the share price on the Australian Stock Exchange rose 49 cents or almost 2.5 per cent to $21.27. The purchase was made through the Prince's company Kingdom Holdings, whose investments include Compaq, Apple and AOL/Time Warner.
The increase followed a promise he made late last year in the wake of Liberty Media doubling its News Corp share to 18 per cent, the Sunday Times online reported.
Mr Murdoch may need the extra support as talks with Liberty Chairman John Malone broke down last month. The pair met to discuss the growing presence of Liberty on News Corp's share register.
By Peter Trevaskis
Sunday Times home; Story

Media ban hastily withdrawn (September 12)
The US government and news outlet CNN locked legal horns in the last few days after officials tried to prevent media from photographing recovery of the dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
CNN challenged the attempt in court and won, while there are a number of versions of exactly what officials hoped to achieve by this. They have, however, said they will not assist media in their task.
The USA National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) weighed into the debate. "It is entirely inappropriate for a federal agency to make demands on what journalists can and cannot shoot and publish," said NPPA president Alicia Wagner.
"While events surrounding this disaster are emotionally charged it is important to remember that government agencies should not be allowed to decide what images or stories are important to the public. As we begin to look at the events that transpired after Katrina, stories and images from the area will play an important role.”
This discussion, and numerous other issues relating to the media coverage of the disaster are being reported and debated at length at Editor & Publisher online.
NPPA
Editor & Publisher
CNN story on the court challenge

Young teens become popular target (September 9)
Australian magazine publishers are throwing more resources at trying to haul in the young teenager market.
Pacific Magazines is next month launching a title (name yet to be announced) at young boys, taking up where its K-zone -- aimed at years 6 to 13 -- leaves off.
Meanwhile Girlfriend (pitched at girls aged 12 to 17), from the same publishing stable, is launching a campaign to poll readers on what content and look they want for each edition, right down to front covers. The mag will also be introducing podcasting as part of its editorial mix and says it plans a one-off issue created entirely by readers.
Rival Dolly, from ACP, says its editorial blog has become a popular feature that supports rather than sacrifices print sales. ACP is also launching Nickleodeon, with content from the pay TV service of the same name, aimed at both genders in the eight to 14 bracket.
The stakes are fairly high, with the two girls titles respectively selling 140,000 and 170,000 per edition. That ranks them comfortably inside the 20 top-selling magazines in the country.
Pacific Magazines
ACP

Hitler, Elvis, Kennedy, Holt and 9/11 (September 9)
Adolf Hitler is alive and well in Brazil, and sometimes pops across the road to borrow a cup of sugar from his mate Elvis. Kennedy's assassination (either one) was a mafia hit carried out by the CIA, while Harold Holt was taken by a Chinese sub -- the CIA might have been in on that one, too.
Oh, and the 9/11 twin tower disaster in New York was a Zionist plot though -- you guessed it -- the CIA probably did much of the planning. Conspiracy theories about the New York incident have become an industry with people publishing books and becoming professional chat show guests.
The Middle East Media Research Institute has put together a collection of some of the more lurid comments for your amusement.
MEMRI 9/11 conspiracies
CIA home page

Will sources be protected? (September 9)
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said he will consider calls to create legal protection for journalists who feel obliged to protect confidential sources. The issue made the headlines recently when Herald Sun newspaper journalists Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus were told they faced gaol terms for refusing a court directive to hand over information behind a story on government entitlements for war veterans.
The Media Alliance has identified the issue as a priority in its 2005 press freedom report.
Media Alliance press freedom report

Ethical reporting in a crisis (September 9)
“Look in the face of the baby. This is it. This is it. No sugar coating, no political spin, no Republicans or Democrats. People suffering.” These are the emotion-charged words of Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera as he held a 10-month old baby to camera during a news broadcast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the USA.
The despair and emotion shown by Rivera and his fellow reporters has been beamed across the world. Their frustration often overflowing on screen as they wade through contaminated water past bloated bodies left to float whilst relief efforts swing into action, some 10 days after Katrina hit.
As an estimated 25,000 body bags have arrived in the hurricane-ravaged state, and as the clean-up operations begin, allegations have started to fly, many aimed at the media. Criticism has been levelled at how reporters have portrayed the largely black, low-income earners of New Orleans as criminals and looters.
However comments by former first-lady Barbara Bush on American public radio show Marketplace highlighted why there has been little leadership and direction from government officials.
'The victims were underprivileged anyway. This (being displaced) is working very well for them,” she said. Her comments raise one of a number of ethical issues over the handling of the crisis and its reporting. One of the uncomfortable questions raised by media is whether the fact the people worst affected were poor and mostly black may have had something to do with the inadequate response to the emergency.
Media itself also has some questions to answer, with an example being a photo of a black person with food taken from an abandoned store being described as a looter, while white people in a similar shot are captioned more sympathetically as simply foraging. That issue has gained traction at photo-sharing website website Flickr (see link below).
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, reporters have taken a proactive position, challenging government officials about their lack of foresight and response to the crisis and advocating more humane action.
Endless images of people stealing food simply for survival, days after the levees broke and of the tens of thousands at the Superdome begging to be rescued were beamed across the globe. This footage undoubtedly helped to move rescue efforts into overdrive.
Images such as that of a deceased disabled woman, pushed into a corner and left in her wheelchair merely covered by a blanket, may come back to haunt the government come re-election and will give it reason to work very hard on its media image between now and then.
By Peter Trevaskis
Marketplace feature
Flickr

Solo crews for TV (September 8)
Nashville's ABC affiliate station WKRN has taken the bold step to retrain its staff in shooting and producing digital video, a move away from traditional news production.
The rise of new media has seen a decline in audiences across traditional mediums, namely TV news and newspapers.
By retraining and reformatting their news product, WKRN President Michael Sechrist hopes to reverse his stations ratings slump. “We all get the same research” that viewers find the TV news format tedious and irrelevant he told Business Week Online.
The station is leading the way with VJ or video journalism which is seeing journalists present, shoot, edit and produce stories, rather than farming out those tasks to specialised crew members.
Veteran producer Michael Rosenblum is overseeing WKRN's transformation and is a strong believer in VJ, telling Business Week Online that it would slash costs by up to 60 per cent, and used the BBC's switch to VJ as a working example, its available cameras jumping from 84 to over 1000.
The WKRN shake-up is driven by the rapid growth of blogging and its rise as an increasingly well-regarded source of news and information within the community. Audiences trust in blogs is growing seemingly at the same rate they are switching off their TVs.
The rise of the blog has not gone unnoticed by even the highest powers in the media industry, in an April speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch expressed the vital role bloggers and citizen journalists will play in the digital media age.
“(Bloggers can)… broaden our coverage of the news; giving us new and fresh perspectives to issues; deepening our relationship to the communities we serve,” he said.
WKRN is even going as far as training bloggers in video production. The station is clearly making major moves into the world of new media; hopefully the test-case they have become brings people back to their TVs.
Business Week home; Story
WKRN
Rupert Murdoch's speech

Smart Internet 2010 (September 7)
A 170-page report on how the internet is likely to develop in the next five years has been released by a team of writers lead by Professor Trevor Barr, a long-time author in the field.
It speculates, “The Smart Internet of 2010 is likely to become 'the platform for personal connectedness'. Increasingly towards 2010 more and more users will want to access, and increasingly be prepared to pay for, the connectedness that provides them with their own choices of music, film and video selections, the capacity to exchange specialised peer-to-peer services, and the opportunity to express themselves through digital games. Also likely in terms of connectedness, is the emergence of an enhanced range of personal corporate services, especially in finance and banking. In short, the user paradigm will shift away from people merely accessing professionally produced content to using the Internet as a platform for personal connectedness. Hence the process of an 'always-on', co-created Internet experience through social networks, takes on new significance.”
A PDF copy can be found online.
Smart Internet website; Report download page

Fairfax buys time, but for how long? (September 7)
John Fairfax Holdings has further expanded its stake in the New Zealand print media market by purchasing three titles from the Times Media Group. However the purchase comes as rumours of a Fairfax take over by Rural Press intensify.
Fairfax has purchased the 104 year-old Rodney Times, along with the weekly published Coaster and Outlook, a real estate guide. The titles had been part of the family behind Time Media, the Cooks, for 90 years and they complement Fairfax's already substantial New Zealand assets.
In 2003 it purchased Independent Publishers New Zealand, giving it control of 77 print and web titles across the country's two islands.
Speaking to New Zealand news service Scoop.co.nz, Fairfax NZ CEO John Withers said, “The Rodney Times has an outstanding history and it is an iconic community newspaper in this country…(the) publications are located in a tremendous growth area.”
At the same time, Rural Press Managing Director Brian McCarthy has not denied his company's interest in Fairfax, and Chairman John B Fairfax is a former part-owner of Fairfax, making any potential deal even more interesting.
Rural Press is one of the world's largest publishers of regional and agricultural news, servicing Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Fairfax continues to struggle with waning circulations of key titles The Age in Melbourne, and the Sydney Morning Herald. According to Crikey.com.au, Rural Press is the best performing media stock on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Fairfax's purchase came on the same day that Sydney print firm PMP, run by incoming Fairfax CEO David Kirk, announced its take over of Time Media Group's printing arm.
By Peter Trevaskis
Sccop home page; Story
Crikey home; Story
Fairfax corporate site
Rural Press corporate site
Times Media Group site

Kazaa loses case (September 6)
Justice Wilcox of the Federal Court in Sydney today found against the Kazaa peer to peer network in a dispute raised by the major players in the music industry. This is the latest in a string of international cases, all with similar outcomes.
Kazaa had the majority of the costs of the case awarded against it, and has been given orders to modify its practices.
Here is the key part of the judgement.
(i) despite the fact that the Kazaa website contains warnings against the sharing of copyright files, and an end user licence agreement under which users are made to agree not to infringe copyright, it has long been obvious that those measures are ineffective to prevent, or even substantially to curtail, copyright infringements by users. The respondents have long known that the Kazaa system is widely used for the sharing of copyright files;
(ii) there are technical measures (keyword filtering and gold file flood filtering) that would enable the respondents to curtail – although probably not totally to prevent – the sharing of copyright files. The respondents have not taken any action to implement those measures. It would be against their financial interest to do so. It is in the respondents’ financial interest to maximise, not to minimise, music file-sharing. Advertising provides the bulk of the revenue earned by the Kazaa system, which revenue is shared between Sharman Networks and Altnet.
(iii) far from taking steps that are likely effectively to curtail copyright file-sharing, Sharman Networks and Altnet have included on the Kazaa website exhortations to users to increase their file-sharing and a webpage headed ‘Join the Revolution’ that criticises record companies for opposing peer-to-peer file-sharing. They also sponsored a ‘Kazaa Revolution’ campaign attacking the record companies. The revolutionary material does not expressly advocate the sharing of copyright files. However, to a young audience, and it seems that Kazaa users are predominantly young people, the effect of this webpage would be to encourage visitors to think it ‘cool’ to defy the record companies by ignoring copyright constraints.
Full judgement, via the Federal Court website (approx 500k download)

China propagates peers (September 6)
China has become the centre of the latest technology craze, known as P2P or Peer-to-Peer. It broadcasts live cable, satellite or terrestrial TV on the Web free of charge using high-speed broadband internet connections.
Channels such as CNN, ESPN and MTV are being broadcast non-stop, with viewers accessing the technology by downloading basic software.
The signal is taken from live broadcasts and relayed through the viewer’s media player, with a short delay the only difference between the original service and the internet version.
Initially designed to transfer music, P2P had been thought to be on the wane thanks to the US Supreme Court's decision in the landmark Grokster file-sharing case.
However, barely two months after the decision regarded as a victory for traditional media, the emergence of P2P television has provided another headache for TV stations and again raised issues of internet security.
Sports broadcasters are facing the sternest challenge, with ESPN’s NBA basketball coverage and Sky channels Premier League soccer matches proving the most popular via the illegal feed.
Nonetheless small groups within traditional media circles see potential in the latest internet offering.
Motion Picture Association of America’s Asian-Pacific Director, Mike Ellis, believes P2P can be a viable medium. “Legal, licensed and protected streamed video via the Internet is potentially a future entertainment distribution model,” he told Appliance Design Magazine. “Providing there can be developed secured methods to deliver it and protect the digital file from copyright theft.”
The issue is under examination locally, with P2P outfit Kazaa fighting a case brought by the music industry in the Federal Court in Sydney. Kazaa lost -- see above.
By Peter Trevaskis
Appliance Design Mag; News story
Sopcast China
Grokster
Kazaa

Al-Jazeera readies for March launch (September 5)
Despite meeting with condemnation from governments and media outlets worldwide, Qatar-based media organisation Al-Jazeera is going ahead with its March launch a 24-hour English language news service. Since the announcement, Nigel Parsons, Al-Jazeera International's 53-year-old managing director, has been quashing fears the new channel will show politically and ethically insensitive content.
“A lot of the misconceptions about Al-Jazeera (come from) people who can't actually understand what they are criticising,” he said. “Then there are things that are simply not true, such as Al-Jazeera showing beheadings. They have never, ever shown a beheading…” Parsons told The Australian newspaper.
The Arab network is often viewed by Western media as an arm of terrorist group al-Qaeda, a judgment drawn from the fact the network is often the first to release terrorist messages. It counters this on its website by saying, “Free from the shackles of censorship and government control Aljazeera has offered its audiences in the Arab world much needed freedom of thought, independence, and room for debate. In the rest of the world, often dominated by the stereotypical thinking of news 'heavyweights', Aljazeera offers a different and a new perspective."
Interest from the West has grown with the majority of visitors to the networks English website coming from America.
The network's English station will broadcast from Washington, London, Kuala Lumpur and its home in Doha. It is currently recruiting the near-230 journalists it will require to work in 30 bureaus worldwide.
By Peter Trevaskis
The Australian home page; News story
Al-Jazeera English site

Cross-media ownership laws to go (September 2)
Communications Minister Helen Coonan has told the National Press Club that the Howard Government intends to repeal cross-media laws that prevent media companies from owning two of either a newspaper, television or radio station in the same market.
Senator Coonan said foreign ownership restrictions would be lifted, but any foreign takeover proposals would be carefully scrutinised. It is her hope that legislation on the issue could be presented to Parliament by next year. “These changes will remove unnecessarily constraining limits on foreign investment, but ensure that all significant investments are appropriately scrutinised,” she said.
Under the proposed changes each capital city would have five separate “media voices” and each regional market four, meaning media diversity is protected through the prevention of undue concentration of ownership. This would mean there could be common ownership of a television licence, two radio stations and an associated newspaper, in the same market. “I think this a more attractive approach because it is an environment that allows us to balance any greater concentration of ownership among existing players with opportunities for new services,” she said.
National broadcasters, pay television, the internet and regional newspapers would not be included in the new laws and will continue to provide important additional sources of news and opinion, she added.
Labor communications spokesman Stephen Conroy told The Australian newspaper the new laws would lead to a dramatic concentration of media outlets. “What the minister is putting forward will halve the number of media voices in Sydney and Melbourne,” he said. “Her diversity test is a fraud and after nine long years all the Coalition is doing is delivering a deal for their media mates.”
By Rob Stewart
The Australian home page
Senator Coonan's speech

Media Alliance response to Coonan (September 2)
At present there are 12 media owners in Sydney and 13 in Melbourne. It is feared that setting a minimum well below current standards will tighten an already constricted media market.
“This attempts to create an illusion of diversity,” said the Federal Secretary of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Christopher Warren.
“Once the government lifts the barriers to cross-media ownership, this will quickly reduce to the allowable minimum. This will mean fewer media companies and less diversity of news, views and opinions.”
Australia is already one of the most concentrated media landscapes in the world and with these changes could arguably become the most concentrated in any democratic country. The BBC describes the Australian media as “creatively, technologically and economically advanced”.
However the profile it adds: “[Australia] has a long history of public broadcasting, but privately-owned TV and radio enjoy the lion's share of listening and viewing. Ownership of both print and broadcast media is highly concentrated. For example, four major media groups own 80% of Australia's newspaper titles.”
Despite the reiterated sentiment that “the protection of diversity and the maintenance of local content are central issues” the Government seems to have ruled out ways diversity could be encouraged. For example, pay television will not be included in the ownership mix and the fourth free to air commercial licence seems to be once again on the backburner.
Before announcing the proposal Senator Coonan has had extensive consultation with already existing media players.
“The consultation process has assumed that only the existing players have an interest in the future of Australia's media landscape. It contradicts the Minister's claims that the changes aim to benefit a media landscape 'populated with a range of new players, new platforms, new services and new possibilities',” said Warren.
“In the speech, the Minister continues the furphy that new media automatically means greater diversity. In fact, all the dominant commercial on-line players are the same as the old media players.”
In her speech, Senator Coonan said that policies need to ensure diversity of ownership and services in the local media market.
“This package fails her own test,” Warren said.
Media Alliance web

Brogden saga sparks ethics debate (September 2)
In the wake of disgraced former Liberal MP, and NSW state opposition leader, John Brogden's resignation and subsequent suicide attempt, many are asking if the media went too far in hounding him. This week's events have also prompted an examination of the unwritten rules about what can be reported in politics.
Editors have taken differering positions on the ethics of the story with The Australian saying, “The reporting of the last round of rumours represents a new and potentially dangerous development in the relationship between politicians and the media.” Indeed the media may need to check its behaviour, but so should the Liberal Party, as reporters claim the source of the story was its own federal branch. Journalists in their defense point to the classic politician's dilemma: That by courting the media spotlight they also legitimise media scrutiny. Ultimately, it was political rivalry that led to the exposure of Brogden's disgrace.
The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, which led the charge against Brogden, has been forced to defend itself following his suicide attempt. Its Editor, David Penberthy, says they have done nothing wrong and that all the facts exposed by his journalists were correct because they were eyewitnesses. The issue seems more to be why Brogden's character and private life were so vigorously pursued even after he had admitted his behaviour was unacceptable, apologised to everyone involved and resigned his Liberal leadership position.
“The Daily Telegraph believes that any person who is still in politics, and prepared to entertain future elevation despite admitting to shocking behaviour, deserves to have such claims tested,” Penberthy said in The Australian. “If we approach every single story we do on the basis of whether somebody may or may not commit suicide, we wouldn't cover courts and we wouldn't give restaurants bad reviews.”
Rob Stewart
The Australian home page; Media section feature; David Salter commentary
The Telegraph home page; Piers Akerman commentary
NSW Liberal Party media release
The Age home page; News story on Brogden's resignation

Stormy weather for commentators (September 2)
It seems that a major natural disaster of the scale of the recent Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico brings out the extremes in commentators. Here are two examples from media properties on opposite sides of the geographical and political globe.
The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, a senior Kuwait official, published an article in the local daily Al-Siyassa assuring the audience the storm in the USA was vengeance from Allah.
It reads, in part, "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah...It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire…Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?”
On the other side of the world, The Rutherford Institute out of the USA is more concerned about the very broad powers it says are enjoyed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which will be responsible for recovery from the disaster. It begins with, “Several things are readily apparent. First, Americans have lost control of their government. Besides the perfunctory act of voting -- and only about half even do that -- Americans have absolutely no voice in how their government operates. Second, those who wield governmental power often do not have our best interests at heart. This is no more clearly illustrated than by the shadow government known as FEMA and its black-op funding.”
It later wraps up with, “We are left with a host of questions. Is FEMA's broad security power really for national disasters? What is the real purpose of the massive underground bunkers? Why is FEMA unaccountable to our elected representatives? And do we really have a shadow government that answers to noone?”
However we suspect the Rutherford folk can relax, as reports from New Orleans suggest FEMA would struggle to organise a picnic -- let alone an alternative government...
Middle East Media Research Institute article
Rutherford Institute article

Chinese media content heads west (September 1)
Media content in China has taken a swing towards western trends in recent years and this can be put down to number of factors, including huge economic growth and a softening of adherence to communist ideology. Mass access to Internet and an increase in the accessibility of western media has proven popular and this is evident in the emergence of talk shows and pop idol programs.
However the Chinese state's propaganda machinery still has, and wants, control over the media and cultural trends. Programs that are non-political and are in no way crass are not seen to be harmful to the communist doctrine and therefore can remain on air.
One show that has been a huge hit is A date with Luyu. Chen Luyu is a beautiful Hong Kong based journalist who has become, by most reports, China's answer to Oprah Winfrey. She chats with guests about lifestyle issues and has celebrity interviews, much the same as her western counterpart. Luyu has become a star in China and she is a perfect example of changing cultural attitudes.
Similarly, last week's Super Girl contest, televised by Hunan Satellite Television, attracted over 10 million viewers who participated in the voting for a national singing star. Much the same as Australian Idol. Zhu Dake, a Chinese cultural critic, told China Daily that the show “blazed a trail for cultural democracy”.
China's massive economic and information technology boom has meant that the growing middle class want more from their media. No longer content with their leisure viewing having a political agenda, people are tuning into new shows that offer lifestyle information, entertainment without the hard political line.
By Antonia Magee
China Daily home; News story
BBC news home; News story

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