Postings on media issues from Benton.org (most recent at top)

May 2005

IN ASIA, IT'S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL A SONG FROM AN AD While entertainment and advertising are getting cozier everywhere, in Asia they have virtually merged. For many global advertisers, it's a chance to do what they would only dream of trying at home. For Asia's artists, hooking up with advertisers offers a more reliable way to profit at a time when fans are increasingly buying illegally pirated CDs and movies. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Geoffrey A. Fowler geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111748146494246360,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

LAWYERS, OTHERS QUESTIONS RADIO TIVO-LIKE DEVICES Various devices that enable listeners to record Internet radio streams and then convert them into MP3 files are catching on and making Web radio and streaming services more appealing to the general public. But some legal experts say the recording software may violate digital copyright laws and does little more than promote piracy. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sue Zeidler] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=8631845

NEWS SVENGALIS AT WORK How consultants shape newscasts, from steering the coverage to choosing eyeliner. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Deborah Starr Seibel] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA604567.html?display=Feature&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

WE THE (MEDIA) PEOPLE [Commentary] The news business is in trouble. Readership and viewership are declining, public trust is plummeting, and advertisers are beginning to wonder whether they're getting their money's worth. This has led people to think about what blogger and tech journalist Doc Searls calls business models for "news without newspapers," an approach to reporting and disseminating news that doesn't depend on layers of editors for publication, and big ads from carmakers for funding. Nobody's sure just how to do that yet. With mainstream media losing credibility through scandals like Easongate, Rathergate, and Newsweek's latest, free-press protections are likely to come under fire. The best defense will be a public that sees free speech as something it participates in, not just a protection for big corporate entities. What some are calling "we-dia" may wind up saving the media. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, University of Tennessee, InstaPundit.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111749856898346629,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

BLOGS: THE NEXT BIG THING FOR ADVERTISERS? [Commentary] Do blogging and advertising work together? [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Juan Cole, University of Michigan] http://news.com.com/Blogs+The+next+big+thing+for+advertisers/2010-1071_3-5721838.html?tag=nefd.ac

FEDERAL AGENTS SHUT DOWN FILE-SHARING WEB SITE Darth Vader -- no, scratch that -- federal agents Wednesday used the force of law to shut down a Web site that they said was letting people download movies and other copyrighted material free. Users of the Elite Torrents site were able to download copies of the new "Star Wars" movie before it was shown in theaters, authorities said. The action was the first criminal enforcement against individuals who are using BitTorrent technology, Justice and Homeland Security Department officials said. Elite Torrents had more than 133,000 members and 17,800 movies and software programs in the past four months. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mark Sherman] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052502087.html

NEWS GROUPS WRESTLE WITH ONLINE FEES For news outlets, the free-vs.-pay debate is assuming heightened urgency -- and generating a fair amount of flip-flopping these days -- because Internet readership and advertising are booming at a time when newspaper circulation is declining at accelerated rates. Newspapers are struggling to figure out how to make money from their growing Internet audience without cannibalizing their print editions. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leslie Walker] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501758.html (requires registration)

INTERACTIVE ADS START TO CLICK ON CABLE AND SATELLITE TV A growing number of companies are experimenting with interactive television commercials, a potentially powerful form of advertising that lets viewers opt to get more information about products -- and lets advertisers find out about viewers and their habits. For years, advertising and television industry executives have been predicting that new interactive technologies would transform TV commercials. No longer would businesses use commercials primarily to reach mass audiences with broad branding messages, promoters of interactive ads said. New technology would let viewers use TV ads to seek out information and even order specific products, much as consumers today use Web sites, they predicted. Some believe that the stars now are aligning in the $60 billion-a-year TV-commercial business to make that change occur. The standard of the business, the 30-second spot, is becoming increasingly threatened by the growing popularity of video on demand and digital video recorders, like TiVo, that allow viewers to skip through traditional commercials when watching recorded shows. Industry experts predict that in five years half of TV will be watched this way, and that as many as 80% of the viewers who do so will fast-forward through most ads. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant peter.grant@wsj.com ] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111707331062643771,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

ADELSTEIN PUSHES 'PROMINENT' DISCLOSURES Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein wants the FCC to require "clear and prominent" disclosure of paid content on TV, including product placements, paid endorsements, and video news releases. He said he had nothing against plugs or endorsements, per se, so long as they were clearly labeled as such. He called for the tighter rules in a speech to The Media Institute in Washington Wednesday, saying: "A disclosure that appears on screen for a split second during the credits in small type that no one could possibly read without pausing their DVR-- and pulling out a magnifying glass-could not possibly qualify." He pointed out that though the FCC has rules requiring disclosure of paid content, the rules "do not clearly spell out the prominence of the disclosure required." [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA603908?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) * FCC's Adelstein Promises Crackdown on 'Covert Commercial Pitches' http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=7895

INTERNET RULES The world does not necessarily agree on issues like cyber-crime, intellectual property rights, privacy, and free speech. So when it comes to governing the Internet, whose rules should apply? John Palfrey, executive director of the Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, talks about the possibilities and impossibilities of Internet governance. [SOURCE: OntheMedia] http://www.onthemedia.org/

STUDY: JOURNOS, PUBLIC HOLD DIVERGENT VIEWS ON MEDIA ISSUES A major survey released Tuesday by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center shows that the public and working journalists have sharply different views about press freedom, bias in news, and journalists' rights. While many often charge the media with bias, nearly half of non-journalists polled said they believed partisan journalism was a good thing. The non-journalists charge news organizations with often getting their facts wrong and more than half say the government should limit press freedoms at times [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Joe Strupp] http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000930848 * Journalists, public on different pages http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050525/d_mediamix25.art.htm

MEDIA OFTEN IGNORE WOMEN AS SOURCES, NEW STUDY FINDS In all media outlets, women are cited as sources far less often than men, according to a new Project for Excellence in Journalism study released Monday. Cable news and the PBS NewsHour ranked lowest in terms of percentage of stories with at least one female source, at 19% and 17% respectively. Network TV came in at 27%, morning shows at 34%, news Web sites at 36%, and print newspapers at 41%. Even though newspapers are the news medium most likely to cite at least one woman in a story, they are still more than twice as likely to consult at least one male source (88%), according to the nine-month study. [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Graham Webster] http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000929799

ASSAULTS ON TV MISDIRECTED [Commentary] complaints by interest groups illustrate the same unfortunate tendency to emphasize supply-side solutions, rather than demand-side solutions, to the problems of TV's impact. We spend too much time fretting over the way the industry produces programming, and too little worrying about the way the public consumes it. Statistical analysis shows that black characters are over-represented on TV, while Asians are under-represented. But that hardly means that the medium is good for blacks and bad for Asians. The influence of broadcast images depends on how selectively consumers choose to watch, not the ethnically based casting decisions executives agree to make. Ultimately, the only television schedule the public and activists reliably can control is the schedule of what we watch. We might not be able to determine what the industry makes, but we always make the final decision on what we take. In short, complaining about the weather may do nothing to change it, but you always have the option to come in out of the rain. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Michael Medved] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050524/oplede25.art.htm

SERIOUSLY MISSING [Commentary] After 9/11, we were promised, the news media would toughen up, dig deeper, cover the world for us. What we seemed to have gotten was softer coverage and a propensity to pull punches. How odd and dangerous it is that, in these most perilous times, the news business has rarely seemed more frivolous. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA603033.html?display=Opinion&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) *

AT CBS, Soft Side Gets a Voice in Hard News http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/business/media/23cbs.html?

GROW UP, TV ADVERTISERS [Commentary] Last week, CBS announced the cancellation of four prime-time shows simply because they appealed to a just-over-50 crowd. CBS is fighting its reputation as the geezer network by dumping the baby-boomer demographic bulge, though these graying heads will be alive and spending accumulated wealth for decades to come. Why are television advertisers spurning this demographic gold mine? [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-demo23may23,1,2453861.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

SCHOLARLY JOURNALS' PREMIER STATUS IS DILUTED BY WEB For decades, traditional scholarly journals have held an exalted and lucrative position as arbiters of academic excellence, controlling what's published and made available to the wider community. These days, research is increasingly available on free university Web sites and through start-up outfits. Scholarly journals are finding their privileged position under attack. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bernard Wysocki Jr. bernie.wysocki@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111680539102640247,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

HOW OLD MEDIA CAN SURVIVE IN A NEW WORLD Newspaper publishers, book publishers, movie studios, music companies, ad agencies, television networks -- they're all trying to figure out how they fit into a new-media world. Their old way of doing business isn't as profitable as it used to be, but they haven't found a new way that's as profitable, either. So we decided to ask a wide group of media experts for their suggestions. Concerning broadcast network news, one expert suggests engaging viewers in a conversation. That means tearing down the facade of how news is made. He suggests posting full, unedited video of interviews online. Networks also might present behind-the-scenes clips showing the creation of a news program from inception to broadcast, and let viewers relay feedback to help further report the story. "The end result is more accountability and more credibility," he says, "something the networks could use." One expert suggests cutting the network primetime schedule to improve the overall quality of offerings and replacing those shows with cheaper, more profitable fare such as news, game shows or sitcoms in syndication. The networks would save money on prime-time programming, and the local stations they own would pump increased revenue. Ron Simon, television curator at New York's Museum of Television and Radio, thinks the government should force TV networks to set aside time for independent or upstart production companies. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111643067458336994,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report (requires subscription) * Media Giants' Big Broadband Push CNN, ABC News, Scripps Networks and TV Guide are rolling out free video- and audio-streaming products for broadband users, signaling a renewed confidence in online advertising. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Ken Kerschbaumer] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA602847.html?display=Technology&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

NETWORKS USE WEB IN DEBATE ON INDECENCY Hoping to defuse pressure for further government indecency crackdowns, networks and cable companies are borrowing a Web page from the playbook of their critics. A new coalition called TV Watch, bankrolled in part by CBS parent Viacom Inc., Fox owner News Corp. and NBC Universal, recently launched an Internet site, at televisionwatch.org. The move recognizes the importance of the Web in the public relations battle by broadcasters to blunt the growing influence of media watchdog organizations such as the Parents Television Council. Those groups are aggressively shaping Washington's indecency debate, successfully using the Internet to get their message out publicly and to pressure legislators and regulators with complaints. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jube Shiver Jr] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tvwatch23may23,1,4637284.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

IT'S NOT ALL IN THE FAMILY Last year, NBC became the last major broadcast network to marry a big Hollywood studio, buying Universal. Such vertical integration of the TV business assures studios a ready buyer for shows they develop and, for networks, lets them control costs and locks in a piece of the upside if a show becomes a hit in syndication. But of the six new series NBC is adding to its schedule this year, just two come from NBC Universal Television Studio (affectionately known as "NUTS"). The remaining orders were spread across four rival producers. And of the shows NBC picked up from outsiders, none are co-productions in which the network jointly finances a series and participates in the profits. Other networks bought outside their corporate families, too. No one is saying there isn't plenty of in-house dealing in the vertically integrated shops. All of UPN's new series come from sibling Paramount Television, as do two-thirds of CBS' rookie shows. Warner Bros. will supply three-quarters of the new series on The WB. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John M. Higgins] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA603031?display=News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) Please see -- * The Death of "Synergy" -- Ad Infinitum "[W]hile it's nice to see the broadcast nets are loosening up and looking outside their own four walls, let's not declare victory yet. The nets are only buying shows from each other. The number of shows on the fall schedule made by anyone other than one of the five conglomerates that own the nets is zero, as far as we can tell. Meaning the net new independent voices added to the mix next fall -- bupkiss." http://creativevoices.typepad.com/blog/

MORE TECH-DRIVEN THREATS TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA Wireless Internet access and new display technologies are predicted to become a threat to media companies that depend on their "current lock on branding and distribution." Farzad Nazem, Yahoo!'s CTO, says the future is "not about mass media, it's about 'my media.'" [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Rob Hof] http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/05/more_tech-drive.html

GUILD CHIEF UNDER FIRE FOR COMMENTS ABOUT ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS IN IRAQ Linda Foley, national president of The Newspaper Guild, drew strong criticism today from some conservative groups for comments she made last Friday about the killing of journalists in Iraq. According to a video of her remarks, her only comments on this specific subject were: "Journalists are not just being targeted verbally or politically. They are also being targeted for real in places like Iraq. And what outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there's not more outrage about the number and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq. I think it's just a scandal. It's not just U.S. journalists either, by the way. They target and kill journalists from other countries, particularly Arab countries, at news services like Al Jazeera, for example. They actually target them and blow up their studios, with impunity. This is all part of the culture that it is OK to blame the individual journalists, and it just takes the heat off of these media conglomerates that are part of the problem." [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Joe Strupp] http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000928927

CHINA GOES UNDERCOVER TO SWAY OPINION ON INTERNET China has formed a special force of undercover online commentators to try to sway public opinion on controversial issues. Their job: defend the government when negative comments appear on Internet bulletin boards and chatrooms. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DVL1WAYH3I4DOCRBAEOCFEY?type=internetNews&storyID=8542747

ANOTHER VIEW OF NEWS BIAS, AS SELLING POINT With so much competition, why doesn't the market correct bias in news coverage. Two Harvard economists now think that bias is not a bug but a feature. In a competitive news market, they argue, producers can use bias to differentiate their products and stave off price competition. Bias increases consumer loyalty. Reporters who firmly believe themselves to be disinterested observers may further this strategy if they share their audience's assumptions about how the world works and, hence, how to interpret particular facts. The Harvard economists suggest that adding relatively moderate competitors may push rivals to take more extreme positions to hold onto their audiences. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Virginia Postrel] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/business/media/19scene.html (requires registration)

WITH RATINGS TIGHT, TV NETWORKS VIE FOR RICHEST VIEWERS What viewers with higher incomes watch on TV is becoming more important to the broadcast networks as they try to set themselves apart from the pack and sell their fall schedules to advertisers. The four primary broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC -- are finishing the season in one of the tightest ratings races ever. Last year, the networks finished with 1.4 ratings points separating them; this year they're running only 0.3 of a ratings point apart. To distinguish themselves to advertisers, broadcasters increasingly are touting how popular their shows are with moneyed viewers. Networks can charge advertisers a premium for delivering wealthy viewers, since they are the hardest group to reach. High-income people tend to be light television watchers, and are also more likely to own ad-skipping devices such as TiVo. NBC, for example, has long played up the youth and wealth of its viewers, and charges advertisers a premium of 5% to 20% to reach them. Baiting wealthy types is also a strategy, some network ad executives say, to lure more luxury marketers to broadcast TV -- a popular medium for pitching shampoo and crackers, but not five-star hotels and private jets. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brooks Barnes brooks.barnes@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111638115994136568,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

VENEZUELA BACKING INTERNATIONAL NEWS CHANNEL On May 24 Venezuela's President Hugo Chvez will launch Televisora del Sur (Telesur) -- TV of the South -- a 24-hour hemispheric TV news network, with Venezuelan journalist Aram Aharonian at the helm. The idea, Chvez has explained, is to combat "the conspiracy" by foreign networks to ignore or distort information about Latin America. "We have been trained to see ourselves through foreign eyes," Aharonian says. "Europeans and Americans see us in black and white, and yet this is a Technicolor continent." Chvez's Telesur is drawing comparisons to Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arab satellite network. Al-Jazeera has been criticized repeatedly by the U.S. government and military for inflammatory and biased reporting in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. New sources of news can be healthy, says John Dinges, associate professor of journalism at Columbia University in New York. "I am in favor of initiatives that create additional voices in the news," he says. "Al-Jazeera, for example, has made an important impact on journalism in the Middle East." If Telesur is a propaganda tool for Chvez, "that's politics, not journalism," Dinges says. "But if it's being done in order to spread an alternative journalistic voice, it will be good journalism and a contribution." Telesur's programming, available by satellite, will be split between news and "Latin America interest" documentaries, reaching viewers across South, Central and North America. The network is a regional endeavor: Argentina owns 20%, Cuba 19% and Uruguay 10%. But Venezuela, with 51%, is the main player: The government has provided $2.5 million in start-up money. Other funding will come from corporate sponsors, though not advertising. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Danna Harman] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050518/a_venezuelatv18.art.htm

WEB PULLS AD BUYERS FROM TV After years of siphoning ad dollars from newspapers and magazines, the Internet is starting to chip away at the biggest and most powerful medium of all: television. The Internet has become another dark cloud on the horizon, threatening to shrink the $60-billion-a-year market for broadcast network, cable and local TV ads. Online ad revenue surged 33% to $9.6 billion in the United States last year and is expected to grow as much this year. A recent study by Forrester Research found that people spend 34% of their media consumption time, including both home and work, on the Internet. That's slightly more than the amount of time they spend watching TV. Still, only 6% of advertising dollars go to the Web. Some broadcast executives discount the threat. Broadcast networks reach more than 98% of the estimated 110 million homes with TV sets in the United States, and marketers say most online ads can't stir up consumers' emotions like the traditional 30-second spot. But the broadcast networks already are under pressure from cable television, video-on-demand and ad-skipping technologies. They also face advertiser resistance to their tradition of hiking ad rates year after year even as they lose viewers. The broadcast networks' share of TV-watching time fell to 43% this season from 53% in 1999, according to Nielsen Media Research. But during that period, prime-time ad revenue jumped 33% to $9.5 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Chris Gaither and Meg James] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-internet18may18,1,1883649.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

STUDY: BLOGS HAVEN'T DISPLACED MEDIA Web logs, or blogs, may be a powerful new force in U.S. politics but they have not displaced traditional media in terms of information and influence, a study revealed on Monday. Charting the discussion of issues during the 2004 presidential campaign, the study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and consultants BuzzMetrics found political blogs -- online opinion and information sites -- played a similar, but not greater role, as did the mainstream media and the candidates' campaigns in creating "buzz." The study dispels the notion that blogs are replacing traditional media as the public's primary source of information, said Michael Cornfield, a senior research consultant at Pew. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ellen Wulfhorst] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5FBW3DZ4JEWZECRBAE0CFFA?type=internetNews&storyID=8507951 Learn more from Pew at: http://www.pewinternet.org/press_release.asp?r=105

'EVIL TWINS' AND 'PHARMING' This year's new Web threats are "pharming" and "evil twins." Evil twins are wireless networks that pretend to offer trusty Wi-Fi connections to the Internet like those available at some coffee shops, hotels and conferences. On a laptop screen, an evil-twin Wi-Fi hotspot can look identical to one of the tens of thousands of legitimate public networks that consumers log on to every day, sometimes even copying the sign-in page. But that's just a front, and fraudsters who set up the connections attempt to capture any passwords or credit-card numbers that consumers using the link may type. In pharming, thieves redirect a consumer to an imposter Web page even when the individual types the correct address into his browser. They can do this by changing -- or "poisoning" -- some of the address information that Internet service providers store to speed up Web browsing. Some ISPs and companies have a software bug on their computer servers that lets fraudsters hack in and change those addresses. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kevin J. Delaney kevin.delaney@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111628737022135214,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

NEW PROFILE OF ONLINE COMMUNITY Harris Interactive now estimates that 74 percent of adults are now online, up from 73 percent in the summer of 2004, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they were online. Adults who are online at a location other than their home or work rose to 21 percent up from 17 percent in 2004 and 16 percent in 2003. The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 66 percent, up from 65 percent in 2004 and 61 percent in 2003. Those online at work have risen to 36 percent from 34 percent in 2004 and 31 percent in 2003. In the spring of 2002 only 22 percent of adults who are online had broadband (including ISDN, cable, ADSL/DSL, T1 and T3 lines) connections. By October/December 2003, this had increased to 37 percent. It is now up to 54 percent of all those online. It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online. Eight percent of those online are now age 65 or over (compared to 15% of all adults who are 65 or over), 38 percent of those online (compared to 47% of all adults) did not go to college and 16 percent have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 21% of all adults). [SOURCE: Harris Interactive Press Release] http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=2946439

NEW SURVEY FINDS HUGE GAP BETWEEN PRESS AND PUBLIC ON MANY ISSUES The University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy will release results of a new survey today revealing a wide gap on many media issues between a group of journalists and the general public. In one finding, 43% of the public say they believe the press has too much freedom, while only 3% of journalists agree. Just 14% of the public can name “freedom of the press” as a guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Six in ten among the public feel the media show bias in reporting the news, and 22% say the government should be allowed to censor the press. More than 7 in 10 journalists believe the media does a good or excellent job on accuracy--but only 4 in 10 among the public feel that way. And a solid 53% of the public think stories with unnamed sources should not be published at all. (There's more at the URL below.) [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Joe Strupp] http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920962

CAVEAT VENDOR [Commentary] Why is it that fewer people are getting their news from our major newspapers or from the broadcast evening news? It's certainly not because they've lost their value. Even with the declines we're seeing, both newspapers and evening newscasts still remain dominant news providers for many millions of Americans. Eight out of 10 Americans read at least one newspaper over the course of a week; more than half of all adults read a newspaper every day of the week. Nearly 100 million Americans watch at least one broadcast evening news program every week, and about 25 million watch every night. Westin notes that there's a growing appetite for news as shown by the increase in news outlets on cable and local broadcast TV as well as the Internet. Declines in newspaper and broadcast readership/viewership, he proposes, are due to convenience: people don't want to wait for their news, and they certainly don't want it to be out of date. Audiences increasingly want the ability to be updated instantaneously, 24 hours a day, anywhere they are and on whatever device they may have at their disposal. If news organizations want to continue to reach all the people they've reached in the past, they have to find ways to come to people at all times of day and night, rather than trying to make them come at times of the outlet's choosing. But quality report, not technology, will be the deciding factor, Westin concludes: "If we want to serve as the news outlets for the millions of people who historically have turned to us each day, then we will need to go beyond mastering the new ways of reaching our audiences. We need to demonstrate to the American people, relentlessly, a quality of journalism so great that everyone recognizes it and no one can deny it. That way, when people look at all the myriad alternatives for their news, they will choose us -- no longer because they lack any viable alternative but increasingly because, despite the alternatives, they value what we have to report." [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Westin, President of ABC News] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111619733293534129,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

VOICEOFSANDIEGO.ORG Two veteran reporters launched VoiceofSanDiego.org, a nonprofit site whose mission is in part, to "encourage civic participation through an interactive forum that offers diverse perspective," and to "provide courageous reporting on a region not fully understood or reported by existing media." The nonprofit news model seems to appeal to other parts of the nation as well. Though grants, the Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism established J-Lab, an institution which "helps news organizations and citizens use new information ideas and innovative computer technologies to develop new ways for people to engage in critical public policy issues." It recently awarded 10 "New Voices" grants as part of a pioneering program to seed innovative news ventures. Voice of San Diego did not qualify because they had already launched, but Executive Director Jan Schafer said J-Lab received 243 applicants, who had to qualify as either nonprofit or educational/institutional during the 10-week window that submissions were accepted. [SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Sarah Colombo] http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050512colombo/

DELHI SET TO OPEN UP FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP India has given its clearest signal yet that it is to liberalize its print media industry by allowing foreign newspapers to publish in India and permitting foreign institutional investors to buy stakes in local media. Under a 50-year-old cabinet rule, India forbids foreign newspapers to publish local editions. But yesterday a high-level group of ministers reviewing the rule recommended it be set aside. [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ray Marcelo] http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e32d572c-c34a-11d9-abf1-00000e2511c8.htm

TRAGICOMEDY OF LIFE IN BAGHDAD IS BROUGHT HOME IN A TV SERIES "Love and War" is a black comedy that could only have been made in Iraq. It mixes slapstick and even a few Bollywood-style musical numbers with a brutally frank portrayal of the violence in the country. Several of its main characters die in bombings, others are kidnapped and tanks and helicopters are a constant backdrop. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Robert Worth] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/international/middleeast/14show.html

ENTER A WHOLE NEW WORLD THROUGH YOUR PHONE A look at how 'smart' cellphones put music, TV and the Internet right in your hand. [SOURCE: USAToday] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050513/cellcover.art.htm

IN RUSSIA, POLITICIANS PROTECT MOVIE AND MUSIC PIRATES Russia has emerged as the front line in Hollywood's global war against piracy. China may still be the world's top producer of illegal computer software, CDs and DVDs, but authorities there are getting serious about cracking down. In Russia, the Kremlin has been promising to deal with the problem for years, but industry officials say under President Vladimir Putin it's gotten worse, not better. A key reason is that Russia's pirates, who cost U.S. businesses an estimated $1.7 billion in losses last year, have cultivated increasingly cozy links to the government that's supposed to police them. Counterfeiters are lining up political patrons and locating factories inside secret military facilities where law-enforcement agencies can't touch them. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Guy Chazan guy.chazan@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111585156713931081,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

INFINITY TO SPLIT RADIO FREQUENCY BY USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY In an early step toward splitting radio frequencies into high-definition niches, Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting is dividing the frequency of a Chicago radio station into two and using the extra space to air a new station targeting younger listeners. Although several public radio stations have embraced the technology, known as multicasting, and some other stations have experimented with it on a temporary basis, Infinity's Chicago-based WUSM is the first commercial station to adopt multicasting full-time. WUSM is one of the nation's top-rated country music stations and its new sister station, WUSM HD-2, will focus on new country music from existing stars as well as up-and-comers. New high-definition digital radio technology makes the multicasting possible. Yes, you're reading between the lines very well, media reform fans: in the heavy-consolidated radio market, Clear channel can use the 1,200 stations it owns to air 2,400 channels around the country. "Help, Michael Powell ... I'm drowning in diversity!" [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111586690391431476,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) * Radio changes its tune to recapture listeners: Having lost 9% of their audience since 1998, radio stations are trying new formats to keep listeners. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050512/d_topstrip12.art.htm

EUROPEAN LEADERS PROPOSE DIGITAL LIBRARY TO COUNTER GOOGLE VISION Plans by Google to create a massive digital library have triggered such strong fears in Europe about Anglo-American cultural dominance that one critic is warning of a "unilateral command of the thought of the world." So great is the concern that six European leaders have jointly proposed creating a "European digital library" to counter the project by Google Print, as the new venture is known. Other countries are expected to come on board. [SOURCE: Associated Press] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-google10may10,1,6572357.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

OVER 50 AND OUT OF FAVOR [Commentary] More than half the nation's wealth is in the hands of people over 50, who spend an estimated $2 trillion a year on products and services. So why does network TV focus on the 18-to-49-year-old consumer? [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR:Meg James] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-fifty10may10,1,292320.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage (requires registration)

BILL OF MEDIA RIGHTS INTRODUCED A coalition of 116 media-activist groups [including the Benton Foundation] unveiled a "Bill of Media Rights" Monday, which they insist must be included in any major media- or telecommunications-overhaul legislation. The provisions are aimed at turning back the effects of increasing corporate ownership of broadcast stations, cable systems and newspapers since media-ownership rules were deregulated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The consequences of the resulting consolidation since 1996 include escalating cable prices, diminished ownership of media outlets by minorities, and a decline in the amount of political coverage and children's programming. The groups are calling on Congress to enact 15 provisions they believe will lead to lower prices for pay-TV and other services, more competition and greater diversity of viewpoints expressed in major communications outlets. The provisions include requirements for locally produced programming; restrictions on cross-ownership of broadcast stations, cable systems and newspapers in the same market; requirements for political and civic programming; more frequent and "rigorous" license renewals; and media employment ranks that "reflect the presence and voices of people of color, women, labor, immigrants, Americans with disabilities and other communities often misrepresented." This coming weekend, 2,000 anti-consolidation activists will rally in St. Louis to build momentum for upcoming legislation over ending the switch to DTV and rewriting communications laws (see you there!). [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA600453?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) See the Bill of Media Rights at http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=100

NEW DATA on blogs and blogging 9% of Internet users now say they have created blogs and 25% of Internet users say they read blogs. Another way to render these numbers is to note that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population (Internet users and non-users alike) have created blogs. That's one out of every 20 people. And 16% of all U.S. adults (or one in six people) are blog readers. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project] http://www.pewinternet.org/press_release.asp?r=104

HOW U.S. CONSUMERS SPEND THEIR TIME Sleep. Work. Watching TV. Those three activities are 1-2-3 for the average American. Consumers spend half their leisure time -- and effectively 11% of their lives -- in front of the television. That's strong evidence of the commanding role TV plays in the lives of consumers even as the ad industry debates the future of the 30-second spot and the issue of slipping broadcast ratings. [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Bradley Johnson] http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=448956

WAYS TV IS CHANGING YOUR LIFE A look at how DVRs and video-on-demand will allow you to access your favorite shows when you want them, how cutting-edge technology will allow you to take TV with you wherever you go, how the Internet may one day become television's secondary (or primary) home, and how advertising will change in this brave, new TV world. From the home office in Chicago, the Top 6 (we're a smaller market) ways TV is changing: 1) Viewers will be able to watch where they want when they want. 2) Programming available on demand. 3) Programming delivered via the Internet. 4) TV gives way to the "home media ecosystem" which allows simple control and access their TV, music and movies. 5) The future of TV advertising is in providing a gateway to more comprehensive information. 6) 500 channels? Try 5 million. (Gee, who knew there was so much info in my local paper?) [SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Maureen Ryan] http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0505010466may01,1,4154979.story

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Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org), Andy Carvin (andy@benton.org) and Charles Meisch (charlie@benton.org) of the Benton Foundation -- we welcome your feedback. Based in Washington DC, the Benton Foundation's mission is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Other projects at Benton include:
Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org)
Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org)
OneWorld US (www.oneworld.net/us)
Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org)