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

June 2005

2005 AD SPENDING TO INCREASE 3.4% Ad spending will increase 3.4% this year over last -- a fraction of the 9.8% rate at which it grew in 2004. It will total $145.3 billion. The majority of media would see growth, with cable TV and Hispanic media more robust at 11.6% and 10.5%, respectively. “The real story here,” said TNS Media Intelligence CEO Steven Fredericks, “is that cable TV registered 18.2% growth to $3.5 billion, taking share from broadcast TV, which only grew 3.8%.” Internet will be up 7.6% -- a healthy number but not quite the double-digit growth the medium saw the last two years. TNS indicates that on a share basis the Internet has just now recovered to its 2001 levels, accounting for just over 5% of total ad spending. Political advertising has become a perennial category. “Election 2004 was a watershed event with spending exceeding $1.45 billion,” said Fredricks. [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Abbey Klaassen] http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45410 See also: * 50th Annual 100 Leading National Advertisers http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45289 http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45289

YEARS AFTER FLOP, ONLINE MEDIA TAKE HOLD Five years ago, at the height of the dot-com boom, entrepreneurs and visionaries predicted that new online venues would overtake traditional media as viewers like Finn enjoyed shows and other content tailored to their tastes and schedules. It didn't happen. High-speed Internet connections were rare, and few people were willing to wait hours for a 10-minute video clip to download. Plus, most people's idea of on-demand entertainment was a drive to the local video store. The brutal tech bust seemed to close the book on the aspirations of those who envisioned the Internet transforming the way news and entertainment were produced and consumed. But it turns out the dot-com crash may just have been the prologue. After licking their wounds, a rash of companies -- including small players such as ManiaTV, Web giants such as Yahoo Inc. and traditional media titans such as Walt Disney Co. -- are again investing heavily to bring more audio and video to the Internet. This time, though, few people expect a crash because the companies are making money, capturing audiences and, yes, transforming the way news and entertainment are produced and consumed. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR:] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-media30jun30,1,1808826.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage (requires registration) Also see -- *

NEWSPAPER READERS CONTINUE MIGRATION TO INTERNET Nearly one-quarter (21%) of Web users who do read newspapers now read the daily paper online. Online editions have incorporated original, Internet-specific content that seeks to keep readers on the site. That content includes online message boards, editorial blogs and up-to-the-minute news postings, which leverage the medium's strengths. [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Kris Oser] http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45413

DANCING TO THE DIGITAL BEAT Global sales of physical recordings, which have been falling since the late 1990s, declined 1.3% in 2004, to $33.6 billion, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. But last year, digital music generated more than $300 million in sales. That figure is expected to double in 2005, according to Jupiter Research. "We believe that music is going to be completely digital over the next 10 to 15 years," says David Goldberg, general manager of Yahoo!'s burgeoning Internet music business, Yahoo! Music. Online music has gone way beyond the illegal file-swapping networks that dominated the scene just a few years ago. Millions of consumers are already downloading songs through legitimate means such as iTunes from Apple. They're carrying around thousands of songs on Apple iPods and other handheld devices. Plus, they're listening to Internet radio networks such as Live365 Radio. Many are subscribing to music services such as Rhapsody from Real Networks (RNWK ), which allow them to listen and download as much music as they want for a set monthly fee less than the cost of one new CD. And they're sharing playlists and trading reviews using comprehensive services including Yahoo! Music, through which listeners can download music, listen to Internet radio, and more. Millions who came of age in an earlier era of compact discs and CD players, or even vinyl albums and turntables, may have to learn how to listen to music all over again. Their basic tools are going to be computers and handheld devices such as digital music players and phones. And they'll need to learn how to use the software programs that download and manage their digital music libraries. [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Steve Rosenbush] http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2005/tc20050628_9810_tc024.htm

ABC DROPS SHOW AFTER COMPLAINT BY CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS Under pressure from civil rights groups, ABC Television yesterday canceled plans to broadcast a reality show that let the white suburban families living on a Texas cul-de-sac decide which of seven families - including one black, one Asian, one Hispanic and one gay couple - would move into their community. In the shows - all of them have been completed - seven diverse families seek votes from three white families in a development called Circle C Ranch, outside Austin. The white families, through a series of interviews, competitions and social interactions, award a 3,300-square-foot, four-bedroom, 21û2-bathroom home to the winner - a neighbor, the families say, who will fit in with the community's mostly Christian and Republican values. Critics of "Welcome to the Neighborhood," which ABC had promoted heavily, said it violated the letter and certainly the spirit of fair housing laws by allowing factors like religion to be a consideration in awarding the house. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Felicia Lee] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/business/media/30abc.html (requires registration) * ABC Faces Reality, Pulls Welcome Mat on 'Neighborhood' http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062902817.html

BIG MEDIA INTERLOCKS WITH CORPORATE AMERICA [Commentary] Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population -- the majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the news and information on world affairs that most Americans receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of news sources. However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population-nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense -- as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants. A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other. [SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, AUTHOR: Peter Phillips, Project Censored] http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert400.shtml

HARD-TO-GET POLICY BRIEFINGS FOR CONGRESS ARE NOW ONLINE The Center for Democracy and Technology has created an online database (http://www.opencrs.com) of Congressional Research Service reports that anyone with an Internet connection can now tap free of charge. Anyone caN use the site to access public policy briefs members of Congress use to get up to speed on issues. The often-coveted but elusive reports are produced by CRS, a public policy research arm of Congress. CRS, which boasts hundreds of analysts and a $100 million budget, churns out hundreds of briefs each year on a wide range of topics. The reports have long been praised as nonpartisan, concise and readable. But they are reserved for members of Congress, committees and their staffs. A member of the public can get one generally only if a lawmaker chooses to release it. There is also at least one company, Penny Hill Press of Damascus, Md., that gathers up reports and then sells them for as much as $20 apiece. LexisNexis announced last week that it will also begin offering the reports through its online service. The CDT, a technology policy organization, complained that the reports are paid for with taxpayer money and ought to be readily available for free to anyone who wants one. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Faler] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701509.html (requires registration)

NETWORKS RUSH TO KEEP ADVERTISERS The traditional TV commercial, which generates billions of dollars in ad revenue for TV networks every year, is under assault. Technology has made it easier for viewers to zap through ads, prompting some big advertisers to scale back the money they put into TV commercials. Anxious to stop advertisers from defecting to other media, TV networks are scrambling for new ways to lure marketing dollars. Working in the networks' favor is that advertisers haven't given up on television. Some, increasingly prodded by networks, are turning to product placement -- paying for their products to be prominently featured in TV shows. But creative considerations can limit these opportunities. Another solution, TV executives say, is for advertisers to take advantage of the numerous ways that viewers watch or interact with their favorite show. People now buy DVDs of TV programs or watch them via on-demand services on cable. They catch clips of TV shows on the Internet or even on mobile phones. Networks promote their shows through email lists, Web chat rooms and contests. Ads could be sold on all of these venues, ad executives say. But navigating this maze of new technologies is far from easy. The challenge is to come up with ad packages that reach "our viewers everywhere they are," says Hank Close, an executive vice president at Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, who oversees ad sales for music and comedy channels. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg brian.steinberg@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111982541172769835,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

Unreality TV: Soap-Opera Plots Spawn Lucrative Products Soap operas aren't what they used to be. In a well-chronicled cultural shift, ratings for daytime dramas continue their decades-old slide. During the past four full broadcast seasons, between 2000 and 2004, ratings for soap operas have fallen a combined 20.69% at the three networks that air daytime dramas, according to Nielsen Media Research. Among 18-to-49-year-old female viewers, ratings were down 18.63%. But television executives boast they have a secret weapon to generate new revenue: obsessed fans. Addicted viewers, who feel a special ownership with the shows, are willing to spend money on everything from "Young and the Restless" boxer shorts and beach bags to "Susan Lucci for President" T-shirts. Increasingly, scriptwriters are introducing products into storylines with the explicit intent of developing merchandise. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Neil Parmar at neil.parmar@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111982493458169800,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

SURVEY ON NEWS MEDIA FINDS WIDE DISPLEASURE The latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has found overwhelming dissatisfaction with news organizations, with a rising number of people saying that news media were "too critical of America." And while Democrats have been more satisfied with the news media than Republicans, the survey found a marked increase in the number of Democrats who said they believed that reporters were too soft on the Bush administration. The survey found "a startling rise in the politicization of opinions on several measures," and its authors said the results reflected the increasing political polarization of the country. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/media/27pew.html (requires registration) * See a summary of findings at: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=248

TV News Favorables Fall http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA621375.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) * Public Finds Bias in the Press, But Views It Favorably http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968616

BLOGGED INTO SUBMISSION For decades, the establishment media were like a walled village, largely insulated from the outside world. But technology has produced so many cracks in the wall that previously ignored stories can seep in -- sometimes in a trickle, sometimes a flood -- when partisans and pressure groups make enough waves. In the old days, writes New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, “if the press ruled against you, you just weren't news.” Now, he says, aggrieved parties “go into Supreme News Court and say: 'The press denied us, but we have a case.' ” [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (requires registration)

STUDY: BRAIN SEES VIOLENT GAMES AS REAL The brains of players of violent video games react as if the violence were real, a study by Klaus Mathiak of the University of Aachen in Germany has suggested. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://news.com.com/Study+Brain+sees+violent+video+games+as+real/2100-1043_3-5757959.html?tag=nefd.top

HOW WEB CHANGES YOUR READING HABITS Computers and the Internet are changing the way people read. Thus far, search engines and hyperlinks, those underlined words or phrases that when clicked take you to a new Web page, have turned the online literary voyage into a kind of U-pick island-hop. Far more is in store. A group at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is developing what it calls ScentHighlights, which uses artificial intelligence to go beyond highlighting your search words in a text. It also highlights whole sections of text it determines you should pay special attention to, as well as other words or phrases that it predicts you'll be interested in. ScentHighlights gets its name from a theory that proposes that people forage for information much in the same way that animals forage in the wild. ScentHighlights uncovers the "scent" that bits of information give off and attract readers to it. [SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor , AUTHOR: Gregory M. Lamb] http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0623/p13s02-stin.html

MEDIA INDUSTRY POISED TO GROW A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers released Wednesday provides a broad look at the media and entertainment industries -- covering everything from film to newspapers to television to casino gambling, and including advertising revenue as well as user fees. It predicts spending will rise to $1.8 trillion in 2009 from $1.3 trillion last year. That would represent an annual growth rate of 7.3 percent, down slightly from 7.8 percent last year but up sharply from growth rates of 2.4 percent, 4.7 percent and 5.4 percent from 2001 through 2003, respectively. "The entertainment and media industry continues to display an extraordinary ability to reinvent itself and create new revenue streams through innovative offerings that hardly existed as recently as 2000," said Wayne Jackson, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' entertainment and media practice. Indeed, the report provides plenty of fodder for advocates of new media, predicting that spending on Internet advertising and access charges will rise at an annual rate of 16.9 percent globally over the next five years. For the "old media," however, there are further reasons to fret: Spending on newspaper subscriptions and advertising will rise at only a 3.3 percent annual rate, the report predicts, with book publishing doing only slightly better at 3.4 percent. [SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, AUTHOR: Eric Pfanner] http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/21/yourmoney/media.php

GOOODBYE MR CHIP Engineer's Tiny Chip Changed the World Jack St. Clair Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his 1958 invention of the integrated electronic circuit, which made personal computers, satellite navigation systems, cell phones and the $200 billion field of microelectronics possible. He invented the hand-held calculator, which commercialized the microchip, and held more than 60 other patents. "In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it -- Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and Jack Kilby," Tom Engibous, chairman of Texas Instruments, where Kilby worked for years, said in a statement. "If there was ever a seminal invention that transformed not only our industry but our world, it was Jack's invention of the first integrated circuit." Kilby, 81, died of cancer Monday at his home in Dallas. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Patricia Sullivan] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062100783.html (requires registration) * Jack Kilby, Touching Lives on Micro and Macro Scales http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101646.html

THE 'BAD' GUY Steven Johnson has written "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," a book that argues that video games like Grand Theft Auto and TV shows like "24" brain food for your kids. "The most debased forms of mass diversion -- video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms -- turn out to be nutritional after all," Johnson writes. They offer an increasingly rigorous "cognitive workout." What's more, the mental skills they hone "are just as important as the ones exercised by reading books." [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Bob Thompson] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001458.html (requires registration)

ONLINE ACTIVITIES & PURSUITS Two new research findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project: 1) One out of six American adult Internet users (16%) have gone online to view another person or a place via a web cam. That translates into roughly 21 million people who have viewed material on web cams. And on any given day, about two million Internet users are checking out remote places or people by using webcams. 2) Eight percent of adult American Internet users say they participate in sports fantasy leagues online. That represents roughly 11 million people. And on a typical day, about 2 million Internet users are going online to oversee and check on their fantasy teams (Go SAHDies!). [SOURCE: , AUTHOR: ] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/159/report_display.asp http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/158/report_display.asp

WGA CALLS REALITY 'SCRIPTED SWEATSHOP' Nearly 1,000 writers, producers, and editors who work in reality television have indicated they want to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw). So the union is launching an industrywide public organizing campaign to win a collective bargaining agreement with reality producers, studios and networks. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Jim Benson] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA609721?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) See also: Reality Show Writers Seek Representation http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-writers21jun21,1,4632700.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

A NEW WAVE OF 'ADVERTISING' PAYS PRODUCER, NOT NETWORK In the new CBS reality program "Rock Star: INXS," about the search for a new lead singer for rock band INXS, audio equipment from audio-systems manufacturer SLS International Inc. will be prominently featured. To get its products on the show, SLS offered compensation -- but not to CBS. Instead, the program's producer, reality show impresario Mark Burnett, received SLS stock options with a current value of about $100,000. CBS was cut out of the equation. SLS isn't buying traditional commercials on the show and hasn't dealt with CBS for the program, says SLS Chief Executive John Gott. With the sort of exposure SLS products will get, traditional commercials "probably won't be necessary," he says. The deal highlights a quandary likely to confront TV networks increasingly in coming years. Advertisers are starting to cut back on the money they spend on traditional TV advertising, conscious that digital video recorders make it easier for people to zap through commercials. Instead, advertisers are putting more money into featuring their products on TV shows, in what are known as product placements. But fees from product placements don't automatically flow to the TV outlet that airs the show. The financial arrangement varies with the deal. In some cases, networks, ad-space-buying firms or third-party consultants can get the money. But in other cases, like SLS's deal with "Rock Star," the money goes to the producer. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg brian.steinberg@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111922353856863650,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

ADVERTISERS FORCED TO THINK WAY OUTSIDE THE BOX Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, says J. Walker Smith, president of consumer and marketing watcher Yankelovich. The result: “There are so many ads out there that consumers actively avoid commercials today to an extent never before realized,” says Dan Howard, professor of advertising and consumer behavior at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. “No matter how many more ads we put out there, it's not going to work … because it's not registering.” More consumer control and more marketing white noise will be a big part of the buzz among industry leaders this week in Cannes - particularly what it means for mass-market TV advertising. The TV commercial remains the biggest source of revenue for the ad industry - and for the networks that sell the time. Marketers put 38% of all ad dollars spent in 2004 into TV spots, according to TNS. But the cash cow now is getting a run for its money from more narrowly targeted upstart ad venues, such as the Internet, video games, TV and movie product placement, and event marketing. Most of the new choices promise lower-cost ads that are harder to ignore. Advertisers are starting to ask whether TV is worth the price. Some observers see a future of ad campaigns that include TV spots, but as part of a creative mix of media that work together. A campaign might also include elements that reach consumers spending more of their time on the Web, on mobile phones, reading text messages or playing video games. And TV spending might be split between commercials and product placement that DVR users can't skip over. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Theresa Howard] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050620/cannescov.art.htm

MICROSOFT UNDER FIRE FOR CENSORING CHINA BLOGS Microsoft's new MSN China Internet venture is censoring words such as "freedom," "democracy" and "human rights" on its free online journals, Microsoft said on Tuesday, putting itself in the middle of a major Web controversy. The world's largest software maker said that its "MSN Spaces" service operated out of China, which allows users to set up their own blogs, or online journals, was acting in accordance with local laws. The move comes as the Chinese government attempts to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based domestic web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, the group, Reporters Without Borders said, citing Chinese figures. 'Course, we're doing a pretty good job of censoring "freedom," "democracy" and "human rights" in these parts these days, too. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Reed Stevenson] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1CVSE2Q2SLJA2CRBAEKSFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=8789406

MUSIC INDUSTRY EYES 'CASUAL PIRACY' The record labels are in pursuit of a new class of music pirates -- not the millions who download bootlegged songs over the Internet but those who copy music CDs for their friends. The music industry considers the seemingly innocuous act of duplicating a music CD for someone else "casual piracy,'' a practice that surpasses Internet file-sharing as the single largest source of unauthorized music distribution. After fits and starts, the industry's largest players are taking measures to place curbs on copying. Sony BMG Music Entertainment plans to copy-protect all music CDs sold in the United States by the end of the year. Another major label, EMI, will introduce copy-protected CDs in its two largest markets -- the United States and the United Kingdom -- in the coming weeks. For consumers, it signals an abrupt change to the rip, mix, burn mania embodied by the 2001 Apple Computer ad campaign promoting the first iMac computer with a CD burner and software for creating custom music CDs. These new copy-protected discs limit the number of times people can create copies of music CDs or add individual songs to music mixes. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Dawn C. Chmielewski] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/11898486.htm

FCC ASKS FOR HELP ON STEALTH TV ADS The Federal Communications Commission wants people to help it spot potential broadcast payola as the agency comes under growing pressure to investigate stealth product promotions on television and radio shows. Agency officials have created a Web page noting that stations must be upfront when they are paid to air program materials, and that employees need to notify stations when they accept payment to air material. TV viewers and radio listeners are urged to file complaints if broadcasters fail to adequately disclose paid promotions. The move comes after a call last month by FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein for a sweeping crackdown on broadcasters who are increasingly slipping "covert commercial pitches" into TV entertainment and news shows. Commissioner Adelstein contends that the FCC has been lax in enforcing anti-payola rules by allowing stations to inadequately disclose product placements as well as instances when on-air personalities are paid to endorse products. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has said the FCC can't investigate potential violations absent complaints. Hoping to jump-start a probe, FreePress, a media watchdog group, is expected to file some today. In a draft document, FreePress said broadcasting "is chock-full of pay-for-play endorsements of commercial products and federal policy." Under FCC rules, "sponsored material must be explicitly identified at the time of broadcast as paid for and by whom," the group said. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jube Shiver Jr] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tvpromo15jun15,1,4103824.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

DO-IT-YOURSELF INFORMATION ONLINE Some 55% of adult Internet users have looked for "how-to," "do-it-yourself" or repair information online and roughly 1 in 20 Internet users õ about 7 million people -- search for help on a typical day. The prevalence of this activity is yet another example of the many ways online Americans use the Internet to gather practical information for their everyday lives. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Mary Madden] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/157/report_display.asp See report at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_DIY_June2005.pdf

A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE INTERNET [Commentary] The United Nations and the International Telecommunications Union are trying to wrest control of domain names and DNS and IP addresses from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This battle manifests itself through the United Nations-created World Summit on the Information Society and the ITU-led Working Group on Internet Governance. Both the United Nations and the ITU have their reasons for trying to take control of these vital resources from ICANN. For the United Nations, ICANN represents a body that transcends the nation state structure and could become a model for similar efforts covering subject matter most appropriately dealt with at a global level. For the ITU, gaining control of core Internet resources represents an opportunity to put the Internet genie back in the bottle and gain a greater measure of relevance in the IP networking world. The ITU doesn't see itself as merely an overseer of the old circuit-switched networks, which it presides over today. Rather, it views itself as the overseer of all networks, including the Internet. The Internet has contributed more to freedom, education and innovation than any other advance of the last number of decades. It deserves to be protected from the people and the institutions that do not share an appreciation for preserving the values on which the Internet was founded. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Elliot Noss (not Ness), Tucows] http://news.com.com/A+battle+for+the+soul+of+the+Internet/2010-1071_3-5737647.html?tag=nefd.ac

MOONVES: PREPARE FOR PLUGS APLENTY TV viewers better brace themselves for even greater product placement in their favorite TV shows because CBS Chairman Les Moonves is planning a big increase. CBS will be heavily salting much of its programming with placements. "We're making more and more of those deals: The kind of cars they drive in CSI; the kind of orange juice they drink in Two and A Half Men." [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: ] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA606786?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

THE SOURCE OF WHOSE TROUBLES? [Commentary] The use and abuse of unnamed sources is rampant, especially in Washington, and the media all too often protect those with partisan agendas. It's a long road from Felt telling Woodward to "follow the money" to a Bush adviser telling the New York Times that John Kerry "looks French." But such potshots have become routine in daily reporting. The public, understandably, has become increasingly suspicious of blind quotes, and sometimes unnamed sources are simply wrong. Perhaps a better lesson for the press is the way that Woodward and Bernstein pored over phone lists and knocked on doors late at night, the kind of shoe leather reporting that seems less fashionable in an age of cable, blogs, Podcasts and the like. There is still a burning need for original reporting amid the cacophony of analysis, commentary and celebrity news. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/05/AR2005060501384.html (requires registration)

PRESS IN IRAQ GAINS RIGHTS BUT NO REFUGE Iraq is adjusting uneasily to its newfound press freedoms, which proponents consider as important to cultivating democracy here as free and fair elections. At least 85 journalists and other employees of news organizations -- the vast majority of them Iraqis -- have been killed here since March 2003, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which opened an office in Baghdad in April to distribute safety information. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Finer] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/05/AR2005060501143.html (requires registration)

PODCASTING RAPIDLY EMERGING AS RADIO BUSINESS EXTENSION Podcasting, the new medium burst from the confluence of iPods and audio downloads, is advancing at incredible speed as more marketers and media owners incorporate it as an extension of the radio business. [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Abbey Klaassen] http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45206 * Papers Turn to Podcasting, the Newest of Media http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4673646 * Infinity's All-News Stations To Offer Daily Podcasts Beginning 7/05 http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=129034&pt=todaysnews

SOME SEE BENEFITS OF FILE SHARING While the major entertainment conglomerates argue that popular file-sharing networks have no "commercially significant" use, some independent artists, labels and filmmakers are trying to sell their digital wares amid the profusion of bootlegged goods. So far, though, the results have not lived up to many of the pioneers' hopes. Despite the enormous number of users on the networks, sales have been slight. Labels that use the peer-to-peer networks say they generate less than 10% of the sales that industry-sanctioned outlets such as Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store do. The networks' ability to become legitimate sources of music, movies and other goods is a key issue for the Supreme Court, which is considering whether two popular file-sharing companies should be held liable for their users' rampant piracy. The major labels, studios and music publishers have asked the court to overturn the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which shielded StreamCast Networks Inc. and Grokster Ltd. from liability. The court's ruling is expected this month. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-p2p3jun03,1,4293460.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

WAL-MART'S NEW REALM: REALITY TV Wal-Mart, seeking additional ways to burnish its tarnished image, is turning to a new realm: reality TV. For the first time, Wal-Mart Stores is becoming a major sponsor of a reality television show, by signing a branded-entertainment agreement with ABC for "The Scholar," a summer series that begins a six-week run on Monday night. Wal-Mart will be woven into the plots of episodes of the show. Five members of the show's winning team will receive a $2,000 Wal-Mart gift card to outfit their college dorm rooms. And Wal-Mart is underwriting the cost of the scholarships for the nine runners-up, totaling $300,000. (The Broad Foundation in Los Angeles is donating the grand prize.) There will also be commercials during the show promoting the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club Foundation's long-running program offering scholarships to students in towns where it operates stores and distribution centers. Wal-Mart and ABC declined to discuss the financial details of the deal, but Wal-Mart said it was paying "well above six figures" for its participation in "The Scholar." Payments by marketers for branded-entertainment deals in reality TV series can range from less than $100,000 to as much as $4 million. The deal between Wal-Mart and ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, is indicative of the growing appetite among blue-chip marketers to become intrinsically involved in the content of entertainment programming. Their goal is to counter the growing appetite among television viewers to zip, zap and otherwise avoid traditional commercials that interrupt the shows they want to watch. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stuart Elliott] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/business/media/03adco.html (requires registration)

BEYOND KIWANIS: INTERNET BUILDS NEW COMMUNITIES Five years after sociologist Robert Putnam documented the decline of community involvement in his book Bowling Alone, a new spirit of civic engagement is flourishing, largely because of 21st-century technology. Cellphones, e-mails, instant text messaging and BlackBerries are helping mobile, busy Americans link up with neighbors on their commutes to work, in the middle of the night and on business trips. Technology, coupled with the rising number of families who have school-age children and retirees who have leisure time, is raising hopes that more Americans are again investing "social capital." [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Haya El Nasser] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050602/1a_cover02.art.htm

COMPANIES SUBVERT SEARCH RESULTS TO SQUELCH CRITICISM Although Google and other search engines will not spell out exactly how their top secret algorithms work, some companies have found ways to influence search results: search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that go against accepted marketing techniques and into the muddy world of Web page spam, also known as link farms and Google bombing. [SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Mark Glaser] http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050601glaser/

NET FIRM FOCUSES ON BLURRING THE LINE At entertainment site Heavy.com, what seems to be program content may well be advertising. "Our goal is to be kind of an interface, where we have two groups of customers: consumers and marketers," said Simon Assaad, the 34-year-old Melbourne, Australia, native who launched Heavy in 1998 with partner David Carson [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-heavy2jun02,1,3719835.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

NEWSROOM DIVERSITY: WAS IT JUST A 1990s IDEAL? A report on newsroom diversity to be released today shows that the percentage of minority employees at major papers peaked 5-10 years ago. [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Fitzgerald ] http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000939249

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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:
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