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Benton media news digest – October 2006 31 Oct: NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION FALLS SHARPLY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
The circulation of the nation’s daily newspapers
plunged during the latest reporting period in one
of the sharpest declines in recent history,
according to data released yesterday. The slide
continues a decades-long trend and adds to the
woes of a mature industry already struggling with
layoffs and facing the potential sale of some of
its flagships. Over all, average daily
circulation dropped by 2.8 percent during the
six-month period ended Sept. 30, compared with
the period last year, according to an industry
analysis of data released by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations. Circulation for Sunday papers fell
by 3.4 percent. The figures appear to be the
steepest in any comparable six-month period in at
least 15 years. Newspaper executives also
attribute some of the decline to deliberate
strategies to eliminate so-called bulk sales to
third-party sponsors that offer papers free in
places like hotels. Advertisers view them as
having little value because the readers getting them did not pay for them. UN PROPOSES CHANGES TO NET'S OPERATION
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
A top United Nations official on Monday called
for changes in the way the Internet is operated,
taking aim at "self-serving justifications" for
permitting the United States to preserve its
unique influence and authority online. Speaking
during opening ceremonies at a four-day U.N.
summit , Yoshio Utsumi criticized the current
rules for overseeing domain names and Internet
addresses, stressing that poorer nations are
dissatisfied and are hoping that this week's
meeting will erode U.S. influence. "Many of them
are tired of hearing 'You just don't
understand,'" said Utsumi, a lawyer and former
government official who is the secretary-general
of the International Telecommunication Union, a
U.N. agency. "Many do understand." He added: "No
matter what technical experts argue is the best
system, no matter what self-serving
justifications are made that this is the only
possible way to do things, there are no systems
or technologies that can eternally claim they are
the best." Human rights groups, however, have
warned that many of the nations most critical of
the current arrangement -- Tunisia, Cuba, Iran,
China -- rank among the world's most repressive.
The worry: If those governments have their way,
the current, virtually limitless amount of free
expression on the Internet may come to an end. CANDIDATES, PARTIES TARGET WEB AUDIENCE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Will Lester]
The number of people who go online for political
news is rising, with more than one-third saying
they check the Internet for such information.
This group is more likely to be younger, better
educated and male than the population in general,
an Associated Press-AOL News poll found. While 35
percent say they check the Internet for political
updates about campaigns and candidates, that
number grows to 43 percent of likely voters - and
they tend to be more liberal than conservative.
With the Nov. 7 elections nearing, the online
audience is getting deluged with e-mail and
election updates from news, campaign and
political Web sites. People who use the Web point
to the convenience, the variety of information
and the range of intense emotion available online. COMPANIES HAVE BROAD AIMS FOR TV ON WEB
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Brian Bergstein]
Eyebrows went up when Google recently agreed to
spend $1.65 billion for YouTube, the most popular
Web site for free video clips. But that figure
could be blown away one day if some emerging
companies achieve their much broader visions for
the future of online TV. These companies -- like
Brightcove and Maven Networks -- are building
flexible online networks that can host content,
serve up ads and dish out interactive features.
While "viral" video-sharing sites like YouTube
focus on individual clips - many pirated - these
new Internet TV platforms are designed to host
full-fledged channels that content creators can control. TO THE MEDIA, YOUTUBE IS A THREAT AND A TOOL
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi and Sara Kehaulani Goo]
Media companies are of two minds about Internet
video-sharing site YouTube, which rocketed to
fame by letting users share homemade videos along
with copyrighted clips from movies, TV shows and
music videos. They are unsure of whether YouTube
is a friend or a foe -- a threat that could
siphon off their TV audiences and ad dollars or a
powerful promotion machine that could generate
buzz for the shows. While users have had
virtually unfettered freedom to post and watch
whatever clips they want, big media companies are
starting to reassert control by seeking removal
of some shows. If all or most of the bootlegged
content disappears from YouTube, some users
wonder whether YouTube can live up to the promise
Google Inc. saw when it agreed to buy the site
for $1.65 billion in stock this month. YOUTUBE & MYSPACE PULL DOWN PROTECTED CONTENT
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com/Reuters, AUTHOR: Candace Lombardi]
YouTube is removing from its site all copyrighted
content from the Comedy Central Network after
receiving a request to do so. Meanwhile News
Corp.'s MySpace.com on Monday said it had
licensed a new technology to stop users from
posting unauthorized copyrighted music on the
social networking Web site and oust frequent violators of its policy. MEET THE NEW BOSS... A LOT LIKE THE OLD BOSS
[SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Edward Wasserman]
[Commentary] Can local ownership of newspapers --
by "hometown rich guys" -- save the industry and
provide a stable business environment in which
journalists can serve the public with quality
work while returning a modest profit to owners?
Wasserman is skeptical. These "hard-driving,
fabulously wealthy individuals" made their money,
after all, "by cutting corners, cutting costs
and...cutting throats." True, Wall Street can be
tough -- and stupid -- but the problems the news
business faces aren't Wall Street's fault. They
derive from the need to reformulate a business
model that will enable news organizations to
sustain themselves in the Internet age so they
can continue to nourish the rest of us. SCAMS USED LEASED RADIO TIME TO TARGET IMMIGRANT LISTENERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jennifer
Levitz jennifer.levitz@wsj.com]
Fraudsters seeking to take advantage of
immigrants are finding an easy route via radio
stations that lease blocks of air time to anyone
willing to pay. Some of these stations are part
of major foreign-language media chains, such as
market leader Univision Communications Inc. Yet
station managers say they make little effort to
check the bona fides of the people they allow on
the air. The practice of "time brokerage" is more
likely to lead to deception than traditional
advertising because those buying the time often
disguise their pitches as regular programming. In
Kansas and New Jersey, people pretending to be
lawyers bought time for Spanish-language shows
offering immigration advice, which served as
promotions for their bogus law practices. Time
brokerage is appealing to radio-station owners
because they can receive $150 to $500 an hour for
air time with little effort. Buyers of time "come
in, perform their act and leave," says Bill
Parris, a consultant for MultiCultural Radio
Broadcasting Inc. The New York City company owns
about 45 stations whose air time is all brokered.
In a wave of radio industry consolidation, media
chains have been snapping up FM stations with
good signals, leaving a pool of small AM stations
that can still be bought for relatively little.
Station executives who speak only English are
often unaware of what is happening. At WLQY and
elsewhere, managers often lease time to one
entrepreneur who then subleases it to another, so
there isn't even the minimal screening normally
given to an advertiser or buyer of time. About
500 foreign-language radio stations in the U.S.
now engage in time brokerage, double the number
of a decade ago, according to David Schutz,
co-founder of a San Diego consulting company that
specializes in station acquisitions. The stations
draw loyal immigrant audiences who have few
options for news or information in their native languages.
PUBLIC RADIO GOES GLOBAL OVER THE WORLD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com]
Public radio stations are aggressively pushing
high-definition radio, live streaming of
programs, podcasting and other technology-driven
improvements -- and in the process demonstrating
the potential the Internet may hold for all radio
stations, public or commercial. Such moves have
helped public stations expand their audience at a
time when commercial broadcasters are seeing the
listener base shrink. But while the initiatives
have helped public radio stations expand their
reach, the bar for success is also lower. Public
stations rely on sponsorship and listener
donations and are under less pressure to make
money on their audience-growing online
initiatives, such as selling ads on their
podcasts. Public stations face their own unique
set of challenges in using technology to reach
national audiences. For starters, such moves
might undercut the local service that is central to public radio's mission. ADS GET DOWN AND DIRTY TO GRAB ATTENTION
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Theresa Howard]
FCC rules ban profanity on broadcast radio and TV
from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It levied nearly $4
million in fines last year and took 327,198
decency complaints (vs. 233,531 in 2004). But
that hasn't stopped Dodge, Comcast and Volkswagen
from flirting with language limits, which are the
same for ads as for the shows in which they air.
They have created ads that make obvious from the
context that a character said a banned word --
particularly the “s” word popular in slang -- but
trail off or “bleep” so the actual word is not
heard. “We ad people try to find ways to call
attention to what we're doing,” says ad expert
Suzanne Powers, chief strategy officer for agency
TBWA/Chiat/Day. The “bleep is unexpected. It's an
interesting way to disrupt the viewer and do
something out of the ordinary.” FCC spokeswoman
Rosemary Kimball would not say whether there have
been complaints about these ads, but networks have been cautious. 30 Oct: IN EARLY NEWSPAPERS, ONLY 'MR SILKY MILKY' WOULD BE IMPARTIAL [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Cynthia Crossen] Early U.S. newspaper publishers scoffed at the idea that they should hide their political prejudices under a cloak of objectivity. Editors who tried to remain relatively detached were mocked by their competitors. Circulation and advertising revenue couldn't support a newspaper, but government jobs or printing contracts could. When the political candidates they supported were elected, loyal editors expected pork or patronage, and their journals became "virtual branches of the government," wrote Eric Burns, author of "Infamous Scribblers." As America's population and literacy grew, newspaper publishers found it economically advantageous to reach out to different kinds of readers, not just members of their own parties. And when the Government Printing Office was created in 1860, editors had less to gain from cozying up to politicians. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116216815220307359.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) FCC COMMISSIONERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST MEDIA CONSOLIDATION
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Joe Garofoli]
As the Federal Communications Commission reviews its rules on media
ownership, Commissioner Michael Copps urged Friday that the process
be more open than it was in 2003, when the Commission "eviscerated"
ownership rules "without seeking meaningful input from the American
people." Though the changes were largely overturned by a federal
court, Commissioner Copps warned 350 people at a community forum in
Oakland that "we're right back at Square 1. Big Media hasn't gone
away; their lobbyists haven't gone away; and they're still marching
behind their 'Pied Piper of Consolidation.''' Copps and Commissioner
Jonathan Adelstein, the five-member panel's only Democrats, appeared
at the California State Conference of the NAACP to rally interest in
media consolidation issues at a forum sponsored by the NAACP and
several progressive organizations. The FCC will hold five more
official hearings nationwide on consolidation, and could vote as
early as March on any changes. Copps and Adelstein, who oppose
further consolidation, plan to hold a dozen similar unofficial forums
elsewhere. While there is more awareness of the issue after the 2003
battle over media consolidation, the two commissioners' path this
time will be equally difficult. Not only are they outnumbered by
Republicans on the panel, both said that they are also having a hard
time getting information from their own agency about what studies the
FCC is conducting on consolidation issues. IN BLURRY WORLD, OWNERSHIP IS YESTERDAY'S NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Silkos]
[Commentary] "It is hard to find any public policy question that
feels less relevant by the minute than whether one person or company
should be permitted to own television stations and newspapers in the
same market." Silkos argues that media crossownership bans adopted in
1975 are unnecessary in the quickly changing media landscape. He's
not even sure that if the rules are repealed by the Federal
Communications Commission that they'll be any company that thinks its
a good idea. Big media's argument for relaxing cross-ownership rules
is that the days when broadcast TV and newspapers wholly dominated
their markets are dimming. Publishers and broadcasters need scale to
compete effectively in an era when cable, digitization and the
Internet have vastly increased the number of sources of news and
information in a market. But the most important reason that
cross-ownership rules no longer make sense is this: the distinctions
between print and television are starting to blur in a digital world.
Video on the Web is the biggest thing since turkey and gravy.
Companies like Tribune have argued that their TV expertise will
increasingly lead to more attractive and useful Web sites
incorporating video clips alongside articles, and vice versa. Yes,
there is too much blandness in big media. Yes, television and
newspapers are still the popular providers of local news. And, yes,
it's probably impossible to say that consolidation has succeeded in
every case in providing more news "from diverse and antagonistic
sources." But cross-media ownership is neither the solution to the
industry's woes nor the potential bogeyman it might have once
appeared. We're in a different game now. AT&T NIXES NET NEUTRALITY PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
A senior AT&T executive rejected a proposal that would require the
company to adhere to Internet-nondiscrimination rules in order to
gain approval from the Federal Communications Commission to merge
with BellSouth. The Internet-regulation proposal -- advanced by a
coalition funded by Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon.com -- would
require AT&T to promise not to discriminate "in their carriage and
treatment of Internet traffic based on the source, destination or
ownership of such traffic." The net-neutrality condition would apply
to AT&T, but to no other provider of broadband Internet access in the
United States. Stifel Nicolaus telecommunications analyst David Kaut
said he didn't believe that AT&T would accept a nondiscrimination
condition. "I think they are dug in on that -- they will not give
that up, particularly in a merger proceeding where they would be the
only company affected," he added. US TV BROADCASTS LEAVING SOME CUBANS IN THE DARK [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Marc Frank] Cuba has jammed the latest anti-Castro television programing beamed over by the United States, according to an informal survey of Cubans who tried to watch the shows that included baseball's championship series. But the U.S. agency that oversees the effort said it was "confident" Cubans were seeing the programs. The Bush administration has pledged to strengthen TV Marti broadcasts in hopes of undermining Cuba's communist government, provisionally headed by Defense Minister Raul Castro while his brother, President Fidel Castro, recovers from intestinal surgery. TV Marti, part of the U.S. government's International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), officially began new aircraft-based broadcasts on Tuesday to baseball-crazed Cuba, starting with game three of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers. http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-10-28T003605Z_01_N27241745_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-CUBA-USA-DC.XML
27 Oct: SPEED MATTERS
[SOURCE: Communications Workers of America]
The Communications Workers of America has adopted "five key
principles" for improving the US's place in the high-speed Internet
economy: 1) Speed and Universality Matter for Internet Access --
High-tech innovation, job growth, telemedicine, distance learning,
rural development, public safety and e-government require truly high
speed, universal networks. 2) The U.S. "High Speed" Definition is Too
Slow -- The FCC defines "high speed" as 200 kilobits per second
(kbps) downstream. Government policies should immediately set "high
speed" definition at 2 megabits per second (mbps) downstream, 1
upstream. 3) A National "High Speed Internet for All" Policy is Critical
The U.S. must adopt policies for universal access and set deployment
timetables: 10 mbps down, 1 mbps up by 2010, with new benchmarks set
for succeeding years. 4) The U.S. Must Preserve an Open Internet --
High speed, high capacity networks will eliminate bandwidth scarcity
and will promote an open Internet. Consumers are entitled to an open
Internet allowing them to go where they want when they want. Nothing
should be done to degrade or block access to any websites. Reserving
proprietary video bandwidth is essential to finance the build-out of
high speed networks. 5) Consumer and Worker Protections Must Be
Safeguarded -- Public policies should support growth of good, career
jobs as a key to providing quality service. Government should require
public reporting of deployment, actual speed and price. SURVEY REVEALS NORTH AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS RATE BROADBAND AS MOST
IMPORTANT WIRELINE SERVICE
[SOURCE: In-Stat press release]
According to the results of a new survey of US and Canadian consumers
that segments households by demographics, all segments rated
broadband "the communication service they can least live without,"
reports In-Stat. 26 Oct: STATIONS MUST THINK 'HYPERLOCAL' ON WEBSITES [SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry A. Jessell] If TV broadcasters do nothing else next year to enhance their Web presence, they ought to use their Web sites to cover local high school football, says Richard Warner, CEO of What's Up Interactive, which builds and maintains Web site for TV stations. Citing the Friday Night Blitz section on the Web site of KMOV, the Belo station in St. Louis, Warner said high school football is just the kind of "hyperlocal" content that all broadcasters should be looking for. http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2006/10/25/daily.18/ CITIZEN JOURNALISTS: KEY TO STATIONS' FUTURE? [SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Kathy Haley] TV stations searching for a way to capitalize on their localism in a changing, multimedia world may well find the key in citizen journalism, according to a panel of experts at the RTNDA News & Technology Summit track at NAB New York. Stations need to move quickly, however, the panelists said, and they need to overcome the inertia created by traditional TV news staffers who feel threatened by the trend, and by management that isn't yet aware of how quickly Internet video is transforming journalism. http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2006/10/25/daily.14/ NFL TAKING INTERNET IN-HOUSE
[SOURCE: SportsBusiness Journal, AUTHOR: Terry Lefton]
Unable to land the lucrative rights deal that it had twice before,
the NFL is taking its Internet production in-house, combining it with
its NFL Network. The move continues the league's transformation from
a sports property to a media company and presages the not-too-distant
day when broadband Internet video will rival traditional television
as a distribution network for valuable rights, like NFL games. "This
allows the NFL to build something for the evolving multimedia
world,'' said former NFL, NHL and AOL marketer Tom Richardson, who
now heads Convergence Sports & Media, Westport, Conn. "Nobody really
knows how it is changing, but when you own content, building a large
media asset is a good bet. It will only get more valuable. They've
already invested a lot in the NFL Network, and much of that
infrastructure and knowledge is applicable in the Internet world." BUSH, REPUBLICANS TURN TO TALK SHOWS FOR HELP
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andrea Hopkins]
American radio talk-show hosts have become frontline warriors in a
drive by President George W. Bush and his Republicans to pull off a
surprise and maintain control of Congress in November 7 elections. In
the face of opinion polls favoring Democrats and bad news from Iraq,
Bush turned to the powerful hosts of talk radio two weeks before
Americans a new Congress. Radio personalities and programs play a
political role in many countries. In America, they have become
largely a powerful ally for conservatives, even as the rise of
Internet blogs has broadened the spectrum of voter voices being
heard. Analysts said the rise of other populist media -- most notably
the Internet -- along with growing schisms among conservatives over
immigration, the Iraq war, budget deficits and social policy will
make it tougher this year for talk radio to help Republicans chalk up
an election win. A NEW CAMPAIGN TACTIC: MANIPULATING GOOGLE DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller Jr]
Fifty or so other Republican candidates have also been made targets
in a sophisticated "Google bombing" campaign intended to game the
search engine's ranking algorithms. By flooding the Web with
references to the candidates and repeatedly cross-linking to specific
articles and sites on the Web, it is possible to take advantage of
Google's formula and force those articles to the top of the list of
search results. The articles to be used "had to come from news
sources that would be widely trusted in the given district," said
Chris Bowers, a contributor at MyDD.com (Direct Democracy), a liberal
group blog. "We wanted actual news reports so it would be clear that
we weren't making anything up." Each name is associated with one
article. Those articles are embedded in hyperlinks that are now being
distributed widely among the left-leaning blogosphere. In an entry at
MyDD.com this week, Mr. Bowers said: "When you discuss any of these
races in the future, please, use the same embedded hyperlink when
reprinting the Republican's name. Then, I suppose, we will see what
happens." An accompanying part of the project is intended to buy up
Google Adwords, so that searches for the candidates' names will bring
up advertisements that point to the articles as well. But Mr. Bowers
said his hopes for this were fading, because he was very busy. It is
far from clear whether this particular campaign will be successful.
Much depends on the extent of political discussion already tied to a
particular candidate's name. 25 Oct: BE LOYAL, KIND AND DON'T STEAL MOVIES
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc.,
etc. He is also respectful of copyrights. Boy
Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able
to earn an activity patch for learning about the
evils of downloading pirated movies and music.
The patch shows a film reel, a music CD and the
international copyright symbol, a "C" enclosed in
a circle. The movie industry has developed the curriculum. WHO NEEDS A BOWLING LEAGUE TO MAKE FRIENDS WHEN THERE'S THE WEB?
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
The online equivalent of bowling leagues — now
there's the next big thing on the Web. Social
networking on the Web is already huge, and it's
only going to get bigger. But the next stage of
the trend is not all about MySpace adding to its
100 million members. A lot of tech entrepreneurs
are betting on a new generation of sites that
build social networking around activities or
interests. Such sites include Splice, MyBlogLog,
Hotsoup and Dodgeball. Sneakerplay is a social
network built around, of all things, sneaker
fanatics. Google is buying YouTube in part
because of YouTube's social networking around
videos. These kinds of sites are beginning to
circle MySpace like a piranha sizing up a hippo. THE COMMA THAT COSTS 1 MILLION DOLLARS (CANADIAN)
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ian Austen]
Our friends at York University know that it pays
to pay attention to your grammar. dispute between
Rogers Communications of Toronto, Canada’s
largest cable television provider, and a
telephone company in Atlantic Canada, Bell
Aliant, is over the phone company’s attempt to
cancel a contract governing Rogers’ use of
telephone poles. But the argument turns on a
single comma in the 14-page contract. The answer
is worth 1 million Canadian dollars (or 888,000
real American dollars). Citing the “rules of
punctuation,” Canada’s telecommunications
regulator recently ruled that the comma allowed
Bell Aliant to end its five-year agreement with
Rogers at any time with notice. Rogers argues
that pole contracts run for five years and
automatically renew for another five years,
unless a telephone company cancels the agreement
before the start of the final 12 months. The
contract is a standard one for the use of utility
poles, negotiated between a cable television
trade association and an alliance of telephone
companies. French and English versions were
approved by a government regulator about six
years ago. The dispute is over this sentence:
“This agreement shall be effective from the date
it is made and shall continue in force for a
period of five (5) years from the date it is
made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year
terms, unless and until terminated by one year
prior notice in writing by either party.” WHITE HOUSE HOSTS MASS TALK RADIO EVENT
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Jackson]
Two weeks before a pivotal election, the Bush
administration brought some of the Republican
Party's conservative base to its front yard
Tuesday by inviting talk radio hosts to broadcast
from the North Lawn of the White House. About
three dozen radio hosts set up inside a huge
tent, interviewing administration stars such as
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and political guru Karl
Rove. The hosts, both national and local, hailed
from cities from New York to San Diego. They
included a smattering of liberals. Michael
Harrison, publisher of the trade magazine
Talkers, said the White House has held “radio
days” before, including one President Clinton
hosted in 1993 to promote his health care
proposal. The Bush White House hosted a radio day
less than a week before the elections in 2002.
Harrison said the difference this year is that
some conservatives, such as economist Bruce
Bartlett and blogger Andrew Sullivan, have been
critical of Bush policies on the war in Iraq and
federal spending as elections loom Nov. 7. “Right
now, the Bush administration is worried about its
conservative base defecting,” Harrison said.
According to Talkers magazine, four of the five
top talk radio audiences tune into conservatives:
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and
Laura Ingraham. Of those, only Hannity showed up
at the White House on Tuesday, and his day
included an interview of Vice President Cheney to
be run on both his radio and Fox News television programs Tuesday. TWO REPORTS BOLSTER ARGUMENT THAT MEDIA CONSOLIDATION HURTS THE PUBLIC [SOURCE: Common Cause] Common Cause today released two reports refuting claims that consolidated media serves the public. The first, A Tale of Five Cities, describes the real-world harm that can result when one company owns the local newspaper and its dominant television and/or radio stations. The examples cited in the report show that cross-ownership can harm a community either by shutting out diverse voices or limiting access to unbiased news. The second, Citizens Speak: The Real World Impacts of Media Consolidation, is a distillation of the comments of individuals who spoke at town hall hearings on media consolidation in 2003. The hearings were held to discuss the importance of localism in media and gave people a forum for expressing, often in vivid terms, how media concentration had destroyed local radio, replacing it with bland and homogenized radio formats, robbed of any local color or talent, and had left them bereft of news about their own communities and responsive to their need for information in a democracy. Both reports were filed Monday with the Federal Communications Commission, as the Commission once again considers changing its ownership rules to increase media concentration. http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=192086#studies
24 Oct: RETHINKING THE DISCOURSE ON RACE [SOURCE: Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John's University School of Law] The Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John's University School of Law ("The Ronald H. Brown Center”) issued a comprehensive report entitled: Rethinking the Discourse on Race: A Symposium on How the Lack of Media Affects Social Justice and Policy. The Report examines the lack of diversity in print and broadcast media in front of the camera, behind-the-camera, and in actual media content. The Report gives examples of how the coverage of racial minorities that does exist reinforces stereotypes and distorts images of these groups. Some of these stereotypes and distortions arise from structural, economic and cultural issues in media reporting. These media absences, distortions and stereotypes shape the discourse at the nexus of race and public policy. This Report will be published in an upcoming issue of the St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary. http://new.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/pr_law_061019.sju Mr. Murdoch's Rage [SOURCE: New York Times 10/24/1996, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] AN NY Times editorial criticizes Ted Turner and particularly Rupert Murdoch for using their media outlets to condemn each other. Turner made a parallel between Murdoch and "the late Fuhrer," though he later apologized. Murdoch has stated that Turner is edging towards insanity and his New York Post has printed illustrations of Turner in a straitjacket. Murdoch is also using his media outlets in Britain and Australia to promote his political agenda and excessively praise New York pols Pataki and Giuliani. Turner's networks, including CNN, were recently merged into Time Warner, which controls NYC's cable system. Rupert Murdoch owns several media outlets including the Fox Network and the Fox News Network, which is battling to be carried on NYC's cable system. Turner does not want Time Warner to carry a station that competes with CNN. The editorial reads -- "It is unsettling enough to contemplate a world dominated by a few giant media companies without imagining them being run by spiteful egomaniacs." http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30E1FF838540C778EDDA90994DE494D81 BIG MEDIA WON'T BRING GOOD THINGS TO LIFE
[SOURCE: Denver Post, AUTHOR: Cindy Rodriguez]
[Commentary] General Electric owns NBC, MS-NBC,
Telemundo, Bravo, the Sci Fi Channel, Universal
Pictures and large stakes in dozens of other
media companies. Its television division produces
"The Today Show," "NBC Nightly News with Brian
Williams," "Dateline NBC," "Meet the Press" and
"Hardball with Chris Matthews," to name a few.
The media conglomerate made $157.2 billion in
profits last year and reaches 99 percent of all
U.S. households. It controls the news you watch,
which has become kinder and gentler to government
and corporations, while focusing on sex scandals,
manhunts, and the big crime story of the day.
That's the mantra of media giants, who are more
concerned with profits than educating viewers.
GE, just like Disney and Time Warner, are
monsters with insatiable appetites. They want to
control more media and would if there weren't
Federal Communications Commission rules
prohibiting big media from getting bigger. All
that could change if the FCC has its way this
winter and allows corporations to own more media
outlets in the same city. It's not freedom when
the media parrot what government officials tell
them, which is what you can expect most of the
time on TV news. Granted, newspaper reporters are
more tenacious, but with stockholders demanding
high profit margins it's a matter of time before
they whittle away the staffs of newspapers to the
point where we become glorified transcribers for
government officials. If you care about who
controls what you see on TV and want to stop big
media from concentrating even more power, it's time to speak out. GROUPS WEIGH IN TO FCC ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Broadcasters on Monday urged the Federal
Communications Commission to recognize how
competition has changed over the past 30 years
and ease media ownership rules, while consumer
groups said changes aren't warranted. In an
outpouring of filings on the last date the FCC is
to accept comments on its media ownership rule
re-examination, all sides are pulling out all the
stops. The National Association of Broadcasters
contended that TV stations' deteriorating
financial condition threatens their viability and
that FCC rules restricting duopolies fails to
take account of other competition and called a
rule preventing companies from owning newspapers
and broadcasters in a market "anachronistic." The
group suggested many current FCC rules no longer
rest on a firm foundation. "In a multi-channel
environment dominated by consolidated cable and
satellite system operators, broadcasters are
clearly unable to obtain and exercise any undue
market power," NAB said in its filing. "For this
reason, the traditional rationale for maintaining
a regulatory regime applicable only to local
broadcasters and not their competitors is not a
proper basis for keeping the current rules." It
urged the FCC to "structure its local ownership
rules so that traditional broadcasters and newer
programming distributors can all compete on an
equitable playing field" and ease rules so that
markets of all sizes can more easily form
duopolies. Consumer groups warned an easing would
lead to a "dumbing down" of the public, arguing
that an appellate court ruling they won that
forced the FCC re-examination makes clear the
FCC's duty is to ease rules only if doing so can
clearly be shown to be in the public interest.
"The commission should not simply consider the
effects on the industry's competitive edge in the
marketplace. Rather, the commission must place a
greater emphasis on whether the public is
actually being served by a diversity of voices,"
said a filing from a coalition of the Prometheus
Radio Project, Common Cause, the Media Alliance
and the Center for Digital Democracy, among other
groups. "It is imperative that the commission
seriously weigh the benefits of the current rules
to employ a diversity of voices." Consumers
Union, the Consumer Federation of American and
Free Press in a separate filing said that despite
changes in technology, "Most people still rely on
their local newspapers and local television
stations as their most important sources of local
news." The groups said those sources have a
disproportionate impact on public opinion and
that their further consolidation would be "highly problematic." MEDIA OWNERSHIP FIGHT GETS RED HOT
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
While corporate America deluged the Federal
Communications Commission today with comments on
the media ownership docket, a small battalion of
media reform groups publicized new research and
public filings that urge the FCC not to scotch
its broadcast ownership rules. "These studies
make clear that media consolidation does not
correlate with better, more local or more diverse
media content," former FCC Commissioner Gloria
Tristani told reporters at a press conference
held in Washington, D.C. "To the contrary, they
strongly suggest that media ownership rules
should be tightened not relaxed." Tristani, now
president of the Benton Foundation, announced the
release of four academic papers sponsored by
Benton and the Social Science Research Council
(SSRC) that take a critical look at media
consolidation. The studies respond to the FCC's
latest attempt to reconsider its media ownership
regulations. Up for grabs are rules that limit
how many radio stations, TV stations, and
newspapers a company can own in the same market.
The Benton/SSRC reports contend that: 1) Larger
radio station groups do not offer more variety,
2) Newspaper/TV cross ownership doesn't
facilitate more local news; 3) Women and
minorities own almost no radio and television
stations; and 4) Minorities intensely distrust mainstream news.
http://lasarletter.com/freepage.php?id=200610232
CABLE CLEANS UP ON CAMPAIGN ADS [SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz] All politics may be local, but political advertising on cable television increasingly is going national. The Republican Party's decision last week to buy national ad time on cable networks for the first time in an off-year election followed similar purchases from advocacy groups supporting both parties. The national buys augment the heavy advertising that candidates, parties and advocacy groups conduct on local cable systems and TV stations. Networks such as Fox News Channel and CNN are poised to benefit as local advertising time gets scarce in markets where races are tight for the Nov. 7 election. The chance that the Republican Party may lose control of both houses of Congress has raised the stakes in many districts, leading to a run on local ad time in states including Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. So far, the national cable advertising is a trickle, perhaps around $3 million, according to Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence's Campaign Media Analysis Group. The national advertising may increase in future races, Mr. Tracey said, as parties seek to strengthen brand loyalty among their supporters. The tight races in this off-year election may push total political advertising as high as $1.7 billion, the same amount spent in the last presidential election cycle, he said. http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10935 (requires free registration) A TV COMEDY TURNS AN UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPON ON IRAQ'S HIGH AND MIGHTY: FAKE NEWS [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Luo] Nearly every night here for the past month, Iraqis weary of the tumult around them have been turning on the television to watch a wacky-looking man with a giant Afro wig and star-shaped glasses deliver the grim news of the day. The newscast is a parody that fires barbs at everyone from the American military to the Iraqi government, an Iraqi version of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Even the militias wreaking havoc on Iraq are lampooned. Debuting last month during Ramadan, while families gathered to break their fast after sundown, the show, “Hurry Up, He’s Dead,” became the talk of Baghdad, delighting and shocking audiences with its needling of anyone with a hand in Iraqis’ gloomy predicament today. The acerbic newscasts, each lasting about 20 minutes, are broadcast on Al Sharqiya, an Iraqi satellite station that has at times run afoul of the government for its regular news coverage. They are continuing through Id al-Fitr, the Muslim celebration for the end of Ramadan this week. Officials at the station are in discussions about turning the show into a weekly program. The show’s success is a testament to the gallows humor with which many Iraqis now view their lives -- still lacking basic services and plagued by unrelenting violence more than three years after the American-led invasion. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/world/middleeast/24show.html (requires registration) HOW TO EVALUATE CREDIBILITY OF NEWS [SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, AUTHOR: Anna Crane] Since the Internet has created the opportunity for an infinite number of news outlets, the ability to distinguish news from gossip, and credibility from popularity, is an increasingly useful skill -- not only for journalists but for news consumers as well. In response, the newly created Stony Brook University School of Journalism in New York is offering a course in news literacy that will attempt to teach its students how to distinguish fact from fiction. Throughout the course, students analyze different media outlets, different types of stories, and different types of sources. Several classes are devoted entirely to Internet communications. With the guidance of journalism professors and media experts, students learn to identify “quality journalism” in all of these areas. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003286893 23 Oct: NEW OWNERSHIP STUDIES EXPECTED
[SOURCE: Broadcastin g& Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Benton Foundation and the Social Science
Research Council will release four media
ownership studies Monday concerning radio,
minority and women-owned media, minority news
consumption, and TV/newspaper cross-ownership's
impact on public affairs. Gloria Tristani, former
FCC commissioner with the Benton Foundation, says
the goal is not to inundate the commission, but
to "help inform policymakers with good data."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6383555.html?display=Breaking+News NETWORKS AREN'T WAL-MARTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable, AUTHOR: Jonathan
Rintels, Center for Creative Voices in Media]
[Commentary] B&C’s October 9 editorial “Take
Risks”, concerning the complaints made against
Big Media at the FCC’s public hearings in L.A.,
fails to mention the primary reason the FCC was
holding public hearings in the first place:
because broadcasters who have been granted a
license to use the public’s airwaves, with no
payment to the public, are required by law to
operate in the public interest. Analogizing
broadcasting to Wal-Mart while ignoring this
critical fact is misleading and inapposite. The
editorial suggests that creatives blocked by the
networks from access to the public airwaves
should instead create for the Internet and
YouTube. Many are doing just that. But the
existence of the Internet does not in any way
relieve broadcasters of their obligation to
operate in the public interest. As David Rehr,
president of the NAB, said the day after the
FCC’s public hearings, “By any measure, broadcast
remains the undisputed leader in news and entertainment -- by far.” NEWS CORP RENEWS 'POISON PILL' DEFENCE [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joshua Chaffin] News Corp shareholders on Friday agreed to extend a special “poison pill” provision that was designed to protect the media group from a hostile takeover by rival Liberty Media. At a New Corp annual meeting that often veered into questions about the personal politics of the company’s chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, the proposal to extend the measure for an additional year won 57 per cent of the votes cast. At the same time, Mr Murdoch said he believed that he was nearing a deal with John Malone, the Liberty Media chief executive, who began to build up a 19 per cent stake in News Corp two years ago. That move took the Murdochs by surprise, and raised speculation that Mr Malone might be moving to take control of a global media giant that Mr Murdoch built from a family-owned chain of newspapers in Australia. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f2835478-606b-11db-a716-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOM SPREADING THE BROADBAND REVOLUTION [SOURCE: New York Times 10/21, AUTHOR: Former-FCC Chairman Bill Kennard] [Commentary] Any serious discussion of the future of the Internet should start with a basic fact: broadband is transforming every facet of communications, from entertainment and telephone services to delivery of vital services like health care. But this also means that the digital divide, once defined as the chasm separating those who had access to narrowband dial-up Internet and those who didn't, has become a broadband digital divide. The nation should have a full-scale policy debate about the direction of the broadband Internet, especially about how to make sure that all Americans get access to broadband connections. As chairman of the F.C.C., I put into place many policies to bridge the narrowband digital divide. The broadband revolution poses similar challenges for policymakers. America should be a world leader in broadband technology and deployment, and we must ensure that no group or region in America is denied access to high-speed connections. We are falling short in both areas. Congress could significantly expand broadband access by: 1) reforming the universal service fund to ensure that broadband reaches into rural, low income and other underserved communities and 2) putting all broadband providers on a level playing field. Congress punted on both of these issues this year in large part because of the polarizing Net Neutrality debate. Policymakers should rise above the Net Neutrality debate and focus on what America truly requires from the Internet: getting affordable broadband access to those who need it. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/opinion/21kennard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (requires registration) VIDEO-HUNGRY USERS COULD PUSH NET TO BRINK: NORTEL [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Wojtek Dabrowski] Soaring demand for games, video and music will stretch the Internet to its limits, Canada's Nortel Networks says, and it expects service providers will make big investments in its technology to avoid a crunch. But the telecom equipment giant, still struggling to turn its fortunes round after the tech bubble burst, is treading carefully as it prepares for what it sees as a looming buildout of capacity by telecommunications companies. Massive overbuild of Internet bandwidth capacity helped lead to the meltdown six years ago, and the company says it doesn't want things to go wrong again. http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-20T134253Z_01_N19443767_RTRUKOC_0_US-NORTEL.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C2_technologyNews-4 TIGHTENED BELTS COULD PUT PRESS IN A PINCH [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] [Commentary] It's striking how many of the major probes involving members of Congress were launched because of news accounts, which have become the first line of defense against public corruption. While journalists may lack subpoena power and eavesdropping authority, they often crack these cases ahead of the cops. But will that change as corporate parents cut the number of newsroom staffs? Real investigative reporting, as opposed to the what-happened-yesterday stuff, is time-consuming, risky and expensive. And as one news organization after another sheds staff in this tough financial climate, it's worth considering what aggressive journalism has produced lately. Newspapers and networks face the same dilemma: too many people doing other things with their time, from Web-surfing to podcast listening, or simply losing interest in news altogether. Some of these customers are consuming the companies' wares online, which is great for exposure but doesn't produce the revenue needed to support long-form reporting. If this erosion continues, it would be bad news for serious journalism, and good news for corrupt politicians. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200952.html (requires registration) HISPANIC JOURNALISTS FRUSTRATED BY CONTINUED
EXCLUSION OF LATINOS ON NETWORK NEWS
[SOURCE: National Association of Hispanic Journalists press release]
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists
is once again frustrated by the lack of coverage
of Latinos on the network evening newscasts of
ABC, CBS, and NBC. In its 11th annual Network
Brownout Report released today, NAHJ found that
out of an estimated 12,600 stories aired on the
network evening newscasts in 2005, only 105
stories, or 0.83 percent, were exclusively about
Latinos. This was a slight increase from 2004
when stories about Latinos comprised 0.72 percent
of coverage. News networks still play a major
role in defining the national news agenda. NAHJ
remains disappointed that the evening news fails
to reflect the issues affecting more than 42
million Latinos living in the United States.
Latinos currently make up 14.5 percent of the
U.S. population. The results of the Brownout
Report also show that out of 329 hours of
networks news in 2005, Latino stories accounted
for just 3 hours and 2 minutes of air time, or 0.92 percent.
http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/october/2006Brownout.shtml
WOMEN SCARCER ON 'EVENING NEWS'
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable]
When former Today host Katie Couric arrived at
the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News just six
weeks ago, much was made of the fact that she --
unlike Barbara Walters, Connie Chung and
Elizabeth Vargas before her -- was the first solo
female nightly-news anchor. But that has not
translated to a more female-centric Evening News,
at least on the correspondent side. In fact,
since Couric’s arrival, women have received 40%
fewer assignments than they did under her
predecessor, Bob Schieffer. Men, meanwhile, have
seen no cutback in their workload. That is the
one result of an array of changes to the content,
form and presentation of the newscast instituted
under Couric. Those changes amount to two main
differences in the new Evening News. First, some
hard, breaking news has been supplanted by
features/interviews/commentary. The "Story of the
Day" averages 18% less time than it did under
Schieffer, who used to run one soft
(human-interest, celebrity) feature for every
three on a hard topic. Under Couric, the ratio is
one to two. Moreover, the new nightly feature,
freeSpeech, devotes 90 seconds to guest
commentary. Second, the role of the anchor has
been emphasized; the role of the correspondent
downplayed. That change is evident right at the
top of the newscast when the day’s major stories are teased. 19 Oct: IRAN CUTS INTERNET SPEEDS TO HOMES, CAFES [SOURCE: Reuters] Iran's Internet service providers (ISPs) have started reducing the speed of Internet access to homes and cafes based on new government-imposed limits, a move critics said appeared to be part of a clampdown on the media. An official said last week that ISPs were now "forbidden" by the Telecommunications Ministry from providing Internet connections faster than 128 kilobytes per second (KBps), the official IRNA news agency reported. He did not give a reason. Internet technicians say speeds of 256 KBps, 512 KBps or higher are increasingly common internationally. Iranian surfers will now find it much slower to download music or anything else from the Web. Businesses have not been affected by the move. Critics said the restriction would hinder the work of students and researchers but said it appeared in line with what they see as a squeeze on the media by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who rails against the West. http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-10-18T143910Z_01_BLA852298_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-INTERNET.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C2_internetNews-2 NEILSEN UNVEILS COMMERCIAL RATINGS DEC 11 [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] Nielsen says it will start delivering its first ratings for national TV commercials to broadcast and cable network clients beginning Dec. 11. The service will be free to begin with and include historical data back to the beginning of the season. Advertisers have been clamoring for commercial ratings for some time so that they can better gauge the bang for their buck. Nielsen had initially set Nov. 18 as the date, but it needed the extra time for some modifications to the original specs, it said. Nielsen will provide an average rating for all national commercial minutes in a program, rather than rating a specific spot. For example, if there were 12 national spots in CSI, it would add them up and divide by the number of spots, though each spot will be weighted according to rating for the portion of the program minute in which it appeared. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6382770.html?display=Breaking+News 18 Oct: AGAINST AN IMPERIAL INTERNET [SOURCE: TomPaine.com, AUTHOR: Bill Moyers and Scott Fogdall] [Commentary] Like the Romans, we Americans have used our technology to build a sprawling infrastructure of ports, railroads and interstates which serves the strength of our economy and the mobility of our society. Yet as significant as these have been, they pale beside the potential of the Internet. Almost overnight, it has made sending and receiving information easier than ever. It has opened a vast new marketplace of ideas, and it is transforming commerce and culture. It may also revitalize democracy. The Internet is revolutionary because it is the most democratic of media. All you need to join the revolution is a computer and a connection. We don't just watch; we participate, collaborate and create. Unlike television, radio and cable, whose hirelings create content aimed at us for their own reasons, with the Internet every citizen is potentially a producer. The conversation of democracy belongs to us. That wide-open access is the founding principle of the Internet, but it may be slipping through our fingers. How ironic if it should pass irretrievably into history here, at the very dawn of the Internet Age. Already, the notion of a level playing field -- what's called network neutrality -- is under siege by powerful forces trying to tilt the field to their advantage. The Bush majority on the FCC has bowed to the interests of the big cable and telephone companies to strip away, or undo, the Internet's basic DNA of openness and non-discrimination. So the Internet is reaching a crucial crossroads in its astonishing evolution. Will we shape it to enlarge democracy in the digital era? Will we assure that commerce is not its only contribution to the American experience? The monopolists tell us not to worry: They will take care of us, and see to it that the public interest is honored and democracy served by this most remarkable of technologies. They said the same thing about radio. And about television. And about cable. Will future historians speak of an Internet Golden Age that ended when the 21st century began? http://www.tompaine.com/print/against_an_imperial_internet.php DENMARK LEADS OECD IN BROADBAND PENETRATION [SOURCE: TelecomPaper] The number of broadband subscribers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) increased 33 percent from 136 million in June 2005 to 181 million in June this year. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 11.7 in June 2005 to 15.5 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants currently. DSL continues to be the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Some 63 percent of OECD broadband subscribers use DSL, 29 percent use cable and 8 percent use other technologies. However, cable modem subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States. In June, six countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland and Finland) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Denmark leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 29.3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The strongest per-capita subscriber growth comes from Denmark, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Each country added more than 6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 57 million. US broadband subscribers now represent 36 percent of all broadband connections in the OECD, up from 31 percent in December 2005. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?id=144839&nr=&type=&yr= * "The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy." http://www.oecd.org/about/0,2337,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html "LAW AND ORDER" BOSS DICK WOLF PONDERS THE FUTURE OF TV ADS (DOINK, DOINK) [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg brian.steinberg@wsj.com ] Long before he created the popular crime-solving TV series "Law & Order," Dick Wolf was an ad man working for Benton & Bowles and other agencies. One of his big accomplishments was helping to devise the slogan "You can't beat Crest for fighting cavities" for the Procter & Gamble toothpaste. When working with P&G, Mr. Wolf says, "the sacred mantra was brand extension, and the biggest negative was a brand extension which would hurt the brand. That was to be avoided like the plague." He took P&G's lesson to heart when building "Law & Order" and its critically-acclaimed spinoffs, which are broadcast so frequently on NBC and cable stations that their familiar "doink, doink" sound effects between scenes seem ubiquitous. Mr. Wolf gives P&G full credit. "There are some tips you never forget," he says. These days, however, even the most successful TV producers face an uncertain new world. Consumers can watch entertainment programming whenever they please, on venues other than traditional television, and speed through the commercials. Mr. Wolf, 59, recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal about the changing relationship between advertisers and television. Excerpt: "if anyone tells you what the television business is going to look like a decade out, they are on drugs." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116113866082296113.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) GOOGLE CEO: TECHIES MUST EDUCATE GOVERNMENT [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache] Those in the know about technology must spend more time reaching out to governments and helping them understand the Internet's role in society, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Tuesday. "The average person in government is not of the age of people who are using all this stuff," Schmidt said at a public symposium here hosted by the National Academies' Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. "There is a generational gap, and it's very, very real." Of particular importance on the policy front are Net neutrality, the idea that network operators should not generally be allowed to prioritize content that travels over their pipes--the "revenge of the Bell companies," as Schmidt put it--and digital copyright law. Online service providers like Google that routinely grapple with complaints about copyrighted content on their properties are adequately protected now under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but any future changes in that area "could significantly change the way the Web works," he said. http://news.com.com/Google+CEO+Techies+must+educate+governments/2100-1028_3-6126938.html?tag=nefd.top 17 Oct: WEIGHING THE MERITS OF THE NEW WEBOCRACY
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 10/15]
The Internet has become a wildly optimistic and democratic medium,
rife with community-based sites that draw millions of fans and
disrupt scores of industries. Social networking sites like MySpace
and Facebook encourage community, friendship and sharing. News
aggregators like Digg.com let readers choose the best stories of the
day. Citizen journalists and bloggers pursue their own stories and
disseminate them for free on the Internet, bypassing the mainstream
media altogether. Dubbed Web 2.0, among other things, this new
Internet has captured the attention of Wall Street and Main Street
alike, witnessed by the billions spent on companies such as MySpace
and by the millions of users who visit those sites religiously. Just
last week, the video sharing site YouTube was snapped up by Google
for $1.65 billion, sparking talk of a new bubble. How is this new
environment affecting us? What is it doing to the flow of
information? And the creation of art? How is it changing our culture?
The Chronicle invited two of the Internet's sharpest thinkers --
Wired's Chris Anderson and Web entrepreneur Andrew Keen -- to debate
these questions. TV REALLY MIGHT CAUSE AUTISM
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Gregg Easterbrook]
[Commentary] Cornell University researchers are reporting what
appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism
rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The
researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable
television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning
around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had
cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in
all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the
television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism
disorders. Because autism rates are increasing broadly across the
country and across income and ethnic groups, it seems logical that
the trigger is something to which children are broadly exposed.
Vaccines were a leading suspect, but numerous studies have failed to
show any definitive link between autism and vaccines, while the
autism rise has continued since worrisome compounds in vaccines were
banned. What if the malefactor is not a chemical? Studies suggest
that American children now watch about four hours of television
daily. Before 1980 -- the first kids-oriented channel, Nickelodeon,
dates to 1979 -- the figure is believed to have been much lower. REDSTONE TO REGULATORS: STAY OUT OF OUR HOMES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Media Companies are living in fear, their programs under assault by
people who may not have even seen them and by regulators who dictate
business models "that will do more harm than good." That was the
message being brought to Washington Monday by Viacom Chairman Sumner
Redstone, recipient of The Media Institute's Freedom of Speech award.
According to an advance copy of his speech to the Friends &
Benefactors Banquet, Redstone wants them to know that the fear of an
FCC content crackdown is taking its toll in self-censorship. He
points to several examples, including 11% of CBS affiliates
pre-empting or moving the 9/11 documentary re-airing. Redstone wants
regulators to help spread the word about the content-control power
viewers already have, but to "stay out of their homes." FINAL ANSWER: VIETNAM
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Don Lee]
Vietnam is awash in television game shows. Its eight major TV
stations air more than 50 of them, many in prime time. There are
programs geared toward children, or teens, or seniors. Some cater to
niche audiences, such as the show that tests soldiers on military
life -- still revered in this nominally communist nation. The game
shows reflect Vietnam's rapid economic development. In the last
decade, a middle class has emerged. Pit toilets are giving way to
modern conveniences, cars are replacing motorcycles, and 90% of
Vietnamese households have television sets. Game shows are helping to
influence Vietnam's first TV generation just as television
transformed American culture in the 1950s. In a society where
education is seen as the way to economic freedom, Vietnamese say
these TV programs serve as mass education. They are teaching people
about world history, healthful living and modern lifestyles. Some
fear emergence of a couch-potato nation. POLITICIANS' CAMPAIGNS INVADE MYSPACE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Judy Keen]
Candidates are using popular websites Facebook, MySpace and YouTube
for the first time to give their campaigns free publicity, reach
young voters and bypass traditional media. Once they're online,
though, they risk being mocked and losing control of their messages. 16 Oct: ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFO IS 'HUMAN RIGHT,' INTER-AMERICAN COURT RULES
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Fitzgerald]
For the first time ever, an international court
has declared that access to government
information is a human right. Ruling in a case
brought by three Chilean environmental activists,
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared
that a "right of general access" to
government-held information is protected by
Article 13 of the American Convention on Human
Rights. Article 13 deals with "freedom of thought
and expression." The court further ruled that
government information that isn't otherwise
restricted "should be provided without a need to
demonstrate a direct interest in obtaining it, or
a personal interest, except in cases where there
applies a legitimate restriction." POLITICIANS CAUGHT ON INTERNET CANDID CAMERAS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Deborah Charles]
Want to catch a senator napping during a
congressional hearing? Or letting a possible
racial slur slip out at a campaign rally? Then
log on to Internet video-sharing Web sites like
YouTube.com -- the latest weapon in U.S. politics
where a candidate's missteps can be viewed by
hundreds of thousands of people. Political
campaigns for the November 7 congressional
elections have sent out mass e-mails with links
to videos of opponents in unscripted, often
embarrassing, situations. Some campaigns have
even dispatched young staffers known as
"trackers" armed with video cameras. Their sole
job is to track a rival candidate's every move
and make sure their cameras are rolling in case the politician makes a gaffe.
AS US IS REVILED ABROAD, AMERICAN TV CHARMS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Pfanner]
In the parliaments and pubs of Europe, the United
States may wallow in least-favored-nation status.
But on European television, American shows have
been enjoying a popularity not seen since the
1980’s heyday of “Dallas,” “Dynasty” and “The
Dukes of Hazzard.” United States producers are
taking more risks, creating edgier shows,
analysts say, and they are spending more on them
in an effort to appeal to European audiences.
With revenue from sales of American rights flat,
they are also increasingly dependent on
international sales to recover costs. Meanwhile,
European programming budgets are getting
squeezed. Advertising revenues at many of the
leading channels are stagnant or falling as
viewers defect to the Internet and other new
media. Yet broadcasters have to fill many more
hours of air time as cable, satellite and digital
channels proliferate. Buying the rights to
American shows is much less expensive than
producing original ones. To be sure, analysts
say, the appetite for local content remains
strong. And European producers have been adept at
developing reality TV series and game shows that
can be replicated in export markets, including the United States. THE LATEST CHAPTERS ON THE WAR
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
In an age of blogging, podcasting, BlackBerrying
and instant messaging, when any thought can be
expressed within nanoseconds, an old-fashioned
form of technology is making a comeback. It's
called the book, a collection of pages, bound
between hard covers, that generally takes at
least two years to report, write, edit and
publish, using the kind of presses that date to
the 15th century. With striking swiftness, a
series of books about the Iraq war has exposed
deep flaws in its planning and execution, made
the Bush administration appear dysfunctional at
times and generated enormous news coverage. FAKE NEWS LOBBY GROUP GEARS UP
[SOURCE: PR Watch]
A group of producers of video news releases
(VNRs) have formed the National Association of
Broadcast Communicators (NABC) to campaign
against the mandatory disclosure of fake news.
NABC Vice-President Mike Hill, who is President
of News Broadcast Network, told PR Week that
"disclosure is something that TV and radio
stations should do as they feel necessary from a
news standpoint." Mandatory disclosure, Hill
claimed, "would be unworkable." The new group had
also enlisted support from the Public Relations
Society of America. "We all play an important
role in the news gathering and dissemination
process," said Michael Cherenson, the chair of
the PRSA's advocacy practice. NABC has hired the
Washington D.C. law firm Keller and Heckman and
the lobbying company Bryan Cave Strategies to
counter a Federal Communications Commission
investigation into the use of VNRs.
JOURNAL FIRES BACK AT POLITICAL COVERAGE STUDY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Journal Broadcast Group, whose stations were
included in a University of Wisconsin study
critical of the amount of political news coverage
on Midwest TV stations, fired back Friday. Doug
Kiel, Vice Chairman and CEO of Journal Broadcast
Group and President, Journal Communications,
called the study "disappointingly narrow" and
failing to provide a "complete or accurate"
picture of the commitment to election coverage of
Journal stations WTMJ Milwaukee and WGBA-TV
Appleton/Green Bay, Wisconsin, two of the nine
markets surveyed by the University of Wisconsin's
NewsLab with funding from media reformer The
Joyce Foundation. "By limiting the scope, the
authors of the study have made a choice to
exclude potential election coverage included in
more than thirty hours of news programming each
week in Wisconsin's two largest television
markets," said Kiel. "Our broadcast group has
made a significant commitment of five minutes per
day for the thirty days leading up to the
November 7th general election," he said. "We have
broadcast debates, public service announcements
urging people to vote, and significant news and public affairs programming.” 13 Oct: MERRIL LYNCH DOWNGRADES AD SPENDING FORECASTS
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Anthony Crupi]
Merrill Lynch has downgraded its outlook for U.S.
ad spending for 2006 and 2007, lowering its
growth estimate for this year from 5.1 percent to
4.7 percent and dropping its forecast for next
year from 3.5 percent to 2.8 percent. Merrill did
not change its estimates for broadcast TV,
forecasting 5.5 percent growth in 2006 and a drop
of 1.2 percent in 2007. This year’s cable
networks growth also went unchanged, standing
firm at plus-6 percent, although Merrill
downgraded its prediction for 2007 from plus-7.5
percent to plus-6 percent. While Fine noted that
cable had a “lackluster” upfront, she said that
scatter “seems to be stronger now” for both cable
and broadcast. Merrill was optimistic about one
sector in particular, characterizing the Internet
and other digital platforms as bright spots in an
otherwise underwhelming market. Merrill projected
Internet ad growth to soar 29.4 percent in 2006
and another 21.9 percent next year. NEWS MEDIA CHANGES NEWS ETHICS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Media outlets are finding it harder to protect
the privacy of the politicians and stars they
cover without losing scoops to blogs and other
competitors, the editor of online magazine Slate
said on Thursday. "I very much agree that we need
to have standards, but I think that in practical
terms, we don't control what people find out
anymore," Slate Editor-in-Chief Jacob Weisberg said. ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TELEVISION, MOVIE AND VIDEO
GAME EXPOSURE AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
[SOURCE: , AUTHOR: Iman Sharif and James D. Sargent]
A population-based cross-sectional survey of
middle school students (grades 58) in the
Northeastern United States finds that the odds of
poorer school performance increased with
increasing weekday television screen time and
cable movie channel availability and decreased
with parental restriction of television content
restriction. As compared with children whose
parents never allowed them to watch R-rated
movies, children who watched R-rated movies once
in a while, sometimes, or all of the time had
significantly increased cumulative odds of poorer
school performance. Weekend screen time and video
game use were not associated with school performance. THE GOOGLE YOUTUBE TANGO
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] Under the radar of all but the most
savvy Internet users, powerful commercial forces
are rapidly creating a digital media system for
the United States that threatens to undermine our
ability to create a civil and just society. A
handful of companies now dominate much of the US
new-media market. Five corporations -- Comcast,
Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest -- control
the wires and cable lines delivering us
broadband, digital TV and, soon, much wireless
service. The takeover of YouTube by Google
announced October 9 and the 2005 buyout by Rupert
Murdoch of MySpace are not just about mega-deals
for new media. They are the leading edge of a
powerful interactive system that is being
designed to serve the interests of some of the
wealthiest corporations on the planet. Given this
emerging marketing model, the US broadband
infrastructure may well become one giant
"brandwashing" machine. The most powerful
communications system ever developed by humans is
increasingly being put in the service of selling,
commercialization and commodification. And it
will lead to an inherently conservative and
narcissistic political culture, in which the
interests of the self and the consumption of
products are the primary, most visible, media
messages. And unless we begin to challenge it
now, the emerging digital culture will seriously
challenge our ability to effectively communicate, inform and organize. CALL IT 'DIGITAL DIVIDES,' MAJOR STUDY SUGGESTS
[SOURCE: Association for Progressive Communications]
Unequal access to information and communication
technologies (ICTs) has generated new
inequalities, according to Social Watch, a
coalition of 400 non-governmental organizations
present in 60 countries. "More than four-fifths
of the people in the world do not have access to
the Internet and are therefore disadvantaged when
it comes to making progress in production,
education, and constructing full citizenship,"
the organization's 11th annual report reads.
Giving figures to measure the 'size of the
digital gap', the study says, "In the most
developed countries, there are 563 computers per
1000 people; but in the most backward there are
only around 25 per 1000 people, which is to say
there are 20 times more in the developed world.
That is just one measure of the size of the
digital gap." Social Watch points out that in the
most backward regions, "investment in new
technologies is not geared to spreading them on a
large scale." The section called 'Information,
Science and Technology: Digital gap, people gap'
refers to the widely debated 'digital divide'.
The point its tries to bring home is that the
divide is reflected among people and without a
doubt, affects their ability to advance
collectively. Says the report: "For some years
now, the experts have been talking about the new
'information society' (and more recently about
the 'knowledge society'), and the challenges and
dangers it involves." But it suggests that the
"capability to manage information" is
increasingly important. It notes that currently,
40% of Canadians and the US-Americans have access
to the Internet, but in Latin America and the
Caribbean, the figure averages only 2 or 3%.
Narrowing this gap is a major challenge, the
study finds. There is currently not "one digital
gap", but several, it suggests. This is because
people's access to current information systems
"is conditional upon a series of factors". People
simply get "left out" from using the emerging
technology because of economic resources,
geography, age, gender, language, education,
cultural background, employment and physical
well-being. Moreover, "Access to personal
computers is a pre-requisite for access to the
new sources of information," it cautions. One
billion Internet users on the planet is a "great
success story". But the 80% still left out cannot
be ignored. UNESCO says that 90% of Internet
users are from the 'industrialized' world. Social
Watch monitors government compliance with
international commitments to development and gender equity. STUDY EXAMINES MIDWEST ELECTION COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Scott Bauer]
An average of 36 seconds per broadcast is all
that election coverage has warranted on local
evening news in nine top Midwestern markets since
Labor Day, a study released Thursday found. The
five-state analysis by the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's NewsLab looked at 30-minute
evening news broadcasts on 36 stations. The study
also found that TV stations do almost three times
as many stories on campaign strategy as on
substantive issues. Just 23 percent of the
station's election stories were devoted to
issues. Studies show that most people rely on TV
news reports to get most of their election
information, but that they don't learn much from
those reports, said Ken Goldstein, a UW-Madison
political science professor who directs the
NewsLab. Advertising, sports and weather all
received more attention than the upcoming
November election, the study found. On average,
the stations devoted more than 10 minutes to
advertising, seven minutes to sports and weather
and about 2 1/2 minutes to crime per broadcast.
The only stories that got less airtime on
average, according to the study, were ones about
foreign policy - 23 seconds - and unintentional injury - 11 seconds. 12 Oct: FTC LAUNCHES BLOG ON MARKETPLACE TECH CHANGES
[SOURCE: Reuters]
The Federal Trade Commission has joined the
blogosphere with a site to explore how technology
is changing the way consumers shop, bank, pay
bills and communicate. The "Tech-ade Blog" will
include interviews with technology experts ahead
of the agency's November 6-8 public hearing on
how to protect consumers from ID theft, spyware,
online shopping fraud and other Web-related
marketplace issues. See A NEWSPAPER INVESTIGATES ITS FUTURE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
Newspapers are all looking for ways to gain
readers, and many have hired consultants to help
them. In an unusual twist, The Los Angeles Times
is looking to chart its future by using its own
reporters and editors, who rank among the best
investigators in the business. The Times is
dedicating three investigative reporters and half
a dozen editors to find ideas, at home and
abroad, for re-engaging the reader, both in print
and online. The newspaper’s editor, Dean Baquet,
and its new publisher, David Hiller, plan to
convene a meeting today to start the effort,
which is being called the Manhattan Project. A
report is expected in about two months.
BRITISH COURT RULING GIVES BOOST TO SERIOUS JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Aaron O. Patrick aaron.patrick@wsj.com]
Britain's top court strengthened protections for
media firms against libel suits in the U.K. if
they can show their stories serve the public
interest. Until now, British libel laws were
among the friendliest to plaintiffs anywhere,
making the nation's courts a magnet for foreign
celebrities taking action against U.S.
publications. When faced with a libel action,
publications essentially had to prove their
articles were true or meet a detailed checklist
about their reporting that considered such things
as the seriousness of the allegations and the
steps that were taken to verify the information.
Truth remains a defense against libel. But now a
"qualified privilege" defense under which the
defendant does not have to prove the truth of the
allegedly defamatory statement is a viable
option. The new ruling brings United Kingdom law
closer to the protections U.S. media are afforded
under the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution. U.S. law sets strict and limited
standards for when public figures can
successfully win libel suits. As honed in a 1964
Supreme Court decision, known as New York Times
v. Sullivan, U.S. public figures must show that a
story was false and that the publication knew it
was false or acted in reckless disregard for the
truth. The British standard defined yesterday
doesn't give all publications such blanket
protection as in the U.S. Rather, it will only
apply to what a judge deems responsible
journalism that is of value to the public. GOOGLE AND THE MYTH OF THE OPEN NEW
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Thomas Hazlett]
[Commentary] “Network neutrality” rules are
needed, Google argues, because the architecture
of the Internet demands it. That structure relies
on traffic flowing freely over a network that is
“open, end to end”. Yet the capitalist engine
that powers the Internet demands something
completely different, as Google’s acquisition of
YouTube makes clear. That strategy is to
integrate Google’s search and advertising sales
with YouTube’s users, which could potentially
impede access to one of the hottest technologies
by other service providers. Jeremy Schoemaker, a
net economy expert, sees the deal as superb for
Google, “merging to form the biggest video
network” and winning a “land-grab for publisher
space”. Perhaps even better, it boxes out a
rival: “This move is a total ‘in your face’ to
Microsoft,” which had made YouTube an offer for
an advertising agreement. The Internet lurches
forward in spasms of business model discovery, as
when Google figured out how to auction off
search-targeted advertising slots, leaving banner
advertisements behind. Today, Google’s absorption
of its little video cousin is part of this
jockeying for positions of competitive
superiority. The Internet really is not open –
if, as Google hopes, it is doing it right.
Innovation on the web requires market
transactions, including deals that integrate
once-independent operations. That is the
Internet’s DNA. You can call it “open”, but
YouTube just got bought. That gives Google
something special that it will develop, to the
exclusion of Yahoo, Microsoft, NewsCorp and other
rivals. For investors, the game is rough and
wild. But as a consumer, what’s not to like? 11 Oct: THREE-QUARTERS OF US ADULTS SUBSCRIBE TO WIRELESS
[SOURCE: PRNewswire press release]
Three-quarters (74%) of U.S. adults say they currently subscribe to
wireless (cell or mobile) telephone service, more than those who say
they currently subscribe to wireline (landline) service (58%). About
one-quarter (24%) of cell phone users consider the cell phone their
primary means of communication, and two in five (41%) say their cell
phone provides them with a sense of personal security. ABC'S FOLEY SCOOP CHANGES WEB MEDIA GAME
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Michele Gershberg]
Anonymous tips sent over the Web helped ABC break the story of
disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley's graphic messages to teenage aides,
proving a new model for news gathering as TV outlets embrace the
Internet. ABCNews.com was the first major news outlet to report the
story that Foley, a Republican, sent inappropriate e-mails to a
Congressional page. But the news ballooned into a larger scandal when
other pages who knew of more sexually explicit messages sent tips to
the station's Web site; Foley promptly resigned when confronted with
the material. Media experts said the practice of collecting anonymous
tips online defines a new era for reaping information, not unlike the
way media used eyewitness photos snapped at the scene of the London
bus and train bombings in July 2005. 5 Oct: KEEPING UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: PaidContent.org]
Spannerworks in the UK has published an e-book on
social media which gives a useful introduction to
the main formats and trends, if you needed one.
Antony Mayfield, its head of content and media
authored this and he starts by defining social
media in five ways: participation, openness,
conversation, community and connectedness. The
main formats he lists as blogs, social nets,
wikis, podcasts and content communities such as
Flickr, Del.icio.us and so on. Mayfield: “It is
spreading so quickly not because it’s great
shiny, whizzy new technology, but because it lets
us be ourselves, only more so… People can find
information, inspiration, like-minded people,
communities and collaborators faster than ever
before. New ideas, services, business models and
technologies emerge and evolve at dizzying speed in social media.” ONLINE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP GROWS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
The average number of monthly visitors to U.S.
newspaper Web sites rose by nearly a third in the
first half of 2006, a study released on Wednesday
said, though print readership at some larger U.S.
newspapers fell. The study, released by the
Newspaper Association of America, underscores the
Internet's importance to papers beset by falling
circulation and advertising revenue in their
print editions. The average number of unique
visitors to online newspaper sites in the first
half was more than 55.5 million a month, the
study said. That compares with 42.2 million a year earlier. MEDIA CONSOLIDATION NOT SO BAD
[SOURCE: TheDeal, AUTHOR: Matthew Wurtzel]
[Commentary] From the average TV viewers
perspective this fall media consolidation doesn't
seem so bad after all. Despite a group of
Hollywood personalities crying over the last
decade of consolidation claiming it has led to
homogenized content on TV, a quick scan of the TV
listings this season suggests they maybe wrong.
The amount of independently produced content has
declined, but the quality of TV has increased.
While technology has made effects easier and
cheaper to produce, arguably big media ownership
also allowed writers and directors to make bigger
splashes thanks to the bigger budgets. Take ABC’s
hit “Lost” as an example. Its spectacular intro
involving the crash of a commercial airline may
have never been possible without Disney’s budget.
In short, it would seem that media consolidation
may have ushered in a new golden age of television. "UPDATING" MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES -- IS THAT LIKE BOILING A FROG?
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] It's an old cliche that it's easy to
boil a frog. Don't drop the frog in the boiling
water -- he'll just climb out. Drop him in the
pot and raise the temperature a little at a time.
Before he knows it, he'll be dead. We have that
with media consolidation and the non-stop
relaxation of the rules. But instead of calling
it “boiling,” proponents of consolidation call it
“updating.” This attempt to describe relaxing the
ownership rules to allow more consolidation as
“updating,” when the evidence shows that the last
round of consolidation kicked off by the 1996
deregulation has been a disaster for the industry
and a disaster for democracy, came up again at
yesterday's media ownership hearings. An “update”
means setting limits that make sense today. And
the evidence is pretty clear that the current
rules don't need to be relaxed to be “updated.” 4 Oct: LOCAL TELEVISION REMAINS THE DOMINANT SOURCE OF NEWS
[SOURCE: Radio and Television News Directors Foundation]
More Americans choose local television news as
one of their top three sources for news than any
other form of traditional or new media, according
to The Future of News Survey conducted for the
Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. A
total of 65.5 percent named local television
news, compared with 28.4 percent who named local
newspapers and 28.3 percent who named national
network television news. The Internet was one of
the top three choices for 11.2 percent of those
surveyed. The survey also found that the public
perceives that business and advertisers have
influence on television news. Those in higher
income groups, the better educated, younger
people and men feel most strongly about the
importance of maintaining a clear separation between advertisers and news. FOR MAJOR EVENTS, CONSUMERS TRUST TRADITIONAL MEDIA MOST
[SOURCE: TechWeb Technology News, AUTHOR: KC Jones]
Consumers trust traditional media over blogs,
podcasts and other Internet-only publications for
information on major news events, like pandemics
and natural disasters, according to the results
of a recent survey. Half of the respondents said
that they would turn to network television for
immediate news on such events, according to
results of a nationwide survey released Monday by
LexisNexis. Radio (42 percent), local newspapers
(37 percent) and cable news and business networks
(33 percent) ranked next for popularity. About 25
percent would turn to print and broadcast media
Internet sites, according to the survey. Only six
percent of respondents said they would seek
information from Internet user groups, blogs and chat rooms. IRELAND TO BROADCASTERS: ONLINE IS YOUR SPACE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
NBC Universal Television Stations Group President
Jay Ireland told an audience at the Maximum
Service Television association conference in
Washington Tuesday that while the print press
owned the Web space when it was primarily a text
business, "shame on us" if broadcasters did not
own the online video space now. He said that
broadcasting doesn't mean a signal off a tower,
it means being in the video content business wherever that takes them. MIAMI PUBLISHER STEPS DOWN OVER PAYMENTS TO REPORTERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
The publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo
Herald, its Spanish-language sister paper,
resigned yesterday, saying he had lost control of
his newsrooms over a growing controversy
involving payments from the Bush administration
to some reporters of El Nuevo Herald for their
commentary broadcast on the anti-Castro outlets
Radio and TV Martí. The publisher, Jesús Díaz
Jr., had fired two staff reporters and
discontinued the services of a third, who is a
freelancer. But in a surprising reversal in his
resignation letter, Mr. Díaz invited the three
back yesterday, saying the policy against
accepting payment for such appearances had been
ambiguous and enforced selectively. Mr. Díaz said
six more reporters were found to have taken money
but would not be disciplined. His announcement
reignited a fierce debate within the two
newsrooms, raising fundamental questions about
the role of journalists, particularly in what
could be propaganda and with respect to Fidel
Castro. While The Herald is a traditional
American newspaper that prizes neutrality, El
Nuevo Herald tends toward partisanship,
especially against Mr. Castro. The firings had
unleashed an outcry among some Cuban-Americans in
Miami who complained of a double standard and demanded Mr. Díaz’s resignation. SOFTWARE BEING DEVELOPED TO MONITOR OPINIONS OF US
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lipton]
A consortium of major universities, using
Homeland Security Department money, is developing
software that would let the government monitor
negative opinions of the United States or its
leaders in newspapers and other publications
overseas. Such a “sentiment analysis” is intended
to identify potential threats to the nation,
security officials said. Researchers at
institutions including Cornell, the University of
Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to
test the system on hundreds of articles published
in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush’s
use of the term “axis of evil,” the handling of
detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over
global warming and the coup attempt against
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. A $2.4
million grant will finance the research over
three years. American officials have long relied
on newspapers and other news sources to track
events and opinions here and abroad, a goal that
has included the routine translation of articles
from many foreign publications and news services.
The new software would allow much more rapid and
comprehensive monitoring of the global news
media, as the Homeland Security Department and,
perhaps, intelligence agencies look “to identify
common patterns from numerous sources of
information which might be indicative of
potential threats to the nation,” a statement by the department said. FOX NEWS: ENRAGING LIBERALS FOR 10 YEARS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Brian C. Anderson, City Journal]
[Commentary] Fox News is the news media success
story of the last decade. Liberals aren't
celebrating the channel's birthday, though. "When
a news outlet is allowed to blur the lines
between opinion and journalism and call it 'fair
and balanced,' I think it's confusing to
consumers of information in this country, and
it's dangerous to democracy," said official at
Common Cause. Nothing would please liberals more
than to drag the nation back to the days when the
New York Times and CBS News determined what was
newsworthy. A group of congressional Democrats
has warned Fox to end its supposed
anti-Democratic bias -- or else. Should Democrats
retake Congress, an effort to shut down, or at
least muzzle, Fox, is far from inconceivable,
creepy and illiberal as that sounds. Something
Fox News doubtless is keeping in mind as it pops the champagne corks this week. 2 Oct: INTERNET FREEDOM REIGNS IN AMSTERDAM
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lucas van Grinsven]
Amsterdam has the world's busiest Internet
exchange, thanks to nuclear physicists and
mathematicians who in the 1980s connected their
network needs with the academic belief that
knowledge needs to be free. At a time when the
neutrality of the Internet is at stake, and
Internet service providers (ISPs) are moving to
prioritize their premium traffic, the Amsterdam
Internet Exchange is a reminder that the Internet
was built on the principle of the unrestricted
exchange of ideas and information. The popularity
of the AMS-IX. the official name of the exchange,
is the result of a liberal foundation which has
created a place where ISPs can do business any
way they like. "'Anything goes unless it's
forbidden', was our motto from the beginning. We
added a few rules later on, but any unnecessary
organizing is being prevented," said Rob Blokzijl
from Nikhef, the National Institute for Nuclear
Physics and High Energy Physics in the
Netherlands. It shares this spirit with the
designers of the Internet who decided that all
data packets were created equal, and with Tim
Berners-Lee who developed the World Wide Web at
the Swiss particle physics lab CERN as a universal and neutral platform. AD BUYERS EYE CLEAR CHANNEL'S 'BLINK' SPOTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne
Vranica suzanne.vranica@wsj.com ]
Commercials lasting only five seconds -- and some
two-second ads called "blinks" -- are in demand
by marketers. Clear Channel stations are also
offering blinks that are just one-second long,
but they haven't found any takers -- yet. Clear
Channel started offering the super-short spots in
hopes of bringing in more ad dollars, part of a
broader effort to revive ad sales in an industry
hurt by competition from other media and listener
fatigue with commercial overload. CBS Corp.'s CBS
Radio, the No. 2 radio company after Clear
Channel, has sold five-second ads as well,
including some this year for TV networks. Unlike
traditional radio ads, which tend to run 60
seconds in minutes-long commercial breaks, the
minimessages can be tucked in between individual
songs in a series. Marketers hope that
positioning gives them a better chance of being
heard, since listeners often change channels when
a commercial break starts. Of course, the brevity
of the spots also makes them easier to miss.
Clear Channel is pricing the five-second spots,
called "adlets," at 18% to 21% of a standard
60-second ad, which in a top-10 station in a
major market can go for about $800, media buyers
say. Two-second ads cost even less -- 10% of a
60-second ad, or roughly $80. So far, Clear
Channel has sold adlets to about 12 national
advertisers, along with a slew of local marketers. WHY ONLINE VIDEO SITES ARE HOT TARGETS
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Steve Rosenbush]
As TV viewing habits change, media companies --
and advertisers -- are looking elsewhere: They've
set their sights on a new breed of
startups. While the value of each company
clearly depends on its particular performance,
the factors that are proving important for Net
video players are quite different from those of
traditional media companies. In traditional TV,
more viewers mean more money. The correlation is
direct, although advertisers pay a bit more for
younger viewers. That's not necessarily so
online. A smaller audience may be more valuable
than a big one, if the small one does the sorts
of things that advertisers like -- such as
clicking on ads, buying products, or visiting
related content. The bottom line is that Net
video companies can be judged on a wider range of
factors than traditional media companies, which
makes some of them worth more and some worth less. 100 LEADING MEDIA COMPANIES REPORT; REVENUE HITS $268 BILLION
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: R. Craig Endicott]
Internet and cable were the growth locomotives
behind the 6.6% increase in 2005 U.S. media
revenue, reaching $268.48 billion for the 100
Leading Media Companies. In some ways, broadcast
TV and newspaper executives must have seemed more
like captives tied to the tracks. Time Warner,
powered by its Internet and cable offerings,
retained its position as the No. 1 media company
in the U.S. at $33.73 billion, up 0.9%, far ahead
of the $22.08 billion from Comcast Corp. As
runner-up, Comcast replaced Viacom, the
media-entertainment company that split early this
year into CBS Corp., No. 7 at $11.80 billion, and
a much-reduced No. 9 Viacom that drew $8.25
billion from its movie and cable network
properties. Media, defined in this annual report
as information and entertainment distribution
systems in which advertising is a key element,
takes in the obvious traditional media companies
but also Hollywood as film clips have become product placements. EU WELCOMES AUTONOMY PLAN FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE
[SOURCE: Reuters]
The European Commission welcomed on Monday U.S.
government moves to make the company that manages
Internet domain names independent by 2009, but
said it would monitor the process carefully. The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), which controls addresses
including ".com" and country domain names such as
".cn" for China, now reports to the U.S. Commerce
Department. On Friday, the Commerce Department
said it would retain oversight for three more
years, renewing an agreement that was scheduled
to expire last weekend. But a lighter regime was
introduced, with ICANN no longer having to file
reports with the Commerce Department every six
months or having its work prescribed for it, the European Commission said. MEDIA AND POLITICS
[SOURCE: PollingReport.com]
Results of recent polls gauging public opinion on
the political leanings of journalists. 44% of
adults polled feel the news media are too liberal
while just 19% think they are too conservative. Click here for earler Benton files. (c)
Benton Foundation 2003. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally
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