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

July 2005

WOMEN FIND A VOICE AT IRAQ RADIO STATION Radio Almahaba is Iraq's only radio station dedicated to women's issues. With policymakers debating just how many legal protections women should enjoy in the country's new constitution, the United Nations-funded station finds itself on the frontlines of a bitter showdown over women's rights. Several employees have been threatened with death for working at the station, although no one has been attacked. Many Shiite clerics have ordered their followers to boycott it. The station has responded by shifting from simply covering the raging debate over Iraqi women's political and legal standing to actively participating in it. At issue is whether Iraq's new constitution should include expansive women's rights, including a guaranteed 25% of the seats in Iraq's parliament, enshrined in the temporary constitution written last year with heavy American involvement. The Shiite religious parties that dominate Iraq's government have long disapproved of those provisions and are now pushing to strip them out. Almahaba, named after the Arabic word for love, regularly broadcasts portions of U.N. resolutions on gender equality and encourages listeners to make sure their interests are represented in the country's draft constitution. After recording several interviews at a recent rally against proposed cutbacks in women's rights, meanwhile, an Almahaba reporter put down her microphone and began helping protest leaders pass out fliers and petitions. The station's willingness to openly advocate its views of a highly politicized issue sets it apart from many of the country's other media outlets, which try to avoid picking sides for fear of sparking an attack by the insurgents and sectarian militias responsible for Iraq's near-daily violence. But Almahaba executives say that Iraq has too few voices devoted to women's issues for them to sit out the current constitutional debate, which pits secular-minded Kurds and Sunni Arabs who want to preserve the rights accorded to women -- who make up an estimated 60% of Iraq's population -- by the country's temporary constitution, against fundamentalist Shiite Arabs eager to curb women's rights and give Islamic law greater prominence. Iraqi policymakers face a critical Aug. 15 deadline for delivering a draft constitution, but remain far apart on a range of issues. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yochi J. Dreazen yochi.dreazen@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112260214586199584,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

'ETHNIC MEDIA' GIVE MAINSTREAM A SHOVE [Commentary] The core of the ethnic media are newspapers, radio and TV stations dedicated to reaching minorities who are underserved by the mainstream media. A recent poll on consumers' attraction to ethnic media should wake up an industry that is still sleeping when it comes to hiring minorities. As the ethnic media have discovered, hiring minority journalists is the only way to effectively penetrate these communities - and ultimately command their allegiance. The findings of a poll taken in April and May by the New California Media, a national association of more than 700 ethnic media organizations, found that nearly half of U.S. minorities “prefer” ethnic media outlets. The poll, which surveyed 1,895 African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, Arab-American and Native-American adults, revealed that 45% of respondents prefer ethnic media to mainstream media. Subjects such as immigration and discrimination, along with entertainment programming and advertising, are designed to reflect ethnic interests. According to the poll, more than half of adults of Chinese or Vietnamese heritage read an ethnic newspaper regularly. Spanish-language radio and newspapers audiences are growing along with the success of the Univision and Telemundo TV networks. Among blacks, radio is the most popular ethnic medium. The clear demand in these communities, wedded with an increasing fragmented and competitive media market, provides a moment of opportunity. Recent data show how far the media have to go: 1) The American Society of Newspaper Editors said the percentage of minority journalists in mainstream newsrooms in 2004 was 13.42%. 2) The Radio and Television News Directors Association reported that the percentage of minorities in TV was 21.8% last year. That's up from 18.1% in 2003. 3) In radio, minorities were just 11.8% of journalists in 2004, but that's a big jump from the 6.5% in 2003. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:Joyce King] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050729/opcom29.art.htm

E-MAIL IS FOR OLDER PEOPLE, TEENS SAY IN SURVEY E-mail is for grown-ups and U.S. teenagers now prefer instant messaging to communicate with each other online, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Nearly nine out of 10 teenagers say they use the Internet, up from 74 percent in 2000. Those are who still not online are likely to be so poor that they have limited access to technology, the survey found, and are disproportionately black. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-07-27T231617Z_01_N27287870_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-TEENS-DC.XML * Teens and Technology: Youth are Leading the Transition to a Fully Wired and Mobile Nation http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp

ELDERLY AMERICANS LOSE MILLIONS TO INTERNET SCAMS Scams involving Internet auctions, as well as identity theft, lotteries, prizes and sweepstakes, top the list of fraud complaints by older Americans, who lost $152 million to con artists last year, Federal Trade Commission officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-07-27T231114Z_01_N27713657_RTRIDST_0_NET-USA-CONGRESS-SCAMS-DC.XML

ON HOW 'REALITY' TV CHANGES REALITY [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jeremy Dauber] http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0728/p25s01-altv.html

PAYOLA OR NO, EDGE STILL TO THE BIG Even within tighter payola restrictions, the major labels simply have more money and manpower to wheedle programmers into adding their music to broadcast play lists. The big players, far more so than their independent rivals, also have the wherewithal to build demand for their acts by subsidizing their tours and record-store advertising, producing music videos and landing them on television shows. This imbalance in resources accounts, in part, for the disparity between sales and airplay in the music business. The independent sector, which includes hundreds of labels that may specialize in genres from polka music to speed metal, and that sell music directly or through one of the bigger companies' distribution arms, accounted for an estimated 18 percent of new album sales in the United States so far this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Their combined share of the industry, as measured by these sales, is larger than that of two of the four big companies, Warner Music Group and EMI Group. The independents, however, command a far smaller share of the limited slots on play lists in major radio formats, as the Top 40 chart illustrates. In addition, music executives say, even without reforms, radio programmers are likely to rely heavily on listener research (usually built around telephone polling, a method many label executives believe is flawed) in determining their play lists. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeff Leeds] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/arts/music/28musi.html (requires registration)

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH INDYMEDIA? [Commentary] Conceived initially to allow everybody to 'be the media,' Indymedia is plagued by everything from fascist messages to paralyzing ideology to good old fashioned laziness. [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Jennifer Whitney] http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/23741/

EMBRACE THE FUTURE What does the newspaper industry need to do to survive? Simplify rate cards to make it easier for businesses to advertise; invest in technology that can deliver information to consumers in new ways; give consumers the power to decide what information is of value to them; expand market share in addition to protecting existing turf; and innovate, innovate, innovate. Thoughts from the Newspaper Association of America's Future of Newspapers Conference [SOURCE: Presstime, AUTHOR: Jeff Lemberg] http://www.naa.org/Presstime/PTArtPage.cfm?AID=7119

LAWYERS' DELIGHT: OLD WEB MATERIAL DOESN'T DISAPPEAR The Web, seemingly one of the most ephemeral of media, is instead starting to leave permanent records. Through the Wayback Machine, and similar services offered by companies such as Google Inc., it's now easy to retrieve all kinds of online material, from defunct Web pages to old versions of sites. While these databases have caught on among historians and scholars, they are proving particularly enticing for lawyers. At some law firms, litigators now ask researchers, "can you do a Wayback on that?" The archives are most attractive to specialists in intellectual-property law -- in particular, areas such as domain-name battles. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Kesmodel david.kesmodel@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112242983960797010,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

HILLARY VS THE XBOX: GAME OVER [Commentary] The author of "Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter" suggests that Sen Hillary Clinton's proposed $90-million study on the effects of video games on children be expanded to include another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids -- a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing: high school football. In defense of video games Johnson writes, "The great secret of today's video games that has been lost in the moral panic over "Grand Theft Auto" is how difficult the games have become. That difficulty is not merely a question of hand-eye coordination; most of today's games force kids to learn complex rule systems, master challenging new interfaces, follow dozens of shifting variables in real time and prioritize between multiple objectives. In short, precisely the sorts of skills that they're going to need in the digital workplace of tomorrow." [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Steven Johnson] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-johnson27jul27,1,4047516.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

BROADCASTERS, NEWS DIRECTORS DEFEND USE OF VIDEO NEWS RELEASES In comments filed at the FCC, the National Association of Broadcasters argued that more regulation of video news releases (VNRs) is not warranted and could raise constitutional concerns. Use of VNRs does not violates Commission rules on sponsorship identification, the NAB said. Those rules require that when payment is received by or promised to a broadcast licensee for airing material, the station must disclose that fact at the time of airing and identify who made the payment. But the Center for Media Democracy and Free Press called for further disclosure of sources of material aired, including a frame-by-frame visual notification of sources. The Radio-Television News Directors Association countered saying such a requirement would burden broadcasters and cable operators. The added requirements also would violate First Amendment rights by dictating how VNRs are used. "In our democratic society, it is axiomatic that decisions concerning how to contextualize a story, inform the audience, or otherwise present news programming be left to journalists, not dictated by the government" RTNDA said. [SOURCE: Communications Daily] (Not available online)

PLAYOLA [Commentary] Perhaps the question is this: If you were a disc jockey or a radio station manager, would the chance to play blackjack with Celine Dion in Las Vegas induce you to put her single "I Drove All Night" on the air more often? No one supposes that radio playlists are the results of pure popularity or artistic merit -- not since the payola scandals of the late 1950's and early 60's. The radio map has changed entirely since then. It has seen the near-demise of local stations, the rise of powerful national networks like Clear Channel, the splintering of audiences and the appearance of satellite radio. The radio spectrum at the moment includes everything from ironclad rotations for mass markets to an untested merger of radio and the Internet called podcasting. To the extent that they offer payola, record companies will offer it only to the largest of these outlets. As Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general, continues his investigation, he would do well to look at those who are doing the taking as well as those who are doing the bribing. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/27wed4.html (requires registration) * Clear Channel Vows "Swift And Appropriate Disciplinary Action" http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=103257

PAID PRODUCT PLACEMENT SURGES IN MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, OTHER MEDIA A new report to be released today shows product placement is a much bigger deal that has influenced virtually all forms of media, even supposedly sacrosanct print outlets such as newspapers and magazines where paid placements are that fastest growing segment of the business. Although highly controversial, the total value of product placements in magazines is on pace to grow 17.5 percent in 2005 to $160.9 million, and product placements in newspapers is projected to rise 16.9 percent to $65.0 million, estimates PQ Media. While TV and films account for 90 percent of all product placements, PQ estimates other media account for 18.1 percent, or $384.9 million. The report reveals that product placement is influencing every segments of media, including print, videogames, online, books and even radio and recorded music. In fact, just about the only medium not tracked in the report is outdoor and place-based media, which appear to offer the ultimate panacea for the main factors driving product placement deals: clutter, media multitasking and ad-skipping. [SOURCE: Media Post, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese] http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=32440

ONLINE NEWS CONSUMERS BECOME OWN EDITORS Online news consumers are increasingly taking charge, getting their news a la carte from a variety of outlets. Rarely do they depend on a single news organization's vision of the day's top stories. "The old idea of surfers coming to your Web site and coming to your front door, that's going away," said Lasica, a former editor at The Sacramento Bee. "People are going to come in through the side window, through the basement, through the attic, anyway they want to." [SOURCE: Associated Press] http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000990615

SONY BMG TO PAY FINE IN SETTLEMENT OF AIRPLAY PROBE New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is expected to announce today a settlement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment as part of an 11-month investigation into how music companies influence which songs get played on radio stations including providing gifts, trips and tickets to executives. The settlement is to include a fine of at least $10 million, as well as changes in Sony BMG's radio-promotion practices and an acknowledgment that some of those practices have been improper. The investigation focuses on the use of so-called independent promoters: middlemen who are paid to plug new songs to radio stations, and who pay the stations for the right to do so, which is legal. The latter practice often has been likened to payola -- direct payment, either to executives or stations themselves, in exchange for airplay of specific songs -- which is illegal under U.S. federal law. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ethan Smith ethan.smith@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112207550570593873,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

CHINA INTERNET USERS GROW 18% TO HIT 103 MILLION The number of Web users in China, the world's second largest Internet market, grew by 9 million people in the first half of this year to hit 103 million, the China Daily said on Friday. The growth represented an increase of 18.4 percent over the same period last year. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-07-22T030135Z_01_N21586610_RTRIDST_0_NET-CHINA-INTERNET-DC.XML

MEDIA COMPANIES CAN'T RELY ON DVD SALES DVD players are one of the most popular consumer devices in history, reaching more than 70% of television households in just eight years. And DVD-owning households were buying as many as 20 DVDs a year as recently as 2004, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. But as new, typically lower-income, households buy DVD players, they are likely to purchase fewer DVDs. According to Fox Home Entertainment, recent adopters are buying only seven titles a year. Now the question is how quickly the sales will degenerate. The industry believes it can counter the domestic slowdown by tapping the less mature international market and pushing sales of a new generation of disc designed for high-definition TV. However, right now the studios are wasting time squabbling over two rival high-definition formats. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin julia.angwin@wsj.com and Merissa Marr merissa.marr@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112199755082193001,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing (requires subscription)

STUDY: DVR, VOD HOUSEHOLDS DOUBLE The numbers of U.S. households with digital-video recorders and access to video-on-demand have both doubled in the past year, according to a report released Thursday by Leichtman Research Group. About 8% of U.S. households have DVRs, while 23% of cable subscribers said they have accessed VOD content from local operators, LRG said. [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Steve Donohue] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA628351.html?display=Breaking+News (requires subscription) * DVRs On the Rise http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628453?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

ACCESSIBILITY MAY TAKE A STEP BACKWARDS [Commentary] Accessibility is in everyone's interest. The World Health Organization estimates that between 750 million and 1 billion of the world's 6 billion people have a speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive impairment. But at a time when travel and currency barriers continue to fall in Europe, several countries want to create new boundaries related to the Web. These nations want to establish a label or mark that would specify Web pages or products that are "accessible" to people with disabilities. However, such standards could differ from existing U.S. standards. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Frances W. West, IBM] http://news.com.com/Accessibility+could+take+a+step+backward/2010-1071_3-5794513.html?tag=nefd.ac

PUBLIC AWARENESS OF INTERNET TERMS The average American Internet user is not sure what podcasting is what an RSS feed does, or what the term “phishing” means. These findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project are another reminder that new and exciting technology developments that seize the interest of industry officials and journalists such as podcasting and RSS feeds usually take a while to register in the wider public. In addition, it is also clear that public awareness of emerging online threats like those posed by phishing scams takes a while to emerge. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Lee Raine] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/161/report_display.asp

ONE SMALL DIAL-UP FOR MAN [Commentary] This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Internet as a mass consumer phenomenon. In July 1995, Jeff Bezos started selling books online. Earlier that year, Stanford graduate students incorporated Yahoo, a directory for the unwieldy World Wide Web, and eBay was launched to create a marketplace for Pez dispensers. Then on Aug. 9, 1995, half a century to the day that the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, the dot-com age was truly born with Netscape's initial public offering. The Internet browser's shares were priced at $28, but closed the day at $58. Do you remember the first time you went online? [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Andres Martinez] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-martinez21jul21,1,4819005.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

PLUGGING INTO THE HOTTEST FAD SINCE BLOGGING Apple's iPod rewrote the rules for digital music. It saved the recording industry from itself -- and from Internet piracy -- by spoon-feeding the way to commercial viability on the Internet. Now, Apple is doing the opposite for radio broadcasting. [SOURCE: Wired in Washington, AUTHOR: Drew Clark] http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-XMFW1113937467518.html

TIME FOR LAWMAKERS TO ACT ON GROKSTER? Does Congress need to lay down new laws after last month's landmark Supreme Court decision on file swapping? Companies that actively promote their products' copyright infringement capabilities (in legal terms, "active inducement") can now be held liable for their users' illicit activities. Justice Stephen Breyer in his concurring opinion on the MGM v. Grokster case noted that "the legislative option remains available." But so far, members of Congress have applauded the court's unanimous opinion and indicated they plan to leave rule-making to the lower courts for now. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache] http://news.com.com/Time+for+lawmakers+to+act+on+Grokster/2100-1028_3-5795314.html?tag=nefd.top

KIDS AND THE INTERNET -- IT'S A GOOD THING [Commentary] We read a lot of alarmist commentary about the dangers of the Internet for youngsters. Yet, from what I've seen, the educational benefits of online access are worth it. Yes, parents have to be vigilant. But the opportunities for communication and self-expression the Internet provides are bringing benefits to everyone -- especially children. [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Laura Matthews] http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p09s02-coop.html

AMASSING A TREASURY OF PHOTOGRAPHY The George Eastman House in Rochester and the International Center of Photography in New York City are at work on an ambitious project to create one of the largest freely accessible databases of masterwork photography anywhere on the Web, a venture that will bring their collections to much greater public notice and provide an immense resource for photography aficionados, both scholars and amateurs. The Web site - Photomuse.org, now active only as a test site, with a smattering of images - is expected to include almost 200,000 photographs when it is completed in the fall of 2006, and as both institutions work out agreements with estates and living photographers, the intention is to add tens of thousands more pictures. While there are now dozens of growing digital databases of photography on the Web, many - like Corbis and Getty Images - are commercial sites that do not allow the public unfettered access to their collections. The Photomuse site will join others, like the digital collections of the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England, that are beginning to create what amounts to a huge, free, virtual photography museum on the Web. The project, financed in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, is expected to cost $800,000 initially and more later as additional images and documentary information are added to the site. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: ] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/arts/design/20east.html (requires registration)

UNCLE SAM, MEET THE BLOGGERS Is the future of blogs, those symbols of the Internet's democratic promise, in jeopardy? A federal judge has ordered the Federal Election Commission to extend campaign finance laws to the Internet. And the regulatory foray has sparked debate about whether the anti-establishment, rant-prone but politically relevant blogosphere is more akin to a world of activists or journalists. Bloggers worry that bringing bloggers under the regulatory scope of campaign finance laws will mean incurring debilitating legal fees to defend against partisan lawsuits or FEC investigations. That is unless the government classifies blogs as "press," which are exempted from campaign finance laws. The whole affair has anti-establishment bloggers taking some ever-so-establishment paths to Washington. [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Kelly Hearn] http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/23532/

MEDIA KINGPINS FACE THE MUSIC Concerns about the Internet, new technologies and piracy continue to weigh on the likes of Time Warner, News Corp., Viacom and Disney. Big media companies have "missed opportunities" to attach to robust young industries, from gaming to the Web. Investors once wooed by lofty consolidation promises are now being told just short years later that the synergies weren't quite what they seemed. [SOURCE: The Street, AUTHOR: Sandy Brown] http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/stocks/sandybrown/10232215.html

TV NEWS OUTLETS REVAMP WEB SITES Trying to reach younger viewers and others who are not at home to watch the evening news, television news sites are rolling out revamped web sites offering plentiful free video news stories on demand to surfers. "Our audience on the Web is 10 to 15 years younger than our TV audience" for news, says Larry Kramer, president of CBS's digital-media operations. Visitors to ABC News's long-established Web site have a median age of 45, nine years younger than ABC News's median TV audience, according to Nielsen/NetRatings and research by the network, which is owned by Walt Disney. With this in mind, "the advertisers we are going to are different," says CBS's Mr. Kramer, including electronics manufacturers and fast-food chains. On the CBS Evening News TV broadcast, pharmaceutical companies predominate, making up seven of the 10 biggest advertisers in the 11 months to April. These included Novartis, Merck and Pfizer, whose drugs often treat chronic conditions common in older people. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg brian.steinberg@wsj.com and Christopher Lawton christopher.lawton@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112173238523588921,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

UN PANEL FAILS TO AGREE ON HOW TO GOVERN INTERNET A group set up by the United Nations to come up with a global plan for managing the Internet said on Thursday that it has been unable to agree on who should do the job or how it should be done. The Working Group on Internet Governance instead came up with four rival models for overseeing the Web and sorting out technical and public policy questions. Among the governance options put forward by the group were a continuation of the current system, creation of a world body to address public policy issues stemming from the work of ICANN, and creation of a body to address a broader range of public policy issues. The fourth option is to create three bodies, one to address policy issues, one for oversight and one for global coordination. The group also recommended a coordinated global effort to combat spam, or junk e-mails, and urged that law enforcement authorities respect the right to freedom of expression when they crack down on Internet-related crimes. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Irwin Arieff] http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-07-14T221616Z_01_N14734082_RTRIDST_0_NET-TECH-INTERNET-UN-DC.XML * U.N. panel presents 4 Internet options http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/12139577.htm

BESIEGED BUT NOT SILENCED, A NEWSPAPER KEEPS PUBLISHING For 28 days, the managing editor of Noticias and a couple of dozen other editors, reporters and employees have been besieged in their newsroom as the result of a labor dispute with a union that has close ties to the government and says it represents the newspaper's workers. The union barricaded the front of the newspaper offices on June 17 and set up picket lines outside. Since then, the editors and reporters have been sleeping under their desks or on chairs, eating canned food and sending completed pages over the Internet to a printing plant in another town in an effort to keep publishing. "The people keep reading us," Mr. Sanmartín said in a telephone interview, hacking and coughing. "The government wants to stop us from circulating. It wants to shut us down. But the government doesn't buy our work. It's the people. And the public is buying it." [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James McKinley, Jr] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/international/americas/18oaxaca.html (requires registration)

WAR OF THE WORDS [Commentary] The information technology of the 21st century has made waging an ideological global struggle against extremism particularly complex. Decision makers, the media and the public at large will need to come to terms with the effect of these new realities. The old adage that "A lie can be half-way around the world before truth has its boots on" becomes doubly true with today's technology. As America adjusts to this new Information Age, I suggest the following notions as part of the discussion: First, government officials will need to communicate clearly and often. Second, a healthy culture of communication and transparency between government and the public needs to be established. Lastly, government officials must find new and better ways to communicate America's mission abroad. I have no doubt that free and well-informed people can and will sift through the increasing volumes of information and over time develop a balanced view of our government, our Armed Forces, and our values and principles. The American system of openness works and I know our country will ultimately benefit, as we always have, from being on the side of freedom. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112164930948087989,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS TUNING IN TO 'PODCASTING' Last month, the grass-roots phenomenon known as "podcasting" went mainstream. Apple Computer Inc. made the talk or music shows, known as "podcasts," easier to find and download on its iTunes online music store. The site went from zero podcast subscriptions to more than a million in just two days. Corporate media moved quickly to stake out podcasting as an avenue for reaching new listeners. While early podcasters offered talk radio-style shows with quirky titles such as "The Frat Pack Tribute" and "The Rock and Roll Geek Show," big companies have elbowed in with condensed versions of popular broadcasts. Now, it's "Queer Eye Hip Tips" and "ABC News" that dominate as the most popular podcasts on iTunes, making the one-person, in-house shows harder to spot in a sea of media logos. The result demonstrates how a new technology can remain part of an underground culture only for so long before corporations adopt it. Indie podcasters say Apple's decision has brought them new listeners, but they complain that the iTunes Web site heavily promotes big-name podcasts while leaving out their homegrown shows. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Anjali Athavaley] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/17/AR2005071701292.html (requires registration)

AS CLEAR CHANNEL ENTERS FRAY, ONLINE RADIO LOOKS TO BE COMING OF AGE Clear Channel, the radio industry's dominant company with more than 1,200 stations, has begun introducing its first meaningful online strategy after what could be the most protracted example of Internet indifference among major media businesses. Offline, Clear Channel Radio reaches about 110 million people each week. Online, the Clear Channel's Web sites reach eight million each month. Owned by Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Clear Channel has been going through the motions online for years. The company's stations have dedicated Web sites, but they offer little more than pages cluttered with advertisements, song lists, entertainment news and pictures of D.J.'s. This month Clear Channel began replacing those Web sites with simplified sites, featuring fewer ads and highlighting original programming, live Webcasts and other elements meant to keep visitors engaged. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi] http://tech.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/technology/18ecom.html (requires registration)

INSIDE A MEDIA COMPANY'S BID TO MAKE HOME SHOPPING CHIC E.W. Scripps Co.'s tiny Shop at Home is trying to do something that has eluded television pioneers for decades: Persuade affluent consumers, who have no problem making big-ticket purchases online, to embrace shopping through their TVs. The programming is heavily promoted on the company's other upscale cable-TV operations, including Food Network and Home and Garden Television, an untried tactic in the industry. And instead of relying on anonymous hosts, Scripps has recruited stars from its lifestyle channels, such as chef Emeril Lagasse and country-music singer Naomi Judd. Scripps has a long way to go before it can call Shop at Home a success. The channel lost $22 million last year and is expected to lose about $18 million this year. Cable subscribers who receive QVC, the leading home-shopping operation, spent an average of $44 with the channel in 2004. For Home Shopping Network, the second-largest, that number was $23. For Shop at Home, it was $6. It's also possible that viewers of Scripps's other channels -- according to Mediamark Research Inc., about 25% of them have annual household incomes greater than $100,000 -- won't like being pitched shopping shows. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint joe.flint@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112165223882588032,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

THE CBS EVENING BLOG As part of an ambitious attempt to revive CBSNews.com with a broad array of free video news produced just for its Web site, CBS said yesterday that it would also introduce a Web log to comment on CBS newscasts, whether broadcast or online. To be written by Vaughn Ververs, who had been the editor of The Hotline, a Web site covering politics, the Web log, to be called Public Eye, will assemble questions from viewers and criticism from various sources, and immediately bring in reactions from the CBS newsroom. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Saul Hansell] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/business/media/13cbs.html (requires registration) * CBS Revamps Web Site To Gain Ground Online http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112117686449283323,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace * Can the future of TV be seen on the Web? http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050713/d_cover13.art.htm

SOFTWARE HELPS MUSICIANS AND FANS FIND EACH OTHER Technology is giving musicians a more efficient way to find their audiences. New software pushes independent artists' songs through the Internet to the people with matching tastes, exposing their music to the people most likely to become fans. One example is Change.TV Inc.'s Indy, a program that downloads songs to users' computers based on how they rate the tracks they receive. Another is IRate radio, a similar program being developed collaboratively online. Their approach recalls the "push" craze from the 1990s, led by PointCast, which pushed personalized news programs to customers through the Internet. PointCast was a hot commodity for a few years, only to be felled by slow delivery and management problems. The new crop has at least two notable advantages over its predecessors: faster Internet connections for its users and more powerful technology for tailoring programs to the audience. Indy and IRate start by downloading to their users' computers a number of songs that artists have agreed to distribute for free online. Each time the programs run, they download more songs for users to play and rate on a scale from one to five stars. The ratings help the software match each user to others who have parallel likes and dislikes. Once a match has been made, the software sends people songs that others with similar tastes have rated highly. This process, called collaborative filtering, "is really a very human thing," said Ian Clarke, chief technology officer of Change.TV. "It's not some magic computer deciding what people are going to like. It's an intelligent way to identify people who have similar tastes to the tastes you have and suggesting things to you that those people like." [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-indy13jul13,1,4847695.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires free registration)

KEEPER OF EXPIRED WEB PAGES IS SUED BECAUSE ARCHIVE WAS USED IN ANOTHER SUIT The Internet Archive was created in 1996 as the institutional memory of the online world, storing snapshots of ever-changing Web sites and collecting other multimedia artifacts. Now the nonprofit archive is on the defensive in a legal case that represents a strange turn in the debate over copyrights in the digital age. Beyond its utility for Internet historians, the Web page database, searchable with a form called the Wayback Machine, is also routinely used by intellectual property lawyers to help learn, for example, when and how a trademark might have been historically used or violated. Last week Healthcare Advocates sued the Internet Archive, saying the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Philadelphia, seeks unspecified damages for copyright infringement and violations of two federal laws: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller Jr] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/technology/13suit.html (requires registration)

YOUNGER VIEWERS TUNE IN TO 'TOONS AIMED AT ADULTS Cartoons used to be just kids' stuff. Then came a new genre: adult-themed animation. But 'toons aimed at teens and older viewers are proving irresistible to children as well. Ever-edgier shows are finding an audience among young viewers, even though they offer sophisticated content and carry parental advisory warnings. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Ann Oldenburg] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050712/d_toons12.art.htm

SHOULD NEWSPAPERS SPONSOR BLOGS WRITTEN BY REPORTERS? U.S. newspapers are wrestling with whether it is appropriate for reporters to be opining in blogs, and how much, if at all, their posts should be edited. To date, it is relatively rare for newspapers to sponsor reporter-written blogs. Some worry that newspapers put their reputations at risk by letting reporters blog. Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, said blogs often are at odds with the traditional role of a reporter. "We expect in the American tradition to maintain this role of detached observer and not cheerleader or insider, and blogs for the most part trade on...the idea of inside information and commentary," she said. Newspapers also may be exposing themselves to legal liability with reporter-written blogs, particularly if posts aren't screened. "It does create considerable additional libel risk for newspapers to have their reporters doing blogs that are not edited," said Michael Rothberg, a media lawyer with Dow Lohnes & Albertson in Washington. "Newspapers are every bit as much responsible for these blogs legally as they are for their regular articles." [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Kesmodel david.kesmodel@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112112943151382925,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

TURNING YOUR LIFE INTO BITS, INDEXED Computer scientists estimate that a person's entire lifetime production of paperwork, phone conversations and sounds and images can fit on a one-terabyte hard disk; that's only eight times the size of the 120-gigabyte drive often found inside today's medium-sized PC, and can be had for about $800, retail. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik golden.state@latimes.com] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-golden11jul11,1,5196103.column?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

ON CAPITOL HILL, THE INBOXES ARE OVERFLOWING According to a new study, electronic messages to the House of Representatives doubled to 99 million from 2000 to 2004. In the Senate, the number of e-mails more than tripled to 83 million during the same period. The result is a crisis of communication in the nation's Capitol. Lawmakers have to struggle to keep from drowning in the deluge while interest groups and their consultants scramble to find new ways to inundate them. Ever since the 9/11 tragedies and the anthrax attacks on Congress in 2001, postal mail has been pretty useless as a way to contact Capitol Hill. Screeners scrutinize letters so thoroughly and at such length that the documents are hardly worth reading by the time they arrive. So faxes and e-mails have grown hugely -- e-mails in particular. Thanks to their ease of use and low cost, electronic messages are blasted out all the time by every organized group that has a cause to promote or a bone to pick with elected representatives. The trouble is that Congress has a hard time keeping track of them all. "While the volume of communications received by Congress has increased dramatically, the total number of staff employed in the personal offices of members of the House and Senate has not changed appreciably in more than 20 years," the study by the Congressional Management Foundation says. Three-quarters of the congressional office managers contacted by the foundation said they spend more time dealing with constituents' mail than just two years ago. Half of the managers also report that they have had to reallocate resources to keep up. But only 17 percent of the House offices and 38 percent of the Senate offices have their acts together enough to answer all the e-mails they receive with e-mail responses. Most offices reply to some or all of their e-mail with postal letters, a time consuming and cumbersome chore. The main reason for this is lawmakers fear that their return e-mails might be altered in ways that could create political problems for them. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jeffrey H. Birnbaum] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/10/AR2005071001011.html (requires registration)

NEW STATISTICS SHOW INCREASE IN USAGE OF HIGH-SPEED LINES The number of high-speed Internet connections in the United States jumped 34 percent last year, according to statistics released Thursday by the FCC. The analysis, based on data reported by broadband providers in 2004, shows that 38 million residences and businesses now purchase connectivity that runs at 200 kilobits per seconds or more in one direction. Connections delivering 200 kbps in both directions jumped 42 percent, to 29 million lines. The data also shows wireless, fiber and power-line broadband connections up by 50 percent, to about 700,000 subscribers. [SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Randy Barrett] http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-PDWY1120854746496.html * FCC Releases Data on High-Speed Internet Access Connections Press Release: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-259870A1.doc Report: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/IAD/hspd0705.pdf * Broadband Reaching Tipping Point? http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45486

SUBWAY FRACAS ESCALATES INTO TEST OF THE INTERNET'S POWER TO SHAME A remarkable show of Internet force, and a peek into an unsettling corner of the future... a woman misbehaves on the subway in South Korea and, after witnesses posted pictures and accounts on the Internet, "within days, her identity and her past were revealed. Requests for information about her parents and relatives started popping up and people started to recognize her by the dog and the bag she was carrying." Online discussion groups crackled with chatter about every shred of the woman's life that could be found, and with debate over whether the Internet mob had gone too far. The incident became national news in South Korea and even was discussed in Sunday sermons in Korean churches in the Washington area. Humiliated in public and indelibly marked, the woman reportedly quit her university. Using the Internet as a tool to settle scores is hardly new. Search for any major retailer and you'll probably also find some kind of www.that-store-stinks.com Web site, with complaints about products or service. Increasingly, the Internet also is a venue of so-called citizen journalism, in which swarms of surfers mobilize to gather information on what the traditional media isn't covering, or is covering in a way that dissatisfies some people. But what happens when the two converge, and the Internet populace is stirred to action against individuals? [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Krim] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070601953.html (requires registration)

TV GIVES MORE IN PRINT SYNERGIES A new Ball State study of news directors finds that one half of the stations tracked team up with their local newspaper. And many of the other half that don't have print partners said it was either because the town was too small to have a newspaper or that another station already had a relationship with the local paper. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA623074?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP

THREE STUDIES SUGGEST TV HAMPERS KIDS' ACADEMIC SKILLS Researchers say too much TV viewing in childhood has long-term effects on learning. In one study, they found that simply having a TV set in a kid's bedroom can be linked to lower academic skills. In another, researchers in New Zealand tracked 1,037 children for nearly 30 years in the first long-term follow-up measuring childhood viewing and educational achievement. They say those who watched the most TV from ages 5 to 15 were least likely to graduate from high school or college by age 26. A third study, from University of Washington researchers, finds that very young children who watch a lot of TV have diminished reading comprehension and other academic problems when they're 6 and 7. None of the studies, in the July issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, out Monday, looks at content. The journal notes in an editorial that the authors largely ignored the work of others “who have found positive associations” between children's educational TV viewing and academic skills. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Greg Toppo] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050705/bl_bottomstrip05.art.htm

PIRACY UNPREVENTABLE. PLAN B: JUST MAKE MUSIC FREE [Commentary] Online music piracy may indeed make music free. Piracy might simply be impossible to stop, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling earlier this week against Internet file-swapping sites. Recorded music, as a result, would have to become free to survive. Here's what could become Plan B: Musicians give away recorded music to build their reputation. They make money from concert tickets, licensed merchandise, selling rights to their songs for TV commercials and movies, and anything else that can't be undermined by free online distribution. Today, the vast majority of musicians -- even big names -- don't make much money from the sales of CDs. Almost all those profits are kept by the record labels. But the labels don't get a cut from concerts and other activities. That explains to me why Mick Jagger is dragging his 62-year-old body out of the rocking chair this summer to start yet another rock 'n' roll world tour with the Rolling Stones. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Langberg mike@langberg.com] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/12033655.htm

FEDS SWEEP DOWN ON INTERNET PIRATES The government announced an 11-nation crackdown Thursday on Internet piracy organizations responsible for stealing copies of the latest Star Wars film and other movies, games and software programs worth at least $50 million. FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people, seizing hundreds of computers and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/12025718.htm * Government Launches Internet Piracy Offensive http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063000712.html * Digital Piracy Raids Net Arrests http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-piracy1jul01,1,4121121.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business * Suspected file-swappers arrested in global raid http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-06-30T204321Z_01_L30279537_RTRIDST_0_NET-TECH-PIRACY-COMPUTERS-DC.XML

US WILL RETAIN ITS CONTROL OF INTERNET OVERSIGHT The U.S. government will indefinitely retain oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet, ignoring calls by some countries to turn the function over to an international body, said Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department. The announcement marked a departure from previously stated U.S. policy. Gallagher shied away from terming the declaration a reversal, calling it instead "the foundation of U.S. policy going forward." He said the declaration, officially made in a four-paragraph statement posted online, was in response to growing security threats and increased reliance on the Internet globally for communications and commerce. The posted U.S. principles on the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System are: 1. The United States Government intends to preserve the security and stability of the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System (DNS). 2. Governments have legitimate interest in the management of their country code top level domains 3. ICANN is the appropriate technical manager of the Internet DNS 4. Dialogue related to Internet governance should continue in relevant multiple fora [SOURCE: Associated Press] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112018089500074992,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) A summary of Gallagher's remarks are available at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/2005/WCA_06302005.htm U.S. principles on the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/USDNSprinciples_06302005.htm * U.S. to Keep Control of Internet Traffic http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063001960.html

SELF-CENSORSHIP SHIFTS HONG KONG MEDIA ROLE As Hong Kong marks the eighth anniversary today of its return to Chinese rule, its news media are struggling to preserve the independence that set them apart from the mainland's tightly controlled government presses. Critics say that Beijing has been curbing the media's freedom so gradually that it's easy to miss and that Hong Kong's fears of losing its identity are starting to be realized. Perhaps more than anything else, the erosion of media independence is a sign of how much the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or SAR, has changed despite the pledge that under the "one-country, two-systems" formula, it would retain broad autonomy. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Ching-Ching Ni] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-hongkong1jul01,1,7777343.story?coll=la-news-a_section (requires registration)

HOUSE PASSES MEASURE TARGETING COVERT PR The House of Representatives approved an amendment Thursday by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) to bar federal agencies from hiring media representatives, public relations firms and other contractors to covertly promote "publicity or propaganda." The measure, included in a major appropriations bill, is intended to end efforts by the White House and other government agencies to secretly commission favorable reports on administration causes and then pass those off as legitimate news. [SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen] http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8093

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Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org), Andy Carvin (andy@benton.org) and Charles Meisch (charlie@benton.org) of the Benton Foundation -- we welcome your feedback. Based in Washington DC, the Benton Foundation's mission is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Other projects at Benton include:
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