Recent postings on media issues from Benton.org

September 2004

RACY CONTENT ON TV MAY ENCOURAGE TEEN SEX
The journal Pediatrics published results of a study finding that teenagers who watch a lot of television with sexual content are twice as likely to engage in intercourse than those who watch few such programs. "This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities," said Rebecca Collins, a Rand Corp. psychologist who headed the study, published in the journal Pediatrics. "The impact of television viewing is so large that even a moderate shift in the sexual content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their sexual behavior," she added. The 12-year-olds who watched a lot of sexual content behaved like the 14- or 15-year-olds who watched the least amount, she said: "The advancement in sexual behavior we saw among kids who watched a lot of sexual television was striking." The study found that youths who watched large amounts of programming with sexual content were also more likely to initiate sexual activities short of intercourse, such as oral sex. The survey did not break down the amount of sexual exposure in terms of hours per week or percentages of material viewed, Collins said. [SOURCE: Washington Post] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1336-2004Sep6.html (requires registration)

FOX AND OSTRICHES [Editorial]
Fox achieved another milestone last week when its coverage of the Republican National Convention won more viewers than those of the major broadcast networks. For President Bush's speech on Thursday, some 7.3 million viewers tuned into Fox, compared with the 5.9 million who watched second-place NBC. On Wednesday, Fox's 5.9 million viewers matched the number who watched ABC and CBS combined. This is remarkable for a cable channel that reaches 25 million fewer homes than do the broadcast networks. Fox didn't do nearly as well in the ratings during the Democratic convention in Boston, but that should hardly console the bigger networks that were once the sole arbiter of TV political coverage. The editorial concludes, maybe people "are flocking to Fox because they don't believe what they hear on the other networks. And, just to posit another alternative theory, maybe it's also better for democracy if these viewers tune into Fox rather than tune out politics altogether. One thing we know for sure: In any other American industry, a business that was losing market share as fast as the TV networks are losing it wouldn't be blaming the customers." [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: WSJ Editorial Staff] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109450841493510579,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

PIRATED GOODS SWAMP CHINA
China on Monday touted the impact of a recent crackdown on pirated goods, seeking to mollify criticism from the United States that it has done little to curb the brazen and widespread sale of such things as illegally copied Hollywood films, fake auto parts and pharmaceuticals. At a news conference in Beijing, Zhang Zhigang, a vice minister of commerce, said China seized 2 million compact discs during the first half of the year in raids on 8,000 CD and software dealers around the country, fining violators about $3.6 million. But in this nominally Communist country of 1.3 billion people, the concept of private property is neither fully understood nor valued, let alone the abstract notion of intellectual property. Penalties for violations are weak and enforcement is spotty, experts said. Authorities often shield factories from raids, choosing to protect jobs over trademarks. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A535-2004Sep6.html (requires registration)

FCC TO FINE VIACOM $0.5m FOR SUPER BOWL
The FCC, as early as this week, plans to fine CBS parent Viacom $550,000 -- $27,500 for each of the 20 CBS stations Viacom owns -- for Janet Jackson's breast-exposing dance during the Super Bowl halftime show. However, the FCC has no plans to fine CBS' 227 independent affiliate stations or to impose a penalty for the steamy dance that preceded the breast baring. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein plans to partly dissent, arguing the CBS affiliates also should have been fined for the episode. The FCC says Viacom should have known the incident was going to occur and used a several-second delay or other measure to prevent it. Jackson's choreographer told MTV.com before the show that it would feature "some shocking moments." Viacom has since been using a five-second delay for all live entertainment. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Paul Davidson] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20040908/superbowl08.art.htm

MEDIA CONGLOMS MUZZLING DISSENT [Commentary]
Maybe it should not be surprising that the media gave so little coverage to demonstrators in New York last week. The parent companies of the media are becoming increasingly reluctant to go out on a limb about anything controversial. The corporate agendas of these mini nation states have become so complex and politically sensitized that anything perceived as out of the mainstream is automatically viewed by top brass with suspicion. Today's corporate media would probably be much happier to just churn out their franchises, sequels and remakes and to mount increasingly entertainment-led newscasts. They likely wish that the resurgence of polemical documentaries -- whose financial return is hard to calculate and whose impact hard to predict -- would just dry up. [SOURCE: Variety] http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117910004?categoryid=1344&cs=1&s=h&p=0

53 MILLION AMERICAN ADULTS ARE INSTANT MESSAGE USERS
Some 42% of online Americans use instant messaging (IM), and 24% of instant messagers say they use IM more frequently than email. This translates to 53 million American adults who instant message and over 12 million who IM more than emailing. The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project also finds that instant messaging is especially popular among younger adults and technology enthusiasts. 62% of Gen Y Americans (those ages 18-27) report using IM. Within the instant messaging Gen Y age group, 46% report using IM more frequently than email. IM is more than a tool for chatting. It is also a popular tool for self-expression. Instant messengers take advantage of customizable features such as profiles and icons to enhance their online presence. A third of IM users (34%) have posted a profile for their IM screen name that others can see, and nearly half (45%) post away messages when they are not available to chat. Twenty-one percent of IM-ing Americans instant message at the office; they find it encourages interoffice cooperation and increases work productivity. When asked who they contact most often during IM sessions at work, 40% of at-work IM users reported instant messaging coworkers, 33% reported friends and family, and 21% interact with both groups equally. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/133/report_display.asp

FORRESTER: 92% OF ADS SKIPPED BY DVR USERS
New research into the behavior of TV viewers using digital-video recorders (DVRs) indicated that they spend 60% of their TV time watching shows they've delayed or recorded and that they skip 92% of the ads under those conditions. The research by Forrester Research also found that: 75% of DVR users watch some ads at least sometimes, with movie ads and promotions for upcoming TV shows scoring highest; they watch fewer than 10% of ads about credit cards, long-distance carriers, car dealers and banks; overall, ad exposure drops 54% among DVR users; they enjoy watching TV more using a DVR and only 2% of DVR users drop the service after starting; DVR owners are demographically mainstream but “are off the charts in their adoption of premium-TV services and home electronics,” with nearly one-half saying they have home networks. DVRs are currently in about 5% of US homes; Forrester expects penetration to reach 41% over the next five years. [SOURCE: Multichannel News] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA451376?display=Breaking+News (requires subscription)

ON IRAQI TV, A WELCOME TAKE ON REALITY
What is TV like in Iraq? On a new channel there, al-Sharqiya, reality TV is really about, well, reality. And Iraqis don't have to invent situations that test their fears or survival skills. Read about what they are seeing at the URL below. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jackie Spinner] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9883-2004Sep9.html (requires registration)

OLD NEWS, LONG OVERDO
Kurtz writes, if journalists devoted the same investigative energy to the candidates' efforts to bolster Medicare and Social Security or deal with the mess in Iraq -- as opposed to precisely what happened on the Bay Hap River in 1969 -- perhaps more people might find campaign coverage compelling. "I don't think the media feel badly anymore covering 30-year-old wars or personal scandals," says Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist and press critic. "I don't think they feel particularly badly about publishing gossip and unproven allegations." Although there's an argument that what the candidates did during Vietnam "is revealing of Bush's character and Kerry's character, it's not nearly as important as what they've done in their public lives in the last 20 years." "Here the campaign is dealing with terrorism and war, but we're still capable of losing ourself in matters 35 years old that belong on 'Jeopardy!' or 'Trivial Pursuit,' " says Frank Sesno, a George Mason University professor and former CNN anchor. While he blames Kerry in part for putting Vietnam at the center of his campaign, Sesno sees an "almost ridiculous contrast" between the country's problems and the media's obsession with old controversies. See more about how the media are serving democracy at the URL below. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16835-2004Sep12.html (requires registration)

NEVER SAY NEVER
What's the final frontier for cable and satellite companies? A segment of the market called "Nevers": people who can afford to pay for TV, but choose not to -- or even worse -- don't watch TV at all. Twenty million US households don't watch or pay for TV. Of the 20 million households that don't subscribe to a pay-TV service today about 6 million families can't afford the $40 monthly bill for basic service. The remaining 14 million represent an enticing target for cable and satellite companies, the "Nevers." Of these, roughly 2 million families don't own a TV. And then there are the outlaws: an estimated 11 million pirates who steal cable and satellite, a federal crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to 6 months in prison. Most Nevers are a marketer's dream. In a recent survey of 385 TV-free families, Eastern Washington University professor Barbara Brock found that more than two-thirds of them are headed by adults between 31 and 50 years old with two or more kids. More than half the parents had college degrees and earned a combined annual income greater than $60,000. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell ] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA452475?display=Top+of+the+Week (requires subscription)

AS IN OLDEN DAYS, US MEDIA REFLECT THE PARTISAN DIVIDE [Commentary]
In the 1870s, only 11% of US newspapers claimed to be independent. By the 1920s, two-thirds of newspapers considered themselves to be independent of parties -- mainly in an effort to expand readership. Today, the American media appear to be returning to its partisan roots. Why? Murray believes consumers are choosing outlets that fit their political views. For those of us who still value the independence and nonpartisanship of Progressive Era journalism, there is some reason for hope. Andrew Kohut, director of The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, says most Americans still say they want objective journalism, not partisan spin. If Mr. Kohut is right, the current media conflict could lead to a better, more balanced, but still fiercely independent press. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Alan Murray alan.murray@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109511244977916674,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

JOURNALISTS' INFO THREAT LEVEL RAISED
"Citizens seem to not realize how drastically their right to know has been limited in the last three years," said Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Director Lucy Dalglish. "Even journalists will be astonished at the lengthy list of actions taken by public officials to turn basic government information into state secrets." The group has released its annual report finding that Freedom of Information Act restrictions and Access to Terrorism and Immigrations Proceedings remain "red alert" issues for journalists. "Incredible things have been happening to keep the public in the dark on anything quasi-judicial. And it's coming from the Bush administration and its coming from the courts and military tribunals and hearings…. We are looking people up and trying them in secret." As a lawyer, Ms Dalglish says, "that is the most frightening thing that is happening." RCFP is online at http://www.rcfp.org/ [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA452619?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

THE EFFECT OF TELEVISION VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN
The House Telecommunications Subcommittee (Commerce) heard testimony from academic and medical professionals who acknowledged portrayals of violence on TV have contributed to a rise in violence among adolescents. Jeff McIntyre, representing the American Psychological Association (APA), said there is great “ambiguity in implementation” of the current rating system. “It appears that ratings systems are undermined by the marketing efforts of the very groups responsible for their implementation and effectiveness.” He said this “significant lack of accountability” should be considered “when proposals for self-regulation are discussed.” Ronald Davis, a member of the American Medical Association board, said it’s up to the entertainment industry to “assume its share of responsibility for contributing to the epidemic of violence in our society and [it] should exercise greater responsibility in its programming content.” University of Arizona Prof. Dale Kunkel, a researcher on the National TV Violent Study project in the 1990s, noted research shows “that the manner is which most violence is presented on television actually enhances rather than diminishes its risk of harmful effects on child-viewers.” Most TV violence depicts violence that doesn't cause realistic suffering, he said, while only 4% of shows had an anti-violence theme. “Independent of whether or not violence on television might be reduced in quantity, it could certainly be presented in more responsible fashion, thereby diminishing its risk to child viewers,” Dr. Kunkel said. [SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: ] (Not available online)

TERRORISTS HAVE THEIR WAY ON TV [Commentary]
The “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality of television news is failing us. TV's hunger for shocking pictures is distorting Americans' view of the war in Iraq, and its excessive use of terrorist video is spreading propaganda of an even more damaging sort. TV outlets run the risk of becoming mindless, amoral communications tools by which terrorists advertise their brutality, enlarge their reputations and belittle those who would protect us. The Pew Charitable Trusts' 2004 report on the state of the U.S. media found a troubling trend: News outlets “disseminate” news from other sources rather than collect it themselves, and the end video product often becomes repetitive, chaotic and incoherent “raw news.” Ultimately, news decisions are surrendered to those who would manipulate it for their own ends. TV may need to explore a new ethic — with some stern written-down policies including: 1) A refusal to air video or other propaganda from terrorist Web sites or other anonymous terrorist sources, except in the rare circumstances that such information warns viewers of an imminent, credible threat. 2) A prohibition against using images that aren't shot by network or other legitimate photographers. That means not using video shot by terrorists or insurgents, because these images are suspect, often staged for propaganda. 3) A new practice of prominently labeling all non-network, freelance or bystander video — akin to the photo credit in print journalism — so audiences can judge the source of each image. 4) A commitment to require the same sharp scrutiny and relentless challenges to terrorists and insurgents that journalists traditionally give our own government and military officials. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Alcestis “Cooky” Oberg, a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20040915/oplede07.art.htm

AMAZON TO TAKE SEARCHES ON WEB TO A NEW DEPTH
A9.com, a start-up owned by Amazon, announced it planned to make the newest version of its search service, named A9.com, available Tuesday evening. The service will offer users the ability to store and edit bookmarks on an A9.com central server computer, keep track of each link clicked on previous visits to a Web page, and even make personal "diary" notes on those pages for viewing on subsequent visits. "In a sense, this is a search engine with memory," said Udi Manber, the company's executive director. The idea is to make searching more useful by making it easier to remember where a Web browser has gone before. "The ability to search through your own history of personal Web searches is insanely powerful," said John Battelle, a writer and consultant who is the organizer of the Web 2.0 conference. "This is a big deal,'' Mr. Battelle said. "But the question is will people get the habit of using it?" [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/technology/15search.html (requires registration) See also -- San Jose Mercury http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/9667907.htm

LOOKING FOR A USER-FRIENDLY INTERNET
In 1997, IBM Japan developed one of the world's first browsers specifically made to read the content of Web pages aloud. This July, it released software that helps Web designers figure out how to tweak home pages so they are accessible to people with poor -- or no -- eyesight. The Internet is becoming an increasingly important source of information and services. For people who are blind, that is a boon and a danger. The Internet lets them do things on their own, things they used to need a lot of help with, such as going shopping. It also could cut them off from key information if the Web is too hard to surf. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Phred Dvorak phred.dvorak@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109528737050619026,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

SMALL ADS WIN BIG UPROAR IN NEW POLITICAL MEDIA GAME
Political-advocacy groups with shallow pockets are discovering what commercial marketers have known for a long time: you don't need to spend millions of dollars to reach millions of people. Thanks to the explosion of cable news shows and their insatiable appetite for hot stories, political ads that might have received scant attention years ago are mushrooming into national stories. As a result, the groups are getting the kind of media exposure most marketers only dream about. And contributions to the groups have swelled as thousands of supporters got wind of its message. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jeanne Cummings jeanne.cummings@wsj.com and Joe Flint joe.flint@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109537429966820285,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

AS MEDIA AUDIENCE FRAGMENTS, TRUST -- NOT OBJECTIVITY -- IS WHAT MATTERS
While it is often couched as a moral issue, the question of journalistic objectivity has an economic basis. To reach a mass audience, a news medium has to be trusted by people with many conflicting points of view. Any sign of a narrow or special interest could undermine that trust. That's starting to change as the mass audience breaks up and its members seek information sources that fit their existing worldviews. As a reader, you can expect a period of confusion while writers and editors try to figure out the new rules. The business of journalism is less about reaching many people with the same message, and more about sending many different messages to smaller groups of people. That shift explains Fox News far better than any right-wing leanings its owner might have. Rupert Murdoch makes money by “narrowcasting” to a specialized audience, and to that audience, the reporting really does seem fair and balanced. Today, technology -- driven by computers -- makes specialized production and specialized information possible. As the audience fragments, trust is still important, but it should be based on getting the facts right, not on the pseudo-objectivity that comes from a journalist concealing his or her views. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20040920/opcom20.art.htm

BLOGGERS KEEP EYE ON THE NEWS
Are you starting to take bloggers more seriously? Apparently, the traditional media are. The CBS/National Guard memo incident is demonstrating how there's an expert about everything out there and how quickly they can share their knowledge now. "There's no question we all have to take them seriously,” says Terence Smith, media correspondent and senior producer at PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. “They do provide, at least potentially, a useful fact-checking function." For the old media, “this must have been what it was like for the Catholic Church when movable type was invented,” says Jack Shafer, who writes a media column called “Press Box” for the online magazine Slate. “Until then, the church controlled who would be the scribes.” For some media experts, the documents episode underscores a troubling fact about this year's political reporting. With just six weeks left in the presidential campaign, the media experts say it appears the stories the news media will be most remembered for reporting are about memos that might be forgeries and things that happened 30 years ago on a river in Vietnam. Those stories focus on charges — all challenged — leveled by a group of Vietnam War veterans at Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry. Many editors say they recognize what's happening and hope to use the time between now and Election Day, Nov. 2, to put more substance into the news they report. “I'm reaching the point where I want to ratchet down considerably the volume of coverage we give to the campaigns' back-and-forth and ratchet up the coverage we give to where the candidates stand on the issues,” says Douglas Clifton, editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:Mark Memmott] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20040922/a_documents_media22.art.htm

THE WAR FOR YOUR REMOTE: SATELLITE GAINS ON CABLE
Why cable subscribership went down for the first time last year, satellite TV operators added 2.3 million new customers. One of the biggest reasons for satellite's recent gains is that cable companies, which still have three times more subscribers than satellite, have lost what has long been one of their most compelling competitive advantages: the ability to offer local channels. That includes the local affiliates of networks such as CBS and Fox, and popular shows such as the local news. In recent years, the two major satellite providers, DirecTV and EchoStar, have added enough satellite capacity to accommodate these extra channels in most major markets. EchoStar offers them to more than 92% of U.S. households. Cable has held on to its biggest spending customers and is fighting back by offering local digital channels and video-on-demand. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant at peter.grant@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109580709654324175,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal (requires subscription)

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