Recent postings on media issues from Benton.org

November 2004

FILM STUDIOS WIN $24 MILLION AGAINST WEB SITE: Hollywood's major movie studios said they won a $23.8 million judgment against a California company and its Malaysian owner for operating a Web site that charged customers to download illegally copied movies. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=H5TNDIUFKQ4G2CRBAE0CFFA?type=internetNews&storyID=6913436

VIDEO GAMES TEACH MORE THAN HAND-EYE COORDINATION: Video games, often maligned as having little or no redeeming value, are becoming a way for firefighters, soldiers, currency traders and college administrators to hone their skills. See more about "serious games" at the URL below. [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CU1XBRYWMAJP0CRBAEKSFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=6934839

USA SENATE PASSES SCALED-BACK COPYRIGHT MEASURE: The Senate has voted to outlaw several favorite techniques of people who illegally copy and distribute movies -- secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters AND hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyrighted works before their official release date. Left out were several more controversial measures that would criminalize the actions of millions of U.S. Internet users who copy music and movies for free over "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa. The bill also shields "family friendly" services like ClearPlay that strip violent or sexually explicit scenes from movies. Hollywood groups say such services violate their copyrighted works by altering them without permission. Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge said, "Consumers won a major victory when the Senate passed legislation removing the most egregious elements of the omnibus copyright bill that had previously been under consideration. We strongly support the version of the Family Movie Act, included in the bill, which gives families more control over how they watch movies and television, preserving the right to skip over commercials. The bill will benefit consumers, both in their entertainment choices now, and from the innovation in technology that will result in coming years." [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DZYT5QPY22MLICRBAEZSFEY?type=internetNews&storyID=6887347 See also: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA482582?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) http://www.publicknowledge.org/pressroom/pressrelease.2004-11-22.6500991518

BETWEEN BIG MEDIA AND BROTHERLY LOVE: [Commentary] Banish the notion that America's communications industry helps nurture technological innovation that makes media more accessible to average Americans. The reality today is that we live in an era where large corporations work hand-in-hand with lobbyists and compliant legislators to stifle any technology that returns control of our media system to the public. The latest evidence lies hidden within proposed legislation that would effectively kill efforts in Philadelphia to provide citywide wireless access at little or no charge. [SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr] http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert292.shtml

USA GROWTH OF HIGH-SPEED INTERNET DISAPPOINTS SOME EXPERTS: Some coverage of the Department of Commerce report, A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age. The number of Americans using fast Internet connections doubled from 2001 through late 2003, still below some expectations and especially low among minority groups and people in rural areas. Only 1 in 7 blacks and fewer than 1 in 8 Hispanics lives in a household with broadband service while one in four white Americans used high-speed connections at home. In urban areas, 40.4% of households used fast connections; only 24.7% of rural users did. Significant numbers of rural residents said they couldn't subscribe to high-speed services because none was available. Most Americans who did not use fast connections said service was either too expensive or they did not need it. [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Ted Bridis, Associated Press] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20041123/a_internet23.art.htm

A NATION ONLINE: ENTERING THE BROADBAND AGE: The sixth report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce examining the use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools by the American people. Between the Census Bureau's Current Population Surveys conducted in September 2001 and October 2003, the number of households with Internet connections grew by 12.6% and a transition is underway from dial-up to high-speed Internet connections. The use of high-speed Internet connections grew significantly between 2001 and 2003 and more than offset the decline in dial-up users. For this reason, this report focuses on what Americans are doing with their high-speed connections. [SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration] http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/index.html

BONO'S NEW CASUALTY: 'PRIVATE RYAN': [Commentary] What has changed since ABC affiliates aired "Saving Private Ryan" in 2002? A government with the zeal to control both information and culture has received what it calls a mandate. Media owners who once might have thought that complaints by the American Family Association about a movie like "Saving Private Ryan" would go nowhere are keenly aware that the administration wants to reward its base. Merely the threat that the FCC might punish a TV station or a network is all that's needed to push them onto the slippery slope of self-censorship before anyone in Washington even bothers to act. This is McCarthyism, "moral values" style. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? The pressure groups that are exercised by Bono and "Saving Private Ryan" are often the same ones who are campaigning to derail any news organization that's not towing the administration line in lockstep with Fox. In this diet of "news" championed by the right, there's no need for actual reporters who gather facts firsthand by leaving their laptops and broadcast booths behind and risking their lives to bear witness to what is actually happening on the ground in places like Falluja and Baghdad. The facts of current events can become as ideologically fungible as the scientific evidence supporting evolution. Whatever comforting version of events supports your politics is the "news." [SOURCE: New York Times 11/21, AUTHOR: Frank Rich] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/arts/21rich.html (requires registration)

LURING THE ELUSIVE TWEEN: According to Nielsen Media Research, the "tween" demographic ranges from 9 to 14 years old, but depending on the network, or even the marketing group, tweens can fall anywhere from 6 to 14. Because of the big range and varied interests, programmers find it hard to target this audience. The younger ones are not quite full-fledged adolescents, and the older ones want to step back a bit from the razor's edge of teenage life. They might be interested in watching MTV: Music Television, but are also willing to watch great narrative, family-style programming. [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA479863.html?display=Special+Report (requires subscription)

WHEN 'NO SEX' REALLY SELLS: There is no doubt that when it comes to made-for-television movies, cable has cleaned up at the proverbial box office. And while heightened sex and violence may be key to attracting adult moviegoers, many cable channels are finding they can pull in broader viewers, in major demos, with original films aimed at families. [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA479861.html?display=Special+Report (requires subscription)

CHINA FORMALIZES LAWS ON TV JOINT VENTURES: A wave of small-scale foreign investments is expected as China has formalized laws that allow international media companies to form television-production joint ventures with Chinese media firms, a move that opens up China's burgeoning media sector but restricts the introduction of foreign brand names. As many industry observers had expected, the laws require the ventures to be at least 51% owned by a Chinese partner and forbid financial investors that don't specialize in the media business, such as private-equity funds. China's central government has pressed broadcasters to move all viewers to a digital-broadcast pay-TV standard by 2015. The switch to digital will open more channels to consumers, but broadcasters will need better content to lure those consumers to pay digital-subscription fees. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Geoffrey A. Fowler geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110054559850974374,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

THE TELEVISION TODDLER BOOM: Cable networks are showing big interest in attracting the littlest viewers these days. The expanded interest in reaching preschoolers stems from the notion that there are new opportunities to be mined as little kids, and their parents, are increasingly drawn to the educational and entertainment content that can be found on digital media. What is really encouraging about this boom in preschool programming, says Christy Glaubke, principle associate of media watchdog Children Now, is that “there can be some good that comes from it - if it's educational.” She says, “There have been several studies that have found that young children - even socio-economically-disadvantaged children who traditionally don't perform as well in school - get a leg up by watching educational television.” At the same time, she says, there is a potential downside to the programming barrage. “A concern that we have is the amount of commercialism that children are exposed to on these channels,” says Glaubke, citing recent fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission against ABC Family and Nickelodeon for running excessive commercials during its children's programming blocks. “We realize that these networks need to make money, but we also know that children under the age of eight are much more vulnerable to commercial messages and unable to make a distinction between commercial and program content. They're more susceptible to being swayed,” Glaubke says. [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA479862.html?display=Special+Report (requires subscription)

BIG MEDIA GETTING BIGGER: Apparently the old adage "eat or be eaten" applies to Internet journalism, too. At the fifth annual Online News Association meeting, the buzz was "Big Media gets bigger." CBS MarketWatch was purchased by Dow Jones, a direct competitor that has lagged, not led, the revolution to publish free news on the Internet -- despite the potential to break news during market hours. Now the most direct Internet competitors of the Dow Jones-MarketWatch alliance include Street.com (a smaller Web-only outlet), Forbes, Fortune and Business Week (all magazines) and Yahoo Finance (an aggregation site). Sources at the conference said The Washington Post is close to acquiring Slate, another Web pioneer of original Web content. Slate, which is owned by Microsoft, focuses on political reporting, much like the Post does. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jeff Pelline] http://news.com.com/Big+media+getting+bigger/2100-1024_3-5452023.html?tag=nefd.top

HOW DAN RATHER AND MEDIA'S KINGS LOST THEIR CROWNS: [Commentary] The biggest losers in the 2004 election just might be Big Media. The public is beginning to contest the decades-old authority of the mainstream media. It is too bad this abdication has occurred just as political opinions have become overheated by the kind of electronic technology deployed in the 2004 election. We really could use some neutral ground, a space one could enter without having to suspect that "what we know" about X or Y was being manipulated. The problem with being spun day after day by newspapers or newscasts is that it gets tiresome, no matter your politics. You end up having to Google every subject in the news (Guantanamo, gay marriage statutes, Tora Bora, the Patriot Act) to find out what's been left out or buried at the bottom. The real winners here are the politicians. Pig heaven for them. If much of the public (a margin large enough to decide elections) believes it no longer has access to a settled information baseline, an agreed-upon set of facts, then it's so much easier for the pols, using this new arsenal of high-tech info firepower, to manipulate a doubtful public and push it around with propaganda (they can demographically target ads to the TV screens in health clubs). Henninger offers this low-tech solution: Why don't we finally institute an American version of the parliamentary question period common around the U.K.? If the likes of Messrs. Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Powell, Snow, Cheney and Bush had to appear before the House in this tightly regulated question-and-answer format, broadcast on C-Span, surely the public over time would acquire a clearer sense of which ideas are competing for their support and vote. Let's get to them, before they get to us. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dan Henninger henninger@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110022312344272245,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

IRANIAN INTERNET JOURNALISTS FACE TRIAL NEXT WEEK: In Iran, the Internet has become a refuge for reformist journalists who lost their jobs when the country's judiciary closed more than 100 pro-reform publications in the past four years. But at least nine journalists writing on online journals known as weblogs and news-based Internet sites have been detained by the judiciary since September and they will face trial beginning next week accused of spreading propaganda against the Islamic state. International human rights groups criticized the lack of freedom of expression in Iran which they say has more journalists in jail than any other country in the Middle East. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6758137

NET ACCESS COULD KNOCK DOWN BARRIERS TO FREEDOM IN IRAQ: There could be no more effective way to promote democracy and free markets in Iraq than to significantly boost the number of Iraqis using the Internet. Can we send Steve Case there? [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20041110/maney10.art.htm

FROM FLORIDA TO FALLUJAH: WHAT THE NEWS COVERAGE COVERS UP: [Commentary] Media coverage lurches from event to event, and from spectacle to spectacle as a substance deficit disorder hyperactively drives the news agenda. No sooner are we focused on one major story, than another intrudes to change the subject and insure that there is no time for follow-up, much less thoughtful processing. In some cases, this is the natural disorder of news, but in many others, there are hidden hands shifting the agenda in a conscious effort not simply to influence what we think, but control what we think about. Schecter uses the example of the current campaign in Fallujah to highlight attempts to shape news narrative. [SOURCE: Mediachannel.org, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter] http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert288.shtml

ONE INTERNET, MANY COPYRIGHT LAWS: The Elvis Presley hit "That's All Right" is due to become copyright-free next year in Europe, but not for another 45 years in the US. The case is one more example of the Internet's inherent lack of respect for national borders or, from another view, the world's lack of reckoning for the international nature of the Internet, and it is also an example of the already complicated range of copyright laws. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Victoria Shannon] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/technology/08newcon.html (requires registration)

SEE WIRED: In the November issue of Wired there is a CD issued under a new type of license called the Creative Commons, the brainchild of Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig. The artists on the disc have agreed to give music lovers the freedom to transfer the songs to their computers, distribute them over Internet file-swapping networks like Kazaa, and even sample the rhythms and hooks to create their own compositions. The only thing you can't do is use them in commercials or, in a handful of instances, a song you plan to release. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Dawn C. Chmielewski] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/10126944.htm

FOX NEWS, MEDIA ELITE: Cable news channel Fox News amassed an audience of 8.1 million viewers on election night, clobbering other cable news networks. NBC, ABC and CBS, on the other hand, lost millions of viewers this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. And Fox News actually came closer to CBS in the ratings than CNN did to Fox News. Fox News has now become popular enough -- with an audience whose conservative political leanings track those of the voters who re-elected President Bush -- to lay claim to its own place in the establishment. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jacques Steinberg] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/business/media/08fox.html (requires registration)

DRAMA ON HORIZON FOR SPANISH TELEVISION: A change of government in Spain means a new ballgame for Spain's fiercely politicized media companies. The 7-month-old Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero plans to award licenses for two new television networks, much to the annoyance of Telecinco and Antena 3, the TV networks that dominate Spain's 6-billion-euro ($7.7-billion) advertising market. It is widely expected that one of the new TV licenses will be awarded to Prisa, a pro-Socialist media group that owns the daily newspaper El Pais, commercial radio broadcaster Cadena Ser and a 23% stake in Sogecable, a pay TV company. With the political wind now blowing in its favor, Prisa's shares are up 30% this year. Meanwhile, Vocento, a cash-rich, privately owned group of regional newspapers, is openly lobbying for the other TV license. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Leslie Crawford] http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-ft-spain8nov08,1,4431556.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

FAT CATS GET FATTER: B&C looks at five potential changes that could be the result of last week's elections. 1) Fat Cats Get Fatter: Media giants Comcast, News Corp., Viacom and other conglomerates will seek to strike new deals to grow their empires in a more relaxed regulatory environment. A second Bush administration will resurrect deregulation to make it so. Lifting restrictions will lead to "fewer owners controlling even more assets," said Leonard Hill who represents the independent TV production community. "They'll be able to curry favor with entrenched Washington power in turn for relaxation of regulations designed to protect the public interest." 2) Morality Police Will See Red Over Blue TV. Conservative groups will turn up the pressure on the FCC and Congress to scrub filth out of broadcast prime time. With as many as four Supreme Court spots likely to open in the new Bush presidency, some industry folk worry that the courts could support a la carte cable pricing options or -- Jenna Jameson forbid -- outlawing cable porn. 3) FCC Chief Polishes His Image, Then Quits. FCC Chairman Michael Powell may take the time to work on his legacy: accelerating the transition to digital television, rolling out Internet TV and backing other gee-whiz technologies. He will have a temporary 3-1 Republican majority after December. 4) GOP Stands Divided on Digital Deadline. Chairman Powell favors 2009 as the end date for analog TV, by House Commerce Committee Chairman wants to see a return of the spectrum currently used for TV stations in 2006. Either deadline could require up to $1 billion in subsidies for low-income, broadcast-only households. The Administration is not so keen on that. 5) Congress Reopens the Telecom Act, Reaps a Windfall. Congress plans to launch a rewrite of the laws governing media, phone and wireless industries sometime next year. A big side benefit to House and Senate members is that telecom companies, fearful of losing favor, will feel obligated to donate millions over the next session. If past legislative battles are any indication, Congress will milk the opportunity for campaign cash rather than pass legislation quickly. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478554?display=Feature&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

MPAA TO SUE OVER MOVIE FILE SWAPPING: The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents major Hollywood studios such as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Viacom's Paramount Pictures, plans to file about 200 suits against computer users who put illegally obtained movies on Internet file-sharing services for other users to download and watch for free. Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors broad access to digital copyrighted material, said that the industry has a right to sue to protect its copyright but that consumers must be given a viable legal alternative, or people will continue stealing movies. The industry needs "an iPod for movies," said Sohn, referring to Apple's popular digital song player. Apple's online music store, which sells songs for the iPod for 99 cents each, has been emulated by other companies. Also, "the movie industry needs to clean up its own house," she said, referring to pre-release copies of first-run films that get smuggled out of studios and wind up on the Internet. Typically, pirated movies found on the Internet are of low quality, having been recorded with hand-held devices in movie theaters. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25784-2004Nov4.html (requires registration)

OPEN ARCHITECTURE AS COMMUNICATIONS POLICY: A collection of papers from speakers at a forum held on Capitol Hill entitled Broadband Technology Forum: The Future Of The Internet In The Broadband Age. They seek to provide a comprehensive basis for understanding the interaction of technology and public policy in the development of the Internet. The papers address three aspects of the environment in which the Internet was created and flourished -- technology, economy and law. [SOURCE: , EDITOR: Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America] http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/cooper/archives/openarchitecture.pdf

USA ELECTION COVERAGE DRAWS LARGE PRIME-TIME AUDIENCE: Who says Americans aren't interested in politics? Tuesday's election produced the biggest voter turnout since 1968 with approximately 120 million ballots cast. And 63 million viewers tuned in to find out who won. NBC was the choice of the largest number of broadcast viewers, Fox News Channel had its biggest night ever, and Univision was the overwhelming choice for Spanish-language coverage. [SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: ] http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=6658 See also -- Cable Networks Score Big in Election Ratings [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint joe.flint@wsj.com ] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109951877797464020,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription) They Don't Declare: The Vote-Callers Who Lost Their Voice [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23756-2004Nov3.html (requires registration) Once Bitten, Twice Tempted, But No Call in Wee Hours [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jacques Steinberg & David Carr] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/04networks.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration) Also: TV networks were in no rush to call presidential election [SOURCE: USAToday] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20041104/a_networks04.art.htm Bloggers Gain Attention In 2004 Election [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leslie Walker walkerl@washpost.com] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23628-2004Nov3.html (requires registration)

CAN RADIO KILL THE DIGITAL MUSIC STAR?: Just as the iPod and other portable devices that hold songs copied from CDs or downloaded from the Web begin to evolve with new functions like photo storage, along comes a gadget that plays and records material from satellite radio. The MyFi costs $350 in addition to XM's $9.99 monthly fee for more than 130 channels of commercial-free programming. It can run for five hours on a rechargeable battery and uses an antenna in its case to draw down the satellite signals. The MyFi has a "memory mode" to store and replay up to five hours of XM content. Users can record programs on the spot or set up a timed recording of a show in advance. Like the TiVo, iPod and other players, users can search stored content by artist or song title. "If it works, the XM Radio portable is a much bigger deal than the latest iPods," said Jupiter Research analyst David Card. "Think about it, just about everybody listens to radio, while only about 60 percent of the U.S. buys any music at all." [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sue Zeidler] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2KESSNFQ0Y3JUCRBAELCFFA?type=technologyNews&storyID=6700437

NONCOMS GET DOUGH FOR DIGITAL ARCHIVING: The Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) is granting nearly $3 million to a partnership of WNET New York and WGBH Boston (the two largest PBS' program suppliers), PBS; and New York University to help archive and preserve digital, noncommercial television programming and related Web content. The library is trying to prevent the sort of wholesale losses of TV programming that typify the early days of analog television, when many live shows were not recorded, or if they were, the recordings were eventually destroyed for lack of space and interest. [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA476878.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

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