Recent postings on media issues from Benton.org

December 2004

THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY: [Commentary] Last week, Google announced an ambitious new plan to start converting millions of books into digital files in partnership with several major libraries, including the New York Public Library and the libraries at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. This is a logical step for Google, which says its mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." The idea of making books available online is not new, but this plan represents an enormous shift in scale, so enormous that if it is carried out successfully, it may redefine the nature of the Internet and the university. Digital technology is only a few years old, and even in that brief time, the digital world has produced dozens of incompatible, and often unreadable, media formats. The Google project will enhance the usefulness of the books it encompasses, but it in no way will render them obsolete. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: NYT Editorial Staff] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/opinion/21tue2.html (requires registration)

THE 'DADDY' OF TV TASTELESSNESS: "Reality TV" does not capture reality. Instead it creates fantasies (whether beautiful or grotesque) designed to appeal to dreamers, cynics and voyeurs. And, because those traits run though most people's personalities, millions tune in to watch all sorts of mortifying, salacious and occasionally heartwarming programs. A new show is bubbling up from the bottom of the barrel. In "Who's Your Daddy?", a woman who was adopted as an infant wins $100,000 if she can determine which of eight men is her biological father. But if she guesses wrong, the impostor who fools her gets the cash. The producers of "Who's Your Daddy?" contend critics should hold their fire until they've seen the show, which they describe as a "fun and healthy way" for adopted people and their birth fathers to get to know each other. But you don't have to watch something racist, sexist or homophobic to understand that it's a problem. [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-pertman21dec21,1,6350427.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

ISP WINS $1 BILLION IN SPAM SUIT: An Internet service provider in Iowa has been awarded more than $1 billion in what is believed to be the largest lawsuit judgment ever against spammers. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com ] http://news.com.com/ISP+wins+1+billion+in+spam+suit/2100-1028_3-5497211.html?tag=nefd.top

ON THE OPEN INTERNET, A WEB OF DARK ALLEYS: George Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, speaking on the vulnerabilities of the nation's computer networks at a technology security conference on Dec. 1, noted the ability of terrorists to "work anonymously and remotely to inflict enormous damage at little cost or risk to themselves." He called for a wholesale taming of cyberspace. "I know that these actions would be controversial in this age where we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," Mr. Tenet said, "But, ultimately, the Wild West must give way to governance and control." Even if the government is able to shore up its networks against attack -- one of many goals set forth by the intelligence reform bill passed last week -- the ability of terrorists and other dark elements to engage in covert communications online remains a daunting security problem, and one that may prove impossible to solve. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller Jr.] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/technology/20covert.html (requires registration)

ICANN PARTYING LIKE IT'S 1999: [Commentary] The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international organization that oversees domain names, believes it needs a bigger budget funded by domain name fees -- and plans to start charging domain name owners in a process that will begin next year. But ICANN had a similar plan back in 1999 and "Everyone from presidential perennial Ralph Nader to Republican insider Grover Norquist castigated ICANN for levying an 'illegal tax.'" McCullagh ends: "ICANN has a clear incentive to adopt common-sense guidelines. Otherwise it risks reliving the backlash it suffered in 1999." [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh] http://news.com.com/ICANN+partying+like+its+1999/2010-1071_3-5495758.html?tag=nefd.ac

THE MEDIA CRISIS AT YEAR'S END: SUMMING UP AND MOVING FORWARD: [Commentary] How did the media, an institution with a brave history of safeguarding democracy, become a threat to its survival? The Committee for Excellence in Journalism's State of the Media Report shows a system that is devolving and losing credibility: 1) A growing number of news outlets are chasing relatively static or even shrinking audiences for news; 2) Much of the new investment in journalism today is in disseminating the news, not in collecting it; 3) In the 24-hour cable and online news format, there is a tendency toward a jumbled, chaotic, repetitive and partial quality in some reports, without much synthesis or even the ordering of the information; and 4) Journalistic standards now vary even inside a single news organization. While some trivialize media as a problem, others are trying to do something about it. That is one of the big stories about the media not yet in the media: the emergence of a media and democracy movement. Watch for a year of media activism and advocacy from such groups as Media For Democracy, MediaChannel, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Matters for America, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumers Union, FAIR and, possibly, MoveOn.org. [SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter) http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert301.shtml

HD RADIO OFFERS TANTALIZING HOPE FOR NICHE, HYPERLOCAL RADIO CONTENT: A look at radio's transition to digital technology (HD Radio). Backers of the new technology say that AM radio in HD sounds like FM radio, and FM radio is CD quality. But perhaps the most exciting part of HD Radio is that one station on one frequency could serve multiple digital streams -- meaning a public station could have news on one channel, classical music on another and public affairs programming on another. Plus, there's the possibility of rich data services such as local weather and news beamed to portable devices in the future, as well as audio on demand and time-shifting similar to TiVo on televisions. Learn more at the URL below. [SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Mark Glaser] http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/041214glaser/ See also: Greater Media Commits All Stations To Be On-Air In HD By Year-End 2005 http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=126365&pt=todaysnews

MEDIA WISH LIST FOR 2005: What are the five things Penenberg would most like to see in 2005? 1) Google News should become a for-profit enterprise so it can be sued and the courts can determine what is "fair use" when it comes to posting headlines and lead paragraphs, 2) Bloggers break news, 3) Dismantle the FCC so the campaign against indecency ends, 4) The end of Nielsen and comScore, and 5) Media reasserts its role as government watchdog: It's time for news organizations to stop chasing the almighty dollar and reassert themselves as righters of wrong. This means reinstituting walls between the editorial and marketing sides of the business, and staying away from money grabbers like IntelliTxt, a product that embeds advertising links into the bodies of news stories. Journalism is more than a business, it's a calling. Media organizations must treat it that way -- otherwise Americans' trust of the news media will continue to plummet, and we'll all lose. [SOURCE: Wired.com, AUTHOR: Adam L. Penenberg] http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,66048,00.html

USA CONSUMERS UNION LAUNCHES TELECOM, MEDIA WEB SITE: Consumers Union launched a web site (www.hearusnow.org) that is designed to provide consumers with information on telecom and media industry developments, help them shop for products and services, and make it easier to lobby lawmakers and policy-makers on issues. "This web site addresses the explosion of activist groups and energized consumers who are frustrated by the government's hands-off approach when it comes to dealing with their concerns over higher bills, poorer service, and the fact a handful of companies control their communications," said Gene Kimmelman, senior director-public policy for Consumers Union. "It's important consumers have one place to go where they can understand how policies affect their pocketbooks. . . . HearUsNow.org not only explains these issues, it gives consumers the tools to fight for their interests. Our goal is to have success stories, where a consumer in San Francisco can learn from someone in Philadelphia the methods and challenges of creating an open wireless network in their community," said Morgan Jindrich, director of HearUsNow.org. "We want to link consumers throughout the nation so they have the power to take on these major issues and big corporations. We want to put the power back in consumers' hands." [SOURCE: TR Daily, AUTHOR: Paul Kirby pkirby@tr.com]

GOOGLE AND GOD'S MIND: [Commentary] Google is digitizing library holdings to create the electronic equivalent of "the mind of God." Could this digital system be the death of libraries? Don't count on it. There's a big difference between "information" and "knowledge" and you can't deliver the latter with short passages of books. The books in great libraries are much more than the sum of their parts. They are designed to be read sequentially and cumulatively, so that the reader gains knowledge in the reading. Gorman writes: "I am all in favor of digitizing books that concentrate on delivering information, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and gazetteers, as opposed to knowledge. I also favor digitizing such library holdings as unique manuscript collections, or photographs, when seeing the object itself is the point (this is reportedly the deal the New York Public Library has made with Google). I believe, however, that massive databases of digitized whole books, especially scholarly books, are expensive exercises in futility based on the staggering notion that, for the first time in history, one form of communication (electronic) will supplant and obliterate all previous forms." [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Gorman is president-elect of the American Library Association] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-nugorman17dec17,1,2263077.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

IS THE INTERNET TRULY GLOBAL?: Isn't it time the Internet started handling non-Roman characters? [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Winston Chai] http://news.com.com/Is+the+Internet+truly+global/2010-1038_3-5491681.html?tag=nefd.ac

TV'S FUTURE MAY BE WEB SEARCH ENGINES THAT HUNT FOR VIDEO: The startup search engine Blinkx today will begin allowing users to search the Web for selected video clips from 15 television channels. Today, these offerings are novelties in the competitive and expanding Web-search industry. But the long-term implications go far beyond the search function. Some search companies aspire to offer video programs directly to consumers via their computer screens and eventually on TV, potentially competing with TV networks and other video distributors. But to fulfill these larger ambitions, Internet companies will have to resolve legal and licensing issues with creators and distributors of TV and other video, who closely guard the dissemination of their wares over the Internet. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kevin J. Delaney kevin.delaney@wsj.com and Martin Peers martin.peers@wsj.com] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110314966721301333,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

WIDEBAND & ULTRA-WIDEBAND DEVICES: The FCC adopted rules aimed at further facilitating the introduction of new unlicensed wideband devices. These devices will include radar systems to improve automotive safety and tracking systems for personnel location, such as hospital patients and emergency rescue crews, as well as for functions such as inventory control. The Commission previously established regulations that permit the marketing and operation of certain types of new products incorporating ultra-wideband (UWB) technology. UWB technology can be employed for a vast array of new applications that have the potential to provide significant benefits for public safety, businesses and consumers. [SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission] http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-255351A1.doc See also: FCC to Monitor Cable's UWB Concerns Cable programmers argued that without proper restrictions, UWB could cause harmful interference to cable signals sent via satellite to 9,000 cable headends around the country. Some broadcasters raised identical concerns. [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn] http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA488241.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

NET COMMUNITIES MAY BE KEY TO FUTURE OF POLITICS: A panel of Internet gurus gathered Friday at the fifth annual Votes, Bits & Bytes conference, held by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School to discuss the impact of Internet business models on online politics. The panelists said the most valuable lesson online campaigners may be able to garner from Web-based companies is that building a sense of trust remains at the center of winning loyalty from customers or political followers. [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Matt Hines] http://news.com.com/Net+communities+may+be+key+to+future+of+politics/2100-1028_3-5487855.html?tag=nefd.top

THIS JUST IN, FROM THE GUY NEXT DOOR: A look at hyper-local journalism -- made possible by the Internet. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60249-2004Dec12.html (requires registration) See also: Dan Gillmor, longtime technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, is leaving the paper to work on a venture that aims to allow the public to report and publish on the Internet. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10379872.htm

WHERE LISTENERS ARE: What new medium is the biggest competitor for traditional radio listeners? No, not satellite radio... it is the Internet. While just 3.4 million Americans subscribe to satellite radio, about 19 million listen to Internet radio each week. That's still tiny compared with the 277 million who listen to regular radio each week, but the number of Internet listeners has grown fast. Just three years ago, only 11 million listened to Internet radio each week. The real boom in Internet radio should unfold over the next few years with the development of technology that would allow Internet users to travel around large areas and keep their connections, much like cellphone users can. Widespread mobile Internet access eventually could even allow consumers to get online right from their moving cars. Internet radio receivers could wind up on the dashboard right alongside regular radio tuners, much as satellite radio receivers are becoming standard in-car options today. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com ] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110261810998395846,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report (requires subscription)

WHO OWNS THE MEDIA?: [Commentary] The nation's founders, particularly Madison, believed that it was important for the public, not merchants, to own and support the major media distribution mechanism of the day -- the post office. Public ownership of media remains an important part of U.S. communications policy, but going back as far as the days of the robber barons and the trusts battling against Teddy Roosevelt and Louis Brandeis, corporations have sought to diminish public media. While most of us rely on corporate media (the New York Times, Verizon, Comcast, NBC, etc.), publicly-owned media continues to struggle for the place the founders established for it. This struggle is illustrated by two seemingly different examples. One involves the future of public broadcasting; the other involves the efforts of the City of Philadelphia to provide its citizens with an alternative means of communication. [SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd] http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=262672

TV TRASH? JUST STOP WATCHING: [Commentary] The real reason that our culture is getting dirtier, trashier, and more inclined toward garbage of all kinds? It sells. It is sold in bulk to us by large corporate media companies, which have supported the Bush Administration's deregulation of the communications industry. They make tons of money peddling this scummy material. So the solution, Harris writes, is to just turn it off -- don't let your kids listen to/see it and don't consume this media yourself. If we do this, the upshot will be breathtakingly simple: The media conglomerates will take this stuff off the air because unwatched programs do not make money for them. Period. [SOURCE: Toledo Blade, AUTHOR: David Harris, University of Toledo] http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041208/OPINION04/412080316/-1/OPINION

ON LOCAL SITES, EVERYONE'S A JOURNALIST: Several notable ventures have launched or raised money this year to create local news sites online in which readers contribute all or most of the news. The big idea is that citizen-generated content lowers costs and creates more loyal audiences. Advocates say do-it-yourself Web news supported by advertising is more viable today than in the 1990s -- back when Microsoft shuttered its Sidewalk network of entertainment guides and the rival CitySearch network went deeply into the red. That's because more people are online, and they're using faster connections and growing increasingly comfortable posting their thoughts via forums, blogs and other formats. The dream of local Web entrepreneurs is to reel in a new generation of hyper-local advertisers -- those dry cleaners and car washes that rarely advertise in big, daily newspapers. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leslie Walker walkerl@washpost.com] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46519-2004Dec8.html (requires registration)

LIBRARIES REACH OUT, ONLINE: Libraries are going digital in a big way. They are breaking free from the limitations of physical location by making many kinds of materials and services available at all times to patrons who are both cardholders and Web surfers, whether they are homebound in the neighborhood or halfway around the world. For years, library patrons have been able to check card catalogs online and do things like reserve or renew books and pay overdue fines. Now they can not only check out e-books and audiobooks but view movie trailers and soon, the actual movies. There's much more at the URL below. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Gnater] http://tech.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/technology/circuits/09libr.html (requires registration)

BLOGGING IN AMERICA: A VIEW FROM THE OLD WORLD: [Commentary] The emergence of blogs is now a part of the American media landscape. Organizations with hundreds of staff -- including professionally trained journalists and small armies of fact-checkers -- are now measured as equals to a single person working out of a basement. Shouldn't we be concerned about the state of American news when rumors and second-hand commentary become as important as breaking global events and investigative reports? Why aren't more American editors standing up to challenge this trend? Today's blogs are so popular that nobody dares suggest that they raise more problems than they solve. With bloggers, you jump directly from breaking news to opinion. This is a major disruption and, by the way, a major misunderstanding of what journalism is: when you are articulated and well informed, it's rather easy to become an opinion giver, but it is much more difficult to fact-check the news and avoid manipulation by the government or big companies and interests. You need a staff, editors in a newsroom; all that has existed in media organizations for a century. [SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, AUTHOR: Bertrand Pecquerie, Director, World Editors Forum] http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert296.shtml

SELF-CENSORSHIP AND SYPHILIS: [Editorial] Another story about a rejected ad; this time an anti-syphilis public service ad rejected by five Los Angeles broadcasters. It "seems another example of the self-censorship that broadcasters are imposing as the Federal Communications Commission cracks down on material it deems objectionable." One broadcaster said the ad struck an "inappropriate" lighthearted tone about a "serious matter." Yet multiple studies have shown that public health messages playfully encouraging people to protect themselves against disease are generally much more effective at changing behavior than stern, moralistic ones. A more likely explanation for the reluctance of KCBS and the other stations is that they didn't want to risk incurring the wrath of the FCC. The editorial concludes, "FCC Chairman Michael Powell's policies, initially aimed at encouraging broadcasters to respect community standards of decency, now may be threatening public health. Not to mention public discourse, which inevitably suffers in a nanny society in which acceptable content is determined by a group convinced that its "values" are handed down from on high." [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: LA Times Editorial Staff] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-syph8dec08,1,5315637.story?coll=la-news-comment See the ad for yourself at <http://www.latimes.com/syphilis>http://www.latimes.com/syphilis (requires registration)

A MEDIA BLACKOUT: MEDIA OUTLETS REFUSE UNION ADVERTISING: [Commentary] Major corporate media outlets often reject advertising from labor unions. This means that the same outlets that will not cover labor for free, in many cases will not even sell working people 60 seconds of the public's airwaves for hard-earned money. Even people well aware of the media's failings in covering labor issues have no way of knowing that the media is also censoring union ads. This unfair and unbalanced practice is, of course, not reported on by the media. Rejecting union ads or any other ads (except political campaign ads) is perfectly legal, and no explanation for the decision to reject a particular ad is required. But ad sales executives are completely open about their motivations. If, they say, an ad from a union will be viewed negatively by a corporation that buys more advertising than the union does, the union ad gets rejected. Thus the collective wealth of working people cannot compete in our "democratic media" against the wealth of corporate owners unless the union spends as much as the corporations - and even then ads can be rejected or required to become corporate friendly. [SOURCE: International Labor Communications Association, AUTHOR: David Swanson] http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1158

NEW STANDARD EXPECTED TO PUSH OVER-AIR INTERACTIVE TV'S SUCCESS: In five years you could be interacting with your television in an entirely new way. Watching a shopping channel, you could punch a "Buy" button instead of calling a 1-800 number. You could receive customized news, weather and traffic reports. So predicts Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) President Mark Richer. ATSC is working on an over-the-air, interactive TV standard, the Advanced Common Application Platform (ACAP), which is expected to be completed and published in the next several months. Information about ACAP is available at www.atsc.org. [SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Tania Panczyk-Collins] (Not available online)

CORPORATE AMERICA CAN'T WRITE: [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sam Dillon] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/business/07write.html (requires registration)

CBS RESEARCH FINDS DVRs LESS OF A THREAT TO TV ADVERTISING: CBS is telling advertisers that digital video recorders (like TiVo) are less of a threat than -- um, well -- advertised. An internal CBS study of 734 DVR viewers found ad skippers recalled on average two commercials they fast-forwarded through and one brand. That is about the same recall as live TV viewers. The research also found that if time-shifting viewers were added to the shows' live audience, it would nearly double the ratings for most of the top 20 network series. [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Mercedes Cardona] http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=42099

BEIJING LOVES THE WEB UNTIL THE WEB TALKS BACK: As the number of people online has quintupled over the last four years, the government has shown itself to be committed to two competing goals: strategically clamping deploying the Internet to economic advantage, while clamping down -- using surveillance, filters and prison sentences -- on undesirable content and use. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/business/businessspecial2/06net.html (requires registration)

TRYING TO REACH CUSTOMERS IN THE ERA OF E-MAIL SUSPICION: Will 2005 be the year of the unanswered e-mail? Given increased instances on Internet fraud, especially a form of identity theft called "phishing," people may grow more and more reluctant to open unexpected email. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/business/businessspecial2/06secure.html (requires registration)

ADVOCACY GROUPS BLUR MEDIA LINES: Communications scholars cringe at the notion that lobbying groups are obscuring or playing down their participation in publications and programs that push a narrow point of view. "People judge communication by its source so when you deny people full knowledge of that source of information they are losing something important about evaluating the message," said Kathleen Hall Jamison, dean of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. Geneva Overholser of the University of Missouri's journalism school's Washington bureau said anything less than thorough disclosure "is deceitful and imbalanced." Otherwise, she said, citizens "don't have enough information to judge" publications or broadcasts. [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jeffrey H. Birnbaum] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38184-2004Dec5.html (requires registration)

ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC INTERNET USERS: The first large-scale surveys of the Internet's impact on artists and musicians reveal that they are embracing the Web as a tool to improve how they make, market, and sell their creative works. They eagerly welcome new opportunities that are provided by digital technology and the Internet. At the same time, they believe that unauthorized online file sharing is wrong and that current copyright laws are appropriate, though there are some major divisions among them about what constitutes appropriate copying and sharing of digital files. Their overall judgment is that unauthorized online file-sharing does not pose a major threat to creative industries: Two-thirds of artists say peer-to-peer file sharing poses a minor threat or no threat at all to them. Across the board, among those who are both successful and struggling, the artists and musicians we surveyed are more likely to say that the Internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their art than they are to say it has made it harder to protect their work from piracy or unlawful use. Surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show there are 32 million Americans who consider themselves artists and about 10 million earn at least some level of compensation from their performances, songs, paintings, videos, creative writing, and other art. The report includes special analysis of "Paid Artists," those respondents who are musicians, writers and filmmakers and earn some income from their art. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Mary Madden] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/142/report_display.asp Pew File-Sharing Survey Gives a Voice to Artists [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tom Zeller] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/arts/06down.html (requires registration) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5CT0KTO1O0LYYCRBAELCFEY?type=internetNews&storyID=6997352

US NETIZENS: WHITE, WEALTHY AND FULL OF IT - SHOCK!: A survey by the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows that the Internet has entrenched the divide between rich and poor, and the races. Statistics reveal an Internet that's overwhelmingly white, wealthy and urban. The pace of Internet adoption has tapered off to a trickle, with a substantial part of the population not interested in the Internet at any price. [SOURCE: The Registar, AUTHOR: Andrew Orlowski] http://www.theregister.com/2004/12/01/us_doc_internet_survey/

EURO NET USERS TOP 100 MILLION: Nielsen/NetRatings estimates that there are now over 100 million Internet users in Europe and more than half connect using broadband. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZTAEC0O3XXAVICRBAEKSFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=6979104

MEDIA CONSOLIDATION A THREAT, BLETHEN TELLS PORTLAND AUDIENCE: According to Frank Blethen, board chairman of Blethen Maine Newspapers and the Seattle Times, consolidation of media ownership threatens American democracy because it saps investment in local journalism and stifles controversial coverage that conflicts with corporate interests. Citizen involvement policy making both at Congress and the FCC may be the only remedy. Blethen offered his views as the featured speaker Wednesday at the monthly breakfast meeting of the Portland Community Chamber. An outspoken critic of media consolidation, Blethen is publisher and chief executive officer of The Seattle Times and a fourth-generation newspaper owner. He distributed a written list of what he considers principles for reclaiming America's media. His first priority is to maintain current FCC rules, including minority ownership requirements and public service obligations. He also supports new legislation to ban companies from owning both television stations and newspapers in the same market. Radio ownership rules should be rolled back to 1996, when regulations were relaxed. [SOURCE: Maine Today, AUTHOR: Tux Turkel tturkel@pressherald.com] http://business.mainetoday.com/news/041202blethen.shtml

DIGITAL GENERATIONS: Monday: A report on how some rural communities are installing their own high-speed Internet connections. New research indicates that speed is the determining factor in who uses the Internet. Tuesday: Cell phones, PDAs, computers and MP3 players may seem a bit confusing to the average adult but for kids born in the digital age, these devices are second nature. A 13-year old and his family talk about what it means to grow up as a part of the Net Generation. [SOURCE: Morning Edition] http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=29-Nov-2004 http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=30-Nov-2004

PAYOLA PERSISTS: In 1960, legendary disc jockey Alan Freed was indicted for accepting music industry money in exchange for radio air time. The scandal sparked anti-"payola" legislation, but loopholes have persisted. Last month, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation into modern forms of pay-for-play by the major record labels. Brooke speaks with New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki about "spot buys" and the gaming of the Billboard charts. [SOURCE: On the Media] http://www.onthemedia.org/stream/ram.py?file=raotm/otm112604c.ra http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_112604_payola.html\

THE FIGHT FOR DOCU-DEMOCRACY: [Commentary] Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 demonstrated that there is a large global market for dissenting perspectives that can compete for mainstream movie goers and attention. Beyond the proliferation and success of compelling well made films there is a deeper meaning to this phenomenon that directly impacts on the media and democracy fight. The docu-explosion is part of the emergence of an oppositional culture responding to the decline of quality in our media system, the uniformity of its approach to news and information and growing distrust it has spawned. [SOURCE: Mediachannel.org, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter] http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert293.shtml

CHINA BLOCKING ACCESS TO GOOGLE NEWS SITE - WATCHDOG: China is blocking access to the Web site Google News, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday, and accused the U.S.-based company of being complicit by filtering its Chinese-language site. [SOURCE: Reuters] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DHMKFW5JGPL0ICRBAE0CFFA?type=internetNews&storyID=6951891

DOUBTS ABOUT SCHOOL COMPUTER USE: A new study done by Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of the CESifo economic research organization in Munich finds that students who use computers often actually perform poorer than those who use them less often. [SOURCE: BBC News] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4032737.stml

THE KIDS ARE ONLINE: Kids ages 2 to 11 viewed 106% more Web pages on average in October 2004 than two years before in October 2002, according to a Nielsen//NetRatings report. [SOURCE: eMarketer.com] http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003151

THE FUTURE OF BROADCAST NETWORK NEWS: Over the weekend, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune ran long stories addressing the question "will broadcast TV network newscasts survive?" The combined audience of the Big Three networks still draw a weekly audience that dwarfs that of cable news networks. And they still produce big profits. But their audience is aging, not very desirable to broadcast advertisers and may not be replaced by younger people who are used to getting news when and where they want to. One industry analyst asks, Why call yourself a network, if you don't runs a news division? http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/ny-fftv4054422nov28,0,6600874.story http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0411280353nov28,1,34354.story

GIANTS RULE THE MEDIA SEA: Pulitzer's move to possibly put itself on the market is a sign that newspapers remain attractive businesses, despite declining circulation and stiff competition from television, the Internet and other sources of information. But the move also suggests that the days of small, independent media companies are numbered, experts say. Before the age of conglomerates, when most media companies were privately owned, they answered to three constituencies, said Brian Steffens, executive director of the National Newspaper Association. "Your stakeholders were the owners, the readers and the advertisers," he said. When the companies sold stock to the public, they added a fourth constituency - shareholders. That group, Steffens said, "has no vested interest in the product, other than monetary return." [SOURCE: St Louis Post-Dispatch, AUTHOR: Christopher Carey] http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/newswatch/story/591AD5AA49A99F7586256F59006D2BA5?OpenDocument&
Headline=Giants+rule+the+media+sea+&highlight=2%2Cpulitzer

THE NEXT REBIRTH OF THE MEDIA: [Commentary] The entire media landscape is undergoing basic, fundamental, change. A decade from now, much of what we take for granted will be morphed beyond recognition. With broadband Internet flowing in to your PC, personal video recorder, iPod, even your cellphone, you will be able to access what you like, when you like. Sound great? Maybe for you, but not for broadcast TV affiliates who may face extinction as networks find it more economical to distribute programming via the Internet. Without that programming, why would you give any attention to the ex-ABC/CBS/Fox/NBC affiliate in your area? You might, if they offered local programming, but, these days, that's the last type of programming you'll get from many affiliates. How will these stations survive? They will have to become local-content specialists, with intensely local-news and current-affairs programming the heart of their operations: From micro-coverage via C-SPAN-style narrowcasts of local government, to real-time traffic updates, to aggressive development of all manner of nonfiction programming, including weather, talk, sports, schools, condo and civic association politics, consumer affairs, even local music and arts. And, of course, they will have to compete with local newspapers who are way ahead in this evolution. It's competition that might actually end up leaving the public better informed and better served. [SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Prof. Edward Wasserman, Washington and Lee University] http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10292032.htm?1c (requires free registration)

Click here for other Benton files.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) Benton Foundation 2003. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message.
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:
Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org)
Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org)
OneWorld US (www.oneworld.net/us)
Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org)