Nov 3, 2008 (Studs Terkel)
Author, actor, hero Studs Terkel dies
Sadly, Studs Terkel, who chronicled America's history by letting common people tell their own stories, died on Friday. He was 96. His language spoke the truth. Sleep well, Studs.
http://benton.org/node/18446
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2008
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Internet Now Major Source of Campaign News
Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World
Dingell's Delay Plea Has No 'Net Effect
This time, results will be quarantined from pundits
Not Over Yet
Palin Fears Media Threaten Her First Amendment Rights
Air Obama's not-so-friendly skies
President Obama will be good for Silicon Valley
Telecom sector braces for Democratic change
Obama Outspending McCain 3 to 1 on TV
Endless campaigns drive media profits
Highlights of Online Presidential Campaign
Campaign Calls to Cellphones Invade Privacy, Voters Say
Late-night comedy is election winner
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC could free up 'white space' for broadband use
Big broadband secrets
TIA Asks Congress For A Broadband Stimulus Package
Frontier: Heavy Internet users to pay more
Nielsen finds strong TV-Internet usage overlap
Sprint-Cogent dispute puts small rip in fabric of Internet
Yahoo, Google under pressure to make next move
TELECOM
For Telecoms, Some Signals Of Distress
FCC's Verizon, Alltel Review Prompts Questions to T-Mobile
Sprint had little choice but commit to Nextel
Verizon Snags Biggest Government Communications Contract
CONTENT
Must It Always Be About Sex?
Yahoo ad network offers 'deceptive' ads
Study First to Link TV Sex To Real Teen Pregnancies
Study Links Violent Video Games, Hostility
Google's New Monopoly?
MySpace Hopes System Solves Copyright Issues
Advertisers up the ante as products become TV plots
TELEVISION
Cable Nets Lose Dual Carriage Case
I Want My Non-Nielsen TV
POLICYMAKERS
Reid and Inouye clash over whether Stevens can stay
CYBERSECURITY
Partnering for Cyberspace Security
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
INTERNET NOW MAJOR SOURCE OF CAMPAIGN NEWS
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: Andrew Kohut et al]
Many more Americans are turning to the Internet for campaign news this year as the web becomes a key source of election news. Television remains the dominant source, but the percent who say they get most of their campaign news from the Internet has tripled since October 2004 (from 10% then to 33% now). While use of the web has seen considerable growth, the percentage of Americans relying on TV and newspapers for campaign news has remained relatively flat since 2004. The Internet now rivals newspapers as a main source for campaign news. And with so much interest in the election next week, the public's use of the Internet as a campaign news source is up even since the primaries earlier this year. In March, 26% cited the Internet as a main source for election news, while the percentages citing television and newspapers remain largely unchanged. Not surprisingly, the Internet is a considerably more popular source for campaign news among younger Americans than older ones. On television, the cable news outlets clearly dominate the big three networks as main sources of campaign news. Nearly half of the public (46%) turns to the cable news channels. Only 24% rely on the network news outlets ABC, CBS and NBC. Another 13% look to local TV news.
http://benton.org/node/18445
Comment on this Headline
back to top
CAMPAIGNS IN A WEB 2.0 WORLD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr, Brian Stelter]
Old media, apparently, can learn new media tricks. Not since 1960, when John F. Kennedy won in part because of the increasingly popular medium of television, has changing technology had such an impact on the political campaigns and the organizations covering them. For many viewers, the 2008 election has become a kind of hybrid in which the dividing line between online and off, broadcast and cable, pop culture and civic culture, has been all but obliterated. Many of the media outlets influencing the 2008 election simply were not around in 2004. YouTube did not exist, and Facebook barely reached beyond the Ivy League. There was no Huffington Post to encourage citizen reporters, so Mr. Obama's comment about voters clinging to guns or religion may have passed unnoticed. These sites and countless others have redefined how many Americans get their political news.
http://benton.org/node/18457
Comment on this Headline
back to top
DINGELL'S DELAY PLEA HAS NO 'NET EFFECT
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Calling elections early has been a running battle between lawmakers and the networks for decades. Calling the race after the polls in the Eastern and Central time zones close could suppress turnout in the West. But the networks have rightly countered that they are not going to sit on the news of who the next president will be for the sake of state and local elections in California. So they will likely ignore House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell's request as they have similar ones in the past, although after the 2000 election-night debacle they did agree not to call any state until all the polls within it have close. Jessell's point: Chairman Dingell is in a position to influence just about every law or regulation affecting broadcasting and cable, yet he is still apparently unaware that the TV networks no longer control the flow of information on election night. The world is no longer waiting for TV.
http://benton.org/node/18444
Comment on this Headline
back to top
THIS TIME, RESULTS WILL BE QUARANTINED FROM PUNDITS
[SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, AUTHOR: Jonathan Storm]
The television networks' exiting polling will flow only through The Quarantine Room Tuesday night. "Somewhere in New York City, at an undisclosed location, there's a quarantine room, in which up to three members of each network will be present, reviewing the data, starting in the morning," explained Sheldon Gawiser, NBC director of elections. "They will be locked in that room until 5 p.m. They will have no cell phones and pagers. The wireless will be turned off on all their computers. If they go to the bathroom, they have to have a monitor."
http://benton.org/node/18443
Comment on this Headline
back to top
NOT OVER YET
[SOURCE: American Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Rem Rieder]
[Commentary] Let's hope all these pollsters know what they're doing. Otherwise, journalism is in for a very bad hangover. The tone of the coverage of the presidential campaign is certainly understandable. But it's also unsettling. The polls strongly suggest that the Democrats are in for a very good day next Tuesday. Barack Obama is comfortably ahead of John McCain in the national tally. Obama is also ahead in many key swing states and even in some red states. He's playing offense, McCain is playing defense. Polls also indicate that the Democrats are likely to increase their margins over the Republicans in the Senate and House by significant margins. The result is coverage that basically says this contest is all but over.
http://benton.org/node/18442
Comment on this Headline
back to top
PALIN FEARS MEDIA THREATEN HER FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS
[SOURCE: ABCNews, AUTHOR: ]
Gov Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Sen Barack Obama (D-IL). In an interview on a conservative radio program, she said her criticism of Obama's associations should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution.
http://benton.org/node/18441
Comment on this Headline
back to top
AIR OBAMA'S NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Kenneth Vogel, Michael Calderone]
In total, media outlets have paid $9.6 million to the Obama campaign to travel with it. They've spent less than half that amount — $4.4 million — to travel with the McCain campaign, though that difference stems in large part from different travel schedules, overhead costs and billing standards, as well as from the prolonged Democratic primary that dominated media attention for months after the Republican race ended. On Thursday, Sen Barack Obama's campaign decided to pull the seats for reporters from The Washington Times, New York Post and Dallas Morning News — all papers that endorsed John McCain.
http://benton.org/node/18440
Comment on this Headline
back to top
PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL BE GOOD FOR SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
[Commentary] If polls can be believed, at last we are going to have our first Internet president. Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) has promised to take the strategies and technologies that drove his campaign and implement them across the U.S. government. While we must now be vigilant about holding him to his promises, those plans, in three key areas, should be a boost for Silicon Valley's economy and innovation: 1) Transparency. 2) Broadband. 3) Research.
http://benton.org/node/18439
Comment on this Headline
back to top
TELECOM SECTOR BRACES FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
A Democratic sweep in Tuesday's US elections may clear Network Neutrality, federal Internet policy that would bar Internet providers from discriminating against some Web content. Prices for cable television, Internet advertising and privacy are other issues likely to move forward if the Democrats win more seats in Congress, as expected. A win by Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) in the November 4 poll would add further steam and give Democrats a majority on the Federal Communications Commission. Sen Obama takes the side of net neutrality backers, who say ISPs should not be able to discriminate against certain types of Internet traffic requiring more bandwidth, such as the downloading of movies, or block certain content altogether.
http://benton.org/node/18438
Comment on this Headline
back to top
OBAMA OUTSPENDING MCCAIN 3 TO 1 ON TV
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
The University of Wisconsin's Advertising project reports that from Oct 21 to Oct 28, spending on television advertising in the presidential campaign has totaled nearly $38 million. Over this time period, the Obama campaign spent nearly $21.5 million while the McCain campaign spent nearly $7.5 million. Another $6.7 million was spent by the Republican Party and $2.2 million was spent by interest groups. The Obama campaign on track to spend more money in October on broadcast TV -- over $100 million dollars than any campaign has ever spent in history. The air war continues to be waged on what should be John McCain's home turf -- states that George W. Bush won in 2004. Barack Obama spent more than $15 million in states that went for Bush, and over 70 percent of his total spending has been in states that were "red" four years ago. McCain has been playing defense, spending most of his money in states that have reliably gone for Republicans.
http://benton.org/node/18437
Comment on this Headline
back to top
ENDLESS CAMPAIGNS DRIVE MEDIA PROFITS
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Brian Lowry]
Whatever the election's outcome, millions of Americans will wake up Nov 5 breathing a sigh of relief that the campaign is finally over. Only they'll be wrong. We now live in an age of the endless election, the perpetual campaign -- one fed by media outlets on all sides, whose success in the run-up to the 2008 vote has only whetted their collective appetite to keep the good times (and the attendant vitriol) rolling. This idea of politics as eternal combat -- with elections merely serving as exclamation points -- isn't exactly new. Sen Barack Obama recognized as much, telling the New York Times, "There is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it's powerful." Profitable, too.
http://benton.org/node/18436
Comment on this Headline
back to top
HIGHLIGHTS OF ONLINE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Nielsen Company, AUTHOR: ]
As the financial crisis came to a head in mid-September, Sen Barack Obama's campaign began to ramp up its online advertising. Image-based ad impressions by the Obama campaign grew 202 percent from the week beginning September 15th to the week beginning September 22nd and another 94 percent the following week. Obama's campaign also stepped up its sponsored link advertising in recent weeks, surpassing McCain's sponsored link advertising for the first time in the week starting October 13th. Unique visitors to BarackObama.com outpaced those to JohnMcCain.com nearly 2 to 1 in September. The unique audience at BarackObama.com went from 6.1 million in August to 7.9 million in September, increasing 31 percent month over month. Unique visitors to JohnMcCain.com grew 56 percent month over month, from 2.7 million to 4.2 million. Online video proved to be a strength for the McCain campaign in September. Growing 175 percent month over month, total streams at JohnMcCain.com increased from 1.2 million to 3.2 million. Unique viewers at the site also increased 175 percent during the month, growing from 475,000 to 1.3 million. The number of video streams at BarackObama.com increased 60 percent month over month, from 1.3 million total streams in August to 2.0 million streams in September. Unique viewers at the site also increased, growing 35 percent in September from 824,000 to 1.1 million.
http://benton.org/node/18435
Comment on this Headline
back to top
CAMPAIGN CALLS TO CELLPHONES INVADE PRIVACY, VOTERS SAY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
Last-minute campaign calls are increasingly targeting cellphones, frustrating voters who say their privacy is being violated through political telemarketing to their personal mobile devices. The rise of the robocall and the growing number of people who use a cellphone as their primary point of contact have converged to invade voters' personal space. Telemarketing to cellphones for general consumer purposes, such as car warranty sales pitches, was outlawed in 2003 so as to not penalize consumers, whose cellphone plans typically require that they pay for minutes used. But an exemption in the law allowed political candidates to call people, whether on their cellphones or their landlines. Campaigns can easily obtain a list of voters' telephone numbers for a nominal fee through state voter registry databases, said Shaun Dakin, chief executive and founder of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry, a nonprofit advocacy program. According to the Pew Research Center, 15 percent of American adults use only a cellphone and have no landline at home.
http://benton.org/node/18456
Comment on this Headline
back to top
LATE-NIGHT COMEDY IS ELECTION WINNER
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Donna Freydkin]
As Election Day looms, late-night comedy shows are wrapping up their campaign coverage in high style. "For the last eight months everyone's been completely — I won't say obsessed — but fascinated by (the election). Every little turn is reported," says SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels. "We just caught the break that the country has been this focused. We were in perfect harmony with the audience. Interest has never waned."
http://benton.org/node/18455
Comment on this Headline
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC COULD FREE UP 'WHITE SPACE' FOR BROADBAND USE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on a measure that would make white space available for wireless broadband. Under the proposal, these airwaves would be treated like Wi-Fi — unlicensed and free to everybody. "It will be like the Wi-Fi you get at Starbucks, only a lot better," says FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who first proposed the idea four years ago. The FCC's goal: to serve the expanding broadband needs of US consumers. "We are trying to make sure we're using this spectrum in the most efficient way possible," Martin says. The amount of white space varies, but in some markets there's the equivalent of six TV channels. Allowing that spectrum to lie dormant, as it has for 50 years, isn't helpful to consumers, the FCC chief says. Broadcasters are howling. They say white-space devices — which don't yet exist — might interfere with TV signals. That view is shared by Broadway theater owners, sports leagues and others that use electronic microphones, which use the same airwaves. Bruce Mehlman, executive director of the Technology CEO Council, which represents tech giants such as IBM and Intel, has another theory: "(Broadcasters) were mentally reserving the right to use the spectrum for their own profit," he says.
http://benton.org/node/18454
Comment on this Headline
back to top
BIG BROADBAND SECRETS
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
[Commentary] Congress passed the Broadband Data Improvement Act, but may have messed up in doing so. The bill that ultimately passed was based on the Senate version, which collects data on availability only. The data made available publicly won't identify commercial carriers and won't say what speeds they provide and at what price. The bill does call for collecting speed and pricing data separately and making that available. And it sets up a mechanism for the Department of Commerce to issue matching grants for states, municipalities or private entities working to collect broadband data. Telecom service providers have traditionally opposed the publication of their specific broadband offerings, saying that would put them at a competitive disadvantage. That makes no sense to me. Anyone can go on a service provider Web site and type in a ZIP code or phone number to fairly quickly find out what is available in a specific geographic area. I regularly come home to find material hanging on my doorknob boldly advertising the price at which every service under the sun can be bought, and major media advertising also promotes the latest introductory pricing offers for cable and telecom companies alike. So what's the big secret? Knowing where broadband is available is an important first step to determining where — and why — it isn't available or isn't affordable or isn't all that fast. Then the federal government can — we hope — determine the best way of making affordable broadband ubiquitous. It may well be that some kind of federal subsidy is needed to serve high-cost areas, but that is a policy decision that can't be made without accurate information.
http://benton.org/node/18434
Comment on this Headline
back to top
TIA ASKS CONGRESS FOR A BROADBAND STIMULUS PACKAGE
[SOURCE: TelecomWeb, AUTHOR: ]
Adding yet another item to the growing list of suggested "economic incentives" to ease the current financial crisis, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has asked Congress to include broadband deployment incentives, arguing the payback could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. In a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders of both houses of Congress, signed by TIA President Grant Seiffert, TIA argued that such a broadband stimulus would result in everything from a reduction of dependence on foreign oil to reduced medical costs, even helping a bit with the housing crisis. "Including broadband incentives in a stimulus package would further a number of important goals and priorities of the Congress and provide substantial benefits to all Americans," Seiffert wrote in his letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). http://benton.org/node/18433
Comment on this Headline
back to top
FRONTIER: HEAVY INTERNET USERS TO PAY MORE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
Phone company Frontier Communications will probably charge its subscribers a dollar or two per gigabyte of Internet traffic if they go over the monthly allotments the company plans to introduce next year, Frontier's chief executive said Friday. The company is at the forefront of what CEO Maggie Wilderotter believes is a trend among Internet service providers toward billing for the amount of data subscribers use, rather than all-you-can-eat monthly plans. Frontier provides service mainly in rural areas of 25 states. Internet users have no experience with tracking their usage. There have been few caps in place on downloads, and the existing caps have been so high that they affected only a tiny fraction of users. Frontier's planned cap would apply to the total amount of data that users download and upload in a given month. A traffic allowance of 5 gigabytes is enough for thousands of Web pages, or tens of thousands of e-mails, but could be exceeded by the download of three DVD-quality movies.
http://benton.org/node/18432
Comment on this Headline
back to top
NIELSEN FINDS STRONG TV-INTERNET USAGE OVERLAP
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Steve Gorman]
Nearly a third of all household Internet activity in North America takes place while the user watches television, suggesting new and old media often share rather than compete for attention, the Nielsen Company said in a report on Friday. In fact, the study found that heavy Internet users are among the most dedicated of TV viewers, spending more than 250 hours a day in front of the tube, compared with the 220 hours of television watched by people who never go online. The findings would appear to be good news for broadcasters who worry the Internet is siphoning away viewers, and with them advertising dollars. It also helps explain the apparent paradox between rising TV viewership overall and the growing popularity of new media.
http://benton.org/node/18431
Comment on this Headline
back to top
SPRINT-COGENT DISPUTE PUTS SMALL RIP IN FABRIC OF INTERNET
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Mikael Ricknäs]
Sprint-Nextel has decided to sever its Internet connection with Cogent, another ISP. As a result, it is no longer possible for many Sprint customers and Cogent customers to directly communicate across the Internet. The two ISPs are currently engaged in litigation over their exchange of Internet traffic, so-called peering. In shutting down the peering between the two, Sprint violated a contractual obligation to exchange Internet traffic with Cogent on a settlement-free peering basis.The dispute is unlikely to have an effect on the Internet as a whole, according to Kurt Erik Lindqvist, CEO at Netnod, which handles peering between carriers in Sweden. In the short term, Sprint and Cogent costumers are stuck in middle, but in the end Lindqvist thinks they will be forced to work out their differences.
http://benton.org/node/18430
Comment on this Headline
back to top
YAHOO, GOOGLE UNDER PRESSURE TO MAKE NEXT MOVE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Dawn Kawamoto]
Yahoo and Google are nearing a point where they'll have to decide whether to fish or cut bait on regulatory approval for their search advertising deal. During the past two months, efforts to appease federal antitrust regulators have gotten bogged down with potential restrictions on the deal. As a result, the companies' enthusiasm for its search advertising partnership has turned into frustration, raising speculation that the parties might walk. As a result, that leaves the companies with a decision to either accept a deal on the Department of Justice's terms or walk away altogether. One of the parties involved notes walking away is not such a bad option but, of course, it would sink the deal since it takes two to transact.
http://benton.org/node/18429
Comment on this Headline
back to top
TELECOM
FOR TELECOMS, SOME SIGNALS OF DISTRESS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Beyond the wreckage created by the credit crisis sweeping through corporate America, the telecommunications industry has been a relative bright spot -- that is, if you're AT&T, Verizon or Comcast. Now a new financial crisis threatens to leave some telecom companies much smaller, or worse. To compete with the likes of Verizon and AT&T, a number of companies have taken on piles of debt to put down fiber optic cable or raise cell towers. That has left some, such as Ciena, Cogent and XO Communications, more vulnerable to market instability as demand dwindles for services from businesses and consumers, analysts say. "The smaller competitive telecos are once again on the wrong side of change and the economy," said Scott Cleland, an analyst at Precursor.
http://benton.org/node/18449
Comment on this Headline
back to top
FCC'S VERIZON, ALLTEL REVIEW PROMPTS QUESTIONS TO T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Fawn Johnson]
The pending merger of Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp. has prompted the Federal Communications Commission to take a renewed look at foreign-controlled assets in other wireless phone companies, a development that could impact T-Mobile USA. The FCC on Oct. 17 sent a letter to T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, advising the company that regulators should have evaluated its 2001 acquisition by the German telephone giant under a 20% voting stock threshold. The merger was evaluated under a more lax standard. "The Commission strictly applies the 20% statutory benchmark of [the law], and has no discretion to waive it," an FCC letter to T-Mobile said. "Based on this ownership structure it appears that Deutsche Telekom, a foreign corporation, has a 30%, non-controlling interest in a common carrier license." The letter asked T-Mobile to respond within 30 days about how it can come into compliance.
http://benton.org/node/18427
Comment on this Headline
back to top
SPRINT HAD LITTLE CHOICE BUT COMMIT TO NEXTEL
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
With no way to get rid of it and no way to shut it down, Sprint must keep Nextel running. Given 18 months to retune the 800-MHz network, Sprint said after careful review of the iDEN business it has decided to reinvest in Nextel and Boost Mobile and has signed a new deal with Motorola to support and upgrade the network. But what Sprint is calling an opportunity may just be simply the result of stalemate. According to analysts, Sprint can't sell Nextel in the current tight capital market, and it can't simply shut it down, so it is forced to keep running the legacy network despite its drain on Sprint's customer base and profits.
http://benton.org/node/18426
Comment on this Headline
back to top
VERIZON SNAGS BIGGEST GOV'T COMMS CONTRACT
[SOURCE: TelecomWeb, AUTHOR: ]
Verizon landed a massive $1.1 billion worth of new contracts under the General Service Administration's (GSA) Networx Universal MegaContract, believed to be the largest awards to a single company to date. The new awards are a pair of contracts from DITCO, the contracting arm of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), worth "up to" $752 million and $358 million, and covering various data and voice services.
http://benton.org/node/18421
Comment on this Headline
back to top
CONTENT
MUST IT ALWAYS BE ABOUT SEX?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
The Supreme Court specializes in law, not lexicography. But it will soon have to consider the meaning of that most versatile of four-letter words. A central question in the case of Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, to be argued Tuesday, is whether every permutation of the word evokes sex and thus runs afoul of indecency regulations, which prohibit the broadcasting of material that "depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs." "Given its core meaning," the Commission told the court, "any use of the word has a sexual connotation even if the word is not used literally." "It hardly seems debatable," the Commission wrote in 2006, "that the word's power to 'intensify' and offend derives from its implicit sexual meaning" as "one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit words for sexual activity in the English language." The federal appeals court in New York disagreed. "As the general public well knows," Judge Rosemary S. Pooler wrote for the majority last year, four-letter words "are often used in everyday conversation without any 'sexual or excretory' meaning."
http://benton.org/node/18425
Comment on this Headline
back to top
YAHOO AD NETWORK OFFERS 'DECEPTIVE' ADS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Robert McMillan]
Deceptive advertising may be illegal in the US, but Yahoo's ad network appears to offer it to publishers on a menu of choices when they're deciding what ads to run on their Web sites. Yahoo Right Media's Direct Media Exchange gives publishers the option of running or blocking several different types of ads, based on their "deceptiveness." These ads include graphical advertisements that are designed to look like fake error or download messages or look like genuine Windows dialog boxes. Also included are ads that have phony "close window" buttons or pull-down menus that actually take the user to a Web site instead of closing the window or producing a pull-down menu. Direct Media Exchange also categorizes deceptive ads by language, letting publishers filter out "deceptive or questionably realistic offers," or "free" offers that do not disclose what a consumer might have to do to qualify for this free offer. According to data on the Direct Media Exchange Web site, these "Free with no disclosure language" ads can make up close to 18 percent of Right Media's ad inventory at certain times.
http://benton.org/node/18428
Comment on this Headline
back to top
STUDY FIRST TO LINK TV SEX TO REAL TEEN PREGNANCIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Rob Stein]
Teenagers who watch a lot of television featuring flirting, necking, discussion of sex and sex scenes are much more likely than their peers to get pregnant or get a partner pregnant, according to the first study to directly link steamy programming to teen pregnancy. The study, which tracked more than 700 12-to-17-year-olds for three years, found that those who viewed the most sexual content on TV were about twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy as those who saw the least. "Watching this kind of sexual content on television is a powerful factor in increasing the likelihood of a teen pregnancy," said lead researcher Anita Chandra. "We found a strong association." The study is being published today in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
http://benton.org/node/18453
Comment on this Headline
back to top
STUDY LINKS VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES, HOSTILITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Donna St George]
Children and teenagers who play violent video games show increased physical aggression months afterward, according to new research that adds another layer of evidence to the continuing debate over the video-game habits of the youngest generation. The research, published today in the journal Pediatrics, brings together three longitudinal studies, one from the United States and two from Japan, examining the content of games, how often they are played and aggressive behaviors later in a school year. The US research was the first in the nation to look at the effects of violent video games over time, said lead author Craig A. Anderson, a psychology professor at Iowa State University and director of its Center for the Study of Violence.
http://benton.org/node/18452
Comment on this Headline
back to top
GOOGLE'S NEW MONOPOLY?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: James Gibson]
Last week, Google settled a controversial copyright case by agreeing to pay tens of millions in licensing fees to authors and publishers, with more to come. At first glance, it looks like this great champion of the free flow of information has caved to copyright interests. But in fact, Google may be better off with a settlement than an outright win. Before the court approves this agreement, then, it must consider the deal's anti-competitive effects.
http://benton.org/node/18451
Comment on this Headline
back to top
MYSPACE HOPES SYSTEM SOLVES COPYRIGHT ISSUES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Emily Steel]
MySpace plans to announce Monday that it is adopting a new video-identifying technology that will attempt to resolve copyright issues and boost ad revenue from some of the video clips users upload to the social-networking site. The technology, from a third-party company called Auditude, scans videos for professional -- often copyrighted -- content. Auditude's system then indexes the uploaded videos against more than one billion minutes of content from its library. Auditude's system can automatically insert an ad into videos that contain professional content. MySpace and the media companies that produce the content will be able to sell ads tied to the uploaded videos and share ad revenues.
http://benton.org/node/18450
Comment on this Headline
back to top
ADVERTISERS UP ANTE AS PRODUCTS BECOME TV PLOTS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Gloria Goodale]
Advertisers these days want to do far more than just place BMWs, Manolo Blahnik shoes, and other luxury items within reach of favorite TV and movie characters. They want to create entire worlds of consumption. For instance: 1) CW Television Network's "Gossip Girl" features characters whose lifestyles are driven by the Prada bags they want and the La Perla lingerie the highly sexualized characters need. 2) Actresses in "Roommates," a MySpace TV Web series, use their characters' online profiles to chat with fans and dish out information about their clothing and other products as well as advice on where to buy them. These are the heady days of "brand integration" and "immersive" commercial environments.
http://benton.org/node/18448
Comment on this Headline
back to top
TELEVISION
CABLE NETS LOSE DUAL CARRIAGE CASE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled Friday that a group of cable networks that included C-SPAN couldn't challenge the Federal Communications Commission's decision to force cable operators to carry certain TV stations. Without addressing the merits of the rules, the court held that the FCC's regulations applied to cable operators but not to programmers. It said that cable networks failed to demonstrate that government-mandated TV station occupation of cable system capacity automatically created an injury to cable networks denied the same access guarantees.
http://benton.org/node/18424
Comment on this Headline
back to top
I WANT MY NON-NIELSEN TV [SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: James Erik Abels]
Everything you know about what's hot on television may be wrong. Wisconsin-based start-up Networked Insights released a study this week challenging the Nielsen Company's ratings system by measuring what's being talked about online. "When it's a show that has more interesting content, they're getting more engagement," says CEO Daniel Neely. For the study, Networked Insights examined 17,000 sites and 3.5 million "interactions." These include people posting videos clips or photos about a show, discussion board comments and inviting friends to join online fan groups. In the fourth week of September, Nielsen rated the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as the fifth most popular show on TV with some 6.9 million viewers. Online, Networked Insights says it was number one, with over 65 million interactions.
http://benton.org/node/18423
Comment on this Headline
back to top
POLICYMAKERS
REID AND INOUYE CLASH OVER WHETHER STEVENS CAN STAY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Walter Alarkon]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and a member of his caucus clashed over whether Sen Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) can continue to serve despite his conviction on federal corruption charges. Sen Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said on Saturday that he was certain Stevens's conviction would be overturned on appeal and that he would be allowed to remain in the Senate. Sen Inouye and Stevens, both World War II veterans, serve together on the Senate Commerce Committee and have long been friends and Inouye testified on Stevens's behalf during his trial. But Sen Reid rejected any notion that Sen Stevens could stay in the Senate.
http://benton.org/node/18422
Comment on this Headline
back to top
CYBERSECURITY
PARTNERING FOR CYBERSPACE SECURITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
In two recent speeches that have attracted little notice, Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence, has called for a radical new relationship between government and the private sector to counter what he called the "malicious activity in cyberspace [that] is a growing threat to everyone." Kerr said the most serious challenge to the nation's economy and security is protecting the intellectual property of government and the private sector that is the basis for advancements in science and technology. "I have a deep concern . . . that the intelligence community has still not properly aligned its response to what I would call this period of amazing innovation -- the 'technological Wild West' -- by grasping the full range of opportunities and threats that technology provides to us," he said at the annual symposium of the Association for Intelligence Officers on Oct 24. "Major losses of information and value for our government programs typically aren't from spies . . . In fact, one of the great concerns I have is that so much of the new capabilities that we're all going to depend on aren't any longer developed in government labs under government contract."
http://benton.org/node/18458
Comment on this Headline
back to top