June 2006

To view Benton's Headlines feed in your RSS Aggregator, paste
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=taxonomy/term/6/all/feed into your reader.
For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org

LEGISLATION
Inouye Pans Latest Franchise Bill Draft
Jersey Senate Approves Franchise Bill

BROADCASTING
NAB Claims $10.3 Billion in Public Service
Rehr, Cuomo Diss Content Crackdown

JOURNALISM
The Death of News
Pattern Recognition in the Bush Media Era
Co-opting Consumers of Color
Fight for a Free Press
A Ten-Point Plan for Media Democracy

TELECOM
Subsidizing yesterday's telephones
Verizon Sues Vonage in a Patent Dispute
Cellphone Start-Ups Struggle As Media Services Fail to Catch On

QUICKLY -- New CBO Report on Universal Service Fund; FCC Approves
Intelsat/PanAmSat Merger; Cities Shop For Free Wi-Fi; Profile: NCTA's
Kyle McSlarrow; Profile: Univision's A. Jerrold Perenchio; Disney
says Free Web TV a Hit ; Marketers aim for 'engaged' consumers; Clear
Channel grabs Web share with music videos; Tech creates a bubble for
kids; More companies tell workers to silence cellphones

LEGISLATION

INOUYE PANS LATEST FRANCHISE BILL DRAFT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senate Commerce Committee Co-chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has
parted ways with his friend Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted
Stevens (R-Alaska) on Monday's draft of video
franchise/communications reform. Sen Stevens has worked on
maintaining the bipartisan tone set by his decision to share the
title of chairman, but responding to the latest and likely last draft
before the bill is marked up Thursday, Sen Inouye took issue with
numerous changes, saying they were steps backward for the consumers
Sen Stevens said he was looking out for. Sen Inouye was particularly
concerned with portions that allow VoIP providers to "escape" some
e911 obligations and what he said were states' lack of control over
video service requirements. Sen Inouye said that new, somewhat
tougher, network neutrality language still "utterly fail[s] to
protect consumers and preserve an open Internet. Under the current
language, network operators will have the ability to dictate what the
Internet of the future will look like, what content it will include,
and how it will operate. In the absence of meaningful consumer
protections, network operators will have the unfettered capacity to
discriminate against unaffiliated online content, degrade their
quality of service, or impose steep charges for prioritized
traffic." The dill does not mandate sports programming access
requirements, which had been pushed by telcos and opposed by cable
and had been included in an earlier, telco-friendlier
draft. Prompted by some high-profile sports access fights, the
second draft had closed the so-called terrestrial loophole, which
allowed a cable operator like Comcast not to give the satellite
competition access to its regional sports network because it was
delivered terrestrially. Current law requires access only to
satellite-delivered programming networks. A committee vote on the
legislation is scheduled for Thursday
(http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/2406).
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6345408?display=Breaking+News
* Sports Access Out of New Senate Draft
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6345215?display=Breaking+News
* Inouye Rips New Stevens Draft Bill
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6345459.html?display=Breaking+News
* New Senate Draft Includes Key Changes
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-NTQA1150746577355.html
* No Free Ride for AT&T in Stevens Bill
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6345480.html?display=Breaking+News
* For more on the Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband
Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6345408.html?display=Breaking...

JERSEY SENATE APPROVES FRANCHISE BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
The New Jersey State Senate has given its final approval to a bill
reforming state video franchising policy. The state Assembly passed
its version of the same bill in May. If signed by the governor, the
bill will allow new competitors to apply for statewide franchises.
The state's Board of Public Utilities will have 45 days to grant the
operating authority. The legislation requires the authorized video
competitors to build out to communities with populations of 7,111 per
square mile and to county seats. Those requirements should require
coverage of the state's 60 largest communities, which cable
incumbents noted were concentrated in North New Jersey.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6345472.html?display=Breaking+News

BROADCASTING

NAB CLAIMS $10.3 BILLION IN PUBLIC SERVICE
[SOURCE: National Association of Broadcasters]
The National Association of Broadcasters has released its "National
Report on Broadcasters Community Service," claiming local radio and
TV stations around the country delivered $10.3 billion in community
service last year. The figure was derived from an industry census
sent earlier this year to more than 11,000 full-power commercial
radio and television stations. Broadcasters were asked to document
from January 1 - December 31, 2005 the number of PSAs they aired, the
amount of money raised for charity through direct station fundraising
appeals and funds raised for disaster relief. "This year's survey
affirms the longstanding fact that local over-the-air radio and
television stations are collectively the number one provider of
public service in America," NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr said.
"Whether it's donating airtime for valuable public service
announcements or raising money for charity and disaster relief, local
broadcasters nationwide can be proud of the tremendous contributions
they make in their communities everyday."
http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/newsletters/radioweek/2006/061906/05com...
http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/newsletters/tvtoday/2006/061906/05commu...
See also --
* What Community Service?
Even thought more than three-quarters of U.S. adults rely on local TV
news, according to a January 2006 Harris Poll, the NAB doesn't tout
the service delivered by local television newscasts; this article explains why.
http://www.benton.org/benton_files/whatservice.doc

REHR, CUOMO DISS CONTENT CRACKDOWN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
NAB President David Rehr and former Democratic New York Governor and
Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher Attorney Mario Cuomo are on the same page
when it comes to the crackdown on broadcast speech. They don't like
it. Rehr Monday suggested that one of his principle concerns that it
is not too great a leap from the suppression of indecent speech to
that of political speech. "My big worry with the whole indecency
debate," he told a New York radio audience, "is that there is not
that much of a span between what is considered indecent and something
that people should dare not talk about. And when you get into the
idea that there are certain things that people in America should not
talk about, then that is bad for the country." Asked whether he
thought stations were blameless in the crackdown, Rehr said that some
performers may be "a little edgy," but said the problem was focusing
on the 1% or 2% that is edgy or vulgar rather than on the 98% that is
decent and great and local." Former Gov Cuomo said, "There is a
certain degree of palpable hypocrisy in Congress when they make these
fine morale judgments about obscenity." He said what was "obscene"
was instead the lack of communication associated with the "billions
of dollars [legislators] pass every year in arcane, invisible bills
that nobody gets a chance to see. If they want to deal with morality
in communications, they should start there." Cuomo said the culture
must be the governor on morality, that kids must ultimately decide
for themselves what is appropriate according to principles taught at
home and in school. "Free speech is so valuable that I will pay even
a big price for it. Even if my sensitivities have to be offended from
time to time." he said. "To try to do it in a statue, it just doesn't
work. Cuomo said that he would not have signed the indecency
fine-boost bill if he were president. It is unenforceable, he argued.
"The rule has to be imposed by your culture, not legislated. Society
is constantly shifting and evolving, for better of worse."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6345473?display=Breaking+News

JOURNALISM

THE DEATH OF NEWS
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Mark Crispin Miller]
[Commentary] Although its history is far from glorious, the US press
has never been as bad as it is now; and so we rarely hear, from any
serious reporters, those blithe claims that all is well. Contrary to
the counterclaims in 1996, there was, as The Nation noted then,
copious hard evidence of corporate meddling with the news, and also,
even more important, lots of subtler evidence of reportorial
self-censorship throughout the media cartel. And yet what stood out
as egregious back then seems pretty tame today, now that the press
consistently tunes out or plays down the biggest news, while hyping
trivialities, or, if it covers a disaster, does so only fleetingly
and without "pointing fingers." The press that went hoarse over
Monica Lewinsky's dress is largely silent on the Bush regime's
subversion of the Constitution; its open violation of the laws here
and abroad; its global use of torture; its vast surveillance
program(s); its covert propaganda foreign and domestic; its flagrant
cronyism; its suicidal military, economic and environmental policies;
and its careful placement of the federal establishment into the hands
of Christian extremists. Whether it's such tawdry fare as Jeffrey
Gannon's many overnights at Bush's house, or graver matters like the
Patriot Act, or the persistent questions about 9/11, or the
President's imperial "signing statements" or -- most staggering of
all -- the ever-growing evidence of coast-to-coast election fraud by
Bush & Co., the press has failed in its constitutional obligation to
keep us well informed about the doings of our government.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/crispinmiller

PATTERN RECOGNITION IN THE BUSH MEDIA ERA
[SOURCE: MediaChannel, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter]
[Commentary] In a media environment of so much "noise," clutter and
contentious argument, oft-repeated simplistic phrases easily break
through into public consciousness at a time when impressions and
thought by association often drive meaning. This approach is not
fact-based but rather uses symbols and stylized sincerity more than
serious explanation. That's why it's effective in an already dumbed
down media environment.
http://www.mediachannel.org/affalert426.shtml

CO-OPTING CONSUMERS OF COLOR
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Makani Themba-Nixon]
[Commentrary] Big corporations reaching consumers of color is
something they say we should celebrate. However, this market
penetration has gone hand in hand with decreasing media ownership by
people of color, resulting in loss of industry voice and jobs.
Flagship properties that were once trumpeted as success stories in
black ownership--BET and Essence magazine--have become little more
than shadows of their parent companies. Television-staffing diversity
has also been taking a real blow, especially since the merger of UPN
with WB. According to a forthcoming study commissioned by the Writers
Guild of America west, before the merger UPN had the single highest
concentration of writers of color--63 percent of television writers
of color in 2005-06 were employed by UPN. This was part of a
conscious marketing strategy aimed at cornering the young black
market to carve out a bankable niche. Some of the most controversial
black programming on the air, including a short-lived, much-protested
sitcom on slavery, was on CBS-owned UPN. But UPN is merging with WB
to create a new network called CW. CW's fall scheduling plans show a
safe mix of both networks' main stalwarts, which bodes deep cuts in
UPN's black programming.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/thembanixon

FIGHT FOR A FREE PRESS
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Robert W. McChesney]
[Commentrary] Although concentration has not increased especially
over the past few years, the damage has been done. Democracy is
premised on a free press, and freedom of the press is premised on the
absence of public or private gatekeepers with monopolistic power. It
is why the Supreme Court ruled in 1945 that antitrust was probably
more appropriate in the realm of media than in any other area. This
concentrated, conglomerated and profit-driven media system is hardly
the result of "free enterprise." These giant companies are the
recipients of enormous direct and indirect subsidies and/or
government-granted monopoly franchises. They include: monopoly
licenses to radio and TV frequencies, cable and satellite TV monopoly
franchises, magazine postal subsidies and copyright, to mention a
few. For these firms the most important competition may well be in
Washington, getting the cushy subsidies and licenses. These policies,
worth tens of billions annually, are generally made in our name but
without our informed consent. That is the heart of the problem, and
it points us to the solution: informed public participation on media
policy-making.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/mcchesney

A TEN-POINT PLAN FOR MEDIA DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Chester]
[Commentrary] Ten years after the passage of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, digital technologies are rapidly reshaping the country's
communications system. It will be the most powerful media environment
ever created -- always "on" with connections via PCs, digital TVs and
an array of mobile devices, delivering a torrent of personalized,
interactive and virtual content, much of it coming from the nation's
most powerful traditional and new media companies. The next several
years are critical to insure that the promise of what we now
experience online -- and its vast potential to help build a just
civil society -- is fulfilled. With Congress poised to pass
legislation that rewrites key parts of the Telecom Act, the following
ten action items should be on any media reform agenda: 1) media
ownership, 2) mergers, 3) network neutrality, 4) spectrum management,
5) community broadband, 6) privacy, 7) intellectual property, 8)
universal service, 9) diverse content and 10) minority ownership.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/chester

TELECOM

SUBSIDIZING YESTERDAY'S TELEPHONES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Local phone monopolies are trying to saddle high-tech
competitors with fees designed to subsidize the traditional phone
network. At issue is how federal and state regulators will treat
voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, services like Vonage that use
high-speed Internet connections, not conventional phone circuits, to
transmit calls. So far, these services have been able to escape much
of the byzantine regulation that permeates the telecommunications
business. In particular, they've avoided the access charges that
long-distance and wireless companies have to pay local phone
companies when connecting to their customers. These charges not only
cover the cost of connecting calls but also subsidize phone lines in
rural and other high-cost areas. VOIP also has been exempt from
federal and state "universal service" fees, another source of
subsidies for traditional phone lines. Those exemptions are in
danger, however. With the distinction between local and long-distance
evaporating, the FCC has been struggling to phase out access charges
and overhaul universal service. Rather than dragging VOIP services
into the morass of subsidies for phone circuits, lawmakers and
regulators should focus on pushing high-speed Internet connections to
every U.S. home and business. If that means people using VOIP save a
few bucks at the expense of those who use other phone services, so be
it. With luck, VOIP will drive up the demand for broadband and hasten
its spread, diminishing the need to subsidize plain old telephone lines.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-voip20jun20,1,486...
(requires registration)

VERIZON SUES VONAGE IN A PATENT DISPUTE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel & Ken Belsen]
Vonage, the Internet telephone start-up, said yesterday that it was
being sued by Verizon Communications in a dispute over the underlying
technology that allows voice calls to be delivered over the Internet.
The lawsuit adds a new challenge for Vonage, whose stock price has
fallen precipitously since it went public last month. Verizon is
accusing Vonage of violating "at least" seven patents, according to
the complaint, which was filed June 12 in Federal District Court in
the Eastern District of Virginia. Among its claims, Verizon contends
that Vonage has used some of its technology that allows voice calls
to be transferred from the Internet onto the traditional telephone
network. It is unclear whether the technology covered by those
patents is being used in Verizon's consumer Internet phone service,
called VoiceWing. Significantly, the lawsuit -- as is sometimes the
case in patent suits -- does not ask the court to halt Vonage's
operations immediately, but does ask the court to do so if the matter
is resolved in Verizon's favor. Legal experts said it could take more
than a year for the case to work its way through the system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/technology/20vonage.html
(requires registration)

CELLPHONE START-UPS STRUGGLE AS MEDIA SERVICES FAIL TO CATCH ON
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Li Yuan li.yuan( at )wsj.com, Amol
Sharma, Merissa Marr ]
Setting the stage for another round of losses in the volatile telecom
sector, a wave of cellphone start-ups that were counting on TV, music
and other premium services to attract users is floundering. Among the
companies struggling to sign up customers: Mobile ESPN, a venture
backed by Walt Disney Co., and Amp'd Mobile, a youth-oriented
wireless start-up backed in part by Viacom Inc. and Vivendi SA. The
companies are among about 30 wireless operators and hundreds of
related wireless-technology companies that have been launched over
the past four years. They hope to carve out a profitable niche in the
mobile-phone business with networks leased from the nation's major
phone carriers and new services pushed by heavy marketing. Not since
the late 1990s has the telecom sector seen such a wave of investment.
In the past 16 months, start-up cellular carriers have raised at
least $1 billion, according to San Francisco investment bank Rutberg
& Co., compared with just $100 million in the three years from 2002
to 2004. But many of the new carriers are struggling as they fight
over a relatively thin slice of the market. While the number of U.S.
cellphone users has doubled over the past six years to 215 million,
only around 1% of them regularly use cellphones to watch videos, for
example. Cellphones also are facing competition from iPods,
Blackberries and other multimedia devices.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115076181440284664.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)

QUICKLY

FACTORS THAT MAY INCREASE FUTURE SPENDING FROM THE UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND
[SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office, AUTHOR: Philip Webre]
To encourage greater access to telephone and other telecommunications
services, the Universal Service Fund (USF) provides financial support
to some producers and consumers of those services. Spending for USF
programs rose by 50 percent between fiscal years 2000 and 2005. Much
of that increase went to support companies that offer telephone
service in rural locations and other areas where the cost of
providing such service is higher than the national average. This
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper -- prepared at the request of
the Senate Budget Committee -- examines recent trends in spending by
the USF's High-Cost Program, which subsidizes telecommunications
providers in high-cost areas. The paper examines factors that may
increase such spending in the future and discusses options to
restrict the growth of outlays. In keeping with CBO's mandate to
provide objective, impartial analysis, this report makes no recommendations.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=7291&type=1

FCC APPROVES INTELSAT/PANAMSAT MERGER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission today approved the merger of
Intelsat Holdings, Ltd. with PanAmSat Holding Corporation. Upon
completion of the transaction, PanAmSat will become an indirect
wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat. Post-merger, PanAmSat and its
subsidiaries will continue as separate corporate entities. The
transaction involves the transfer of control, to Intelsat, of
Commission-issued licenses and authorizations held by PanAmSat
Licensee Corp. and PanAmSat H-2 Licensee Corp., two subsidiaries of
PanAmSat. The two licensees are authorized to operate non-common
carrier Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS) satellites using the C- and
Ku-bands, as well as numerous non-common carrier earth stations that
transmit and/or receive signals in those frequency bands. Intelsat is
an FSS operator that owns and operates a global satellite system
providing end-to-end network services to telecommunications
operators, corporate network integrators, governments, Internet
service providers, and broadcasters around the world. Intelsat
primarily serves the voice, data, and interconnectivity requirements
of telecommunications and government customers. PanAmSat is an FSS
provider that serves the video market in North America and Latin
America and provides satellite services elsewhere in the world. The
transaction was unopposed. The Commission conditioned its approval
on Intelsat's compliance with certain national security and law
enforcement commitments and undertakings Intelsat made to the U.S.
Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265998A1.doc

CITIES SHOP FOR LOWER PRICES IN WI-FI: FREE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bobby White bobby.white( at )wsj.com]
While municipal wireless services are just a few years old, providers
of the networks -- which often use a wireless technology dubbed Wi-Fi
-- have mostly relied on subscription fees from users for revenue.
Now the rise of a new municipal Wi-Fi business model dependent on Web
advertising is putting the first wave of municipal wireless providers
at risk. There are more than 250 cities in the U.S. that have
deployed or are planning to deploy citywide municipal Wi-Fi. The
municipal wireless market is expected to expand to $512 million by
2010 from $88 million this year, says Godfrey Chua, a wireless
analyst with research firm IDC. He notes that most of the current
deployments -- in cities such as Philadelphia, Anaheim, Calif., and
Chaska, Minn. -- use a subscriber-based business model.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115076356388684691.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
(requires subscription)

THE CABLE INDUSTRY'S ENERGY GUY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jim Snyder]
Kyle McSlarrow, a former Energy Department deputy secretary during
President Bush's first term, has directed the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association (NCTA) as its CEO and president since
March 2005. The NCTA represents cable operators that serve 90 percent
of cable households as well as 200 cable program networks. The House
passed a bill two weeks ago, and the Senate is working on its draft.
The final result, which may not yet be seen this year, is likely to
bring more competition to the cable industry by providing phone
companies an easier way to sell television content on their lines.
McSlarrow said his industry is fine with that as long as regulatory
burdens on cable companies are removed at the same time. "Our posture
is whatever is happening in Congress, it has to be pro-competitive,"
said McSlarrow, who was an unusual pick for another reason. Democrats
had historically directed the NCTA. McSlarrow is dyed-in-the-wool
Republican. Another issue could prove to be more intractable and
threatens the future of the telecom bill as legislative days
disappear: network neutrality. McSlarrow calls the issue the
potential "poison pill" of the measure. Often on opposite sides, the
cable industry and the telecom Bells are aligned in the fight over
net neutrality against such Internet and high-tech giants as Yahoo,
Google and Microsoft, which don't want to be put in a position where
the owners of the broadband infrastructure charge them to use their
"pipes" or could block content.
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/062006_profile.html

A HOLLYWOOD PLAYER WHO OWNS THE GAME
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
A. Jerrold Perenchio, after running Univision Communications for 14
years, has put the Spanish-language media behemoth on the block. With
bids due today, Wall Street analysts say the company, whose
television ratings among younger viewers often rival those of ABC,
CBS and NBC, could fetch as much as $13 billion. Perenchio, whose
initial investment was a mere $33 million, stands to make about $1.3 billion.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-perenchio20jun20,1,...
(requires registration)

DISNEY SAYS ABC FREE WEB TV A HIT WITH CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gina Keating]
Prime-time ABC television shows were viewed more than 11 million
times on the Web in the first month of a test by the Walt Disney Co.
of whether consumers will watch ads online if the shows are free. An
online exit survey posted the first week of the two-month trial
showed that 87 percent of respondents could recall the advertisers
that sponsored the episodes they watched. That compares with typical
ad recall of about 40 percent for commercials viewed on television,
industry sources said. A retooled version of the free site, which
incorporates data gathered during the test, will be launched in the
Fall, Disney Media Network Co-Chair Anne Sweeney said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...

MARKETERS AIM FOR 'ENGAGED' CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Theresa Howard]
The spread of broadband Internet access and resulting growth in Web
advertising in the past year have made the pursuit of interactive
consumer "engagement," rather than the number of viewers seeing a TV
ad, the new hot button for agencies and clients. The resulting surge
in online activity, alone or as part of multimedia campaigns, has
driven a nearly 32% increase to 2,502 entries for the Web ad
competition -- called the Cyber Lions -- at this week's 53rd Annual
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Grand Prix and gold,
silver and bronze Lions recognize the world's best advertising in
nine categories. Much of the ad industry has been converted to the
belief that engagement -- adspeak for getting consumers to spend time
with brand messages -- is what gets results from advertising. One way
to do that is to send the consumer -- often with a traditional TV ad
-- to a website to interact with or sometimes create the ad. Such
interaction can extend a consumer's time spent with a brand to
minutes or longer vs. 30 seconds for TV ads.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060620/cannesengagement.art...

CLEAR CHANNEL GRABS WEB SHARE WITH MUSIC VIDEOS
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Advertising sales at the online arm of Clear Channel Communications
jumped 30 percent compared with last year after it restructured its
roster of 950 radio Web sites, the largest U.S. radio broadcaster
said on Monday. The radio company's network of Web sites collectively
were among the top five most-visited online music sites in May,
according to comScore Media Metrix, ahead of Apple's iTunes and
MTV.com after a year of steady growth.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...

TECH CREATES BUBBLE FOR KIDS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Sharon Jayson]
To baby boomers and other adults of a certain age, young people may
seem rude, disrespectful and generally clueless about established
social mores. But to social scientists, the phenomenon is more
complicated. Raised by parents who stressed individualism and
informality, these young people grew up in a society that is more
open and offers more choices than in their parents' youth, says child
and adolescent psychologist Dave Verhaagen of Charlotte. Unlike their
parents, they have never known anything but a world dominated by
technology. Even their social lives revolve around the Web, iPods and
cellphones. So they dress down, talk loose and reveal their innermost
thoughts online. "Put that all together and you've got a generation
that doesn't have the same concept of privacy and personal boundaries
as generations before," Verhaagen says. "They're tuned out in some
ways to the social graces around them and the people in their lives,
in their physical realm, and tuned in to the people they're with
virtually," says psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20060620/d_cover20.art.htm

MORE COMPANIES TELL EMPLOYEES TO SILENCE CELLPHONES
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Stephanie Armour]
More companies are limiting the use of cellphones on the job as
workplaces react to the noisy jangle of beeps and tunes emanating
from incoming personal calls at work.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060620/1a_bottomstrip20_dom....
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
service provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted
Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important
industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events.
While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone
does not always represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang headlines( at )benton.org -- we
welcome your comments.
--------------------------------------------------------------