June 2014

Advocacy Journalism Is Polarizing Our Country

[Commentary] Over the past 15 years, as newspaper circulation has declined, more and more people are turning to advocacy journalism via websites, talk radio, cable TV, and blogs to get their news. The problem is that many of these blogs and websites are biased, have an agenda, don't do much fact checking, aren't edited, and aren't held accountable when they get facts wrong.

TV networks like MSNBC and FOX News and talk radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck have a clearly biased agenda. Yet, many people rely on advocacy journalism as their main source of news.

As reported by Andrew Beaujon of Poynter.org on June 10, a newly released survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institute on religion, values, and immigration reform revealed that "people's media choices have a strong effect on their beliefs." The study stated that, "Only 42% of Republicans who most trust Fox News to provide accurate information about politics and current events support a path to citizenship, compared to 60% of Republicans who most trust other news sources."

Advocacy journalists do not set out to inform; they set out to advance an agenda, whether it be conservative or liberal. While FOX News and conservative talk radio show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are the worst offenders, liberal television hosts like Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow also fall into this category. They are all giving their opinion and reporting news with a goal and a biased agenda. Perhaps most importantly, advocacy journalism is polarizing our country.

[Atkins is Journalist, Lawyer, Professor]

AT&T says merging with DirecTV would help it challenge Comcast. But how?

[Commentary] AT&T hit Capitol Hill to sell Congress on its proposed merger with DirecTV. Among its arguments? If the merger goes through, we can go head-to-head with Comcast.

AT&T's case boils down to two arguments when it comes to challenging Comcast: A bigger AT&T will lower programming costs and offer a more efficient bundle of services. Testifying before a House subcommittee, AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson dropped a fascinating statistic. He claimed that for every dollar the company makes off of its video subscribers, $0.60 goes straight to the people who make the content.

In other words, 60 percent of AT&T's video revenue turns right around and leaves.

This brings us to AT&T's second argument, which is that a DirecTV merger would promote cheaper bundles. AT&T took aim at what it and DirecTV called a "synthetic bundle" -- taking, for example, broadband from one company, combining it with video from another, and then selling that as a package to consumers. Because AT&T and DirecTV each have to visit a home to make two separate equipment installations for the synthetic bundle to work, that drives up costs.

AT&T’s merger bid gets warm reception in House

Members of Congress gave a warm reception to AT&T’s $49 billion proposal to buy DirecTV and suggested regulators should let the deal proceed.

Executives from the TV and Internet companies told lawmakers that they need to combine in order to stay competitive with rivals such as Comcast and Verizon, and members from both sides of the aisle seemed to agree.

Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA), the ranking member on the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee, said “the bulk of the evidence demonstrates that each company primarily serves different markets with different services,” which should protect them from fears about antitrust violations.

“Although the proposed merger represents a concerning trend towards industry consolidation, there is ample evidence that this transaction would create considerable public-interest benefits,” he said. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) indicated that federal regulators ought to butt out and let the merger move forward.

“It has been demonstrated repeatedly that a free and competitive marketplace yields lower prices, greater innovation, increased investment and better services,” he said. “We should strive to ensure that proposed transactions result in enhanced competitive marketplaces so that the attendant benefits continue to run to consumers.”

AT&T and DirecTV executives faced members of the House and will then head to a follow-up in the Senate later.

Stronger union could be key in AT&T merger

AT&T’s $49 billion plan to buy DirecTV could strengthen the company’s union, a move that is getting Democratic nods of approval on Capitol Hill.

“This transaction presents substantial opportunities for labor standards,” Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA) said in a hearing on the planned merger. “I know everybody doesn’t agree that that is something that is worthy, but I think that is very worthwhile.”

“Given the television industry’s famous reputation for opposing organized labor, this merger would have transformational benefit for thousands of employees in this industry, giving labor a strong foothold in the industry,” added Sen Johnson, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust.

AT&T currently has the largest full-time, private union in the United States with 41,000 members. If regulators allow the phone and Internet company to buy DirecTV, that option would extend to the satellite TV firm's 16,000 employees.

“We have a long history of working with our union members and collective bargaining,” AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson told lawmakers. “So with DirecTV, you should assume that DirecTV employees will be offered that same option to collectively bargain or not," he said. "That will be their choice.”

Joint Statement Of Commissioners Ajit Pai And Michael O’Rielly On Three More TV Stations Going Dark Under The FCC’s New JSA Policy

As a result of the Federal Communications Commission’s crackdown, and after more than 58 years of providing service to Central Nebraska and Northern Kansas, KHAS in Hastings, Nebraska went dark on June 13.

That same day, KNDX in Bismarck, North Dakota and KXND in Minot, North Dakota also went off the air because of the Commission’s decision.

Before the Commission’s restriction on JSAs, agreements were in place to save these three stations: KHAS, an NBC-affiliate, was slated to be purchased by Excalibur Broadcasting; and, KNDX and KXND, FOX affiliates. These transactions, however, were blocked by the Commission’s new rules prohibiting the use of JSAs in these markets. So what has the Commission’s JSA crackdown yielded?

Gray Television’s KMOT is now serving as the NBC affiliate and FOX affiliate for Minot through its use of multicast channels, while KXND has gone out of business. And that is not all. Gray Television has also announced that three more stations -- KXJB in Fargo, North Dakota; KAQY in Monroe, Louisiana; and KJCT in Grand Junction, Colorado -- will soon go dark because of the Commission’s JSA restrictions. Their programming will be transferred to Gray stations in those markets.

As a result, Gray Television will earn a greater share of local advertising revenue in Hastings, Bismarck, Minot, Fargo, Monroe, and Grand Junction than would have been the case with the JSAs that were originally proposed. Are these the victories for competition that critics of sharing agreements were hoping to see? Or has the real goal all along just been to drive television stations off the air?

Americans Say Social Media Have Little Sway on Purchases

A clear majority of Americans say social media have no effect at all on their purchasing decisions. Although many companies run aggressive marketing campaigns on social media, 62% in the US say Facebook and Twitter, among other sites, do not have any influence on their decisions to purchase products.

Despite tremendous numbers of Americans using social media institutions such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter, only 5% say social media have "a great deal of influence" on their purchasing decisions, while another 30% say these channels have "some influence." These data, from Gallup's new State of the American Consumer report, are based on Americans' self-reported estimates of how much social media campaigns affect their purchasing decisions.

While social media may have more influence than some Americans realize or will admit, these data show that relatively few consumers consciously take into account what they learn from social media when making purchases.

US companies spent a combined $5.1 billion on social media advertising in 2013, and they obviously believe that this presents them with a return on investment. However, a solid majority of American adults say that social media have no influence at all on their purchasing decisions -- suggesting that the advertising may be reaching smaller segments of the market, or that the influence on consumers is indirect or goes unnoticed.

A New Weapon In Upworthy's Unlikely War On Clickbait

Getting readers to click on headlines and share articles is what Upworthy does better than almost any other website in existence. That’s the talent that allowed it to become one of the fastest-growing media start-ups ever, with more than 10 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore.

But in a surprise twist worthy of, well, an Upworthy headline, the people behind the viral-with-a-purpose publisher are on a mission to cleanse the web of content that exists primarily to be clicked on or shared. Their latest source is a piece of open-source code to encourage publishers and advertisers to distinguish between content that’s actually engaging and content designed just to produce page views, Facebook shares and other blunt-instrument metrics.

The code is a tool that lets publishers start measuring what Upworthy calls “attention minutes,” a new metric it’s attempting to promote as an industry standard. The web analytics firm Parse.ly is adding Upworthy’s code to its product, and Chartbeat has taken up the banner as well, adopting attention minutes as a standard metric.

HSBC Buys Out New Yorker Print, Digital Editions

The New Yorker is getting its first-ever multiplatform ad buyout thanks to HSBC. The seven-figure deal promoting the relaunch of HSBC’s Premier consumer program covers the full print, tablet and phone editions of the magazine’s June 30 issue as well as a good chunk of its website.

“HSBC wanted something that would be high visibility, would reach thought leaders and high net-worth individuals, and would really reframe the conversation about how people think about finance,” said Lisa Hughes, VP, publisher of The New Yorker. “We brainstormed with them and came up with this takeover that takes advantage of every media platform.”

Online, HSBC is sponsoring a custom unit that will drive visitors to a branded hub and reader poll built by the magazine’s native ad team, the New Yorker Creative Studio, which gauges readers’ investment personalities.

Results from the poll will be included in an interactive unit in The New Yorker’s tablet edition, which also includes five custom New Yorker cartoons created especially for HSBC. Both the tablet and mobile editions of the current issue will be free to download via HSBC’s sponsorship.

CNN to study drone use for reporting

Seeking to speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology said that they would jointly study how to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) safely and effectively.

The partners called it a "research initiative" and said they will share data with the Federal Aviation Authority "as it considers regulations that will allow for the safe and effective operation of UAVs by media outlets."

The announcement comes amid widespread interest in newsrooms across the country in what's been dubbed "drone journalism," and equally widespread uncertainty about the legality of it. The FAA has severely limited the use of drones for commercial purposes, including newsgathering. It is due to develop new drone rules by September 2015.

Sens Raise Comcast/TWC Hearing Concerns With FCC, Justice

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) the chair and ranking members of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, respectively, have written the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department to highlight concerns raised in the parent Senate Judiciary Committee's marathon April 9 hearing on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger.

Among the issues they wanted the agencies to consider in their vetting of the deal was the combined company's share of the broadband video market.

"A key element of any analysis of this merger will be the impact it will have on innovation in the markets for Internet and video and, in particular, any impact it may have on the development of online video distribution," they wrote in the letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and William Baer, assistant attorney general for antitrust.

Sens Klobuchar and Lee also relayed concerns from the hearing about the deal's reduction of the number of potential outlets for traditional video programming, and its potential to raise prices by raising its rivals' costs. "Because this transaction will materially increase the buying power of the largest buyer in the market for programming, it is important for your agencies to carefully assess the impact of this transaction on the ability of viable content providers of all types to obtain distribution of their content," they wrote.

Sens Klobuchar and Lee's last point was about the potential to raise prices for must-have content, including regional sports networks.

Benton

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