BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2016
Today's Events:
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Cities, technology, the next generation of urban development, and the next Administration, part 1 - Blair Levin/Brookings
Election 2016: Campaigns as a Direct Source of News - Pew research
Donald Trump the Political Showman, Born on ‘The Apprentice’
Meet the 9 people helping Donald Trump win the Internet [links to Washington Post]
Rieder: Unlike Trump, Pence has been a press champion - USA Today analysis [links to Benton summary]
Bret Baier on Trump and Clinton's evolving media strategies [links to Politico]
RNC 2016
Where to watch or listen to the RNC convention [links to Politico]
Convention puts GOP tech to the test [links to Benton summary]
Why the 2016 RNC and DNC May Go Down in History as 'the Livestream Conventions' [links to AdWeek]
Dear RNC and DNC: Libraries are essential to achieving national priorities - ALA [links to Benton summary]
Journalists Cross Fingers They Won’t Be Arrested Covering GOP Convention Protests [links to Benton summary]
Peter Thiel: We Must Talk ‘Frankly’ About America’s Problems [links to Benton summary]
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group ramps up its attacks on Donald Trump as the RNC gets under way [links to Revere Digital]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Successful Strategies for Broadband Public-Private Partnerships - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Rural and urban America divided by broadband access - Brookings analysis
50 Million Chinese Fiber Home Connections Added in 2015. 130M Total, Unbelievable But True. [links to Benton summary]
There’s An Obvious Way to Create More Jobs. - Susan Crawford op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Tennessee to release this fall long-awaited assessment of residents' broadband access and usage [links to Tennessee Free Press]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Verizon apes T-Mobile again with unlimited but throttled prepaid data [links to Ars Technica]
Comcast joins top mobile carriers in 600MHz spectrum auction [links to Benton summary]
Qualified 600 MHz Auction Bidders Include 28 Companies with Rural Wireless Bidding Credits [links to telecompetitor]
Strong Industry Support for President Obama $400 Million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative [links to telecompetitor]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC Announces Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System on September 28, 2016 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
TELECOM
FCC will let jails charge inmates more for phone calls [links to Benton summary]
NCTA Shocked — SHOCKED! — to Discover Ex Parte Process At FCC. - Harold Feld blog [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Justice department 'uses aged computer system to frustrate FOIA requests' [links to Benton summary]
Google: Requests for data rose in second half of 2015 [links to Benton summary]
San Francisco Opens Superpublic Innovation Lab [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Not So Fast on FCC Privacy Regulation - Multichannel News op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Under cyberattack, tech giants innovate [links to Benton summary]
Does Snapchat’s Lenses feature violate Illinois’ biometrics law? [links to Ars Technica]
TELEVISION
Rep Hoyer to Chairman Wheeler: Set-Top Compromise Needed [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
CommLawBlog: Wheeler Takes Retrans Re-Tooling Off the Table [links to CommLawBlog]
CONTENT
Why Starbucks and McDonald's agreed to block Wi-Fi pornography [links to Christian Science Monitor]
ADVERTISING
Steve Stoute on Racism: We Have to Fight In Ad Industry's Backyard [links to AdAge]
Facebook is getting deeper into app-install ads [links to Revere Digital]
DIVERSITY
As Yahoo sale nears, do women in tech get pushed more onto the ‘glass cliff’?
LABOR
Labor trouble brewing for AT&T as union rejects proposed contract [links to Fierce]
COMPANY NEWS
Murdochs Have Decided to Remove Roger Ailes — the Only Question Now Is When [links to New York Magazine]
ITU blog: Microsoft's LinkedIn Deal Highlights Key ICT Trends [links to International Telecommunication Union]
Amazon Eyes European Expansion for Prime Video [links to Multichannel News]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Turkish coup plotters’ cyber fail: Not turning off Internet [links to Ars Technica]
News Crackdown in Kashmir Leaves Locals ‘Surrounded by Rumors’ [links to New York Times]
British Telecom “significantly underinvesting” in Openreach, putting its own interests ahead of those of shareholders and customers [links to Financial Times]
Brussels to propose 100 Mbps broadband access across European Union [links to Financial Times]
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
CITIES, TECHNOLOGY, THE NEXT GENERATION OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
[Commentary] Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton recently laid out her technology plan. A number of the ideas represent the continuation and expansion of current Obama Administration strategies of increased broadband deployment and adoption. Others call for reinvigorated efforts for education and training related to technology and innovation in government. From a political perspective, the most significant policy is probably the call to protect the FCC’s decision to reclassify internet service providers as Title II common carriers, as that is one technology issue where the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has taken a clear and contrary point of view. From the perspective of cities, however, the most significant policy may be Clinton’s endorsement of the civic Internet of Things. In a section entitled “Foster a Civic Internet of Things through Public Investments,” her plan states that her administration will invest federal research funding to testbedding, field trials, and other public-private endeavors to speed the deployment of next generation wireless networks and a civic Internet of Things. She also commits to using advances in wireless communications and data analytics to improve public safety, health care, environmental management, traffic congestion, and social welfare services. Why is this proposal so significant? The civic Internet of Things is this generation’s opportunity to recreate the commons at the heart of all cities.
[Levin is a nonresident senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program. This is the first in a series of three blogs on cities, technology, the next generation of urban development, and the next administration.]
benton.org/headlines/cities-technology-next-generation-urban-development-and-next-administration-part-1 | Brookings
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ELECTION 2016: CAMPAIGNS AS A DIRECT SOURCE OF NEWS
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center Journalism and Media, AUTHOR: ]
Sixteen years after Pew Research Center’s first study of digital communication in a presidential campaign, social media is central to candidates’ outreach to the public, changing the role and nature of the campaign website. While the candidate website still serves as a hub for information and organization, it has become leaner and less interactive compared with four years ago. Campaigns are active on social media though even here the message remains a very controlled one, leaving fewer ways overall for most voters to engage and take part. Two separate studies examining the campaign websites of Hillary Clinton, Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Donald Trump from May 1-June 15, 2016, and on Facebook and Twitter from May 11-May 31, 2016, find that:
Clinton’s campaign has almost entirely bypassed the news media while Trump draws heavily on news articles
On websites, citizen content is minimized or excluded altogether; in social media, Trump stands out for highlighting posts by members of the public.
None of the three websites featured any distinct section addressing specific voting groups or segments of the population – a popular feature of campaign websites in 2008 and 2012.
Facebook and Twitter usher in a new age in audiovisual capabilities.
benton.org/headlines/election-2016-campaigns-direct-source-news | Pew Research Center Journalism and Media
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TRUMP THE POLITICAL SHOWMAN, BORN ON 'THE APPRENTICE'
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Grynbaum, Ashley Parker]
With its glamour and famous catchphrase — “You’re fired” — “The Apprentice,” which debuted in 2004, was the ultimate showcase for Donald J. Trump’s self-styled image as a power-wielding mogul. But it also served as a prequel of sorts for his improbable next act as a presidential nominee, who will return to prime time as the ringmaster of the Republican National Convention. More than Trump’s real estate deals, the show transformed its star from a New York curiosity into a national sensation, introducing millions of viewers — and, later, voters — to a highly flattering, highly fictionalized version of Trump, more appealing than the real-life developer whose successes were tempered by bankruptcies and personal turmoil. Trump, who had little previous television experience, revealed a showman’s mastery of the medium, which he used in 2016 to confound political opponents and seduce ratings-hungry networks. Those skills will be on full display at the convention in Cleveland (OH), where Trump is personally wooing celebrities and overseeing stagecraft for a blowout spectacle that will be less C-Span, more MTV.
benton.org/headlines/donald-trump-political-showman-born-apprentice | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
BROADBAND PPP REPORT
[SOURCE: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, AUTHOR: Patrick Lucey, Christopher Mitchell]
Smart cities are realizing they need to act or risk being left behind. However, many do not want to embrace the purely-municipal broadband network model, where the city would engage in direct competition with existing providers. One way for those communities to move forward is with a public-private partnership (PPP). But for all the excitement around this model, there are few concrete examples from which to draw lessons. This paper explores lessons from PPPs and offers in-depth case studies of three high profile models: Westminster and Ting in Maryland, UC2B and iTV-3/CountryWide in Illinois, and LeverettNet in Massachusetts.
benton.org/headlines/successful-strategies-broadband-public-private-partnerships | Institute for Local Self-Reliance
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RURAL AND URBAN AMERICA DIVIDED BY BROADBAND ACCESS
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Jack Karsten, Darrell West, Jacob Lineberry]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission in 2015 redefined broadband as connections with 25 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds and 4 Mbps upload speeds. This is more than six times the previous standard of 4 Mbps download, allowing for multiple simultaneous video streams. According to the FCC’s 2016 Broadband Progress Report, 10 percent of Americans lack access to broadband by this definition. This number, however, fails to illustrate the stark contrast between rural and urban access to broadband. Rural areas have significantly slower Internet access, with 39 percent lacking access to broadband of 25/4 Mbps, compared to only 4 percent for urban areas. This rural/urban “digital divide” in access severely limits rural populations from taking advantage of a critical component of modern life. The FCC has been responsible for universal service of telecommunications since its inception in 1934, creating equal access to communications like phone service. In 2007, the Joint Board of the FCC redefined the concept of universal service to include broadband. Coupled with the recent network neutrality decision, the FCC wields a powerful precedent to create equal access to broadband. To fulfill its role, the FCC must do more as a regulatory body to ensure equal access to this public utility. It has made efforts in recent years to expand the Connect America Fund, providing funding to create broadband access for over 7 million consumers over the next 6 years. However, the FCC must expand access alongside advances in technology rather than after the fact, satisfying increased demands for faster internet with infrastructure growth. Otherwise, rural communities will continue to play catch up with their urban counterparts and the US will remain digitally divided.
benton.org/headlines/rural-and-urban-america-divided-broadband-access | Brookings
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DIVERSITY
YAHOO SALE AND 'GLASS CLIFF'
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jena McGregor]
For Yahoo, it's nearly all over but the shouting. Final bids are expected July 18 in the protracted sale of the core Internet business at Yahoo and it likely won't be long before we know the fate of both the faded Internet company and its embattled CEO, Marissa Mayer. When the shouting does come, it's likely to include even more analysis about Mayer's tenure -- what her time at the helm will say about women in technology, what she could have done differently, how she might spend the $55 million in severance she could receive in the event of a change in control. Many will fault some of her big decisions: Big bets that didn't pay off, such as the $1.1 billion acquisition of the blogging service Tumblr, and key hires who didn't pan out. She promised the web browser Mozilla a lucrative change-in-control deal that could cost bidders more than $1 billion. But others will say that Mayer, like other women before her in technology, was dealt a tough hand in the first place, accepting a particularly precarious leadership role often known as the "glass cliff." Research has shown that women disproportionately receive opportunities to lead at difficult times, and the tech sector would seem to have a preponderance of examples.
benton.org/headlines/yahoo-sale-nears-do-women-tech-get-pushed-more-glass-cliff | Washington Post
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