POLITICAL DISCOURSE/TELEVISION
Campaigns Set a Brisk, Focused TV Pace (NYT)
FCC Chief Slaps Networks on Sex and Violence (USA)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
Republicans Push Plan to Make Schools, Libraries
Use Web Filters (WSJ)
Panel Agrees: Rethink Net Porn Laws (USA)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Computers in Half of U.S. Homes (WP)
ADVERTISING
Advertising: Struggling With New Ideas (NYT)
INFOTECH
Home Is Where the Phone Is (WP)
Mobile Phones to Get Text Messaging (WP)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE/TELEVISION
CAMPAIGNS SET A BRISK, FOCUSED TV PACE
Issue: Political Discourse/Television
In just the last week of September and the first week of October, the
campaigns, the parties and outside groups spent a total of $18.5 million on
television, evenly split between the parties. Most of it -- $14.5 million
-- has been spent in just six highly contested states: Florida, Michigan,
Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These TV campaigns are so
selective that they are in essence regional rather than national efforts.
In his most recent analysis of the data compiled by Campaign Media Analysis
Group, a company that tracks advertising spending, Ken Goldstein, a
political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, found that
virtually no presidential spots have run in 32 of the top 75 media markets.
Philadelphia is now the No. 1 city in the nation for political commercials,
Mr. Goldstein said; since June 1, presidential spots have run on the
airwaves there 6,078 times. The other markets in the top 10 are Seattle;
Cleveland; Detroit; Albuquerque; St. Louis; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City,
Mo.; Green Bay, Wis.; and Grand Rapids, Mich. By contrast, Mr. Goldstein
said, the nation's largest media market, New York, has had no more than
five or six advertisements.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Peter Marks]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/17/politics/17ELEC.html)
(requires registration)
FCC CHIEF SLAPS NETWORKS ON SEX AND VIOLENCE
Issue: Media & Society
FCC Chairman William Kennard, who believes that "broadcast standards have
coarsened," questioned three panels yesterday about how TV can better serve
children in the digital era. Three years ago, the FCC began requiring TV
stations to air at least three hours of educational and informational
programming for children each week. Now, the agency wants to ensure that as
broadcasters get into new businesses, such as data transmission, they don't
relinquish their obligations to provide educational television. The FCC is
considering rules that would require broadcasters to air additional
educational programming in return for the digital airwaves they received in
recent years. Competition has become so fierce that broadcasters have all
but forgotten their obligation to the public, Kennard said. I don't think
we can rely on the corporate responsibility of broadcasters," he added.
Kennard said he would ask for a report based on the hearing from the FCC's
Mass Media Bureau in two weeks to "distill a set of principles" for how TV
can best serve the public.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E06), AUTHOR: Christopher Stern]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18492-2000Oct16.html)
See Also:
FCC ASKS WHAT TO DO ABOUT TV AND KIDS
[Source: USA Today (2A ), Author: Ann Oldenburg]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001017/2755311s.htm)
COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS AT EN BANC HEARING
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/Statements/2000/stgt056.html)
(http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/Statements/2000/stwek087.html)
HARNESS THE POWER OF DIGITAL TELEVISION AS A POSITIVE FORCE FOR CHILDREN
AND YOUTH
Digital television is likely to have a more profound impact on how children
grow and learn, what they value, and ultimately who they become, than any
medium that has come before," said Kathryn Montgomery, Ph.D., president of
the Center for Media Education (CME)
testifying before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on "Serving
Children in a Digital World." Montgomery was part of a panel at an FCC en
banc hearing examining the public interest obligations of television
broadcasters in the transition to digital television (DTV). The FCC
recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the application
of the
Children's Television Act (CTA) to DTV broadcasters. CME and a coalition of
public health, education consumer and child advocacy groups filed comments
last March on a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on digital television. "I want to
express my appreciation to the Commission for taking our comments seriously
and formalizing our recommendations in this rulemaking proposal," said
Montgomery.
[SOURCE: Center For Media Education]
(http://www.cme.org/publications/press.html)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
REPUBLICANS PUSH PLAN TO MAKE SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES USE WEB FILTERS
Issue: Filtering/E-rate
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Reps. Ernest Istook
(R-OK) and Charles Pickering (R-MS) are pushing legislation that would
force schools and libraries to use Internet filtering software or lose
federal dollars intended to help buy Web access. No money would be made
available to buy the software. "This is insuring that the government is not
paying for access to pornography through libraries," said Rep Istook's
chief of staff, John Albaugh. "We have received tremendous support from the
public on this. It just seems like it's a no-brainer to the average Joe."
An odd collection of groups, including state chapters of the Christian
Coalition and American Family Association, the American Civil Liberties
Union, teacher associations, the American Library Association and Internet
industry trade organizations, is opposing the initiative. They say it is a
bad way to stop youngsters from viewing online pornography at school. The
proposal "fails to prepare our children to act responsibly as Internet
citizens," the ACLU's Marvin Johnson wrote lawmakers. "Responsibility
implies choice, but blocking removes all choice." "The filtering mandate
sets a troubling precedent for federal regulation of Internet use and
Internet access," according to a letter signed by the Computer &
Communications Industry Association and Information Technology Association
of America, groups that represent the high-tech industry. Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) is among the few legislators who have spoken against mandatory
filters. His alternative proposal would require only that Internet
providers distribute filtering software for free or at cost. The Clinton
administration opposes mandatory Internet filters. But the filters are
included in the annual spending bill to finance operations of the
departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, and it is
unclear if President Clinton would veto the huge spending bill because of
his objection to a small part.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB971704159847731509.htm)
(requires subscription)
PANEL AGREES: RETHINK NET PORN LAWS
Issue: Media & Society
Two years ago, Congress passed the Child Online Protection Act (COPA),
which would have required Internet users to prove their age before getting
into commercial sites with adult materials. The law, however, has never
gone into effect. A federal judge blocked it last year on constitutional
grounds and in June, a federal appeals court upheld that ruling. The
19-member commission that was created with the passage on the law is set
release a report at the end of the week to advise Congress on the best way
to protect kids online. The commission, members range from free-speech
advocates and execs at companies such as Yahoo and America Online to
anti-porn crusaders, disagree about whether the law will ultimately be
upheld. But they agreed on several unanimous recommendations, including
shifting resources to enforce existing obscenity laws, educating parents
about filtering tools, and making those tools more accessible and reliable.
[Source: USA Today (1D), Author: Leslie Miller]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001017/2755185s.htm)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
COMPUTERS IN HALF OF U.S. HOMES
Issue: Digital Divide
More than half of American households now have computers, the government
said yesterday in the fourth of the 'Falling Through the Net' series,
"Toward Digital Inclusion". The share of households with computers rose from
42.1 percent in December 1998 to 51 percent in August of this year--a total
of 53.7 million households, the Commerce Department found in its latest
survey of computer ownership and usage. The percentage of U.S. households
with Internet access was 41.5 percent in August, up from 26.2 percent a year
earlier. Despite the increases in computer ownership and Internet access,
Commerce found evidence of a continuing "digital divide." The report found
that 23.5 percent of Black households had Internet access in August. While
this was up from 11.2 percent in the 1999 survey, it still trailed the rate
for White households, 46.1 percent. The percentage of Hispanic households
with Internet access was 23.6 percent in August. Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders continued to have the largest Internet penetration at
56.8 percent. "Each year being connected becomes more critical to economic
and educational advancement and to community participation," Commerce
Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said. "That's why it is so important that we
move as quickly as we can toward digital inclusion."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E17), AUTHOR: Martin Crutsinger]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20336-2000Oct16.html)
See Also:
FALLING THROUGH THE NET
The fourth in the Falling Through the Net series has been released. Falling
Through the Net, Toward Digital Inclusion measures the extent of digital
inclusion by looking at households and individuals that have a computer and
an Internet connection. Executive Summary
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/execsumfttn00.htm) Press
Release (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2000/fttn101600.htm)
Statement from President Clinton
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/library/hot_releases/October_162000.html)
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://search.ntia.doc.gov/pdf/fttn00.pdf)
ADVERTISING
Advertising: Struggling With New Ideas (NYT)
ADVERTISING: STRUGGLING WITH NEW IDEAS
Issue: Advertising
Talk at the 2000 annual conference of the Association of National
Advertisers is of "a business revolution that strikes terror." Because of
the Internet, cell phones and wireless devices, "branding is moving from
one-way lectures to two-way conversations, but we are not prepared for
consumers to talk back." One venture capitalist predicted that in the
future the brand manager -- the employee at a consumer product company
responsible for a brand's operations and its ultimate success -- "will be
sort of an air traffic controller." This person will simultaneously juggle
the delivery of sales pitches through TV, radio, print, promotions,
personal computers, personal digital assistants and the wireless Internet.
"The technology flies the planes," he added, "but it still takes a person
to figure out what the right thing to do is." What else does the future
hold? "Intelligent packaging": "your can of coffee senses when it's low and
asks your refrigerator to dial Peapod to directly reorder."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C12), AUTHOR: Stuart Elliott]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/17/business/17ADCO.html)
(requires registration)
INFOTECH
HOME IS WHERE THE PHONE IS
Issue: Lifestyles
The Washington Post explores how high technology is creating a backstep in
history: the return of the nomad. "Today's nomads, however, are different,
marking what's so new and yet so ancient about their lives. They are part
of the economic elite. These people whose home is the road have remarkable,
leading-edge careers in computers, consulting, media
and investing. They have six-, seven- and eight-digit incomes. Because of
the new technology, they are networked round-the-clock to major global
players who treasure their contributions and reward their insights. They do
not see this new arrangement as some phase to outgrow. This is their lives."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A01), AUTHOR: Joel Garreau]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20043-2000Oct16.html)
MOBILE PHONES TO GET TEXT MESSAGING
Issue: InfoTech
AT&T Wireless is expected to announce today a new service that will allow
customers to send and receive text messages on their mobile telephones.
Later this week, America Online is expected to announce a deal that will
allow its instant-messaging users the ability to send AIM messages to and
from mobile phones using the Sprint PCS network, sources said. Analysts say
that virtually every major U.S. carrier will have a similar product on the
market by the end of the year. Due to the various competing wireless
technologies in the U.S., analysts believe the rollout of the systems - and
their interoperability - could be complicated. For example, AT&T's
message-service will only work with other AT&T wireless customers, or other
carriers who use its transmission technology, TDMA, analysts say.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20329-2000Oct16.html)
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