TELEVISION
Breathless Coverage Blurs Divide of Fact and Farce (NYT)
BellSouth May Join Rivals In Dumping TV Business (USA)
Upstart NUE-TV Goes Up Against Powerhouse BET (USA)
Shop, E-Mail and Web Surf on the Telly (NYT)
INTERNET
Which Direction Now For Digital Music? (NYT)
Decision on Yahoo! Auctions Could Set a Legal Precedent (WSJ)
Internet Body Struggles to Collect Fees For Maintaining International
Suffixes (WSJ)
Civil Liberties Groups Criticize Proposed Internet Use Laws (USA)
NEWSPAPERS
Panel Set to Change Newspaper Circulation Accounting (NYT)
PHILANTHROPY
Giving: A Special Section (NYT)
TELEVISION
BREATHLESS COVERAGE BLURS DIVIDE OF FACT AND FARCE
Issue: Journalism
Updates on election results in Florida have frequently interrupted
television network programming. The result is one large political
conversation in which drama, comedy and news mingle freely on screen,
informing and shaping the off-screen political reality. The step-by-step
tracking of the post-election story, including the public relations battle,
is essential to its high drama. But a breathless tone to the coverage
continues somewhat needlessly as the press covers it as if it is the only
story in the world.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A15), AUTHOR: Caryn James]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/20/politics/20CRIT.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
KIDS TAKE TO NET IN ELECTION AFTERMATH
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Larry Magid]
(http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/front/docs/lm111900.htm)
NET VISITORS LUST AFTER CIVICS INFO, NOT SMUT
[SOURCE: USAToday (3D), AUTHOR: Leslie Miller]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001120/2852224s.htm)
BELLSOUTH MAY JOIN RIVALS IN DUMPING TV BUSINESS
Issue: Cable
Atlanta-based BellSouth said on Thursday that it will restructure its video
entertainment unit, which has 120,000 TV customers in six states. The
regional phone company has offered few details of its plan, saying it needs
to focus on its wireless phone businesses and its push to sell high-speed
Internet access through digital subscriber lines. "You have to decide where
you are going to place the majority of your focus and your energy," says
Bill Smith, BellSouth's chief technology officer. BellSouth is the latest
regional Bell that has backed away from the TV business. Analysts say
that the phone companies can't justify the cost of building their own TV
delivery systems when they need to expand high-growth wireless and
Internet-related businesses.
[SOURCE: USAToday (1B), AUTHOR: Andrew Backover]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001120/2852109s.htm)
UPSTART NUE-TV GOES UP AGAINST POWERHOUSE BET
Issue: Cable/Diversity
New Urban Entertainment (NUE-TV), a start up cable network aimed at African
Americans, wants to be the nation's second-largest TV network aimed at black
viewers. NUE-TV will have to compete with more than just the nation's number 1
black oriented network, BET, the start-up will now also have to compete with
the deep pockets and far-reaching muscle of BET's new parent, Viacom, the
nation's No. 3 media company. "NUE is not on our radar screen. They have no
distribution," says BET President Debra Lee. "They are not a concern of
ours." While BET executives do not see NUE as a threat, the new network has
assembled a team of media heavyweights as partners, including cable veteran
Leo Hindery, and entertainment mogul Quincy Jones. NUE has also has secured
promotional and marketing partnerships with live entertainment and sports
promoter SFX Entertainment and Radio One, the nation's largest
African-American radio station group.
[SOURCE: USAToday (5B) AUTHOR: Keith L. Alexander]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001120/2852044s.htm)
SHOP, E-MAIL AND WEB SURF ON THE TELLY
Issue: Convergence/Interactive TV
The Henley Center, a market research firm based in London, estimates that
by 2005 more people in Britain will log onto the Internet through their
TV's than on their PC's. Already 4.6 million households in Britain, or 20
percent, use some form of interactive television, a broad term that
encompasses everything from enhanced broadcasting to Internet use. Only
slightly more households, 29 percent, surf the Net from a home PC,
according to Forrester Research. This is a stark contrast to the US where
just 600,000 households (0.6%) use interactive TV while 43% of homes access
the Internet through a PC. The disparity says as much about how technology
is adopted by the general public as it does about what the new economy may
look like as it matures. In the United States, broadcasting and the
Internet have developed in parallel universes; in Britain they are
increasingly intertwined. Learn more about interactive TV in Europe at the
URL below.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C15), AUTHOR: Suzanne Kapner]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/20/technology/20VIDE.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
NEWLY UNVEILED AOLTV IS SERIOUSLY FLAWED
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Langberg]
(http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/front/docs/ml111900.htm)
INTERNET
WHICH DIRECTION NOW FOR DIGITAL MUSIC
Issue: Arts Online/Ecommerce
Even though some developments with MP3.com and Napster could make the
industry happy, online music executives remain wary of the recording
establishment. Recording executives still see themselves mainly in the
business of manufacturing, promoting and selling compact discs. Jim Breyer,
a venture capitalist at Accel Partners, considers the Bertelsmann-Napster
agreement seminal. "There are few announcements that I view as concrete
evidence that the Internet has changed an industry," he said. "This is one.
And you can bet everyone is scrambling to get together a strategy." The
question now is, in which digital direction -- or directions -- will the
recording industry move? Sony, EMI, Universal and Warner Music continue
their litigation against Napster, but have licensed their music to
Launch.com and MP3.com. Subscription services are on their way. Industry
executives believe the Napster controversy boils down to whether users
consider file-sharing to be stealing or not. And if consumers are indeed
willing to pay, who is going to come up with the technology to make it easy
for them to download songs -- without making it a cinch for them to send
free copies to their friends? "We don't have a protectionist attitude,"
Sony's Al Smith said. "Come back in two years, and let's see what the world
looks like. The models are evolving. If we take Napster to be the paradigm,
it will hurt our business."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Laura Holson]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/20/technology/20TUNE.html)
(requires registration)
DECISION ON YAHOO! AUCTIONS COULD SET A LEGAL PRECEDENT
Issue: Media & Society
A French judge is scheduled to issue an order Monday determining whether
Yahoo!, the Internet portal company, must block all French users from buying
Nazi memorabilia on its auction site. The case could set a legal precedent
for whether any one country can demand that Internet companies with global
reach be subject to an individual country's laws. Attorneys for Yahoo have
argued that such a demand may not be technologically feasible and legal
observers question whether a ruling against Yahoo could even be enforceable,
since it could require the cooperation of the U.S. legal system. The case
has been a top priority for Yahoo! since last May, when a trial court
similar to a U.S. federal district court, ordered it to block Nazi items
for sale from French citizens. The French case has spurred fear among Web
companies, raising the specter of countries forcing businesses to police
their own online content and comply with multiple international laws. It
also raises many legal questions for Yahoo with few precedents and no case
law to use as guidance. Yahoo has painstakingly compiled technical
information about the difficulty of identifying and restricting French
citizens from its U.S. auction site. Technically, "it's not possible" to
block just French users from Yahoo's Web site, says Mr. Greg Wrenn, Yahoo's
associate general counsel for international affairs. Should the French court
buy Yahoo's argument, then the case would be dismissed. Yahoo will have
scored a victory and established a precedent in the fledgling world of
cyberlaw.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: MYLENE MANGALINDAN]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB974677238665561113.htm)
(requires subscription)
INTERNET BODY STRUGGLES TO COLLECT FEES FOR MAINTAINING INTERNATIONAL
SUFFIXES
Issue: Internet
The international agency that oversees Internet addresses, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is having trouble collecting on
its bills. ICANN is trying to charge a fee for maintaining online suffixes
for regional operators within its root servers. Those root servers function
as the master directories of the Internet. But unease among operators of
region-specific suffixes, such as .uk for the United Kingdom
and .to for Tonga, has cast ICANN's future into doubt. Before ICANN took
over, the regional operators got the services free from the U.S. government.
"Our accounting department has a general policy of refusing to pay bills
from firms with whom we have had no dealings," said Eric Gullichsen, whose
company operates Tonga's domain. The problem has thrown ICANN's budget into
doubt. Independent auditors said there was no evidence ICANN will get the
$1.35 million it is counting on from regional operators. Some operators have
made interim payments on a voluntary basis while they negotiate formal
contracts with ICANN. Andrew McLaughlin, ICANN's chief policy officer, said
progress has been slow. Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law
professor who follows ICANN, said that while the organization may have no
legal basis for collecting fees, regional operators may want to pay simply
to pry the Internet naming system from the U.S. government. Officials from
ICANN have focused recently on reviewing applications for new domain name
suffixes to join .com, .net and .org. The ICANN board selected seven
Thursday: .aero, .biz., .coop, .info, .museum, .name and .pro.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: Associated Press
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB974695364988404619.htm)
(requires subscription)
CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS CRITICIZE PROPOSED INTERNET USE LAWS
Issue: Privacy/Security
Civil liberties groups are protesting the first international laws against
Internet crimes, which are being drafted by U.S. and European officials.
The agreement, being drafted by the Council of Europe, will include laws
against such crimes as hacking, Internet fraud and online child
pornography, and allow police forces to investigate cases across
national boundaries. If passed by governments, it would require Internet
service providers to keep information about customers and allow law
enforcement officers to search and seize data from computer networks and
service providers for use in convicting offenders. "The convention is very
much oriented to increasing government investigative powers at the expense
of human rights and privacy," said David Sobel, general counsel for the
Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "The closed, insular
nature of the process is reflected in the product." Peter Csonka, deputy
director of the council's economic crime division, which is leading the
drafting process says that the laws are necessary to address cyber crime.
"It is very difficult to prosecute, because data is so volatile that it can
be deleted within seconds. If there are no quick measures to trace back
communications and crime online, there will be no possibility of
prosecuting them."
[SOURCE: USAToday (10B), AUTHOR: Vivienne Walt]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001120/2852016s.htm)
NEWSPAPERS
PANEL SET TO CHANGE NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION ACCOUNTING
Issue: Newspapers
The board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations has given preliminary
approval to a major restructuring of procedures newspapers use to account
for their circulation to each other, to the public and to advertisers. The
new reporting form expand the definition of paid circulation to include all
newspapers sold for at least 25% of the basic price. It also requires
newspapers to be more specific in disclosing how they account for their
sales to hotel guests, at conventions and on college campuses. The purpose
of the move, according to James W. Hopson, a board member and the publisher
of The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, was "to give advertisers more
clarity about what they're buying." He added, "It seems to me an entirely
reasonable thing for the advertisers to ask for and a positive step for the
industry."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C8), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/20/business/20ABC.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
A NEWSPAPER EXPERIMENT IN SAN FRANCISCO
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/20/business/20FRIS.html)
(requires registration)
PHILANTHROPY
GIVING: A SPECIAL SECTION
Issue: Philanthropy
A two-part, 36 page special section today in the Times examines the state
of giving.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Section F)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/)
(requires registration)
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