TOP STORY
Barton Likely Next House Commerce Committee Chair
BROADCASTING
Where's the Beef? News Network Election Coverage Thin on Issues
NLMC: Nielsen Undercounts Latinos
INTERNET
Survey Finds 'Opinion Leaders' Logging on for Political News
IBM Sets Out to Make Sense of the Web
TELEPHONY
Texas Officials Decide Not to Investigate Baby Bells
Everyone's Talkin' VoIP
Protecting the Cellphone User's Right to Hide
QUICK HITS
Consumers Union Urges Reconsideration of Ownership Rules
Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off
Correction
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. Headlines are compiled by
Kevin Taglang (ktaglang( at )etpost.net) -- we welcome your comments.
TOP STORY
BARTON LIKELY NEXT HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE CHAIR
With Rep Billy Tauzin's resignation from Congress official, attention is
now turning to his likely successor as chair of the House Commerce
Committee. Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), an energy expert, is the front runner in
this race. Rep Barton does not have much of a record concerning
telecommunications legislation; his last bill on the subject was an attempt
to repeal the Cable Act of 1992 in 1993. Recently, Rep Barton co-sponsored
Rep Fred Upton's bill to increase indecency fines for broadcasters. Rep
Barton is expected to push for major telecommunications reform, however, in
2005 along the lines of that suggested by Sen Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who
will likely be his counterpart in the Senate in 2005. Rep Barton's approach
is to "maximize markets and minimize regulation." Reform will likely
include local phone competition and Universal Service Fund contributions.
Multichannel News
(http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA379809?display=Breaking+News)
reports that Rep Barton will be a friend to cable. Three years ago, Rep
Barton told a Consumer Electronics Association audience in Las Vegas, "It's
time that must-carry must die." On broadcasters' latest demand for digital
carriage, Rep Barton declared: "There is no reason for must-carry in terms
of digital signals. There is simply not."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Terry Lane]
(Not available online)
BROADCASTING
WHERE'S THE BEEF? NEWS NETWORK ELECTION COVERAGE THIN ON ISSUES
A January 4 CBS/New York Times poll found that the economy is the issue
registered voters "would most like to hear the candidates for president
discuss during the 2004 presidential campaign." This was followed by the
war against terror, health care, education and taxation. But that's not
what network TV newscasts are covering. In fact, international media
monitoring firm Media Tenor found that in January CBS, NBC and ABC devoted
less than 5% of their coverage of the Democratic campaigns to the
candidates' positions on these five issues. And the trend is towards less
and less coverage according to Media Tenor. "For the past four weeks, all
three networks have decreased their share of policy coverage on the
candidates," Media Tenor president Roland Schatz reported. "Television is
depriving the voters of information about the position of the candidates on
certain issues."
Read the Media Tenor report at (http://www.mediatenor.com/us_elec_3001.pdf)
[SOURCE: MediaChannel, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
(http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert139.shtml)
NLMC: NEILSEN UNDERCOUNTS LATINOS
For those who see a lack of diversity on television, the National Latino
Media Council is offering a new rationale: a study by Rincon & Associates
finds that Latinos and underrepresented in Nielsen surveys. This undercount
leads to premature cancelation of Latino-targeted programs by networks and
makes them reluctant to produce and air new Latino-themed shows. "This in
turn leads to diminished employment opportunities for Latino actors,
writers, directors and other behind-the-camera professionals, as well as to
significant loss of revenue from potential advertisers seeking to reach
Latino audiences," NLMC said in a statement.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak]
(http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA379822?display=Breaking+News)
INTERNET
SURVEY FINDS 'OPINION LEADERS' LOGGING ON FOR POLITICAL NEWS
A survey by George Washington, RoperASW and Nielsen/NetRatings finds that
community opinion leaders are the most likely users of the Internet to find
and spread political information. "The main finding of the study is that if
you want to reach the people who are reaching everyone else, that place is
still the Internet," said Carol Darr, director of the university's
Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet. "The growing support for
this medium is not dependent on any one candidate." The study found that
online political activists are nearly seven times more likely than the
average citizen to influence their peers when it comes to telling them what
to buy, where to go on vacation, and which politicians to support. Roper
says about 10% of Americans typically fall into its definition of
"influential," which requires participation in a combination of community
activities that might include making a speech, attending a PTA meeting or
writing a letter to a newspaper. Only 7% of the American population
regularly use the Internet for political purposes, according to the study -
but 69% of them are "influential."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/politics/campaign/05INTE.html)
(requires registration)
IBM SETS OUT TO MAKE SENSE OF THE WEB
Making sense of all that is floating around the Internet is a tough
business, pushing the limits of supercomputing design. Competitors
WebFountain, ClearForest, Fast Search and Transfer, and Mindfabric are
beginning to offer data-mining services that ferret out meaning and
context, not just lists of more-or-less relevant links. IBM's approach is
to monitor discussion boards, Web logs, newsgroups and other pages trying
to recognize trends. For businesses (big businesses, that is), this may be
the ability to ask a computer "What is my corporate reputation?"
WebFountain promises to combine its intelligence with visualization tools
to chart industry trends or identify a set of emerging rivals to a
particular company. The platform could be used to analyze financial
information over a five-year span to see if the economy is growing, for
example. Or it could be used to look at job listings to pinpoint emerging
trends in employment.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stefanie Olsen]
(http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5153627.html?tag=nefd_lede)
Of course, for us mere mortals looking for quality information, see New
York Times article
When a Search Engine Isn't Enough, Call a Librarian
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/circuits/05libr.html?pagewa...)
(requires registration)
TELEPHONY
TEXAS OFFICIALS DECIDE NOT TO INVESTIGATE BABY BELLS
Five telephone service providers and trade groups have asked the Senate and
House judiciary committees as well as nine state attorneys general to
investigate whether incumbent local exchange carriers (known affectionately
as the Baby Bells) conspired illegally to suppress competition at a United
States Telecommunications Association dinner on October 20, 2003. House
Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) has said he
believed the Bells' conduct was protected by the 1st Amendment, and he had
no plans to call a formal inquiry. Now Texas Assistant Attorney General
Mark Tobey has weighed in, writing that a preliminary inquiry failed to
turn up enough evidence to warrant a formal investigation. The competing
telephone companies alleged that the Bells violated Texas law by
arm-twisting their suppliers to join a $40-million lobbying campaign and by
dividing market territories to avoid competing against one another.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Granelli]
(http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-bells5feb05,1,7399016...)
EVERYONE'S TALKIN' VoIP
About four items in today's Communications Daily center on possible
regulation of Internet telephone service (know as VoIP). Here's some
highlights. The FCC could adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering
VoIP as soon as Thursday, February 12. The FBI, Department of Justice and
Drug Enforcement Administration have asked the FCC to delay any decisions
on VoIP fearing the Commission could rule that VoIP is an information
service rather than a telecommunications service. If that is the case, VoIP
could be exempt from wiretapping laws.
The House Telecommunications subcommittee heard testimony from market
analysts Wednesday and one suggested that one-third of the market will use
some form of VoIP within five years. Ned Zacher, the director of
telecommunications research at Weisel Partners, projected 30 million cable
VoIP customers in 5 years. The copper-based telephone market will continue
to shrink because of competition from VoIP and wireless service. [Find out
more about the hearing at
(http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/02042004hearing1164/hearing...)]
Speaking to investors, Sprint Chairman Gary Forsee called on the FCC to
bring "much-needed clarity by promptly ruling that phone-to-phone VoIP
should pay access charges." he added, "We need to quickly get to a system
where the compensation a carrier pays for interconnection to another
carrier's network is the same, regardless of whether the call is local or
toll, state or interstate, information or communication."
The Telecommunications Industry Association adopted a policy statement on
the regulation of voice over Internet protocol. The trade group says
regulation should not be applied to VoIP without thorough justification
that it is necessary as a matter of public policy. See the group's press
release at
(http://www.tiaonline.org/media/press_releases/index.cfm?parelease=04-07).
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Edie Herman, Terry Lane, Susan
Polyakova]
(Not available online)
PROTECTING A CELLPHONE USER'S RIGHT TO HIDE
Because of a government mandate to be able to locate cellphones during 911
calls, carriers are introducing location-tracking features such as AT&T's
"Find Friends," which lets users locate up to five other within a certain
distance. Marketers are also interested in using the technology to send
geographic-sensitive, commercial message (an instant 25 cents off the donut
store across the street, say). But these are the kinds of features some
people call bugs. How to manage it? Privacy-Conscious Personalization,
software for your cellphone, allows users to decide who will know how much
about where their cellphone (and, presumably, their person) is.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeffery Selingo]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/circuits/05next.html)
(requires registration)
QUICK HITS
* Consumers Union is urging Congress to reconsider the FCC's new ownership
rules in light of the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl incident. Letters to
Congress ask the Senate to support S. 1046, and the House to back H.J. Res.
72, as well as to require cable companies to allow consumers to choose the
channels they want (rather than force them to buy packages of channels) to
empower those consumers who are offended by today's programming.
See letter at
(http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_telecom_and_utilities/000791.html...)
Also see:
Bracing for Fallout From Super Indignation
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/arts/television/05MTV.html)
(requires registration)
* Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off
Who's to blame for the spread of computer viruses? Well, you and me, of
course. And the computer-savvy are becoming openly hostile toward the
not-so-savvy: don't be fooled again, they say.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/05VIRU.html?pagewanted=all)
(requires registration)
* Correction: Public Knowledge does not intend to file a petition for
reconsideration of the FCC broadcast flag decision, as we reported
yesterday. The group will focus solely on its lawsuit against the Commission.
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