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The Newhouse School presented seven awards at the fifth annual Mirror Awards luncheon honoring excellence in media industry reporting.
The winners, chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators, are:
- Best Single Article, Traditional Media: Gabriel Sherman, “Chasing Fox” (New York Magazine) -- The examined how the News Corp-owned network has affected the journalism at CNN and MSNBC.
- Best Single Article, Digital Media: Jim Hopkins, “All Shook Up” (Gannett Blog)
- Best Profile, Traditional Media: Ken Auletta, “The Networker” (The New Yorker)
- Best Profile, Digital Media: Joel Meares, “The Biggest Fish in Albany?” (Columbia Journalism Review)
- Best Commentary, Traditional Media: James Wolcott (Vanity Fair)
- Best Commentary, Digital Media: Eric Alterman (Center for American Progress) -- Alterman disturbed the air of industry self-congratulations by urging the audience to "stop treating Fox News as though it's news. It's not." Applause was mixed with disapproving murmurs after he added that those who take Fox seriously "allow it to corrupt the news ecosystem."
- Best In-depth Piece, Traditional Media: Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, “Paper Money” (Milwaukee Magazine) -- She showed how the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel impoverished many of its employees by encouraging them to buy its stock -- which lost nearly 98% of its value after the company went public in 2003. "They hired a PR director to handle me," she said. "It's a sad commentary on the priorities of this particular business."
In addition, the school honored Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, with the Fred Dressler Achievement Award, and Dennis Crowley ’98 and Naveen Selvadurai, co-founders of Foursquare, with the i-3 award for impact, innovation and influence. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc., presented the Dressler Award. Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast and chairman emeritus of its board of directors, accepted the award on Brian Roberts’ behalf.
Clay Shirky, new media expert and author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” presented the i-3 award.
Newhouse School Announces Winners In Fifth Annual Mirror Awards Fox News Is Scorned At Mirror Awards (Deadline New York)
In an unusual spectrum swap, Verizon Wireless is asking the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to swap some of its 700 MHz spectrum licenses with US Cellular in exchange for certain 1900 MHz PCS licenses. The transfer, if approved, could help US Cellular expand its forthcoming LTE network.
According to the filing, Verizon is requesting that it be allowed to swap 13 lower 700 MHz B-Block licenses and five lower 700 MHz C-Block licenses in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington. In exchange, US Cellular would give Verizon two 10 MHz PCS licenses in Illinois and Indiana. The PCS licenses cover 14 counties in five cellular market areas, or CMAs, and the 700 MHz licenses cover 95 counties in 18 CMAs.
Verizon, which paid $4.7 billion for its 700 MHz spectrum in 2008, said the PCS licenses will help it expand capacity and improve service, and U.S. Cellular said the 700 MHz frequencies will help it expand into new markets and improve capacity and service. The transfer is notable because of U.S. Cellular's accelerated LTE deployment plans. The company, which had originally planned to deploy the next-generation technology in 2012, said in May it will deploy LTE in 24 markets by November, covering approximately 25 percent to 30 percent of its total subscriber base. The company will outfit around 1,250 cell sites with LTE.
Verizon wants to swap spectrum with US Cellular
Regulators and policy makers should boost competition among mobile telephone operators to cut the high prices being charged for international data roaming, according to a new OECD report.
Analysis of pricing plans at 68 operators in the 34 OECD countries points to a strong case for new consumer protection and empowerment measures. “Current pricing levels indicate that there is, in general terms, either insufficient retail or wholesale competition,” says the report.
The OECD compared a variety of data roaming plans based on the amount of data users could send or receive when abroad. For 1Mb of data, for example, the equivalent of sending 10 photos, the average price by country across the OECD is USD 9.48 (based on purchasing power parity). Canadians travelling abroad pay the most (USD 24.61), followed by Americans (USD 22.06) and Mexicans (USD 19.85). Greeks abroad pay the least (USD 4.17), followed by people from Iceland (USD 4.42) and Luxembourg (USD 4.46). The wide difference in prices, according to the report, can be explained by Greek mobile phone companies being charged less by wholesale operators than Canadian operators and passing those savings onto customers. Or it could reflect greater competition in the Greek retail roaming market than in Canada.
More effective competition and better regulation needed to cut high mobile data roaming costs Economic group urges rules to cut international bill shock (WashPost)
Telecommunications carriers are required to interconnect, directly or indirectly, with the facilities and equipment of other telecommunications carriers. Congress said so, in Section 251(a) of the Communications Act. In addition to fostering competition as much as possible, the goal is to assure that our telephone calls are all completed no matter which carrier we use to make the call or which carrier serves the destination number. A couple of subsections later, though, in Section 251(f)(1) Congress created a limited exemption from some, but not all, interconnection-related obligations. The so-called “rural exemption” is available to rural local exchange carriers (LECs) under certain circumstances. It exempts eligible LECs from, among other things, the obligation (contained in Section 251(c)) for incumbent LECs to negotiate in good faith the terms of interconnection agreements.
But if you aren't required to negotiate, how can you be expected to reach agreement on interconnection arrangements? If exempt rural LECs don't have to negotiate interconnection agreements, does that relieve them of the obligation to interconnect at all? The Commission has recently answered that question in a Declaratory Ruling, and the answer is: No way.
FCC clarifies interconnection obligations of rural carriers and role of state commissions
Facebook will be probed by European Union data-protection regulators over a feature that uses face-recognition software to suggest people’s names to tag in pictures without their permission.
A group of privacy watchdogs drawn from the EU’s 27 nations will study the measure for possible rule violations, said Gerard Lommel, a Luxembourg member of the so-called Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. Authorities in the UK and Ireland said they are also looking into the photo-tagging function on the world’s most popular social-networking service. “Tags of people on pictures should only happen based on people’s prior consent and it can't be activated by default,” said Lommel. Such automatic tagging suggestions “can bear a lot of risks for users” and the European data-protection officials will “clarify to Facebook that this can't happen like this.” Facebook said that “Tag Suggestions” are available in most countries after being phased in over several months. When a Facebook user adds a photo to their page, the feature uses facial-recognition software to suggest names of people in the photo to tag based on pictures in which they have already been identified. Before the feature was rolled out, users could tag pictures manually without permission from their Facebook friends.
Facebook to Be Probed in EU for Facial Recognition in Photos Why Europe Is Right To Keep Facebook & Co. In Check (paidContent.org) Facebook gives regulators info on facial recognition (Reuters)
Under the "Account" drop-down menu at the top-right of Facebook's title bar, click "Privacy settings." On the bottom half of the next window, under "Sharing on Facebook" click "Custom." Then at the bottom, click on the little blue pencil and its "customize settings label." In the next window scroll down to the "Things others share" section and the third list item, "Suggest photos of me to friends." Click on the "Edit Settings" button, and scan to the middle right of the new pop-up window, which has little pics of your friends to remind you how friendly Facebook is. See the facility is enabled? Click on this button, select "Disabled." And then click on "OK" to make the pop-up go away. Easy, wasn't it? Just nine click/scroll maneuvers required to burrow through multiple layers of windows.
While you're there on the privacy page, check a few other things, too...
How To Block Facebook's Face Recognition And Tighten Other Privacy Settings
A new service from the Library of Congress lets you build maps, graphs, timelines, and trees from the collective digital and digitized history of an entire nation.
Recollection: A Collaborative Tool For Sharing And Visualizing Cultural Data
Google Maps for mobile and desktop can tell you when your ride is actually going to arrive with new live transit updates. We partnered with transit agencies to integrate live transit data in four U.S. cities and two European cities: Boston, Portland (OR), San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid and Turin.
Know when your bus is late with live transit updates in Google Maps
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is succeeding at wringing profits from PC software that many had written off in the age of cloud computing. But he's not very good at finding new sources of growth as cloud computing takes center stage. Which is why the answer to Microsoft's problems isn't firing Ballmer, but in bringing on a co-CEO. Ballmer is the consummate chief operating officer, overseeing the day-to-day operations of a tech giant facing tough competition on many fronts. He is not a visionary, he's blind to the ways that technology and markets are evolving. Bill Gates served as a good counterbalance, then Ray Ozzie tried to fill that role for a few years. But Microsoft's culture is so entrenched that it needs a visionary with a stubborn streak and a track record of success as a CEO.
Who could fill this role? Some names have been tossed around, but the best answer may be sitting on Microsoft's own board. Reed Hastings has shepherded Netflix to a $14 billion market value, defying odds and overcoming obstacles to make Netflix a key player in cloud-based content. Microsoft has $50 billion in cash lying around, so it could buy Netflix and still have plenty enough left to buy Nokia if it wanted. Buying Netflix and installing Hastings as co-CEO would position Microsoft to return to the center of the tech industry. Netflix could speed the Xbox' transition from a gaming console to a mainstream device connecting TVs to the Internet. Its success in creating a popular, immersive app for tablets could strengthen the appeal of mobile carriers considering Windows Phone 7 as a platform. Microsoft's investment in Facebook could help Netflix find a strong presence in that social network. And Hastings, who has a deep understanding about the opportunities and obstacles facing cloud-based content, could focus on pushing Microsoft into the future while Ballmer oversees the traditional PC-software businesses.
Of course, the move might distress Netflix customers, who would fear the company getting lost inside Microsoft's rigid corporate culture. But the question facing Microsoft shareholders in recent months is, what is the best way for the company to turn the stock price around? The answer to that question isn't Bill Gates returning. It's Microsoft buying Netflix and Ballmer sharing the CEO spot with Hastings.
Why Microsoft needs to buy Netflix
Netflix's online streaming service is rapidly emerging as an important gateway for accessing television programming, according to a tracking study revealed by a top broadcast network executive during the most recent edition of MPG's Collaborative Alliance meeting in New York City.
The executive, CBS research chief Dave Poltrack, used the term "phenomenon" several times to describe the rapid adoption of Netflix, especially among an important segment of the TV audience known as early adopters of next generation media platforms. The research, which was part of a series of focus group studies CBS conducted in its Las Vegas testing facility, Television City, indicates that 43% of the early adopters - what Poltrack terms "fully connected" TV viewers who already subscribe to digital TV and broadband services, now subscribe to Netflix. "Last summer, that number wasn't even large enough to have put it down as one of the choices" CBS asked its focus group respondents, he said, adding, "This is a real phenomenon."
CBS Research Chief Calls Netflix A 'Phenomenon,' Says It's Now As Big As A Mid-Size Cable Net