April 2010

FCC Begins 2010 Equal Employment Opportunity Audits

On April 19, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission mailed the first of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters for 2010 to randomly selected radio and television stations. In accordance with the provisions of Sections 73.2080(f)(4) and 76.77(d) of the Commission's EEO rules, the FCC annually audits the EEO programs of randomly selected broadcast licensees and multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Each year, approximately five percent of all radio and television stations and MVPDs are selected for these EEO audits.

In New-Media World, How Much Freedom of Information Can We Expect?

Social media is opening up communication around the world, delegates to the Festival of Media in Spain heard Monday, but government censorship in China and Apple's growing power imply that information still can't always be free. The line about some information's desire to be free, of course, really refers to its pricing, but recent developments raise another line of argument: How much freedom, as in liberty, can we expect for information in the new new-media world? Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, suggested that information would only become more democratic as events unfold. Nearly nobody in the auditorium raised a hand when Mr. Wales, delivering the opening keynote at the festival, asked how many people present had actually edited an entry on Wikipedia. But when he asked the same question in a London high school, he said, 60% of the students present put up their hands.

Twitter Brings Down Top Official In India

This may be the best example yet of the growing power of social media, including Twitter and blogs, to bring about sudden, sweeping political change. The current political scandal in India is also a cautionary tale to watch what you say online. Over the weekend India's junior foreign minister, Shashi Tharoor, resigned his post amid revelations of widespread corruption in India's cricket leagues (the national sport -- really, obsession -- is big business, with broadcast rights and advertising revenues in the billions). Tharoor was forced to resign over allegations he gave his support to a shady deal involving the $4-billion Indian Premier League in return for a $15 million payoff to a female friend. With the political opposition demanding an investigation, it's a distinct possibility the scandal will grow to include other government ministers.

Google boosts lobbying spending more than 50%

Google increased its first-quarter spending on lobbying by more than 50 percent to argue its position on privacy, online advertising competition and net neutrality to members of Congress, federal regulators and the White House.

According to documents filed Tuesday with Congress, the company spent $1.38 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2010 compared with $880,000 in the same period last year. The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant spent $1.12 million on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2009. Google's policy objectives appeared to greatly expand in recent months.

North Carolina Again Considers Law To Restrict Muni-Broadband

Last year, Internet service provider Time Warner backed an initiative in North Carolina to discourage local towns from building their own broadband networks. The proposed bill, which would make municipal broadband prohibitively expensive, ultimately was put on hold pending further study. Now, a legislative committee is getting ready to report on the results of that study.

And some local broadband advocates say they fear that lawmakers could vote as early as Wednesday to impose a moratorium on new municipal broadband construction. Greensboro resident Jay Ovittore, who is organizing an effort to defeat the potential moratorium, says that new municipal broadband networks will benefit the entire state. "With the speeds and broadband capacity that would be available, I would think you'd see a huge inflow of jobs," he says. "Time Warner is holding our state back."

Amazon Fights North Carolina Data Demand

Amazon has filed a complaint seeking to block an effort by the North Carolina state government to force the company to turn over personal information for residents who have purchased anything from the company since 2003.

Amazon's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, stems from North Carolina's effort to audit the company's compliance with state sales and use tax laws. Amazon contends North Carolina doesn't need personally identifiable customer information to audit the company and to do so would violate its customers' privacy. Last year, North Carolina followed New York in passing a law that required out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax in the state if they have marketing affiliates -- people who earn a fee for providing links to online retailers on their own Web sites -- in the state. Amazon responded by severing ties with affiliate marketers in North Carolina, and currently doesn't collect sales tax there. However, North Carolina officials said earlier this year they were still discussing other ways to collect sales taxes from online retailers, including asking them to pay back taxes for sales that occurred even before its law went into effect. Amazon said it has already has cooperated fully with the audit, providing the state's Department of Revenue with voluminous information about nearly 50 million items sold to North Carolina customers, including order numbers; the city, county, and zip codes to which items were shipped; transaction dates and prices; and Amazon's standard product code for the items. Amazon has asked the court to declare that the state's demand for personal information violates First Amendment rights of the company and its customers, as well as the Washington state constitution and federal law.

FCC to Host Public Discussion on Spectrum Dashboard

The Federal Communications Commission released its Spectrum Dashboard in "beta" on March 17, 2010. As part of a continuing effort to improve the Spectrum Dashboard, Commission staff will conduct a public forum at the FCC's Washington, D.C. headquarters on May 12, 2010, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm. The topic will be potential enhancements in anticipation of release 2.0 of the Spectrum Dashboard in the fourth quarter of 2010. This Public Notice lists potential enhancements under consideration, invites feedback on these potential enhancements, invites suggestions for additional potential enhancements, and invites interested parties to explain how they use the Spectrum Dashboard. A subsequent Public Notice will be released approximately one week prior to the forum announcing final details, including specific topics to be discussed and the names of participants.

South Korea's average 'Net speed plunges 24%, iPhone blamed

In the course of three months during 2009, South Korea's average Internet connection speed dropped by a dramatic 24 percent. Think about the magnitude of the decline here: one of the world's most wired countries suddenly sees its overall Internet speeds reduced by a quarter over a few months while similarly positioned countries like Sweden, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong all saw speed increases. What happened? Blame it on the iPhone. According to Akamai's recent State of the Internet report, South Korea's bizarre Internet slowdown can largely be traced to the introduction of the iPhone in that country in November 2009. Akamai saw an explosion of unique IP addresses associated with a particular mobile operator (apparently KT, formerly known as Korea Telecom) soon after the phone's launch, indicating broad new iPhone usage. Unfortunately, this particular mobile provider is slow. "As the average observed connection speed for this mobile provider was a fraction of that observed from wireline connections in South Korea," says the report, "we believe that this launch was likely responsible for the significant drop in South Korea's average undeserved connection speed in the fourth quarter [of 2009]."

Broadband Begins to Take Hold in Central and Eastern Europe

Broadband is making strong inroads in Central and Eastern Europe, thanks to government and other incentives for providers to offer service in these previously bypassed areas. Two recent reports from consultancies Arthur D. Little and Frost & Sullivan offer differing perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe. However, they agree that broadband services will depend much more heavily on mobile networks there than in either Western Europe or North America.

Hiding in Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown

The national media lost interest almost immediately, and then horse-race coverage dominated what was considered a fairly dull and utterly local contest. And when it became clear something was up, it was polling -- not journalistic reporting -- that caught the wave in the race to succeed Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

In the end, a campaign that first seemed to lack drama and star power was the most important and intensely covered political story in the country. And while they were certainly not alone, the press never saw it coming. These are some of the findings in a new study produced by Boston University and the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism about how newspapers covered the Massachusetts special election to fill the seat created by Kennedy's death. The study covered two time periods. The first was the Democratic and Republican primary races from September 1-December 8, 2009. The second was the final two weeks of the general election campaign from January 6-19, 2010, when the media began to sense there was an actual contest for the seat.

Benton

Search