May 3, 2011 (Death of bin Laden could sway public-safety debate)
CORRECTION AND APOLOGY: Our spell checker inadvertently changed Osama to Obama in a couple of spots yesterday and we did not catch it before hitting "send." Sorry for any confusion. Of course, Fox one-upped us
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2010
Busy day for wonks http://benton.org/calendar/2011-05-03/
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Death of bin Laden could sway public-safety debate
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Justice Department Said to Extend Review of T-Mobile Bid by AT&T
Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps, violates spirit of the ‘open access’ it bid $4.6B to protect - analysis
Wireless Consolidation: How Did We Get Here? [links to web]
Network neutrality doesn't work for mobile operators - Editorial
New Verizon Rural LTE Partner Adds a Different Twist [links to web]
MEDIA OWNERSHIP - COMCAST
NBC launches round-the-clock local news channels in California, Dallas
Comcast Must Do Better on Local News to Meet Merger Promises - press release
While Rivals Streamline, Burke Pushes Cross-Marketing Project at NBCU
Best Practices for Enhancing Diversity in the High-Tech Workplace - analysis
BROADCASTING
The First Amendment and the Fallacy of the Public’s Airwaves - op-ed
Ownership of TV Sets Falls in US
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Changes coming to Universal Service Fund - analysis [links to web]
Illinois broadband project rejects first round of bids
Expert Panel: With Broadband, Markets Can Emerge Anywhere [links to web]
ADVERTISING/MARKETING
Facebook Serves 25% Of Display Ads
Google's Eric Schmidt Pours $1.5 Million Into An Online Ad Startup [links to web]
PRIVACY/CYBERSECURITY
Hackers Breach Second Sony Service
Storing Too Much Information - editorial
Federal Trade Commission Should Extend Google Buzz Settlement Terms to All Google Properties - press release
Europe's 'single secure cyberspace' plan under attack
EDUCATION
‘Bring your own device’ catching on in schools [links to web]
App maker: Don't just play on your smartphone -- study, too [links to web]
HEALTH
Researchers analyze social media as a disease-monitoring tool [links to web]
Stakeholders Calculate the Possibility of a Health Care Digital Divide [links to web]
E-Prescribing and Standards for E-Prior Authorization - analysis [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Trump Says He’s Decided ‘In My Mind’ to Seek Presidency After ‘Apprentice’ [links to web]
JOURNALISM
PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsroom
Mexican and Egyptian press no longer free, press conditions in Mideast much worse [links to web]
The 7 Stages of News in a Twitter and Facebook Era - analysis
Turning to Social Networks for News
US media unified in celebrating bin Laden’s death [links to web]
CONTENT
Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit [links to web]
Pandora Is Now 10 Billion Thumbs Strong
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Mexican and Egyptian press no longer free, press conditions in Mideast much worse [links to web]
Net Freedom Fighters and the Digital Age Revolution - op-ed [links to web]
The Protection of Children Online
Want To Be Like Jon Stewart? New Governmental Open Data Standards Are For You - analysis [links to web]
The President on Facebook: A New Way to Make Age-Old Connections - op-ed [links to web]
FCC's Ex Parte Follow-Up Paperwork Requirements Expanded - analysis
Much More Than WhiteHouse.gov - press release [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
The Internet: One big power suck [links to web]
Eric Schmidt on business culture, technology, and social issues [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
BIN LADEN AND PUBLIC SAFETY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
The death of Osama bin Laden could sway the debate over an expensive communications network for police and firefighters, analysts say. Public-safety advocates welcomed President Obama's announcement of bin Laden’s death and reiterated their calls for Congress to swiftly devote a valuable chunk of airwaves to an emergency network that they say would have prevented the deaths of many first responders in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who has made the communications network his top priority this year, called for a renewed focus on making sure public-safety agencies get speedy broadband so they can talk to each other in the event of similar attacks. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-NY) said the network might be even more vital after bin Laden's death than before. Charles Dowd, communications chief for the New York Police Department (NYPD), said the news of bin Laden's death should spur Congress to act this year. The Public Safety Alliance, a collection of influential advocacy groups, also drew on the occasion of bin Laden’s death to push for the network.
benton.org/node/57636 | Hill, The | Chairman Rockefeller | NYPD | Politico | B&C
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
JUSTICE WANTS MORE INFO ON AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: ]
The Department of Justice extended its review of the proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA Inc. by AT&T, asking the companies for more information, two people familiar with the situation said. The department's antitrust division also sent so-called civil investigative demands, which are like subpoenas, to competitors of the two companies, seeking data on how the transaction might affect their businesses, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the review is confidential. The second round of requests to AT&T and T-Mobile will allow the Justice Department to extend its review of the transaction indefinitely. "This confirms that the government is going to do a deep dive into the transaction to understand what the implications are," said Rebecca Arbogast, a Washington-based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
benton.org/node/57662 | Bloomberg
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GOOGLE AND WIRELESS OPEN ACCESS
[SOURCE: This is my next, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
[Commentary] It seems a few American carriers have started working with Google to disable access to tethering apps in the Android Market in recent weeks, ostensibly because they make it easier for users to circumvent the official tethering capabilities offered on many recent smartphones — capabilities that carry a plan surcharge. Sure, it’s a shame that they’re doing it, but from Verizon’s perspective, it’s all about protecting revenue — business as usual. It’s Google’s role in this soap opera that’s a cause for greater concern. You might remember that Google made a big splash a little over three years ago during the auction for the C Block 700MHz spectrum that Verizon now uses for its LTE network, intentionally driving up bidding past the $4.6 billion open access trigger without really having any intention to win it. This isn't the first time Google has pulled apps (tethering apps, even) per carrier agreement, but it is the first time they've come dangerously close to tangling with the new 700MHz regulations as a result.
benton.org/node/57646 | This is my next
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NET NEUTRALITY AND MOBILE
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Paul Rasmussen]
[Commentary] Telefónica and France Telecom have publicly registered their growing concern with the European Union that content providers are unfairly benefiting by not paying to use broadband networks. While the increase in broadband traffic--mainly driven by video download--is impacting fixed networks, the consequences for mobile operators is severe, if not dire. A recent study by the global management consultancy AT Kearney, commissioned by Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefónica, claimed that, if the growth in mobile data traffics continues as it is forecast to do, then there must be a realignment as to who captures the value and who funds the investment. In other words, the telcos want the content providers--Google and the like--to cough up money, and in large amounts. In an effort to justify this "realignment", AT Kearney decided to model the capital expenditure requirements for mobile operators based upon existing forecasts covering the 2009-2014 period. However, it found mobile data estimates for this period to be so high that it adopted a 'constrained' scenario, believing that data offload would have a greater impact than had been anticipated, or that growing congestion would drive users away from mobile data networks. While the report makes many recommendations as to how this growing issue could be resolved, one telling observation is that current pricing models do not prompt content providers into making any attempt at efficiently using mobile networks. This, at the very least, would appear to be extravagant and arrogant. Perhaps a backlash is appropriate.
benton.org/node/57623 | Fierce
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
NBC LOCAL NEWS CHANNELS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
NBC Universal announced it is launching nonstop local news and information channels in Dallas, Miami and California to fulfill part of the of the local programming condition imposed by the Federal Communications Commission as part of the Comcast merger. Local stations owned and operated by Comcast-NBC Universal in all three markets will launch the channels this week, bringing the total number of markets with local, nonstop news channels to nine including Washington, DC. Opponents of the merger argued it would give Comcast too much influence in markets where the firm would be the dominant cable provider, dominant broadband provider and the owner and operator of the local NBC affiliate. The local programming conditions are aimed at preserving the amount of local and public interest content carried by NBC Universal under Comcast. The firm agreed to produce 1,000 additional hours of local programming at the outset of the merger and will also produce an additional 1,000 hours of news and information programming for its Telemundo outlets, with further details coming this summer.
benton.org/node/57634 | Hill, The
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COMCAST AND LOCAL NEWS
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Press release]
A new Free Press report reveals deep disparities between the amount of local news offered on Comcast's English- and Spanish-language stations. To justify its takeover of NBC Universal, Comcast committed to increasing local programming across its newly acquired NBC and Telemundo stations for a period of five years. The Federal Communications Commission requires Comcast to file quarterly localism reports for each of the 25 stations to ensure that the company follows through on its promise. The report examines the first filings submitted since the cable giant took over NBC in January. It offers the first glimpse of Comcast’s compliance with a merger condition required by the FCC that seeks to increase local news programming at Telemundo and NBC stations owned and operated by Comcast.
Key findings:
Comcast has committed to increasing local news production in only six of the 15 communities served by its Telemundo owned-and-operated stations (O&Os).
While local news and public affairs programming represents less than 20 percent of weekly programming time for NBC O&Os, it represents less than 3 percent of weekly programming time for most Telemundo O&Os.
NBC stations average about four hours and 42 minutes per day of local news. Telemundo stations on average air only 48 minutes per day of local news.
In Los Angeles, the NBC station provides nearly four hours per day of local news. The local Telemundo station serving Los Angeles provided less than one hour.
In New York, the NBC station provided close to six hours per day of local programming. The local Telemundo station only provided an average of 30 minutes per day.
Telemundo stations in Boston and Denver aired no local news or information programming between January and April 2011.
The report also finds that Comcast failed to properly report to the FCC on its programming, obscuring the true nature and amount of programming being claimed as local news.
Comcast failed to include any descriptions of the programs listed in its localism filings. Without these descriptions, it is difficult for the public and the FCC to determine with any accuracy whether the programming listed actually meets the merger commitment.
More than 1,000 hours that Comcast claimed as local news programming were actually commercials aired during broadcasts.
benton.org/node/57585 | Free Press | read the report
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COMCAST'S SYMPHONY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Lauren Schuker]
As he eases into the role of chief of Comcast's NBCU, Steve Burke is doubling down on an idea that's fallen out of favor in the media business: synergy. While other media companies are breaking apart to streamline, Burke is fixated on strengthening ties between assets as diverse as theme parks and cable channels like CNBC to pump up interest in NBCU's franchises. He's ordering executives to lend their support to company-wide projects, starting with the animated Easter film "Hop" from Universal Pictures and NBC's new singing competition show "The Voice." The result: promotions ranging from a golf-club swinging Bunny from "Hop" on the Golf Network to dousing Comcast's online-video site with clips of belting wannabe pop stars. He calls the strategy "Project Symphony" -- a play, on synergy, a word he resisted because it evoked cost-cutting and had become a derided term. "As the world fragments, it becomes harder and harder to promote anything," he said in a recent interview. To get people's attention, "you have to take this approach." Some senior NBCU executives say Burke's approach is similar to how they operated in the past, when NBCU tapped "uber priorities," including a new Harry Potter ride in its theme park, the animated film "Despicable Me," the Olympics, and the fall TV line-up. But Burke's pushing the idea more forcefully, they say, reflecting his management style of picking a few projects where he is very hands-on but giving executives room with the rest. He's also directly marketing NBCU content to Comcast's cable and broadband subscribers -- an avenue of cross-promotion NBCU couldn't access in the past.
benton.org/node/57595 | Wall Street Journal
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ENHANCING DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Marcella Gadson]
Last week, Comcast announced that it is creating a new position in the company called “Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion” and appointed Maria G. Arias to take on its responsibilities. Arias will “direct, manage, and organize Comcast’s diversity program strategy,” which includes important issues such as minority recruitment, career development, suppliers, and programming. Named one of the “100 Most Influential Minorities in Cable” in 2010, Arias is well positioned to serve as a role model for minorities considering careers in the telecommunications and high-tech sectors.
Comcast and other broadband service providers have long been leaders in developing minority workforces. This recent announcement is great news for minority communities that are yearning for increased minority-focused content and general inclusion in the digital media sector. But more work needs to be done across other parts of this emerging ecosystem, including the high-tech sector. The San Jose Mercury News published an article last year disclosing figures that revealed just how few minorities are employed by firms operating in Silicon Valley, our nation’s leading hub for innovation. As previously discussed on BBSJ, these findings are highly discouraging.
Nevertheless, minority employment in high-tech appears to be improving, albeit slowly. Following the lead of companies like Comcast, a growing number of high-tech firms are promoting tech-based educational programs and embracing in-house diversity initiatives. The Information Technology Industry Council, for example, has reported that Cisco has deployed a number of educational projects focused on building “tomorrow’s workforce,” many of which target minority students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.
benton.org/node/57577 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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BROADCASTING
FIRST AMENDMENT AND BROADCASTING
[SOURCE: Media Institute, AUTHOR: Erwin Krasnow]
[Commentary] The public-airwaves concept, particularly as it concerns the authority and mission of the Federal Communications Commission, has led to much misunderstanding and confusion. It is a mischievous notion that has been misused as a rationalization for government regulation. Indeed, the public-ownership notion is the main reason for broadcasting’s second-class status under the First Amendment. The concept of public “ownership” of the airwaves is demonstrably at odds with Congress’s intent in enacting the Radio Act of 1927 and the Communications Act of 1934. The time has come for the FCC to take the following actions: Renounce the discredited concept of public ownership of the airwaves, bury the scarcity rationale, and adopt the approach advocated by former FCC chairman Mark Fowler, by applying a public-interest standard based on minimally regulated marketplace forces rather than content regulation. Fowler once said that whether you call the public-trusteeship model of regulating broadcasters “paternalism” or “nannyism,” it is “Big Brother,” and it must cease.
benton.org/node/57624 | Media Institute |
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TV OWNERSHIP FALLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
For the first time in 20 years, the number of homes in the United States with television sets has dropped. The Nielsen Company, which takes TV set ownership into account when it produces ratings, will tell television networks and advertisers on Tuesday that 96.7 percent of American households now own sets, down from 98.9 percent previously. There are two reasons for the decline, according to Nielsen. One is poverty: some low-income households no longer own TV sets, most likely because they cannot afford new digital sets and antennas. The other is technological wizardry: young people who have grown up with laptops in their hands instead of remote controls are opting not to buy TV sets when they graduate from college or enter the work force, at least not at first. Instead, they are subsisting on a diet of television shows and movies from the Internet. That second reason is prompting Nielsen to think about a redefinition of the term “television household” to include Internet video viewers.
benton.org/node/57657 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ILLINOIS BROADBAND UPDATE
[SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business, AUTHOR: Paul Merrion]
Gov. Pat Quinn's (D-IL) ambitious, $96.4-million project to expand high-speed Internet connections Downstate is off to a stumbling start. Illinois officials rejected all bids last week to install more than 1,000 miles of state-owned fiber-optic cable from Chicago to Collinsville after disqualifying more than half of the contractors for not following Illinois procurement rules. The project was rebid April 29. The cable installation throughout 55 counties in East-Central Illinois is the largest of five regional fiber-optic projects statewide that won a total of $173.9 million in broadband stimulus funding last year, and it's the only one directly managed by the state. The East-Central portion uses more than a third of the stimulus funds and about half of the $60.2 million in Illinois matching funds for all five projects, most of which are starting construction or about to name contractors. The state is operating under a deadline: The improved network has to be up and running by June 2013 to qualify for federal broadband stimulus funding the state won last year.
benton.org/node/57616 | Crain's Chicago Business
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ADVERTISING/MARKETING
25% OF DISPLAY ADS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Mark Walsh]
Facebook accounted for more than one-quarter (25.8%) of all U.S. display ad impressions in the fourth quarter of 2010 -- up from 23.1% in the prior quarter, per comScore. The social network's gain came at the expense of Yahoo, whose display ad share fell to 9.7% from 11%, and Fox Interactive Media, which dropped to 2.4% from 3.8%, in the third quarter. Among other top Web publishers, Microsoft's share slipped to 4.5% from 5%, and Google, from 2.7% to 2.4%. AOL saw a slight uptick from 2.4% to 2.5% in the fourth quarter. More than 1.3 trillion ad impressions were served in the quarter, about the same as the prior three months. Of that total, Facebook was responsible for 338.6 billion. The new figures reflect Facebook's growing dominance of display advertising based on its more than 500-million-strong audience worldwide and its advantage over the major Web portals in user engagement.
benton.org/node/57626 | MediaPost
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PRIVACY/CYBERSECURITY
HACKERS HIT SONY AGAIN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ian Sherr]
Sony Corp. said computer hackers breached security for a second online service, gaining access to personal information for 24.6 million customer accounts as part of a broader attack on the company that has compromised data for more than 100 million accounts. Sony Online Entertainment, a San Diego-based subsidiary that makes multiplayer games for personal computers, said it shut down its services Monday amid concerns a hacker may have accessed names, birth dates and addresses for its users. The company said it doesn't believe credit-card information on those accounts was accessed, but said hackers may have stolen credit-card data for about 12,700 non-U.S. accounts and 10,700 bank-account numbers from an "outdated database from 2007." The company, which has come under fire for its handling of the security breach, said it detected the latest intrusion early May 2, Tokyo time, as part of an ongoing investigation of the attacks.
benton.org/node/57654 | Wall Street Journal | LATimes | FT | Politico | AP | NYTimes
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STORING TOO MUCH INFO
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] How secure is the Internet? It is perhaps less so than many trusting consumers seem to believe. Two recent privacy infractions involving companies with a global brand name should make users sit up and think. They are a reminder that the voracious appetite of Internet firms for data is not always matched by their ability to keep that information secure. Apple’s decision to embed location-tracking software in its iPhone without flagging this to customers is a good example. While the resulting data helped the company target advertisements through the handsets, it involved both a careless invasion of privacy and lax data protection. Apple did not offer users an explicit opt-out to its obtaining and logging of the information. Having obtained the data it did not store this securely. Worrying in a different way was the hack-in at Sony’s Playstation network, which may have compromised the personal data of 77m gamers. The lure of such a huge stash of information invites attacks even on big companies. Inevitably some may succeed. The cases highlight a larger security problem. Consumers have few qualms about giving up a great deal of personal information – as they do, wittingly or unwittingly, on mobile devices and social networking sites such as Facebook. Yet while they store ever more information about themselves online, the effort they make to protect this trove of data has not risen commensurately. People often use the same password for many personal accounts, so it is comparatively easy to piece together a lot of information once one has been breached. These traits make consumers vulnerable if the information they supply goes astray. Consumers rely on companies to protect them. But it is not clear that companies, especially social networks, take these vulnerabilities seriously enough.
benton.org/node/57652 | Financial Times
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APPLYING BUZZ SETTLEMENT ON ALL GOOGLE PROPERTIES
[SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy, AUTHOR: Press release]
[Commentary] In comments filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the Center for Digital Democracy called for the conditions imposed on Google as a result of its proposed Google Buzz settlement to extend as well to the company’s vast online advertising holdings. Under that settlement, Google agreed to refrain from future privacy misrepresentations, to implement a “comprehensive privacy program,” and to submit to regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years. These conditions, the CDD’s comment made clear, must apply with equal force to such Google holdings as the Google Content Network, DoubleClick, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Admob and its related mobile ad services, Invite Media, and Teracent. The FTC, according to the CDD, should examine each “certified” partner that Google permits to operate on its Content Network, for example, and then order those companies to provide consumers with both accurate information and control over what and how their data are collected and used. So, too, should the dozens of data-mining companies that Google has certified, and that engage in real-time ad exchange sales of users, social media surveillance, and behavioral targeting and retargeting, be held to the new FTC-sanctioned privacy safeguards. CDD’s filing offered numerous examples of privacy-related data collection practices undertaken by Google and its subsidiaries and affiliates in both the online and mobile arenas. The Google/DoubleClick Ad Exchange, for example, “must be required to adopt a range of additional privacy and consumer protection safeguards.” CDD urged the FTC to also ensure that Google, under the decree, develop safeguards addressing neuromarketing, the targeting of Hispanics and other multicultural groups, and adolescents.
benton.org/node/57586 | Center for Digital Democracy | B&C
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CYBERSECURITY PLAN ATTACKED
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Jennifer Baker]
European Union plans to "create a single secure cyberspace" have come under fire from civil liberties groups, with many saying that they only serve to highlight how far the bloc still has to go in understanding the modern online world. In February, at a secret meeting of the Council of the European Union's Law Enforcement Work Party (LEWP), politicians discussed plans to create a "virtual Schengen border" (the Schengen area is the common passport area within the E.U.) with ISPs required to block "illicit content" from outside the area. The Council of the European Union is the E.U.'s central legislative and decision-making body. There has been no clarification as to what this "illicit content" might be, merely that there would be an E.U. blacklist. The plan has been compared to China's heavy-handed methods in controlling access to the Web.
"This proposal will be used as a justification of every repressive measure by every undemocratic regime in every part of the world. Even the discussion of the project legitimizes this profoundly illegitimate suggestion," said Joe McNamee of European digital rights group EDRi on Monday. "Most absurd of all, despite all of the costs in terms of democracy, freedom of speech and even the economy, there is no analysis of any benefit or expected benefit that, even mistakenly, the architects of this madness expect to outweigh the cost."
benton.org/node/57645 | IDG News Service
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CONTENT
PANDORA GETS 10 BILLION THUMBS
[SOURCE: TechCrunch, AUTHOR: Jason Kincaid]
Personalized radio service Pandora has reached a major milestone: last week it recorded its 10 billionth thumb (and it was a thumbs up). Avid fans of the popular service already know what that means — for the rest of you, Pandora lets users mark the song that’s currently playing with a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. The effect is pretty straightforward: hit a thumbs up and Pandora will try to play more music that sounds like the song you’re listening to, thumbs down and Pandora will immediately jump to the next song and send a minor electric shock to CTO Tom Conrad. In other words, these thumbs are explicit signals that users are sending to Pandora to help fine-tune their radio stations, and it shows that plenty of people actually try to take advantage of the personalization features as opposed to just letting the radio play in the background all day.
benton.org/node/57649 | TechCrunch
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JOURNALISM
PR GROWS AS JOURNALISM DWINDLES
[SOURCE: Pro Publica, AUTHOR: John Sullivan]
In their recent book, "The Death and Life of American Journalism," Robert McChesney and John Nichols tracked the number of people working in journalism since 1980 and compared it to the numbers for public relations. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they found that the number of journalists has fallen drastically while public relations people have multiplied at an even faster rate. In 1980, there were about .45 PR workers per 100,000 population compared with .36 journalists. In 2008, there were .90 PR people per 100,000 compared to .25 journalists. That's a ratio of more than three-to-one, better equipped, better financed. The dangers are clear. As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the public knowing it. "What we are seeing now is the demise of journalism at the same time we have an increasing level of public relations and propaganda," McChesney said. "We are entering a zone that has never been seen before in this country."
benton.org/node/57570 | Pro Publica
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NEWS IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA ERA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
With the death of Osama bin Laden, we’re seeing firsthand what happens when the real-time, immediate notifications of Facebook and Twitter meet real-world events. It’s not the first time, but the death of Osama Bin Laden is truly a global event in the way that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage was not, or even what the protests in Egypt and Libya are not. While there are doubtless plenty of Americans who will wake up tomorrow to be greeted with the news that a special operations mission has killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, millions discovered the news Sunday night on Twitter or Facebook. And while they may have tuned into the news on television, many more watched the live stream from the White House on the web, or streamed it from Al-Jazeera, CNN or countless other sites offering the news in real time. And some likely followed it via Twitter for far longer than the brief address. After President Obama’s speech May 1, Twitter said it was fielding about 4,000 tweets a second. What does the compressed news cycle look like?
Excitement. These tweets quickly followed expressing a tone of excitement and the thrill of being first to report potentially huge news.
Uncertainty. Almost as fast as the news hit, the doubters came out questioning whether the news was legitimate or not. Some were waiting for the news venue of their choice to weigh in, while others were waiting for the coming statement from the president.
Searching for Validation. Torn between wanting the news to be true and the fear of being wrong, folks turned either reverential in their love of Al-Jazeera or the New York Times or whoever was already reporting details or scornful of those who might have been more cautious.
Confirmation. The White House confirmed, and now the search for meaning, data and tasteless jokes will begin in earnest.
Jokes, Profits and Platitudes. Once confirmed, the platitudes, jokes and attempts to profit either via owning a domain, a twitter identity (say hello to @ghostosama) or the umpteenth joke about the birthers now asking for a long form death certificate are free to escalate. Meanwhile Google updates its Maps to show the location where bin Laden was killed.
Action. This is where Facebook and social media really shine. From tweets about people seeking more information from friends to those seeking to find out if others are meeting at Ground Zero by checking out a live web cam of the site, people now can learn about news and do something.
Real Analysis. Not on Twitter, unless it’s via a link to a blog or a newspaper. What insight on geopolitics can one really offer in 140 characters?
benton.org/node/57588 | GigaOm
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SOCIAL NETWORKS AND NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter, Jennifer Preston]
When the White House abruptly announced an address to the nation by President Obama on Sunday night, CNN anchors spent the better part of an hour previewing the address without actually saying what it was about. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, some CNN watchers had already heard the news. Unconfirmed reports — that turned out to be true — of Osama bin Laden’s demise circulated widely on social media for about 20 minutes before the anchors of the major broadcast and cable networks reported news of the raid at 10:45 p.m., about an hour before President Obama’s address from the White House. It was another example of how social media and traditional media deal with the same news in different ways and at different speeds. Just as CNN once challenged newspapers and evening newscasts with a constant stream of images from the Persian Gulf war, Twitter and Facebook have become early warning systems for breaking news — albeit not always reliable ones. Twitter saw the highest sustained rate of posts ever, with an average of 3,440 per second from 10:45 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Eastern time. There were more than five million mentions of Bin Laden on Facebook in the United States alone, as news of the raid at his hideout spread starting around 10:30 p.m. A new Facebook page titled “Osama bin Laden Is Dead” popped up for people to begin sharing their thoughts. It had more than 400,000 fans on Monday. (A second page, “Osama bin Laden Is Not Dead,” soon followed.) Text messages and social networks did not only help people get and spread the news about Bin Laden’s death, but they also helped people absorb it, spurring impromptu gatherings at ground zero and outside the White House.
benton.org/node/57660 | New York Times | WSJ | Politico
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN ONLINE
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: ]
This report follows up on the 2008 Seoul Ministerial Declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy. It will feed related OECD activities such as work by the Working Party on Information Security and Privacy (WPISP) on the evolving privacy landscape and on identity management, by the Committee on Consumer Policy (CCP) in relation to the review of the 1999 Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce and by the Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) on Internet Intermediaries. This report focuses on online risks for children and policies to protect them as Internet users. It examines
direct and indirect policy measures available to OECD member and non-member countries to help mitigate risks for children online in order to:
Present and compare existing and planned policy approaches for the protection of children online;
Explore how international co-operation can enhance the protection of minors on the Internet.
Three broad categories of online risks for children are considered in this report: i) content and contact risks, including exposure to pornography, cybergrooming and cyberbullying; ii) consumer risks related, for example, to online marketing and fraudulent transactions; and iii) privacy and security risks, including the use of social networks without sufficient understanding of potential long-term consequences.
Government policies to protect children online are in their infancy. To enhance their efficiency and catch up with the rapid adoption of the Internet by children, governments face three main challenges:
Managing policy complexity through enhanced policy co-ordination, consistency and coherence;
Adopting an evidence-based policy-making approach;
Taking advantage of international co-operation to improve the efficiency of national policy frameworks and foster capacity-building.
benton.org/node/57560 | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
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FCC EX PARTE RULES
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Davina Sashkin]
[Commentary] Folks trying to get their way at the Federal Communications Commission routinely engage in what we professionals refer to as “ex parte” contacts – which usually consist of face-to-face, one-on-one meetings with FCC Commissioners and/or staff. Such meetings theoretically provide an up close and personal opportunity for the outside party to pitch its side of some issue to the regulators. Ex parte meetings can be useful, but they also can be problematic from the perspective of due process and fairness. The term “ex parte”, after all, derives from the Latin for “one-sided”. If the issue which the private party is pitching in the meetings is contested, what are the chances that the other side of that issue will be fairly and accurately presented? (Non-FCC illustration: how would you feel if you found out that your soon-to-be-ex-spouse had had a private tête-à-tête with the judge presiding over your hotly-contested divorce case?) In order to assure itself maximum access to potentially useful information (through, e.g., ex parte contacts) while still preserving at least the illusion of fairness and openness in the decision-making, the FCC has crafted a number of rules to govern the ex parte process. Those rules prohibit ex parte contacts in certain types of proceedings; in other types, such contacts are permitted as long as the private party follows up the meeting by submitting a notice summarizing the gist of the meeting (including any written materials that might have been handed out during the meeting). That notice is then placed in the FCC’s public files so that, theoretically, anyone with an interest in the proceeding at issue will be alerted to the meeting.
benton.org/node/57572 | CommLawBlog
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