August 2011

[Commentary] Television news was so deeply involved in covering the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and those attacks were so traumatic that you would expect TV news was significantly changed by the experience. But has it?

What about all those predications in the wake of the disasters that TV news would finally get serious — that more sober local newscasts would turn their attention to public affairs and that the networks would start covering happenings in other parts of the world so if we are attacked again we don't have to stand around asking ourselves why others would indiscriminately kill us just because we are Americans. Those who hoped that 9/11 would compel TV stations to improve have to be disappointed. If anything, the content has gotten thinner and more parochial. Newscasts may be relying even more heavily on the easy, sensational stuff — crime, fires, accidents. And enterprise reporting has diminished, even though technology has been enabling stations to do more with less. Fact is, there are forces far more powerful than Al Qaeda ever was shaping local TV news. They are bloodless economic ones, which have been demanding that stations produce more news for more platforms on tighter budgets.

Our Internet use seems to have spawned real addictions. And according to several recently released surveys, we've got it bad.

More than half of Americans would rather give up chocolate, alcohol and caffeine for a week before parting temporarily with their phones, according to a recent survey by technology firm TeleNav. One-third would give up sex, 22% would give up their toothbrushes (versus 40% of iPhone users, who evidently love their phone more than clean teeth) and 21% would rather go shoeless before separating from a mobile phone. Sixty-six percent sleep with their smartphones by their side. Our addiction is so severe that people described going 24 hours without Internet akin to quitting an alcohol or cigarette habit, according to a report from British company Intersperience. About 40% of those surveyed reported feeling lonely without the Internet, and 53% felt upset at being deprived. One person described unplugging to "having my hand chopped off." University students who faced a sudden Internet and media blackout began to display withdrawal symptoms, during another survey conducted by the University of Maryland.

Facebook worked to scrub its site of dangerous communications this week as fears arose that online social networks helped spread riots in Britain and as authorities appeared poised to crack down on social media to curb the violence.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company has taken steps in recent days to ensure that "any credible threats of violence are removed from Facebook." The effort follows Prime Minister David Cameron's remarks to Parliament hinting at a need to crack down on Twitter and Facebook to combat the violence. Noyes argued that Facebook has been beneficial during the riots. "We have been pleased to see the very positive uses millions of people have been making of our service to let friends and family know they are safe and to strengthen their communities," he said.

In the days of the Great Depression, governments built roads and bridges in an attempt to nudge the economy into a recovery. Is expanding the broadband network the 21st-century equivalent? Latin America is ripe for such an effort, argues Raul L. Katz of Columbia Business School. The underdeveloped broadband network there is holding back the region from faster economic growth.