The FCC will post the agenda for next week's open meeting today. For
upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
MEDIA POLICY
Big Media Want FCC Regs Case Heard
DTV Bill More Likely than Telecom Rewrite, Hill Panelists Say
Fight Over 'Balance' Hurting Public TV on Hill, Says Lawson
FCC To Review Cable Act Regs
TELECOM
Cutting the Phone Cord Isn't as Popular as Once Predicted
States to drivers: Hang up, Look Out
INTERNET
Study: These Factors Retard Digital Teaching
Beyond Kiwanis: Internet Builds New Communities
Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism
Net Firm Focuses on Blurring the Line
Absent Voices, Missed Opportunity
MEDIA POLICY
BIG MEDIA WANT FCC REGS CASE HEARD
A group of large media conglomerates wants the Supreme Court to take up the
issue of how many media entities a company can own in any individual
market. Six cases that present the issue have been brought by media giants,
including the Tribune Co., NBC Universal, Viacom, Media General, the
Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the Gannett Co., as well as the National
Association of Broadcasters, and are set for review at the Court's private
conference today. A coalition of public interest organizations -- including
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the Center for Digital Democracy, the
Media Alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America -- urges the Court
not to get involved in the present cases, arguing that a lower court
decision to remand the proposed rules instead of vacating them makes
Supreme Court review of this decision premature. "Because many rules
challenged by Petitioners are not expected to be retained on remand, review
of those rules would likely be unnecessary," says the brief from Andrew
Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, the lead counsel for the
respondents. "Further, all of the rules at issue in this case may be
modified or repealed by the FCC during the next Congressionally-mandated
review of media ownership rules, which the FCC will conduct in 2006." The
Court, however, may choose not to hear these cases for a different reason:
The government decided to sit out this fight.
[SOURCE: Legal Times, AUTHOR: Bethany Broida]
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1117530311367
DTV BILL MORE LIKELY THAN TELECOM REWRITE, HILL PANELISTS SAY
Congress is likely to pass a digital television (DTV) transition bill this
year, but the prospect of a full telecom rewrite is more remote, according
to Congressional panelists speaking Wednesday at the Broadband Policy
Summit. The DTV bill introduced by House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe
Barton (R-TX) will be attached to the budget reconciliation bill scheduled
for completion mid-Sept. Using the budget bill could aid passage but
possibly limit the DTV provisions, panelists said. Meanwhile, Consumer
Electronics Association plans to release a study this week on what would
happen post-DTV transition to the 87% of viewers who get cable or satellite
and the 13% whose analog service will be cut off, said CEA President Gary
Shapiro. The National Association of Broadcasters claimed CEA is off the
mark with its 13% figure for homes that rely exclusively on broadcast TV.
Citing General Accountability Office figures, the NAB said the number is
19% or roughly 21 million homes totally reliant on broadcast signals.
"Whose numbers do you believe? The highly respected, non-partisan GAO, or a
shill for offshore TV manufacturers?" asked a NAB spokesman.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Anne Veigle, Tania Panczyk-Collins]
(Not available online)
* Hill Aides Differ On Overhaul Of 1996 Bill
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-BQWG1117658795944.html
FIGHT OVER 'BALANCE' HURTING PUBLIC TV ON HILL, SAYS LAWSON
Public broadcasters are bracing for a hard fight on the Hill to retain
funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other entities,
said John Lawson, President of the Association of Public TV Stations
(APTS). The House situation is very challenging, he said. With the budget
approved there virtually mirroring President Bush's budget, it really "ties
the hands" of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee that funds CPB. The President's
budget proposed to kill advance funding for CPB. In the Senate, public
broadcasters continue to "maintain strong bipartisan support," Lawson said,
but the President wants to eliminate or slash funding for 150 domestic
programs. "So our challenge in the Senate is maintaining funding for public
broadcasting as a priority for both Republican and Democrats."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Dinesh Kumar]
(Not available online)
FCC TO REVIEW CABLE ACT REGS
Over the next 12 months, the FCC will look at a host of regulations with an
eye toward keeping, changing or jettisoning rules it adopted between 1993
and 1995, depending on their affect on small businesses. It has asked for
help in deciding, opening a public comment period that closes Sept. 5. With
the rules flowing from the 1992 Cable Act falling in that window, on the
table are the gamut of cable regs, from ownership limits, mandatory
broadcast station carriage on cable systems (must-carry), and cable rate
regulation, to nondiscriminatory program access, as well as some
broadcast-related regs -- Emergency Alert System technical standards,
competitive bidding procedures and some ex parte communications among
them.There are also a host of telephone regulations, from slamming to
telemarketing to rates of return.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA605400?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
See the FCC's info on the proceeding at:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-1524A1.doc
TELECOM
CUTTING THE PHONE CORD ISN'T AS POPULAR AS ONCE PREDICTED
While the number of wireless-only households is increasing -- close to 6%
of all U.S. homes at the end of last year, according to Forrester Research
-- the trend isn't accelerating as quickly as many experts predicted. And
some consumers are reconsidering their decision to go wireless and are
reconnecting to a landline. Consumers cite a variety of reasons for needing
a fixed line: poor cellular coverage, the sense of security a home line
provides and the fact that many people still rely on landlines for Internet
service. Local landline service is also cheap enough -- $10 to $20 a month
for a stripped-down version in many cases -- that consumers don't feel
compelled to cut it even if they don't use it. (A typical landline customer
pays about $50 a month for unlimited local and long-distance calling, on
top of $10 or so in taxes.) Some people are also reluctant to cut the cord
because there are no directories for cellular numbers and they want
business contacts or long-lost friends to be able to find them.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Christopher Rhoads
christopher.rhoads( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111766944518948757,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
STATES TO DRIVERS: HANG UP, LOOK OUT
State lawmakers across the USA are cracking down on distracted driving as
research increasingly documents the perils of inattentiveness behind the
wheel. This year, 37 states have debated new laws restricting drivers' use
of cellphones, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The rush comes as research at the University of Minnesota and the
University of Utah concludes that drivers talking on cellphones or fiddling
with the car radio sometimes perform as poorly as drunken drivers.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Larry Copeland]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050602/1a_lede02.art.htm
* Distracted-driver debate intensifies
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050602/a_distractedside02.ar...
INTERNET
STUDY: THESE FACTORS RETARD DIGITAL TEACHING
What's holding back the digital curriculum? A lot of things: too few
classroom computers, poorly conceived professional development, and a lack
of time to research and plan--to name three big factors, according to a new
report from the nonprofit Education Development Center (EDC). The study,
"Effective Access: Teachers' Use of Digital Resources in STEM Teaching,"
examines how high school teachers use digital libraries and other
electronic resources to support "science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics" (STEM) exploration and instruction.
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Robert Brumfield]
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5706
BEYOND KIWANIS: INTERNET BUILDS NEW COMMUNITIES
Five years after sociologist Robert Putnam documented the decline of
community involvement in his book Bowling Alone, a new spirit of civic
engagement is flourishing, largely because of 21st-century technology.
Cellphones, e-mails, instant text messaging and BlackBerries are helping
mobile, busy Americans link up with neighbors on their commutes to work, in
the middle of the night and on business trips. Technology, coupled with the
rising number of families who have school-age children and retirees who
have leisure time, is raising hopes that more Americans are again investing
"social capital."
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Haya El Nasser]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050602/1a_cover02.art.htm
COMPANIES SUBVERT SEARCH RESULTS TO SQUELCH CRITICISM
Although Google and other search engines will not spell out exactly how
their top secret algorithms work, some companies have found ways to
influence search results: search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that
go against accepted marketing techniques and into the muddy world of Web
page spam, also known as link farms and Google bombing.
[SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Mark Glaser]
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050601glaser/
NET FIRM FOCUSES ON BLURRING THE LINE
At entertainment site Heavy.com, what seems to be program content may well
be advertising. "Our goal is to be kind of an interface, where we have two
groups of customers: consumers and marketers," said Simon Assaad, the
34-year-old Melbourne, Australia, native who launched Heavy in 1998 with
partner David Carson
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-heavy2jun02,1,3719835...
(requires registration)
ABSENT VOICES, MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: THE MEDIA'S SILENCE ON ICT POLICY
ISSUES IN 6 AFRICAN COUNTRIES
The report evaluates the nature of ICT policy coverage in
policy-influential media in Kenya, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Senegal.
http://www.catia.ws/Documents/Indexpage/ICT%20coverage%20report%20final.doc
Also at http://rights.apc.org/documents/absentvoices.pdf
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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. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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