TELEVISION/RADIO
The Info Culture: Big Picture (ChiTrib)
Last-Minutes Addition Snags Satellite TV Bill (USA)
Does This Sound Right? (MAP)
TELEPHONY
Telecom, Texas Style (WP)
MCI Lodges Complaint In Europe Against Five Mobile-Phone Firms (WSJ)
Court Accepts Petition to File Amicus on Telephone Privacy Case (EPIC)
INTERNET/ONLINE SERVICES
Disney Must Change Go.com Logo (WP)
AOL Takes Major Step in Latin America (WSJ)
Don't Block Consumer Access To Information On The Internet! (House)
Web Sites Help Newbies Take Big Step (USA)
E-Mail Help Accelerates Weight Loss (USA)
TELEVISION/RADIO
THE INFO CULTURE: BIG PICTURE
Issue: Television
Keller writes: "The Sound Bite Society: Television and the American Mind"
(Four Walls Eight Windows) by Jeffrey Scheuer advances a provocative thesis:
The rise of conservatism in America can be attributed to the concomitant
rise of television as the predominant venue of communication and
entertainment. In short: It was "Rugrats," not Ronald Reagan, that made
conservatism cool. Television favors the simplistic argument and primitive
image. "Simplification," Scheuer writes, "promotes, and epitomizes,
political conservatism." Liberalism, he claims, requires sophistication and
thoughtfulness. "This structural impatience and short-term focus of TV,
always hurrying to get on to something new, favors the limited agenda of
conservatives and the quick fix over the more far-reaching, structural and
long-term goals of liberals." His characterization of the medium is deeply
incisive, Keller writes. Television, Scheuer notes, depends on linearity,
which means it "may be socially, intellectually, or morally vacuous, but it
is never disorganized, incoherent, or empty, except when a station goes off
the air." Moreover, "TV has a deep structural bias toward appearances and
concreteness -- immediacy in time and space -- and against generality or
abstractness." Television glorifies law-enforcement figures in its
entertainment programming, he adds, and most often is obsessed with "a
history of the present moment, not a way of understanding or generalizing
about the past, present, or future." Although Keller loves the book, she
hardly agrees with anything Scheuer writes.
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 5, p.3), AUTHOR: Julia Keller]
(http://chicagotribune.com/leisure/tempo/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-991
1160291,FF.html)
LAST-MINUTES ADDITION SNAGS SATELLITE TV BILL
Issue: Satellite
A last minute snag could kill the Satellite Home Viewers Act, designed to
allow satellite customers the opportunity to see of their local TV stations.
Sen Phil Gramm (R-TX) has threatened to hold the bill in committee if the
authorized $1.3 billion in loan guarantees for TV providers improving
service in rural areas is not removed from the language of the bill.
Internet service providers are also fighting over this bill, as they object
to a provision that would stop them from retransmitting television signals
on the same terms as satellite and cable companies. At year's end, if this
bill is not passed, companies will lose the right to
offer local viewers signals from distant markets-- so there is a lot of
pressure on Congress to get this bill through.
[SOURCE: USA Today, (3B), AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
(http://www.usatoday.com)
DOES THIS SOUND RIGHT?
Issue: Radio
From Press Release: On Monday, Nov. 15, 1999 a coalition of national
religious organizations released a technical analysis demonstrating that a
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) study previously submitted to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not stand up under scrutiny.
Similar criticisms are applicable to another study submitted by the Consumer
Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA). The NAB filed its technical
study to show that low power radio will harm current radio broadcasts. In an
extreme effort to demonstrate potential harm, the NAB purported to
demonstrate that at least half of all radios used by Americans today cannot
adequately receive radio station broadcasts. "Obviously, most consumers
today are pleased with their radios, and therefore, arguments based on the
inadequacy of current radio receivers just do not fly" stated Cheryl A.
Leanza, Deputy Director of the Media Access Project. "Only if they claim
that radios do not perform well currently can incumbent broadcasters claim
that radios will not perform after the
introduction of low power radio." [See the coalition's filing at
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/filings/replyco.pdf); a summary of the technical
study is available at http://www.mediaaccess.org/filings/lptest.html).
[SOURCE: Media Access Project]
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/filings/lppress.html)
TELEPHONY
TELECOM, TEXAS STYLE
Issue: Mergers
The recent acquisitions of Pacific Bell, Southern New England Telephone,
and Ameritech have made SBC the largest local telephone company in the
nation, while giving it the broadest European holdings of any foreign firm.
In the local telephone market, SBC has its sights on 30 new domestic
markets from Seattle to Miami. Last month, the company completed its $72
billion purchase of Ameritech, the local company that dominates the
Midwest. It now controls roughly a third of the nation's local telephone
lines. SBC will also spend about $6 billion over the next three years on
high-speed Internet access to wire up customers throughout its service
area. The company believes data is where the money is. SBC is relying on
technology known as DSL, or digital subscriber line, which allows huge
amounts of data to pass quickly over standard copper phone lines. Recently,
the company announced plans to purchase Radiofone Inc, a New
Orleans-based cellular and paging firm. SBC is also expected to formally
apply to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to sell
long-distance service in Texas. However, under the Telecommunications Act
of 1996, SBC would be allowed in only after it has persuaded federal
regulators that it has opened its markets to competition. SBC claims
it has, pointing to the hundreds of competitors in Texas. Its rivals say
the company is slow to process orders from customers wanting to switch.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a5768-1999nov16.htm)
See also:
ICC REJECTS BIDS TO REOPEN SBC TAKEOVER
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.6), AUTHOR: Jon Van]
(http://chicagotribune.com/business/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-99111602
47,FF.html)
SBC HALTS AMERITECH CABLE GROWTH PLANS
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.2), AUTHOR: Tim Jones]
(http://chicagotribune.com/business/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-99111602
41,FF.html)
MCI LODGES COMPLAINT IN EUROPE AGAINST FIVE MOBILE PHONE FIRMS
Issue: Antitrust
MCI WorldCom filed a formal antitrust complaint against five
European mobile-phone operators, alleging the five are abusing their
dominant positions in local markets to charge inflated interconnection fees
to fixed-line telephone service providers to "terminate" their calls with
mobile-phone customers in the same country. The companies include Deutsche
Telekom AG subsidiary DeTeMobil; Mannesmann AG's Mannesmann Mobilfunk
GmbH; KPN NV and Libertel NV, both of the Netherlands; and Comviq of
Sweden. If found guilty, each company could be ordered to pay fines in
addition to lowering the lucrative interconnection levies. MCI is the first
US company to haul former European monopolists and other prominent
mobile-phone providers before European antitrust regulators over the
charges. The "termination rate" is the fee that mobile-phone operators in
Europe charge a calling party in order to complete the call. The rate is
also higher than the cost of completing a call from one fixed line to
another in the same country. Historically, MCI WorldCom and other new
entrants on the European fixed-line phone-service scene were able to
circumvent some of the controversial charges by routing calls through
low-cost countries such as the U.S. and U.K. in a process called
"tromboning." MCI WorldCom decided to file its complaint after the five
companies began blocking the U.S. company's attempt to route calls to
mobile phones through foreign countries.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brandon Mitchener]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB942704801760918876.htm)
COURT ACCEPTS PETITION TO FILE AMICUS ON TELEPHONE PRIVACY CASE
Issue: Privacy/Telephony
The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has accepted
(http://www.epic.org/privacy/litigation/uswest/order_granting_amicus.PDF)
the petition of fifteen consumer and privacy organizations, and 22 law
professors and privacy scholars to file a "friend of the court brief"
(http://www.epic.org/privacy/litigation/USWest/amicus_brief_SRPR.html)
urging a federals appeals court to reconsider a decision that would
eliminate an FCC safeguard which protects the privacy of telephone customer
records. More information on FCC v. US West
(http://www.epic.org/privacy/litigation/uswest/).
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)
INTERNET/ONLINE SERVICES DISNEY MUST CHANGE GO.COM LOGO
Issue: Intellectual Property
A federal judge has issued an injunction ordering the Walt Disney Co. to
stop using the emblem for its Go.com Internet sites because the image
resembles the one used by the similarly named GoTo.com search engine. In
December 1997, GoTo.com began using the logo of a green circle on a yellow
background with the letters "GoTo" in white. In January of this year,
Disney began using a logo of a green traffic light in a yellow case with
"Go" written in white to link its various Web sites under the Go Network
heading. U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter issued a preliminary injunction
that forces Disney to change its logo. Disney has spent millions of dollars
advertising the Go Network logo since it was created in January. Disney
officials said they will fight to retain the company's original logo when
the matter goes to trial next spring.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a5762-1999nov16.htm)
AOL TAKES MAJOR STEP IN LATIN AMERICA
Issue: International
On Tuesday, America Online made a major step into the Latin American
Internet market with the launch of a Portuguese-language Web site aimed at
Brazilian Web users. The American Internet giant will face fierce local
competition. Universo Online SA, or UOL, the world's largest non-English
Web site, dominates Brazil's online market with over half-a-million paid
subscribers and a growth rate of 12%/month. Gustavo Cisneros, chairman of
Cesneros Group, AOL's partners in this Latin American endeavor, says, "We
will spend what is needed to be a market leader."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, (A24), AUTHOR: PETER FRITSCH]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB942711279413162060.htm)
DON'T BLOCK CONSUMER ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET!
Issue: Access to Info
A letter from Reps Michael G. Oxley (R-OH) and John D. Dingell (D-MI) urging
members of the House Commerce Committee to oppose H.R. 354, "The
Collections of Information Antipiracy Act": The basic information policy of
our country has served us extremely well. That policy says: Facts - the
building blocks of all information products - cannot be owned, they write.
H.R. 354 would create a quasi-property right in facts themselves, granting
the compiler of information an unprecedented right to control value-added,
downstream uses of the resulting collection. This would significantly chill
the free flow of information that has dramatically benefitted business,
investors and consumers. The Commerce Committee has produced legislation,
H.R. 1858, the "Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999"
that provides database producers with a significant additional enforcement
tool - beyond the strong protections like contract and copyright already
afforded under existing law - to make sure that compilers of information
have sufficient incentive to engage in database creation without going so
far as to create an unprecedented and destructive property right in facts.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/72f34f401ce959998525682a0073e913?OpenDocument)
WEB SITES HELP NEWBIES TAKE BIG STEP
Issue: E-commerce
By International Data Corp.'s numbers, about 2.1 million companies with
fewer than 100 employees will have home pages this year, nearly double that
of 1998. Part of the ease of small businesses getting onto the Web are sites
that offer free Web services to upstarts. Bigstep.com is a site that allows
the person(s) with no Web experience to come onto the site, fill out a
few templates and have an e-commerce site up and running in no time. Intel's
iCat Commerce On-line Division will host a site for $10/month if the
business sells ten or fewer products and goes up to $250/month for between
500 and 1000 items. Depending on the company, the services they offer differ
and range from hosting the site to advertising the site to listing the
site. Some say these sites have tradeoffs such as if the business prospers,
the costs rise. But Freemerchant.com CEO Serge Wilson says member stores
will never have to pay a cent as his company makes money by selling
advertising and taking commissions from business partners whenever members
opt to use their services. For example, if a small business uses Office Depot
products, Freemerchant.com gets a piece of that pie.
[SOURCE: USA Today, (3B), AUTHOR: Edward C. Baig]
(http://www.usatoday.com)
E-MAIL HELP ACCELERATES WEIGHT LOSS
Issue: Lifestyles!
Yesterday, a study released by the North American Association for the Study
of Obesity says that dieters who received interactive guidance on the Web
lost more weight than those who didn't. Researchers at the Brown University
School of Medicine assigned 90 people that were at least 20 pounds over
weight to two groups. Each had 45 minute counseling sessions and access to
an intranet site - but one of the two groups received interactive help. That
group gave their weekly diaries to a behavior modification specialist and
received feedback via e-mail on how they could improve as well as access to
an online bulletin board so they could talk to others about the diet. After
three months, the interactive group lost an average of nine pounds whereas
the non-interactive group only lost an average of three pounds. Deborah
Tate, a
research associate at Brown, said, "The Internet may be the answer for
people who don't have the time or access to other weight-loss programs."
Thomas Wadden, obesity researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said
Internet dieting could help people lose weight without going to the doctor's
office or the gym. (Hmm - no going to the gym or the doctor's - I am all for
that!)
[SOURCE: USA Today, (1D), AUTHOR: Nanci Hellmich]
(http://www.usatoday.com)
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