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November 3, 2012
Source 
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Author 
Aaron Smith
Maeve Duggan
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

55% of registered voters have watched political videos online this election season. We asked about six different types of political videos and found that, among registered voters who use the internet:

  • 48% watch video news reports about the election or politics
  • 40% watch previously recorded videos of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates
  • 39% watch informational videos online that explain a political issue
  • 37% watch humorous or parody videos dealing with political issues
  • 36% watch political advertisements online
  • 28% watch live videos of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates
  • We also find that political videos are highly social. Some 52% of registered voters say that other people have recommended political videos for them to watch this election season, with social networking sites playing a prominent role in this process. In addition, 19% of registered voters have recommended online political videos for other people to watch.
Online Political Videos and Campaign 2012

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November 3, 2012
Source 
Columbia Journalism Review
Author 
Walter Shapiro
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

I want to raise some questions about the craft of campaign reporting—questions whose answers may begin to emerge with the rush of returns on election night, but will only become clearer with more reflective post-election analysis. These are the some of the queries that need to be wrestled with before campaign junkies like me make our first exploratory trips of the 2016 campaign to Iowa and New Hampshire next summer.

  1. Does a National Election Exist Any More? If, as I suspect, swing-state polls turn out to have been a more accurate predictor of the election than national surveys, then news organizations and campaign reporters may have to rethink how they cover presidential politics.
  2. Did Reporters Spend Too Much Time with the Candidates and Not Enough with Voters? With candidate press conferences now a relic from the Osborne computer era and aides increasingly taking refuge in robotic spin, it is worth asking whether travel on campaign planes can be justified in this era of parched newsroom budgets.
  3. Did the Press Corps Do Enough To Follow the Money? In this case, the answer is already known—and, sadly, it’s “no.”
Three questions about campaign coverage

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November 3, 2012
Source 
Fierce
Author 
Mike Dano
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

New data from NPD Connected Intelligence shows that Verizon Wireless' iPhone users are the most prolific data downloaders among the nation's top four wireless carriers.

The firm found that the iPhone customers of Verizon used an average of 1.58 GB of cellular data per month in September. The findings are noteworthy considering Verizon charges users on a per-MB basis, while rival Sprint Nextel has heavily advertised the fact that its iPhone plans offer unlimited data access. "Unlimit your iPhone," proclaims Sprint on its website. "No metering. No throttling. No overages." According to NPD's findings, AT&T Mobility iPhone users consume an average of 1.35 GB per month, putting the carrier into the No. 2 place. Sprint iPhone users are in the No. 3 position, downloading an average of 0.72 GB per month. T-Mobile USA's iPhone users consume an average of 0.19 GB per month, according to NPD. NPD's figures represent data usage across cellular networks and do not include Wi-Fi data usage. Smartphone customers typically transmit 2 to 3 times more data over Wi-Fi than cellular. The bulk of AT&T's iPhone users are likely on the carrier's HSPA network. The bulk of Verizon and Sprint's iPhone users are likely on the carriers' CDMA EV-DO networks. And the bulk of T-Mobile's iPhone users are likely on the carrier's EDGE network.

NPD: Verizon iPhone users consume 1.58 GB/month, almost double those of Sprint

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November 3, 2012
Source 
BBC
Author 
Matt Danzico
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney both argue that innovation is key to creating a strong US economy. Yet critics claim both candidates have largely ignored one of the crucial issues of the internet age: how to keep the web open so ideas and information are accessible to all.

According to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, internet freedom is essential for entrepreneurial start-ups to develop the kind of innovative products and services that will drive the economy in the 21st Century. Ohanian crossed the US this month in a bus tour to argue that an open internet - with all links having equal status rather than being put in a hierarchy determined by price or regulation - matters to everyone, not just "geeks".

Open internet: presidential candidates ignore online controversy

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November 3, 2012
Source 
Guardian, The
Author 
Lisa O'Carroll
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Hugh Grant and some of the country's leading journalism academics, including two former heads of BBC News, have renewed calls for the end of self-regulation of the press as battle lines are drawn ahead of the publication of the Leveson report.

The actor has launched a spirited defense of the Hacked Off campaign which he fronts in the Spectator magazine, claiming he is not out to muzzle the press and would close down the lobby group if he "detected even a bat's squeak of genuine threat to public interest journalism". However, in another Spectator comment piece, former Daily Mail and Daily Express political journalist turned PR Kirsty Walker made the opposite case, warning of the "chilling effects" Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry is already having on newsrooms.

Hugh Grant leads fresh calls for an end to self-regulation of the press

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Future of Music Coalition
November 13, 2012
http://futureofmusic.org/summit2012/resources

Keynotes & Conversations

  • Delida Costin General Counsel, Pandora
  • Thomas Frank Columnist, Harper’s Magazine; Author, Pity the Billionaire and others
  • Merrill Garbus Tune-Yards
  • Rebecca Gates musician-producer, curator, activist
  • Sascha Meinrath Director, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation
  • Thao Nguyen Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
  • Daniel Raimer Chief Legal Officer, RapidShare

Panelists

  • Michael Bracy Policy Director, Future of Music Coalition
  • Chad Clark Musician/Producer/Engineer
  • Jean Cook Director of Programs, Future of Music Coalition
  • Greg Kot Chicago Tribune music critic
  • David Lowery University of Georgia/Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven
  • Erin McKeown Musician, Writer, Producer
  • Jennifer Mondie National Symphony Orchestra Violist and Orchestra Committee Chairman, National Symphony Orchestra
  • Brooke Parrott Artist Ambassador, Songkick.com/Loch Lomond
  • Rob Pegoraro Journalist
  • Erin Potts Executive Director, Air Traffic Control
  • Benji Rogers Founder & CEO, PledgeMusic
  • Lissa Rosenthal Executive Director, Future of Music Coalition
  • Chris Ruen Author, Freeloading: How our Insatiable Hunger for Free Culture Starves Creativity
  • David Sohn General Counsel and Director of CDT’s Project on Copyright and Technology, Center for Democracy & Technology
  • Kristin Thomson Co-director of Artist Revenue Streams Project and Consultant, Future of Music Coalition
  • Matt Urmy Founder | CEO, Artist Growth
  • Jesse von Doom Co-Executive Director, CASH Music
  • Emily White Co-Founder, Whitesmith Entertainment & Readymade Records
  • Mark Yoffe Curator, International Counterculture Archive, Resources Center, GWU Libraries
  • Lindsay Zoladz freelance writer, Pitchfork contributing editor

New America Foundation
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Contemporary policy issues require purposeful analysis and expert judgment. But today's governments, both state and federal, too often rely on outdated ways to collect and sort quality information. The Internet, mobile technology, and Big Data have made this process even harder by creating an information overload. In order to serve the needs of America in the 21st Century, elected leaders must have access to knowledge tools to explain context, sort substance from sentiment, filter for quality, and forecast implications.

Featured Speakers
Gary VanLandingham
Director, Results First, Pew Center on the States

Lorelei Kelly
Leader, Smart Congress pilot
Research Fellow, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation

Ben Freakley (Lt. Gen., retired)
Special Advisor to the President, The School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University

Moderator
Andrew Rich
Executive Secretary, Truman Scholarship Foundation

To RSVP:
http://newamerica.net/events/2012/elected_leaders_expert_knowledge

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at New America at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

Copies of Lorelei Kelly's forthcoming paper, "Congress' Wicked Problem: Seeking Knowledge Inside the Information Tsunami," will be available.

November 8 and 9, 2012
Washington, DC
http://rebootamerica.org/the-summit

This unique time and place will give startups and corporations the opportunity to grow their networks while discussing innovative solutions to help spur business and economic growth in America.

Submitted on November 2, 2012

At least 74 deaths. An estimated $50 billion in economic damages. Superstorm Sandy measured 1,000 miles across, lashed winds up to 90 miles per hour, dropped 12.5 inches of rain on Eaton, Maryland and 34 inches of snow on Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The storm forced evacuations from Ocean City, Maryland to Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In its wake, some 8.5 million homes were without power. These numbers alone can’t help us comprehend the impact of the huge storm that hit the Eastern Seaboard this week. So we look at just a small slice of it: the critical role of communications in preparing for, surviving and recovering from a natural disaster.

On Monday, October 29, President Barack Obama held a press conference and urged Americans under siege from Hurricane Sandy to stay inside and keep watch on ready.gov for the latest information. The Federal Emergency Management Agency encouraged the public to use texts and social media outlets to stay informed. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) set up a "bipartisan list of East Coast governors on Twitter" to help get the latest advice and warnings out to people in the path of the storm. East Coast Members of Congress were using Twitter to distribute weather and service alerts.

Politico’s Steve Friess criticized the President and FEMA for failing to highlight emergency phone numbers or key radio station frequencies to tune into since widespread power outages were expected. TV and radio are still the primary methods of getting information about Hurricane Sandy to the public, but social media are increasingly important to those efforts, FEMA chief Craig Fugate said.

In the pre-smartphone era, public officials exhorted people to have a list of emergency phone numbers available and broadcasters displayed them as well as radio frequencies on the screen in the event all else failed. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) did reference two useful phone numbers — 211 for guidance on emergency shelter locations and 511 for traffic information — and Mayor Vincent Gray (D-DC) said that people should call 311 in storm-related emergencies.

Matt Thome, spokesman for the Safe America Foundation, a non-profit disaster preparedness advocacy organization based in Marietta (GA), points out that, ironically, as modern technology becomes more omnipresent, it's old-fashioned modes of communication that are becoming ever more reliable. People with landlines, for instance, are more likely to continue to have service because the copper phone lines will continue to work even if the electricity goes out — provided telephone poles don’t fall.

Kim Fuller, of the disaster preparedness firm James Lee Witt Associates, said President Obama may have avoided issuing phone numbers to prevent call centers from being overwhelmed before the storm. “President Obama is giving out the Web address only is because you normally don’t hear him saying anything before a disaster strikes,” Fuller said. “So they might be getting a little ahead of themselves. What they don’t want to do is give out a phone number and have people start calling if a federal disaster declaration isn’t even declared for their county.”

Well before the storm hit, New York City had a plan in place to issue text mobile alerts through the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) system, a program managed collaboratively by Federal Communications Commission, FEMA and wireless carriers. At 8:36 pm EDT on Oct. 29 the nation's first alert using PLAN, instructing residents to take shelter, successfully arrived on mobile devices across the city.

The FCC, working with FEMA, issued a set of tips for communicating during a natural disaster emergency. The guidelines included limiting non-emergency calls, keeping calls brief, using texting as an alternative to voice calls, and tuning in to local TV and radio stations for emergency information. Verizon Wirless offered a tip sheet for extending cell phone battery life.

When Sandy had passed through, FEMA’s Fugate acknowledged that many victims could not get help via the Internet. “Yes, I know there’s no power and the Internet is not going to help and you can’t call 1-800-FEMA. That’s why we also put people on the ground, starting today, to go door to door, start getting into those neighborhoods.” He added, “It will take time to reach everybody. But we also are aware that those that can call in can call 1-800-621-FEMA. And people already have registered. You can go online. Our website is mobile friendly, so you can register online if you’ve got connectivity. But we’re going to go into the neighborhoods with the state and reach out to everybody that may need assistance.”

Overall, FEMA received high remarks for the response to the storm. "This is the all-new FEMA, and the leadership is very, very good, very focused," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "They're doing an excellent job." Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ) -- whose state bore the brunt of the storm -- said that "cooperation has been great with FEMA here on the ground," while Gov Jack Markell (D-DE) said that people in his state have been "really, really impressed by the response of FEMA." Gov Martin O’Malley (D-MD) wrote: “FEMA has been extremely helpful and has been embedded with us at the emergency operations center since before Sandy hit the state. Under President Obama’s leadership, FEMA arrives before the disaster hits and is ready and willing to help in whatever capacity is needed.” In New York, FEMA has publicized assistance. And FEMA set up online pages for Connecticut, New York and New Jersey storm victims.

Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro said that residents did not receive timely information on how to get food, shelter and tools for putting their lives back together. "There was no one there to answer these questions," Molinaro said. "I need answers, and the people need answers." FEMA said in a statement, "Community relations teams are on the ground in the hardest-hit areas of the mid-Atlantic going door-to-door to inform disaster survivors about available services and resources and to gather situational awareness."

Inevitably, the response to Sandy, especially by FEMA, is being compared to the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time of Katrina, FEMA had manpower and planning problems and confusion about the roles of officials in responding to disasters, according to a 2006 report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. The report said that with the destruction of communications infrastructure, it took FEMA officials about three days after Katrina's landfall to grasp the magnitude of the hurricane's destruction. [Former FEMA chief Michael Brown -- who was criticized for his slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – actually accused President Obama of acting too quickly on Hurricane Sandy.]

As Sandy approached, we saw reports of telephone, cellphone (and here), cable TV and Internet service providers making preparation.

Before the storm hit, the FCC activated the Disaster Information Reporting System to monitor outages and coverage loss of phone, internet and TV services. The voluntary system allows communications providers and broadcasters to report infrastructure problems and provide the FCC with a situational overview. On November 1, the FCC shared information regarding communications network improvements and challenges:

  • Approximately 25 percent of cell phone towers were out in the affected areas: flooding, power outages, high winds and snow disabled the cell towers, leaving millions of customers without service,
  • 25% of cable TV services were also damaged,
  • FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Turetsky said, “Our latest data indicate that calls throughout the affected area can be received at 9-1-1 call centers, though in limited cases calls are being re-routed to another center or do not contain location information. We have reached out to every affected 911 center and the relevant state authorities, and we are talking to communications providers about what can be done to address this.”

From Reuters we learned:

  • Verizon Communications, which serves many of the states in the hurricane's path, appeared to have suffered some of the worst damage from the storm. The company said that storm surge resulted in flooding at several Verizon central offices that hold telecom equipment in Lower Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island "causing power failures and rendering back-up power systems at these sites inoperable."
  • Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider said it was seeing outages at some cell sites because of the power outages across all the states in Sandy's path including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Maryland, North Virginia and New England.
  • AT&T said it was experiencing some issues in areas heavily affected by the storm.
  • People complained of outages to their cable telephone, Internet and television services from providers ranging from Comcast, Cablevision Systems and Verizon in New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York.

The storm also impacted Internet infrastructure:

  • There were sporadic issues with undersea cable Atlantic Crossing-2 (or AC-2), sources said. These cables are the main data lifeline between continents.
  • Telx reported that most of its New York and New Jersey data centers were on generator power as of 9:30 a.m. EDT.
  • As feared, 75 Broad Street, which houses several data centers in the low-lying Zone A of Manhattan, was severely impacted, affecting Internap, Peer 1 and other providers.
  • INIT7, a Swiss provider of IPv6 infrastructure, was affected by a storm-related power outage at Equinix’ 8th Avenue facility in Manhattan. The company also reported connectivity issues to Miami and Los Angeles that have since been resolved.
  • Equinix reported widespread issues with its data centers in the areas around NYC, but said they all have 48 hours of fuel
  • A Navisite data center in Manhattan’s Zone A is also running on generators. It has refueled and has enough to last 72 hours and will refuel as needed.
  • Renesys concludes that about 10 percent of the networks in the New York metropolitan area went down, which is really low given the fact that the local electric company, ConEdison, actually cut power to the lower portions of Manhattan, where a lot of those networks are based. It also says something good about the planning of those whose networks stayed up and running, and those who keep the backup generators running and who aren’t getting much sleep.

As computer centers in Lower Manhattan and New Jersey shut down or went to emergency operations after power failures and water damage, the New York Times reported, companies scrambled to move the engines of modern communication to other parts of the country. Others rushed to find fuel for backup power generation. In some cases, things just stopped. As more of life moves online, damage to critical Internet systems affect more of the economy, and disasters like Hurricane Sandy reveal vulnerabilities from the sometimes ad hoc organization of computer networks. In places like Manhattan, advanced technology comes up against aging infrastructure and space constraints, forcing servers and generators to use whatever space is available. Power is the primary worry, since an abrupt network shutdown can destroy data, but problems can also stem from something as simple as not keeping a crisis plan updated.

As the storm and flood waters recede, we’re already seeing stories that will raise issues for policymakers. There’s the headline grabbing Romney/FEMA questions, but also simmering debates in communications policy. Our friend Harold Feld wrote early in the week about how the FCC tried to require that cellphone carriers provide back-up power to cell towers and the legal wrangling that prevented it. The Wall Street Journal’s Arik Hesseldahl wrote about how when he old reliable phone networks are creaky and central offices are flooded and wireless phone networks are strained to the breaking point with demand for voice calls, one of the most precious things someone might be able to find is an open, free and reliable Wi-Fi connection. And we saw that AT&T and T-Mobile didn’t need a $39 billion merger to be able to work together to give better services to their customers.

But what this week teaches us, again, is that during an emergency, one of the most precious commodities is information and the ability to communicate it without impediments. We’ll be back next week and ‘til then, we’ll see you in the Headlines.

November 2, 2012 (Communications After Sandy)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee is meeting today http://benton.org/calendar/2012-10-28--P1W/


EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   FCC Statement Regarding Communications Network Improvements And Challenges - press release [links to web]
   In Crisis, Public Officials Embrace Social Media
   What Cellphone Carriers Say About Hurricane Recovery
   Waking Up in a City Without Newspapers
   Hurricane Sandy Boosts Local Online News Brands
   In Sandy’s aftermath, what of the NYC tech sector?
   After Sandy, Manual Labor Keeps Cloud Services Running [links to web]
   TV Medium Is Planning Storm Relief by Telethon [links to web]
   Verizon offering free domestic calls and device charging at retail stores in hurricane aftermath [links to web]
   Three Media Congloms Make Hefty Sandy Donations [links to web]
   NYC’s Downtown Theaters Are Still Dark [links to web]

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   How The Media Plays A Crucial Role In Figuring Out Who Wins Elections
   Both Candidates Received More Negative Than Positive Coverage in Mainstream News
   New media can’t overcome old message, GOP’s digital strategists say [links to web]
   NYT public editor: Silver bet 'bad idea' [links to web]
   TV Political Ad Revenue on $2.6 Billion Pace
   Romney and Obama Campaigns Leaking Web Site Visitor Data
   Human Rights Campaign calls for investigation of anti-Obama text messages
   Facing Antitrust Scrutiny, Google Execs Still Backing Obama
   Randall Terry Pushes the FCC's Political Envelope [links to web]
   Rep Denham files defamation suit over opponent's ad [links to web]
   Twitter's Political Engagement Map tracks how people respond to the candidates' tweets [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Verizon, MetroPCS push back on FCC's network neutrality rules
   How Is the U.S. Doing in the 'Global Bandwidth Race'?

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   To scale, telcos must learn from the ops community
   Fisher Sees No Interest in Spectrum Auctions [links to web]
   Study: Android Apps Raise Privacy Issues [links to web]
   Making Sense of Smartphone Plans - analysis [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   FTC Staff Said to Formally Recommend Google Patent Suit

TELEVISION
   The Fight Over PBS Should Be to Broaden Its Scope, Not to Threaten It - op-ed
   You can forget about better TV [links to web]
   Fisher Sees No Interest in Spectrum Auctions [links to web]

CONTENT
   MIT researcher says he can predict Twitter trends [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   The Kremlin’s New Internet Surveillance Plan Goes Live
   Agencies that use Google services at risk of data-mining, tech group says
   Get Ready for a Seismic Shift in Federal IT [links to web]
   Fox News' Roger Ailes Offered Condoleeza Rice 'Off-the-Record' Help [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   NPR Names Emma Carrasco Chief Marketing Officer and Loren Mayor SVP of Strategy - press release [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Microsoft’s Plan to Sell Answers [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   The Kremlin’s New Internet Surveillance Plan Goes Live
   Syria's Digital Proxy War
   Apple's Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal
   Online paid-content market poses threat to traditional advertising [links to web]
   Four out of five young people feel 'lost' without internet [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   When Cell Phone Chips Rule Data Centers [links to web]

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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

PUBLIC OFFICIALS EMBRACE SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter, Jennifer Preston]
With Hurricane Sandy, public officials and government agencies have embraced social media to a greater degree than ever. For proof, look no further than the Twitter feed of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York: 400 messages on Oct 30, 300 on Oct 31 and well over 100 on Nov 1, featuring everything from photos of storm surge damage to updates on power restoration. It is usually Cuomo’s aides, not the governor, typing the messages. But he and his staff recognize that social media “is a highly effective method of communicating information in a time of crisis,” said Joshua Vlasto, Cuomo’s deputy communications director. The governor’s followers have increased to 50,000 from 20,000. Although phone service has been spotty in some places across the Northeast, people with working signals have been reliant on texting and social networking to a degree not seen during previous disasters.
benton.org/node/138393 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
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RECOVERING CELL PHONE SERVICE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
Three days into the aftermath of Sandy, wireless service is still lacking in parts of New York City and other hard-hit areas, according to people living in those areas. The carriers have been struggling to keep their services running, mostly because of the loss of power. But they say they have been making progress. Here’s what they have to report.
Verizon Wireless said its network improved a bit.
AT&T made a vague statement about its progress in troubled areas and declined to provide statistics. But it said it had made an agreement with Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, to roll out RVs where people can charge their phones.
Sprint was clearer about the status of its network, specifically in troubled areas, saying 20 percent of its network was still down in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
T-Mobile USA said that 15 percent of its network in New York City was down, and that in Staten Island 20 percent was still down.
benton.org/node/138394 | New York Times | The Hill | USAToday | Washington Post
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A CITY WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Matthew Flamm]
For a media-saturated, always-connected city, the aftermath of Sandy has in some ways been stranger than the storm. There were no newspapers on newsstands -- if newsstands were open -- across large portions of the city. Like everything else with Sandy, the media disruption was uneven. Bridge and tunnel closures blocked delivery of The New York Times in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, a spokeswoman said. But trucks were able to get through to parts of Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn from the paper's printing plant in College Point, Queens.
benton.org/node/138347 | AdAge
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SANDY AND LOCAL ONLINE NEWS
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Cotton Delo]
"Hyperlocal" news sites that focus their coverage on small towns and city neighborhoods are reporting big traffic surges from Sandy, with local residents keen to find out about their towns' storm preparedness Oct 29 and about property damage and when power would be restored on Oct 30, with much of it driven by search. Spikes were reported by corporate news brands and individually owned sites alike. AOL-owned Patch, which operates roughly 860 sites across the country but has high penetrations in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, reported its highest-ever traffic day Monday -- page views were up 88% from the previous highest day. The Daily Voice, a competing network with 53 sites in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, said traffic Monday was two times higher than normal. Sheepshead Bites, a four-year-old independent site covering the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, also reported its highest-ever traffic day Monday on its Facebook page. And eight-year-old independent Baristanet, which covers Montclair, Bloomfield and Glen Ridge, N.J., reported traffic Tuesday was on course to be three times higher than the average 8,000 to 9,000 daily visits, notwithstanding the fact that much of Montclair is without power.
benton.org/node/138353 | AdAge
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SANDY AND SILICON ALLEY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dominic Basulto]
In the days and hours leading up to the arrival of Superstorm Sandy in the New York area, the storm looked like it might end up being the most-photographed, most-tweeted and most-blogged-about natural disaster in history. In fact, so many remarkable photos of Sandy were being shared on Twitter and Instagram that even the major news organizations with a boots-on-the-ground presence in the region were actively encouraging people to send in their photos. At one point, according to Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, 10 photos of Hurricane Sandy were being shared every second. That narrative about technology and the power of social media, however, is starting to shift in the aftermath of the storm as millions of people in New York City suddenly confront a life without power and without public transportation. All of those would-be citizen journalists sending out Instagram photos of a darkened New York skyline or tweeting out updates from their neighborhood — they all require power for their digital devices — and that’s something that many people in the New York area no longer have. In lower Manhattan and in neighborhoods stretching up to 34th Street — precisely the area where many of New York’s fledgling start-ups are located — the power has been shut off completely and may not be restored for days.
benton.org/node/138352 | Washington Post
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS

THE MEDIA AND ELECTION RESULTS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Stephen Ohlemacher]
Most Americans are pretty certain they know who won an election from news media, which play a large role in not only reporting election results but figuring out who won — usually long before the last votes are counted and certified. It works like this: The United States has a decentralized system for counting votes in national elections. No single government authority oversees the process. Instead, officials in more than 4,000 counties, townships and parishes across the nation tally votes for president, Congress, governor, state legislature and a host of state and local offices. The Associated Press will deploy more than 5,000 workers on Nov. 6 to collect vote results from government agencies and report them to news organizations — and the public — around the world. In all, The AP will report results for nearly 7,000 races. Government officials get the final say on who wins elections — Congress verifies the Electoral College votes for president and vice president, while state and county officials certify election results in their jurisdictions. But the media get the first word on election night, an important role in the democratic process of a nation that demands fast and accurate information.
benton.org/node/138390 | Associated Press
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BOTH CANDIDATES RECEIVED MORE NEGATIVE THAN POSITIVE COVERAGE IN MAINSTREAM NEWS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
From the conventions to the eve of the final presidential debate, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both received more negative than positive coverage from the news media, though overall Obama has had an edge, according to a new study. That advantage for Obama, however, disappeared after the debates began in early October and news coverage shifted in Romney's direction, mirroring the momentum change reflected in many public opinion polls, the study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found. Overall from August 27 through October 21, 19% of stories about Obama studied in a cross section of mainstream media were clearly favorable in tone while 30% were unfavorable and 51% mixed. This is a differential of 11 percentage points between unfavorable and favorable stories. For Romney, 15% of the stories studied were favorable, 38% were unfavorable and 47% were mixed-a differential toward negative stories of 23 points. Most of the advantage in coverage for Obama, however, came in September in the form of highly negative coverage for Romney. This was a period when the GOP nominee was losing ground in the polls, he was criticized for his comments about Libya, and a video surfaced in which he effectively dismissed 47% of the American public. All that changed almost overnight after the first debate on October 3. From that day through October 21, the coverage in effect reversed. In all, 20% of stories about Romney were favorable, 30% were unfavorable, and 50% were mixed-a differential of 10 points to the negative. For Obama, 13% of stories were favorable, 36% were unfavorable, and 50% were mixed-a differential of 23 points.
benton.org/node/138389 | Project for Excellence in Journalism
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TV POLITICAL AD REVENUE
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
According to SNL Kagan’s most recent projections, this year’s television station political advertising revenue is expected to increase to $2.6 billion, a 68% increase over the 2008 total of $1.6 billion. The swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, predictably have emerged as the political battleground for 2012 presidential election spending. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign has outspent President Barack Obama in TV and radio advertising in these states, with well over half a billion dollars already spent with local broadcasters. As the election approaches, political revenue projections will be put to the test as the presidential candidates compete in local markets to close the gap on much-needed electoral votes. SNL Kagan estimates that 80% of political revenues were generated in the second half of each of the last three election years, with roughly 60% of the total coming in during the fourth quarter alone. If this holds true this year, the top 10 publicly held TV broadcast affiliate groups will see a 57.5% average increase in political revenue over 2008. Total political revenue for these groups would be $625.3 million, a 41.9% increase from $440.5 million in 2008.
benton.org/node/138350 | TVNewsCheck
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LEAKING WEB SITE VISITOR DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Singer]
The presidential campaign sites BarackObama.com and MittRomney.com have recently ratcheted up their use of third-party Web trackers. These are companies, like ad networks and data brokers working on behalf of the campaigns, that collect information about users’ online activities to show political ads to people tailored to their own interests and beliefs. Spokesmen for each campaign have separately said that their own campaign had put safeguards in place to protect that user data. But now a new study by Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student in computer science and law at Stanford University, reports that both sites are leaking information about site visitors to a number of third-party trackers operating on their pages. Several pages on the Obama site included a user’s personal information in the page title at the top of the page or in the URL address, Mayer said, thereby giving third parties operating on the site the opportunity to collect identifying data. The information flowing to third parties, he said, variously included the username; the proper name under which a person registered; and their street address and ZIP code. On the Romney site, Mayer said, he found that a number of pages included the user’s name in the page title. Many pages also included a unique numerical ID number in the URL, which flowed to third parties, he said.
benton.org/node/138351 | New York Times
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INVESTIGATION OF ANTI-OBAMA TEXT MESSAGES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a gay-rights group, has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate an onslaught of anti-Obama text messages. The group said the unsolicited messages were a "blatant" violation of anti-spamming rules, and urged the commission to impose the maximum fine on those responsible. The texts covered a variety of topics, including gay rights, abortion and Medicare, and reached people who had never asked to receive them, including HRC supporters. "Obama supports homosexuality and its radical social agenda. Say No to Obama on Nov 6!" one read, according to HRC. "Stop Obama from forcing gay marriage on the states. Your vote is your voice," read another.
benton.org/node/138348 | Hill, The
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GOOGLE BACKS OBAMA
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Few can accuse Google's top executives of holding a grudge. Despite facing a possible antitrust lawsuit from the Obama Administration's Federal Trade Commission, Google's leaders are still backing the president when it comes to donations to his reelection effort. Leading the way is Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who served as an adviser to then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is now a member of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Schmidt has given $5,000 to the Obama reelection campaign and an additional $30,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee for Obama and the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. In all, President Barack Obama has received more than $737,000 from Google-related donors -- the president's third biggest contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Microsoft-related contributors are the second biggest donors to Obama, giving more than $761,000, according to the center's data.
benton.org/node/138346 | National Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

VERIZON, METROPCS FILING
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Dan Seifert]
Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS have filed a joint appeal against a court decision concerning the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules. The carriers contend that the FCC is over stepping its bounds with the regulation, which is designed to prevent network operators from controlling traffic to apps, services, and other functions on an individual basis. Verizon and MetroPCS make four main complaints against the FCC: the existing Telecommunications Act prevents the FCC from applying regulation to broadband access, which these rules allegedly allow; the FCC doesn't have the authority to enact these rules; the order itself violates the first and fifth amendments; and that the rules are arbitrary and capricious.
benton.org/node/138375 | Verge, The | read the appeal
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GLOBAL BANDWIDTH RACE
[SOURCE: Knowledge@Wharton, AUTHOR: Kevin Werbach]
A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. He says: “We've focused the FCC on broadband because wired and wireless broadband, high speed Internet, is our central platform for economic growth and innovation for years to come. In many ways, things are going really well for the U.S. when it comes to broadband. Think about where we were four years ago: If we were talking about mobile broadband, we would have been talking about mobile innovation and we would have been saying, "Hey, in Japan and South Korea there's incredible mobile innovation. In Europe, they are ahead of us on 3G infrastructure." Flash forward to now, [and] the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile broadband. [In terms of] infrastructure, the U.S. is the first country in the world getting to scale with 4G LTE, the next generation of mobile broadband. No one else is even close. So we are the world's test bed for 4G LTE applications and services. On the innovation side, it's a completely different world. You know, around the [globe] they are using American apps, whether it's Twitter or Facebook or Google -- that's what the rest of the world is using, a major change in four years. And then think about operating systems. Four years ago, the percentage of mobile devices globally that had American-made operating systems was under 20%. Today it's over 80%. That's a very, very fast change. And so we are strongly positioned to continue to lead the world when it comes to mobile broadband, an incredibly important platform for innovation and economic growth. But we have some real challenges in order to keep that going.”
benton.org/node/138341 | Knowledge@Wharton
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

TELCOS MUST LEARN FROM OPS COMMUNITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
There are as many small base stations out in the world as there are large base stations attached to cell phone towers, according to an Informa Telecoms & Media report. That doubles the number of equipment telcos must monitor and manage to help deliver a crystal clear signal on your cell phone, but it also creates a management nightmare and perhaps, an opportunity. The report states that between October and November 2012, the number of small cells reached 6.1 million with macrocells worldwide totaling 5.9 million. Most of the small cells at 80 percent are inside people’s homes helping improve the cell signal inside the house. But others are in crowded venues like offices and stadiums where the smaller cells act as a backup and signal booster for larger cell towers nearby. Sprint by the way has deployed a million of those small cells–up from 250,000 in 2011. For operators who now have up to four times as many base stations to manage, the network complexity can be daunting. Sure these small cells boost the quality of the subscriber experience but managing all of those end points comes at a cost. And who will pay it? Some operators charge users for their in-home femtocells, which can frustrate people who believe that the operator should provide quality coverage as part of the basic service.
benton.org/node/138345 | GigaOm
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OWNERSHIP

FTC STAFF RECOMMENDS GOOGLE SUIT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Sara Forden]
Google should be sued by the Federal Trade Commission for trying to block competitors’ access to key smartphone-technology patents in violation of antitrust law, the agency’s staff told commissioners in a formal recommendation, according to four people familiar with the matter. A majority of the agency’s five commissioners are inclined to sue, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. A final decision on the staff recommendation, made last month, isn’t likely until after the Nov. 6 presidential election, they said. At issue are Google’s efforts to block U.S. imports of products made by Microsoft and Apple by claiming the devices, which rely on industry-standard technology, infringe patents owned by Google’s Motorola Mobility unit, the people said.
benton.org/node/138380 | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION

WE SHOULD BROADEN SCOPE OF PBS
[SOURCE: Chronicle of Philanthropy, AUTHOR: Vincent Stehle]
[Commentary] If Big Bird were on the ballot on Election Day, he’d probably win in a landslide. But in our closely divided partisan election cycle, public broadcasting has once again become a sign of divided government. Sadly, in all the joking and sloganeering, what has gotten lost is a key opportunity to talk about what America really needs: a more expansive public media service. By injecting public broadcasting into the 2012 campaign, politicians have brought into view just how paltry a sum the federal Treasury provides to public television and radio stations. The 2012 budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the principal source of federal dollars for public media, was just $445-million, roughly 0.01 percent of the federal budget. Adding a little more to it would hardly cause significant deficit pain. It is time for our political leaders to give public outlets the resources it takes to satisfy the news and information needs of communities. And it’s time for public broadcasters to pledge that they will never try to shore up their financial position by taking on the corrupting influence of political contributions on behalf of the least trusted crop of politicians in our nation’s history.
[Stehle is executive director of Media Impact Funders, an organization of grant makers that was formerly called Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media]
benton.org/node/138342 | Chronicle of Philanthropy
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

GOOGLE AND DATA MINING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
The privacy policies of Google and other tech firms could allow them to mine personal data held by government agencies that use cloud-based e-mail, database and document services, an industry group warned. The group, SafeGov.org, a consortium of industry experts promoting safe government use of cloud services, raised the concern as Google has sought to defuse controversy over changes to its privacy policy that allow for more extensive tracking of consumers. SafeGov.org first highlighted this issue in January after Google announced plans to consolidate its privacy policy across more than 60 services, including Gmail and YouTube, allowing tracking of users as they move among those sites. The group recently renewed its call for greater safeguards after European data-protection commissioners last month identified significant legal shortcomings in the policy and called for changes. Google officials say the changes to its privacy policy do not affect the bundle of productivity software it sells to governments, which are governed by contractual provisions.
benton.org/node/138385 | Washington Post
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

INTERNET SURVEILLANCE IN RUSSIA
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan]
On the surface, it’s all about protecting Russian kids from internet pedophiles. In reality, the Kremlin’s new “Single Register” of banned websites, which went into effect November 1, will wind up blocking all kinds of online political speech. And, thanks to the spread of new internet-monitoring technologies, the Register could well become a tool for spying on millions of Russians. Signed into law by Vladimir Putin on July 28, the internet-filtering measure contains a single, innocuous-sounding paragraph that allows those compiling the Register to draw on court decisions relating to the banning of websites. The problem is, the courts have ruled to block more than child pornographers’ sites. The judges have also agreed to online bans on political extremists and opponents of the Putin regime. The principle of internet censorship is not a new one to the Russian authorities. For five years, regional prosecutors have been busy implementing regional court decisions requiring providers to block access to banned sites. To date this has not been done systematically: Sites blocked in one region remained accessible in others. The Register removes this problem.
benton.org/node/138384 | Wired
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SYRIA’S DIGITAL PROXY WAR
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Sean Lyngaas]
There is a proxy war going on in Syria, one measured in megabytes rather than in arms. On one side, Iran is providing Bashar al-Assad's regime with the tools of digital dictatorship to locate and bait the Syrian opposition. On the other side, the United States is trying to help the opposition protect itself from such attacks and set up alternate channels of communication. The outcome of this proxy war will affect the lives of many Syrians and the credibility of the State Department's efforts to promote digital freedom internationally.
benton.org/node/138370 | Atlantic, The
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APPLE SAMSUNG STATEMENT
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Charles Arthur]
The UK court of appeal has reprimanded Apple over the wording of the statement on its website acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe the iPad tablet's registered design, and ordered it to put an altered statement on its homepage – rather than tucked away in a linked page – until 14 December. The acknowledgement put up last week, linked from the home page by a tiny link, was deemed to be "non-compliant" with the order that the court had made in October. The court has now ordered it to correct the statement – and the judges, Lord Justice Longmore, Lord Justice Kitchin and Sir Robin Jacob, indicated that they were not pleased with Apple's failure to put a simpler statement on the site. At a hearing in the court in London on November 1, the judge told Apple that it had to change the wording of the statement within 48 hours, carry it on its home page, and use at least 11-point font.
benton.org/node/138336 | Guardian, The
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