An interesting article from our friends at Masternewmedia. Fair enough there is alot to crunch through here, but if you're interested in a discussion on online TV and finace then a good starting point is about a quarter of the way in...
"...As live Internet TV takes off, this could be an increasingly important mode of advertising - placing sponsored products in the hands of niche-broadcasters certainly feels like an effective way to go..."
Masternewmedia
The video blog has evolved significantly in the last year, propelling a new wave of web celebrities into the limelight - with such names as Amanda Congdon, Ze Frank and Loren Feldman carving out their own niches in the world of web 2.0 video.
">Link
Showing posts with label democratic media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democratic media. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Monday, 2 April 2007
'Attack of the Giant Supercomputer!': Is Google Too Powerful?
Google CEO Schmidt takes issue with the idea that the search behemoth is unfairly dominant. It is a giant supercomputer but it's not The Terminator...is it?
BusinessWeek
Google's accelerating lead in search and its moves into traditional advertising are sparking a backlash among rivals. "I don't see the fear," insists Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "There are an awful lot of partners who are busy making a lot of money by virtue of the strategy we adopted."
">Link
BusinessWeek
Google's accelerating lead in search and its moves into traditional advertising are sparking a backlash among rivals. "I don't see the fear," insists Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "There are an awful lot of partners who are busy making a lot of money by virtue of the strategy we adopted."
">Link
Minority Report
Today Media Guardian publish an Ethnic Power List in an attempt to redress the balance against the initially all white Media Guardian 100.
Though I agree this is an important issue and the act of publishing the ethnic list is an important step toward placing some relatively unrepresented individuals within the public sphere. Isn't the point that we have to have two seperate lists the problem. Shouldn't there just be one integrated list that is chosen by a panel with individuals from both white and other ethnic groups?
Link to the full article below.
Monday April 2, 2007The Guardian
It is six years since Greg Dyke, then BBC director general, made his famous "hideously white" comments about the BBC. Since then, the corporation has made significant strides in getting people from ethnic minority backgrounds on screen. Yet at the BBC, and across the British media, the higher reaches of management are almost universally white. Indeed, it is rare to find a black or Asian face in MediaGuardian's annual list of the most 100 powerful people in the British media.
Ethnic minorities make up only 10% of the UK population so it is perfectly understandable that any power list would be dominated by white people. But statistics do not tell the whole story; the British media industry is concentrated on London, where the population is much more diverse. Yet last year's Media 100 had no black or Asian faces. Were we seriously suggesting that no one from any ethnic minority fulfilled the list's criteria - that they should have some kind of "cultural, economic or political influence" in the British media? Where was Sir Trevor McDonald, Meera Syal, Ash Atalla?
With that in mind, and prompted by a suggestion from Lawrence Lartey of Touch magazine, we decided to convene a panel of media observers and practitioners exclusively from ethnic minorities to see if they could come up with names that the Media 100 panel have missed.
">Link
Though I agree this is an important issue and the act of publishing the ethnic list is an important step toward placing some relatively unrepresented individuals within the public sphere. Isn't the point that we have to have two seperate lists the problem. Shouldn't there just be one integrated list that is chosen by a panel with individuals from both white and other ethnic groups?
Link to the full article below.
Monday April 2, 2007The Guardian
It is six years since Greg Dyke, then BBC director general, made his famous "hideously white" comments about the BBC. Since then, the corporation has made significant strides in getting people from ethnic minority backgrounds on screen. Yet at the BBC, and across the British media, the higher reaches of management are almost universally white. Indeed, it is rare to find a black or Asian face in MediaGuardian's annual list of the most 100 powerful people in the British media.
Ethnic minorities make up only 10% of the UK population so it is perfectly understandable that any power list would be dominated by white people. But statistics do not tell the whole story; the British media industry is concentrated on London, where the population is much more diverse. Yet last year's Media 100 had no black or Asian faces. Were we seriously suggesting that no one from any ethnic minority fulfilled the list's criteria - that they should have some kind of "cultural, economic or political influence" in the British media? Where was Sir Trevor McDonald, Meera Syal, Ash Atalla?
With that in mind, and prompted by a suggestion from Lawrence Lartey of Touch magazine, we decided to convene a panel of media observers and practitioners exclusively from ethnic minorities to see if they could come up with names that the Media 100 panel have missed.
">Link
Sunday, 1 April 2007
More on democratic media: Internews
Law and Policy
Internews has worked for the adoption and implementation of fair media laws in 21 countries making the transition from a formerly totalitarian or autocratic state towards a more democratic society.
A country's legal infrastructure is a key factor in media's ability to fulfill their "watchdog" function. However, most of the emerging democracies since the early 1990s have completely lacked a legal base that would allow non-governmental media to defend their newfound abilities to present alternative and often critical points of view.
In addition to working for fair media laws, Internews has also helped create 112 national media associations, which advocate for just and open media laws, defend the civil rights of journalists, and promote industry reform.
In post-war Afghanistan, Internews has advised the government and media organizations on setting media policy in which independent media can thrive and journalists can report without fear of government reprisals.
With the involvement of the Journalists' Association of East Timor (TLJA), Internews played an integral role in lobbying the Constituent Assembly to enshrine media freedoms and freedom of speech into the new constitution of East Timor (Timor-Leste).
Internews Network’s U-Media Project in Ukraine founded the Kyiv Media Law Institute to support the development of media law and strengthen democratic standards of freedom of speech and access to information in Ukraine through legislative work, research and education.
Internews Pakistan's media law team is comprised of Pakistan's foremost media law specialists, knowledgeable in such areas as policy formulation and advocacy, broadcast and cable television licensing and regulatory schemes, and broadcasters' and journalists' defense issues. They work with the private broadcast sector, legislators and regulatory authorities to enable an improved media law environment for Pakistan's growing private media sector.
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Current TV
The TV channel without programmes
By Kevin Young Entertainment reporter, BBC News
A TV channel co-founded by former US Vice-President Al Gore, which relies heavily on its audience to supply its content, has launched in the UK.
But Current TV - running in the US since 2005 - will not broadcast programming in the traditional sense, showcasing instead short films created by the public.
So what will viewers actually see when they tune in?
Imagine you asked a dozen strangers to make a short video describing an unusual aspect of their life, an interest of theirs or a person they considered noteworthy.
Then imagine you watched all 12 films in a row, knowing neither what was coming next nor if it would capture your attention.
This is roughly how it feels to watch an hour of Current TV.
There are several telltale signs that the channel is aimed at impatient young people, or "a media-grazing audience", as one of its executives puts it.
'Shuffled'
Firstly, each "pod" - there are no programmes in the traditional sense - lasts an average of three to eight minutes.
A bar on the screen shows how long has elapsed since that "pod" began, and when the next one is coming along.
And the scheduling is entirely random - or "shuffled", to use the broadcaster's own word - so you never know what to expect.
So far, so iPod - although the management was very careful to avoid references to Apple's iconic portable media player at a news conference to launch the channel.
This random nature means that a satirical animation parodying news events is scheduled beside footage of a "guerilla gardener" who plants flowers at the dead of night to enliven run-down parts of London.
And a hard-hitting interview with a Kenyan prostitute, struggling to feed her children, is followed by "a day in the life" of The Edge, specially filmed by the guitarist's U2 bandmate Bono.
Chart
The main structure to the schedule comes from a mini-chart show every half an hour, which counts down the most popular terms from online search engine Google.
These can revolve around serious topics - the most-read stories on Google News that day, for instance - but at other times, they are more light-hearted, focusing on a particular term linked to topical events.
Some 'pods' might only have a life of an airing or two on the network, and some will air dozens of times over a lengthy period of time. It just depends how popular they are David Newman, President of Programming, Current TV
If Current TV had been running when Forest Whitaker won his Oscar for acting, you imagine it would have dedicated one of the segments to Google's most popular forests.
"And at number three, it's Nottingham Forest..." - you get the idea.
The other thing which viewers should notice about Current TV is how modern it is - or rather, how current, according to its strong, on-screen branding.
The network's name is wrapped around every possible slot, so the Google link-up is known as Google Current and films about serious, topical issues appear under the News Current banner.
People with strong views can be heard on Current Rant, while those describing their unusual interests or activities come under the term Current Maverick. Currently, anyway.
'Fresh material'
Mr Gore, who was heavily involved in the creation of the channel, believes his programming team will not struggle to fill airtime.
"I don't think you'll have the experience of thinking, 'that's repeating too often', because they're going to be tuned in to that.
"Traditionally cable and satellite programming has had a higher repeat rate but there's so much fresh new material," he told the BBC News website.
And the schedulers can quickly arrange the output "according to what they think the British public wants to see", adds David Newman, the channel's president of programming.
"Some 'pods' might only have a life of an airing or two on the network, and some will air dozens of times over a lengthy period of time. It just depends how popular they are."
The opening flurry of material on offer looks promising.
Now the channel must wait to see if this "democratisation" of television proves a hit with UK audiences.
And viewers will be hoping for a consistency in the quality of material offered - ironic, perhaps, for a channel so reliant on unpredictability.
Current TV is available in the UK on Sky Digital channel 229 and Virgin Media channel 155.
By Kevin Young Entertainment reporter, BBC News
A TV channel co-founded by former US Vice-President Al Gore, which relies heavily on its audience to supply its content, has launched in the UK.
But Current TV - running in the US since 2005 - will not broadcast programming in the traditional sense, showcasing instead short films created by the public.
So what will viewers actually see when they tune in?
Imagine you asked a dozen strangers to make a short video describing an unusual aspect of their life, an interest of theirs or a person they considered noteworthy.
Then imagine you watched all 12 films in a row, knowing neither what was coming next nor if it would capture your attention.
This is roughly how it feels to watch an hour of Current TV.
There are several telltale signs that the channel is aimed at impatient young people, or "a media-grazing audience", as one of its executives puts it.
'Shuffled'
Firstly, each "pod" - there are no programmes in the traditional sense - lasts an average of three to eight minutes.
A bar on the screen shows how long has elapsed since that "pod" began, and when the next one is coming along.
And the scheduling is entirely random - or "shuffled", to use the broadcaster's own word - so you never know what to expect.
So far, so iPod - although the management was very careful to avoid references to Apple's iconic portable media player at a news conference to launch the channel.
This random nature means that a satirical animation parodying news events is scheduled beside footage of a "guerilla gardener" who plants flowers at the dead of night to enliven run-down parts of London.
And a hard-hitting interview with a Kenyan prostitute, struggling to feed her children, is followed by "a day in the life" of The Edge, specially filmed by the guitarist's U2 bandmate Bono.
Chart
The main structure to the schedule comes from a mini-chart show every half an hour, which counts down the most popular terms from online search engine Google.
These can revolve around serious topics - the most-read stories on Google News that day, for instance - but at other times, they are more light-hearted, focusing on a particular term linked to topical events.
Some 'pods' might only have a life of an airing or two on the network, and some will air dozens of times over a lengthy period of time. It just depends how popular they are David Newman, President of Programming, Current TV
If Current TV had been running when Forest Whitaker won his Oscar for acting, you imagine it would have dedicated one of the segments to Google's most popular forests.
"And at number three, it's Nottingham Forest..." - you get the idea.
The other thing which viewers should notice about Current TV is how modern it is - or rather, how current, according to its strong, on-screen branding.
The network's name is wrapped around every possible slot, so the Google link-up is known as Google Current and films about serious, topical issues appear under the News Current banner.
People with strong views can be heard on Current Rant, while those describing their unusual interests or activities come under the term Current Maverick. Currently, anyway.
'Fresh material'
Mr Gore, who was heavily involved in the creation of the channel, believes his programming team will not struggle to fill airtime.
"I don't think you'll have the experience of thinking, 'that's repeating too often', because they're going to be tuned in to that.
"Traditionally cable and satellite programming has had a higher repeat rate but there's so much fresh new material," he told the BBC News website.
And the schedulers can quickly arrange the output "according to what they think the British public wants to see", adds David Newman, the channel's president of programming.
"Some 'pods' might only have a life of an airing or two on the network, and some will air dozens of times over a lengthy period of time. It just depends how popular they are."
The opening flurry of material on offer looks promising.
Now the channel must wait to see if this "democratisation" of television proves a hit with UK audiences.
And viewers will be hoping for a consistency in the quality of material offered - ironic, perhaps, for a channel so reliant on unpredictability.
Current TV is available in the UK on Sky Digital channel 229 and Virgin Media channel 155.
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