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MEDIA NEWS | 2005

AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY NAMES 6 MOMENTS OF SIGNIFICANCE IN FILM AND TV

December 21, 2005 (PRNewswire) The American Film Institute (AFI) today announced the second portion of the AFI AWARDS 2005 deliberation process -- the year's AFI Moments of Significance. These six noteworthy events were determined to have had an impact on the world of the moving image during the calendar year 2005. Each year, AFI AWARDS adds another volume to the history of American film and television by documenting the collective opinion of the moving image communities, archiving the year's significant moments and honoring the talent and collaborative teams who have created the year's outstanding accomplishments. Ten AFI Movies of the Year and 10 AFI Television Programs of the Year were announced last week. 2005 official selections

RARE PAINTINGS BY INDONESIAN TSUNAMI SURVIVORS TO BE SOLD ON OVERSTOCK.COM
December 21, 2005 (PRNewswire) A collection of paintings by Indonesian artists who survived and are still recovering from the tsunami's devastation are going up for auction online beginning December 26th, the tsunami's one-year anniversary. Alaskan non-profit Solace International, which has been helping re-build tsunami-ravaged communities, is selling the paintings on Overstock.com Auctions(TM) to raise $10,000 for a community art center in Meulaboh, a remote Indonesian town where the artists reside. Read article

STUDY: AD CLUTTER MOUNTS ON CELL PHONES
December 9, 2005 (MediaPost) A new study by Ball State University found that more college students are receiving cell phone ads now than at the beginning of the year. And, as the frequency of ads has increased, the students' irritation with the intrusion has ebbed. Most students--51 percent--said they don't want ads on their cell phones, but others indicated that they could be persuaded to accept marketing messages. Twenty-nine percent said they would consider agreeing to ads in exchange for something free--like ringtones, extra minutes, upgrades, or access to the Web. Read Article

GUERILLA CAPITALISM

December 5, 2005 (Fortune) In the beginning, Craigslist was a casual e-mail sent to friends. Could it end by turning newspaper classifieds to ashes? If Craigslist were run by executives with even the slightest appetite for wealth, it might be a major financial player in online commerce. But Newmark, 53, founded the site as a hobby ten years ago and is determined to keep it simple. "We're just motivated by the same values we all learn in Sunday school or the equivalent," he says. "The Golden Rule and that it's more important to help people." Read Article

CONDE NAST GOES TO THE VIDEO, EXPANDS BROADBAND PORTFOLIO
December 1, 2005 (MediaPost) Seeking a far greater online presence, Conde Nast Publications is planning to launch three new broadband video-heavy destination sites by mid-2006, Jamie Pallot, CondeNet editorial director, said Wednesday. Appealing to marketers' desire to serve more video advertising online, Conde Nast will devote ever more resources to the production and distribution of broadband video, Pallot added. Read Article

STUDY: PARENTS WANT LESS GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER TV
November 29, 2005 (The Hollywood Reporter) Americans overwhelmingly want Big Brother to butt out of their TV watching, according to a new study of U.S. viewing habits set for release Tuesday.According to the survey done this month by Russell Research for TV Watch, a whopping 81% of American TV watchers worry about the kinds of programs their children could be exposed to, and 91% of parents said more parental involvement is the best way to keep kids from seeing what they shouldn't see. Read Article

IS THE VIDEO GAME RATING SYSTEM EFFECTIVE?

November 29, 2005 (ABC News) - Younger children often have access to games rate M for mature. Video games can be so sexually explicit and violent that they require a rating system to prevent young people from being exposed to their edgy themes. David Walsh, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Media and the Family, will go to Capitol Hill to argue that the video-game rating system is broken and needs to be overhauled. Read Article

PRSA/HARRIS INTERACTIVE SURVEY COMPARES VIEWS OF CONSUMERS, EXECS
AND CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS

November 10, 2005 (PRNewswire) - national survey, titled Executive, Congressional and Consumer Attitudes Toward Media, Marketing and the Public Relations Profession, compares attitudes and opinions about media, marketing and public relations among American adult consumers, Fortune 1000 executives, and congressional staffers. And while there were marked differences among the three groups, one of the survey's major findings was that substantial majorities of each group are interested in the news and they tend to trust traditional news sources most. Read Survey

ABERCROMBIE PULLS T-SHIRTS ON COMPLAINTS
November 3, 2005 (AP) - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. said Friday that it will stop selling several T-shirts that a group of teenage girls found offensive. The Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania objected to shirts for women emblazoned with sayings such as "Who needs brains when you have these?" and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."

"GIRLCOTT" OVER OFFENSIVE ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH TEE'S HEATS UP
November 3, 2005 (Teen People) Ambercrombie & Fitch is in hot water... again. The popular retailer is being criticized for carrying a line of women's T-shirts that broadcast messages like, "Who needs brains when you have these," "Give me something to scream about," and "Available for parties." But a group of Pennsylvania girls from the Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers, an organization that supports women's issues, says that enough is enough. They've decided to take action by spearheading a national "girlcott" of the store. Read Article | Watch Video (windows media player)

STUDY: SIGHT OF ALCOHOL FUELS AGGRESSION | Research Part of Larger Debate on Effects of Drinking
November 3, 2005 (AdAge) The study, based on the results of experiments involving 246 college students, indicates the mere sight of alcohol brings aggressive thoughts to mind. The study was conducted by Bruce Bartholow, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Read Article

GOOGLE OFFERS INDEX OF PUBLIC DOMAIN WORKS
November 3, 2005 (AP) Google Inc.'s Internet-leading search engine on Thursday will begin serving up the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't entangled in a copyright battle over how much material can be scanned and indexed from five major libraries. Read Article

BROADCASTING EX CHAIRMAN IS REMOVED FROM BOARD
November 3, 2005 (The New York Times) Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was forced to step down as a member of its board on Thursday evening.The move came after the board began reviewing a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming. Read Article

MARKETERS HAVE MANY BELIEVING THERE'S A PILL FOR EVERYTHING
October 25, 2005 (Christian Science Monitor) Marketers have convinced many that there's a drug for just about everything. Big pharma is big business, says Greg Critser. The same marketers who sell cornflakes and deodorants now persuade Americans that they need drugs to solve problems from toenail fungus to shyness to acidic stomachs. Mr. Critser, the journalist who took an alarmed look at Americans' expanding waistlines in "Fat Land," contends in Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies that pill popping in the U.S. has reached an all-time high. Read Article

INTERNET GIANT AOL TAKING CHILDREN'S TV BY STORM
October 19, 2005 (Today Online) Internet giant AOL's children's TV channels are proving smash hits with youngsters, demonstrating that television is moving away from the box in the family room. "Kids don't care where it comes from as long as it is good," AOL Kids and Teens senior executive Malcolm Bird told participants at a MIPCOM Junior conference, on the eve of the prestigious MIPCOM international TV trade show, which opened its doors here Monday. Read Article

FALL MAGAZINE REPORT: THE HIT LIST
October 17, 2005 (Mediaweek) This issue contains a dozen charts—which, at first glance, might make your eyes glaze over as you set it aside to read another day. But take another look. There is a wealth of information in the numbers reported here. These 12 charts, representing the top 12 advertising categories for magazines, go back five years, and indicate which advertisers are spending big in which magazines—as well as which marketers have boosted or cut their print investments. Read Article

COOL, A VIDEO IPOD. WANT TO WATCH 'LOST'?
October 16, 2005 (New York Times) THE introduction of Apple Computer's video iPod last Wednesday was greeted as an epochal event. The portable, personal, digital world - as you've no doubt heard by now - is here, and there is no turning back. And just as it took the vision and brio of Steven P. Jobs, Apple's founder, to drag the music industry into the 21st century with the iPod and the iTunes online music store, it was only a matter of time before he would do the same with what quaintly used to be known as the moving image. Read Article

10 MEDIA TRENDS TO WATCH
October 5, 2005 (PR WEEK) From the rise of transparency to the decline of newsprint, every PR pro needs to remain on top of the ever-changing media landscape. Portability of video content. "It's an understatement to say that the news media have changed almost cosmically over the past several years," says Laurence Moskowitz, CEO of Medialink. And that change, he adds, is not a result of content or society's appetite, but is instead due to technology. Read Article

ON TELEVISION BRANDS GO FROM PROPS TO STARS
October 2, 2005 (New York Times) Later this month on "The Office," Michael Scott, the painfully clueless regional manager of a paper supply company, will embrace casual Fridays in his own inimitable style. Eager to show off his newly trim physique, particularly his backside, the character - played by Steve Carell - will proudly model his new jeans to his alternately befuddled and appalled employees. And to anyone who will listen, he will proclaim something along the lines of "I love my new Levi's." This cringe-inducing bit of comedy will have been made possible in part by Levi Strauss. The company and the creators of "The Office," the NBC critical darling, are willing participants in the next generation of product placement. Read Article

WHAT'S COOL ONLINE? TEENAGERS RENDER VERDICT
September 29, 2005 (New York Times) MARKETERS spend a lot of time figuring out what teenagers want. Teenagers are their most desirable and fickle demographic, the arbiters of cool who set trends, influence brand health and part with their discretionary income most freely. So what do teenagers want? As one might expect, they want to have some fun. They want to customize products, they want to play games and they want to socialize.
Read Article

FROM 'MY GENERATION' TO 'MY MEDIA GENERATION:' YAHOO! AND OMD GLOBAL STUDY FINDS YOUTH LOVE PERSONALIZED MEDIA
September 27, 2005 (New York Times) According to an in-depth study of 13-24 year olds in 11 countries entitled, "Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged: Global Youth, Media and Technology," released today youth's use of interactive and wireless technologies has created a global generation highly accustomed to personalizing their experiences with interactive media. Read Article

ACCESS FOR THE MASSES

September 27, 2005 (Christian Science Monitor) Public-access television, whose future may hinge on a bill before Congress, is TV's public square - a community outlet for the civic minded, musicians, and even bonsai lovers. In 1984, under the provisions of the Cable Act, public-access stations began in earnest. Historically, community television has been a forum particularly friendly to immigrants and minorities, groups regularly overlooked by the larger networks. Read Article

FREE PRESS RELEASES BROADBAND REPORT
August 2005 (FreePress) Broadband Reality Check | The FCC ignores America’s Digital Divide According to this recent report by the Free Press, the United States continues to fall in the world rankings of broadband penetration. The United States now stands at 16th worldwide in the number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, placing it far behind countries such as Canada, Japan, and South Korea. The United States also ranked 16th in the net change in broadband penetration from 2003 to 2004, indicating a comparatively slow pace of broadband adoption within the country. Broadband adoption is highly dependent on socio-economic status. Almost 60 percent of households with incomes above $150,000 have a broadband connection, while less than 10 percent of households with incomes below $25,000 have a connection. Read Report

NEW YORKERS RALLY FOR COMMUNITY INTERNET

August 18, 2005 (Mediachannel.org) Free Press held a rally outside Verizon headquarters in Manhattan yesterday. Campaign Director Timothy Karr made the following remarks: "High-speed Internet service is no longer a luxury. As it becomes a necessity for all Americans, control of this vital service has fallen into the hands of fewer and fewer corporations." Read Article

YAHOO! EXPANDS NEWS VIDEO WITH CNN AND ABC FEEDS

August, 2 2005 - NEW YORK (AdAge.com) Move Comes as AP Prepares to Launch Its Own Online Video News Network Upping the ante in the increasingly competitive broadband video news business, Yahoo! is adding daily feeds from CNN.com and ABC News to augment the video news it already offers from The Associated Press and Reuters. "Video content is becoming an increasingly important component of the online news experience for Yahoo! News users," said a statement from Scott Moore, vice president of Yahoo! content operations. Read Article

AP TO LAUNCH ONLINE VIDEO NETWORK

July 22, 2005 - (TVB| Television Broadcast) The new AP Online Video Network will provide members with their own branded video player to display their video, along with AP video and other content, on the Web. In exchange, AP members will share in revenue from the streaming video advertising carried on the network. Members would collect all the revenue from advertising generated by their own video. Read Article

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM MEDIA SEX AND VIOLENCE
July 20, 2005 - WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- In the face of continuing congressional concern about the violent and sexual content of entertainment products, a new industry-backed group is launching an advertising campaign to educate parents about the controls they already have to protect their children from such fare. Called "Pauseparentplay," the group is backed by a consortium of marketing and media corporations including Microsoft, Wal-Mart, News Corp, NBC Universal, Comcast, Time Warner and the Motion Picture Association of America.
Read Article

COLIN POWELL LAUNCHES "100 BEST COMMUNITIES FOR YOUTH" AT PARTNERSHIP CONFERENCE
June 2005 - Modeled after Fortune's "100 Best Places to Work" and Working Mother's "100 Best Companies," the "100 Best Communities for Youth" program is the newest effort by America's Promise and its partners to promote nurturing and protective communities for this nation's youth. America's Promise founding Chairman Colin Powell officially launched this initiative during the keynote address at CCC's 2005 Partnership Conference.

LEVERAGING THE POWER OF THE MEDIA TO COMBAT HIV/AIDS
June 2005 - The Kaiser Family Foundation’s partnerships with media and others to help educate the public about HIV/AIDS, here and abroad. Since the mid-1990s the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has partnered with U.S.-based media companies on comprehensive HIV/AIDS campaigns. This paper outlines the unique public education model that it is using, and how Kaiser is expanding this work globally by working with some of the largest media companies in the world. Read Report

WITH LITTLE FANFARE THERE'S A BATTLE GOING ON FOR THE SOUL OF THE INTERNET
June 8, 2004 - The United Nations and the ITU (International Communications Union) are trying to wrest control of domain names, the DNS and IP addresses from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). This battle manifests itself through the U.N.-created World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and the ITU-lead Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). Read Article

FCC COMMISSIONER DECRIES 'COMMERCIALIZATION OF MEDIA'
Rails Against 'Fake News' and 'Relentless Marketing' May 25, 2005 (AdAge.com) -- A member of the Federal Communications Commission, Jonathan S. Adelstein, today warned about the “increasing commercialization of American media” and called on his agency to toughen its requirements and expand its investigations into the practice of product placement.
Read Article

NYC GRASSROOTS MEDIA CONFERENCE CONVENED
April 9-10, 2005 Hundreds of students, activists, media makers, community workers and artists came together at The New School University for the second annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference (GMC). This year’s conference theme was “forging stronger connections between independent media and communities organizing around issues of justice and equality.” The GMC grew out of public concerns regarding inadequate and irresponsible coverage by mainstream media. New Yorkers converged to strategize about how to create a more democratic media — a media that adequately represents the diversity within the NYC.

REPORT FROM SUNDANCE
February 15, 2005 - Harriet Yarr - Documentaries have experienced a shift into the limelight in recent years at the Sundance Film Festival, and this year the trend continued. The festival, which ran January 20-30 in Park City, Utah, screened thirty-six feature documentaries. But unlike last year, when numerous docs addressed post-9/11 realities, this year it would be hard to cull out a theme, at least in terms of content. What ties together this year’s films, instead, is a focus on form, storytelling, and original vision. It's not that documentaries this year were any less politically relevant or emotionally compelling, it’s that the art of filmmaking played a leading role in their advocacy.


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"The first thing to keep in mind, is that your objective is not to make a 'TV show' or a 'show' of any kind. You are collecting evidence; you are encouraging witness; you are emboldening ordinary people to 'go public.'"

George Stoney from forward in
Turn on the Power! Using Media for
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