Message from Michael - WikiLeaks and Perspective - August 4, 2010

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        August 4, 2010                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

      LEAKS, LEAKS EVERYWHERE

      YESTERDAY CAME SUDDENLY

      444.8%

      THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

      COCKTAIL CHATTER – JERSEY SHORE

 

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      LEAKS, LEAKS EVERYWHERE:  Journalists and news organizations ranging from the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal to the Nieman Journalism Lab and the Council on Foreign Relations are all trying to determine what the release of the 92,000 ‘secret’ documents by WikiLeaks means to the future of journalism.  What is particularly interesting is that the leak of documents was coordinated by WikiLeaks with three national news organizations in three different countries – The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.  As Nieman Lab writer C.W. Anderson notes, it is interesting to see the difference in headlines with the Guardian focusing on civilian casualties while the Times focused on U.S.-Pakistan relations.  From my review, Der Spiegel appeared to focus on the scale of the military involvement and Germany’s ‘naïve’ involvement.  In keeping with the fact only based approach I take with the message, I will not comment (yet), but I would note some observations:  In a broader picture view, the Wikileaks controversy highlights the growth in non-traditional news sources and whether that represents the ‘future of journalism.’ 

For example, the Knight Citizen News Network not only lists more than 800 citizen or community media sites, it also lists more than 236 foundations that have received more than $161 Million in grants over the past five years to fund news projects.  Some of the better known include the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica, Alternet and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.  All of which have allied with, or worked with, traditional news sources.  But then there are the smaller, or lesser known, news projects such as the American Independent News Network, New America Media, and the Mother Jones Foundation for National Progress.  Regardless of whether their high profile or whether they have large media partners, what also stands out is their dependence on grant funding.  For example, the Center for Investigative Reporting received grants ranging from $585,000 from the Ford Foundation to $1,500 from the Tides Foundation.  The Center for Public Integrity received grants ranging from $750,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to $1,000 from the Victor Elmaleh Foundation.  The point is the various groups business model is built on finding and applying for grants, large and small.

Then there are the various content providers springing up around the world and on the Internet.  As noted in a previous message, these are providing free or subscriber content to Website builders trying to bolster their online traffic.  A search using the phrase “free content for websites” returns more than 57 Million entries and sites ranging from FreeSticky.com to FreshContent.net and Feedzilla.com.  Three of the most prominent sources mentioned in the previous message are Examiner.com, AssociatedContent.com and DemandMedia.com.  A visit to any of their sites will show a mix of freelancer material, but often ‘freelancer’ material based on traditional news sources.  Add to that Publish2.com, which bills itself as a ‘news exchange’ and counts such august news organizations as The New York Times, the Oregonian, The Spokesman-Review and PBS as partners.  It recently launched Demotix.com which says it stands at the “forefront of the news revolution – bridging the gap between newspapers and broadcasters and the stringers, freelance photographers and citizen journalists who are forging the new world of user-generated news.”  It also is a news exchange, using both professionals and amateurs, but with an emphasis on video and pictures.  And while it may appear hyperbolic, a visit to the site may change your mind.  And while many of the sites may be driven by concerns about the ‘future of journalism,’ many are probably driven as much by the ethos displayed by the young guys behind BleacherReport.com who said they started the sports site because they were “a group of lifelong sports fans who were not satisfied by local coverage of their favorite teams.”  The site claims to post more than 500 articles every day on various sports, with 11 Million unique users each month.  As the old Southern expression goes… ‘Nuff said.          

      YESTERDAY CAME SUDDENLY:  A look back at ten years of technology from two different surveys shows some interesting developments – some you probably already suspect or know, and some that may be somewhat surprising. The figures come from the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  In the ‘no surprise’ category, Internet use has grown significantly not only in the U.S.  but around the world.  Depending on whose figures you use, it either went from 67% in 2000 to 82% last year in 2009 or from 46% in 2000 to 79% in 2009.  In the same vein, Broadband use at home has octuppled (No, I don’t think that’s a word) from 10% to 82% (according to USC) or from 5% to 64% (Pew).  The Pew report which was part of a presentation by Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Project, reports that the percentage of people going online every day has more than doubled in that time (from 25% to 62%); while the USC study sais a third of the online users (31%) go online several times a day.  And while the growth in global mobile cell use may not be surprising, the size of the growth may be… from 15 out of every 100 persons in 2000 to 75 out of every 100 in 2009.

But it’s the development of technology that didn’t even exist or existed at a minimal level ten years ago that is most surprising.  In 2000, less than 10% of adults used “cloud” technology; Now, according to the Pew people, it’s more than two-third’s.  But here are the factoids I find particularly interesting: the Pew Internet group says wireless was almost unheard of ten years with nobody (0%) connecting wirelessly; Now, two thirds of adults using the internet (59%) connect wirelessly.  In 2000, nobody (as in 0% again) used tech social networks; Now, nearly half (48%) do.  Rainie probably best sums up the difference when he says that ten years ago, going online was based on “slow, stationary connections built around my computer.”   Now, going online is based on “faster, mobile connections built around outside servers and storage.”  If you want to see his full presentation, which is worth the read, the link is http://pewinternet.org/Presentations/2010/Jun/How-Media-Consumption-Has-Changed-Since-2000.aspx .

      444.8%:  Keeping our historical perspective, that’s the percentage increase in the number of Internet users worldwide over the last ten years, according to website Internet World Statistics.  In 2000, there were 361 Million Internet users.  Now, (meaning July, 2010) there’s been a nearly five-fold increase, reaching just under 2 Billion (1,966,514,816, to be exact.)  The fastest growth area in the world is Africa which registered an astounding 2,357.3% growth.  Of course, that’s because the number of Internet users was so small to begin with – roughly 111 Million out of the total population of more than 1 Billion, equating to a penetration rate of 10.9% -- the lowest in the world.  The ‘lowest’ growth area was North America with a ‘mere’ 146.3% growth over the past ten years.  But, as you can no doubt figure, that’s because the penetration rate is so high already – now at 77.4% --the highest in the world.  Other areas of high growth are Latin America and the Caribbean area (1,032.8%) and the Middle East (1,825.3%).  The largest number of Internet users is, not surprisingly, Asia where there are 825 Million Internet users but with a population of 3.8 Billion, that equates to a penetration rate of only 21.5%.  The flip side of that, of course is that the potential growth in Asia as well as Africa, Latin America and the Middle East is huge.  With a world population of more than 6.8 Billion and less than 2 Billion Internet users…. Well, you get the idea.        

      THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED:  Of the 98,000 albums that sold last year, only 85 sold 250,000 units or more, according to radio research firm Harker Research.  Or, put another way, 98% of last year’s albums sold fewer than 5,000 copies.   Popular music website Pandora just celebrated its 60 Millionth registered user.  Yet they have ‘well under’ or ‘only’ one million songs.  So, the research firm observes, that “a large number of users have a personalized station that sounds pretty much like a lot of other people’s personalized station.”  By comparison, the research firm notes that stream service Rhapsody has a library of more than 9 Million songs.   The research firm also noted an effort by BigChampagne, a media tracking company, to design a new chart, which they called the Ultimate Chart,  to replace the ‘old fashioned’ Billboard charts.  The new system took into account, not just record plays, but YouTube video rankers, social networks and other areas where music is played to get a true measure of a song’s popularity.   The result?  Basically the same as the Billboard Hot 100 with, for example, Shakira and Justin Bieber making the top five.

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  Since the Cocktail Chatter in the last message about the popularity of ABC’s Bachelorette drew so much response, I thought I would share another factoid about trash TV (whoops, sorry, that’s commentary).  MTV’s Jersey Shore scored the cable net its highest season premiere rating in seven years with 5.3 Million viewers.  And as The Hollywood Reporter pointedly notes, that’s substantially higher than AMC’s critically acclaimed Mad Men (2.9 Million).  That announcement came about the same time one of the ‘stars’ of the show, Snooki, was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge for harassing people at the beach.  A review titled Jersey Jetsam in The New Yorker said watching the show “makes us feel like anthropologists secretly observing a new tribe through a break in the trees.”