Message from Michael - July 22 - Cronkite and Journalism

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        July 22, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

      WALTER CRONKITE AND THE ‘NEW’ JOURNALISM – A SPECIAL REPORT

 

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. 

 

      It was ‘at the time’ an unusual story to air on a national newscast.  A story about a funeral service for a pheasant.  Maybe equally unusual ‘at the time’ was the fact that the story was being done by a lowly local news reporter and not a national correspondent.  ‘At the time’ Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the CBS Evening News and Watergate was still a current event and not a historic event.  I was the ‘lowly local reporter’ and the pheasant story got more attention than my investigation of the mayor, reporting on police brutality or even my undercover reporting on conditions at the county jail in which I purposely got myself arrested.  Well, now, it’s three decades later.  Steve Hartmann regularly does such feature stories, and local reporters and even local ‘citizen journalists’ report for national news.  So, appropriately, and coincidentally, after the death of the dean of broadcast journalism this issue of MfM looks at some – just some, not by any means, all -- of the journalism in the new media world.

      For example, what would he, or, more accurately, the journalists of that time, think of the fact that a Cronkite successor would be ‘teaching’ journalism skills on a website whose top rated video is about virgin sex.  YouTube has created a “reporters center” with people like Katie Couric, Bob Woodward, and Adrianna Huffington explaining how to do interviews (in Couric’s case), or the importance of investigative reporting.  When I checked it out, the reporters center site had just under 3,600 subscribers and 156,000 ‘channel views.’  For perspective, the favorite video of the day (when I checked it out) about virgin sex video and titled Harry Potter Sex Scene, had more than 643,000 ‘channel views.’  But before you discount the effort, related website CitizenTube.com had nearly 6.7 MILLION channel views, a subscriber base of nearly 35,000 and was carrying citizen video of the protest in Iran.  Of course, Michael Jackson videos were in the multi-millions when it came to views.  As a side note and portent of things to come, Qik, which allows you to share video from your phone online, has partnered with Brightcove,  ‘the world’s number one online video platform’ to let customers publish and distribute video across websites, social networks and video portals in what is being called “a new workflow for citizen journalism.’  One of the more recent and highly publicized ‘citizen journalism’ sites, AllVoices.com, which claims to meld ‘traditional’ journalism with ‘citizen journalism’ on a global scale, argues that the journalism of Cronkite no longer exists.

      Do a search for the phrase “citizen journalism” and you get more than 4 Million responses from Google, more than 5 Million responses from Bing and an incredible 36 Million from Yahoo.  It includes such sites as cjreport.com, run by two students, one at Syracuse University and one at Brussels University and the Institute for Citizen Journalism founded by ‘journalists and citizen activists’ in Vancouver; or thisisdiversity.com which brings together people “of all backgrounds to gather and be heard.’  And, of course, faithful readers of MfM (okay, let’s be honest – anybody who keeps up with the media) knows about the use of Twitter by citizens and journalists.  One of the leading centers for ‘citizen journalism’ efforts is the Knight Citizen News Network which lists more than 800 ‘citizen media sites.’  Website SourceWatch which is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy has a diverse list of more than 100 such sites from around the world, including one in Belarus and another in the Middle East.  There are numerous training sites for would-be citizen reporters.  Aside from the Knight center, the International Center for Journalists (ijnet.org) provides a ten-step interactive training module; The University of Missouri has a project exploring “the citizen journalism phenomenon” and professor Jay Rosen of New York University has an interesting way to look at it on his popular website pressthink, talking about “the people formerly known as the audience.” 

By the way, note the difference in wording which is part of the debate – citizen journalists versus citizen media.  Many mainstream, traditional journalists object to the phrase ‘citizen journalist.’  Just out of curiosity and because I am obsessive compulsive about some things, I did a search, using the phrase ‘citizen media.’  Interestingly, the responses from all three sites were many times higher for citizen media than for citizen journalism.  Google came back with 196 Million responses (versus 4 Million); Bing with 30 Million (versus 5M) and Yahoo with an astounding 316 Million (versus 196M).  What does that say?  I don’t know; what do you think?   Leading the responses on all three search engines was the Center for Citizen Media (citmedia.org) which is partnered with the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.  As a side note, I would be remiss in this discussion of citizen media if I didn’t mention CNN’s iReports which were the source of much of the networks’ coverage in Iran.   

      Then there are the public funding or foundation efforts to ‘save’ journalism.  The public editor for the New York Times, Clark Hoyt, noted in his latest column that even the prestigious Times is taking advantage of such approaches to get stories done by others.  He talks about two of the best known sites – Spot.us and propublica.org.  People donate money to journalism projects advocated by freelance journalists and citizens.  It can be an investigation into the San Francisco transit police on Spot.us; Or even more ambitious, a nationwide check system on Propublica.org into how stimulus dollars are being spent on road, bridge and construction projects around the country.  It says something about Propublica.org, which subtitles itself ‘journalism in the public interest’ that the Georgia Department of Transportation even joined in on this one.

      Then there are the critics of journalism, and that is a large and diverse group, including to an extent, Cronkite himself.  One of the leaders in this group is freepress.net founded by media scholar Robert W. McChesney and which subtitles its webpage with “reform media; transform democracy.”  It claims to have a membership of half a million activists with the goal of ‘reforming’ media and acting as a counterweight to “big media companies.’  It maintains two other sites – savetheinternet.org and savethepress.org.  On what you might call the flip side of that is the Media Research Center (mrc.org) which subtitles itself as “America’s Media Watchdog” aimed at fighting ‘liberal bias.’  Again, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism or, for that matter, The Poynter Institute which, by the way, held a “big ideas” conference on projects that are ‘good for journalism and good for business.”    

      FINALLY:  I thought this was a good way to end this initial, brief report on journalism:  In an interview with contributing editor P.J. Bednarski of TVNewsday former CBS News president Andrew Heyward makes the point that local stations (and for that matter, I would argue – local news in general) have to rethink their “value proposition” and get away from what he calls ‘ritual reporting’ and move more toward enterprise reporting.  He argues local news’ “value proposition” (a term he obviously likes) has been eroded by the fact that there are so many sources of news.  So, he argues, “a local station needs to redefine its relationship with its community and become part of – pretentious word, forgive me – an ‘ecosystem’ of news and information in the community, which is of true value to the people who live there.  They need an integrated broadcast and digital strategy, including online and mobile, and must figure out a way to partner with other local journalists and become the place that people can go to for content.”         

 

      SOCIAL NETWORKING FOLLOW UP:  Some left over business from last week’s MfM:  China has the second LARGEST number of unique visitors to social networking sites (84.5 Million), behind the U.S. (128.5 Million).  You may recall in last week’s MfM, we talked about a comScore report that showed Russian social networking site users are the MOST ENGAGED in terms of time spent online and number of pages viewed, but that we couldn’t find figures for China or India.  Of course, right after I sent out that report, the good folks at comScore sent me all the numbers.  I have to admit I was surprised by how quickly they replied.  (Thank you, Jamie Gavin).  In any case, China visitors ‘only’ spend 2 ½ hours (158 Minutes) and ‘only’ visit 430 pages a month which is way below Russia’s 6 ½ hours and 13-hundred pages.  India, meanwhile, has 19.8 Million social networking visitors, putting it in 8^th place among users, but they spend even less time (135 minutes) and visit fewer pages (363).  Less than half of the Chinese Internet audience (42%) visit social networking sites compared to more than half for India (58%) and Russia (59%) and more than three quarters (77%) for the U.S.

      FOOTNOTE/ DISCLAIMER:  As I said at the start, this is just some of the issues being debated.  And it is only a brief beginning.  More to come in future MfM’s.  By the way, when Cronkite introduced my report, he mis-pronounced my name even though three fact checkers had called me to ask how to pronounce it.  Then again, one of the newspapers I worked with actually mis-spelled my name in a by-line on the front page.      

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message From Michael - Social Media - July 13, 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        July 13, 2009

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

    SOCIAL MEDIA – A SPECIAL EDITION

       BAROMETERS AND COCKTAIN PARTIES

      THE COLD WAR

      COPYCAT MEDIA

      GOLD MINING

      THE GLOBAL PERIOD

 

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. 

 

      SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT OVERVIEW:  There has been such an enormous amount of focus on social networking, social media, social whatever, that it was time to do a special MfM on the concept.  This is not the final definitive report.  To prove that, I will give you the bottom-line line at the start of the report, instead of the end.  The bottom-line is that despite the hoopla there is no business model associated with social media.  After reading innumerable articles and reports, it comes down to – nobody has figured out how to commercialize it or monetize it.  That is not to discount social networking, by any means.  It is an important method for connecting to people, or if you’re in business, getting the pulse or mood of people.  And that is its true value.     

      BAROMETERS AND COCKTAIL PARTIES:  According to the Consumer Internet Barometer produced for the business-oriented Conference Board, the percentage of “the online community” using social networks has jumped from a quarter (27%) to nearly a half (43%) in only the last year.  The increase is even more dramatic amongst the AARP crowd (those over 55), tripling from six percent a year ago to 19% now.  A different report, by Participatory Marketing Network, “a trade association promoting social networking” (so, yes, there may be bias) says the numbers are even more dramatic among the 18 to 24 crowd with every one of them (or at least 99%) having at least one or more active profiles on social networking sites.  Going back to the Consumer Internet Barometer report, it cites several conference board members who make the point that social networks have become… “an integral part of our personal and professional lives… (and) transformed the way individuals connect and communicate with one another.”  An analysis by the conference board and Marketing Vox says SocNets (the now fashionable shorthand for referring to social networks) are ‘not viable commercial platforms” for the simple reason that people see them as a way to interact but not as a means of conducting e-commerce.  Consumers do not see them as places to shop for product or services or a place to be ‘marketed to.’  The Participatory Marketing Network even says the same things, noting that such sites, especially Twitter, are “for friends, not Brands.”  Despite that, the conference board report argues that social networks are still critical to marketing efforts because they’re important communication tools and because businesses should be listening to those on-line conversations to ‘harness the power of influencers to co-create their marketing strategies.’  Marketing firm Bazaarvoice makes a similar point.  Company founder Brett Hurt argues that social networks are like a big cocktail party with everybody enjoying each other’s company, “but nobody shops at a cocktail party.”  He argues though that the smart companies will turn their Brand sites into social networking ‘cocktail parties’ in which people can turn to friends and colleagues for advice.

      HALF EMPTY: Just to provide balance, a poll earlier this year by Harris Interactive made the point that half of Americans (51%) do not use social networking sites Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.  It also notes that while just under half (48%) of U.S. adults have either a MySpace or Facebook account, only one in six (16%) update their page at least once a day.  Only five percent of Americans say they use Twitter and even among the younger demographic (18 to 34), that percentage only increases to eight percent.   

      CELEBRITY WATCHING:  Despite all the hoopla (I just wanted to use that word again), Twitter followers are not necessarily twitter-pated about celebrities.  The PMN report says four out of five active Twitter users (85%) use it to follow friends.  Similarly, the CIB report says nearly half (42%) of those surveyed said the main reasons for ‘tweeting’ are to connect with friends.  Another third say they use it to interact with family.  That’s not to say they Twitter users aren’t celebrity watching.  The PMN report says more than half (54%) track celebrities using Twitter while the CIB report says a third (30%) use it connect with celebrities.  The CIB report says Twitter users are also “likely to interact with TV shows, employers, co-workers, companies/ brands and TV anchors/ journalists.”

      THE COLD WAR:  Russia versus the U.S., and the winner is… Russia.  According to a study by digital measurement service comScore, Russia has the “most engaged social networking audience” with the average social networking visitor in Russia spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages each month.  That compares to the U.S., which comes in 9^th in the ranking of 40 countries with the average visitor spending 4.2 hours and viewing 477 pages each month.  The average visitor world-wide spends 3.7 hours and visits 525 pages. (I could not find a mention of China or India.)  According to the report, two-thirds (65%) of all Internet users world wide visited a social networking site at least once during the month.  Brazil came in second worldwide, averaging 6.3 hours and 1,220 pages.  Facebook and MySpace reach less than two percent and one percent respectively of the total online population in Russia.  The giant killer in social networking in Russia is Vkontakte.ru which has nearly half (45%) of the online population. The comScore report put the unique visitors at 14.3 Million, but a counter at the site put the visitor number at more than 37 Million.   A report by Global Comm Class out of Georgetown University says that while the Russian social networking sites are huge, they are also hugely ‘insular.’  More than 70% of all Internet usage in Russia comes from the area right around Moscow.
          
If you’re interested, there is an English language Beta version of Vkontakte, if you want to keep up with things in Russia.  And if you’re really curious (and know some Russian), President Dmitry Medvedev has his own Vlog which has proven, according to Wired, something of a hit.  Even though I don’t understand Russia, it was interesting to visit.  You can access it at:  http://community.livejournal.com/blog_medvedev.  The Georgetown University report notes that Google has failed to make inroads into Russia, despite (I didn’t know this) Google co-founder Sergeiy Brin’s Russian background.  To prove that I’m easily amused, I found it particularly funny that Twitter-like micro-blogging has failed to take off in Russia because the long Russian alphabet makes it difficult to fit ‘meaningful dialogue’ into 140 characters. 

      COPYCAT MEDIA.  Both Russia and China tend to copy the American social networking sites and search sites.  And the native sites out-perform their American invaders despite a concerted effort by Facebook and Google in particular to gain a toe-hold.   Again, according to the Global Comm Class report, the leading search engine in Russia (Yandex) and the leading search engine in China (Baidu) trounce Google. Website cnreviews.com, which focuses on China and Asian affairs, says Google is doing ‘okay’ in China with a 30% share, but, whatever this means, “it is too late for Facebook.”  The website cites several examples of the copycat approach.  There are at least four Chinese versions of YouTube – Youku, Tudou, Ku6, 56; the same for Facebook – Xiaonei, Hainei, Xiaoyou; even Twitter – Fanfou, Jiwai, Digu; and Linkedin – Wealink, Tianji, Linklist.  The big social networking site in China –kaixin001.com – has ‘skyrocketed’ to more than 30 Million registered users in less than a year.      

      GOLD MINING:  It seems that social media is like gold mining in California.  What the heck am I talking about?  Well, you probably remember the old apocryphal observation that the people who made money in the gold rush were not the miners, but the businesses that sold the tools to the miners.  In the same vein, it seems that since no-one can quite figure out how to monetize social media, the next best thing is to offer conferences or seminars or webinars on social networking.  I have seen so many I’m not sure I can keep count:  WebProNews, WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association), MarketingProfs, AdAge, along with another half dozen that I haven’t even heard of.   

      THE GLOBAL PERIOD:  I’m not sure what this says about social networking, but the latest social networking concept is called the Global Period Project, in which millions of women around the world are trying to synchronize their periods.  The two websites about it cite a concept called “The McClintock Effect” or “The Dormitory Effect” in which women who connect emotionally or share a physical space for a period of time tend to menstruate simultaneously.  The organizers of the Global Period Project say they want to make that connection through the Internet.  As they candidly admit, “it’s just an experiment with no practical application” but they say an experiment which could develop into something much bigger.

      NETWORKING NEWS FLOW:  It made the news everywhere, so it’s not worth repeating here, but the death of Michael Jackson also spurred an especially high usage rate amongst social networks.  In any case, an interesting idea that didn’t make the previous MfM about Michael Jackson, but which is worth thinking about.  Consumer adviser Regina Lewis with AOL defined a cycle or sequence in social networking news which goes like this:  first, people ‘clamor for the news’, then, second, they want to share it; followed by number three, when they react to it; and, finally, they create ‘tributes’ about the event.

      DISCLAIMER:  I am on four social networking sites – Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and Plaxo.  But I don’t visit them nearly as often as most people, even though you would think someone doing a weekly report on media would.    

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - June 29 - Michael Jackson

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        June 29, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

      HOW FUNKY STRONG IS YOUR FIGHT

      HOW FUNKY STRONG IS MEDIA’S FIGHT

      INTERNET YOUNGER THAN MICHAEL JACKSON

      FACTOID OF THE WEEK

      SCARY FACTOID OF THE WEEK

      COCKTAIL CHATTER – FAKE NEWS

 

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. 

 

      HOW FUNKY STRONG IS YOUR FIGHT:  Well, if you’re Michael Jackson, it’s pretty funky strong.  You already know that his album Thriller is the highest selling album in history with more than 50 Million sold.  And that funky strength continues after his death.  On YouTube alone, Thriller has been viewed more than 41 Million times since his death.  In descending order, followed by Beat It, with 27M, Dangerous with 16.5M and Billie Jean with 15M.  On iTunes, the music video version of Thriller was the top seller, but that’s the least of it. Eight out of the top ten selling albums were Jackson’s, 17 out of the top 20 CD’s were Jackson’s.  At Amazon, ten of the top 25 albums downloaded were Jackson’s and the day after his death, Jackson’s songs accounted for 60% of ALL music sales at the site.   At Google, Thriller recorded more than 32 Million searches, but there were 45 Million searches for Michael Jackson T-Shirts.   At CNN.com the hits were five times the normal traffic with 20 Million visitors; the same five-fold increase for CBSNews.com. It was the same story for all news websites; even CNet News doubled its traffic during that time. 

So the next question is how funky strong was the fight by media, and particularly the Internet, to stay up during this onslaught.  Well, all that traffic meant that the Internet stumbled… a lot… but despite a CNN headline “Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him,” it didn’t quite fall.  AOL’s Instant Messaging service went down for 40 minutes.  At Wikipedia, the overload resulted in what a spokesman called “some fluttering” of access but which others called a slowdown, almost to stop.  Google also had its fluttering moment, with a kind of self-inflicted slow down in use because the service interpreted the massive surge in searches as an attack and started putting out error messages.    Of course, Twitter had similar slowdowns when, at several points, tweets about Jackson comprised almost a third (30%) of all tweets.  Digital media measurement service Keynote says its original assessment that news sites were overwhelmed was in error and that while there were significant slowdowns, there wasn’t the stoppage initially indicated.  However, the impact still can not be underestimated.  Internet backbone provider Akamai reported that Internet traffic WORLDWIDE jumped 11% the day Jackson died.

But all of this still means Michael Jackson continues to set records.  Yahoo says its News property set an all-time record for traffic after Jackson’s death with 16.4 Million unique visitors.  As social media website guide Mashable noted, that’s a million more visits than the Yahoo news site had on election day.  The Wikipedia website scored the highest traffic in the eight year history of the site with a Million visitors in the 7 p.m. hour alone and 1.8 Million that Thursday evening.  Again, for comparison purposes, New York Times media blog site Decoder notes that President Barack Obama got 2.3 Million Wikipedia site visits on election day.  Consumer adviser Regina Lewis at AOL, quoted in the earlier CNN story, says the Jackson story may prove a ‘seminal’ moment in Internet history because of the scope and depth of the onslaught.  AOL adviser Lewis also believes Jackson’s death could prove a “historic milestone” for Mobile Internet traffic in particular because of the sheer amount and when it occurred – while people were at work.

As a side note, I would remind readers that in last week’s MfM, Internet backbone provider Cisco predicted that Internet traffic would increase five times over the next four years and that video would account for 90% of that traffic by then.   Further, proof that one man’s death is another man’s con opportunity, anti-website Sophos reports that spammers took advantage of the Jackson death to find potential email victims… sending out spam emails disguised as news about Jackson’s death looking for people who respond, therefore verifying that they are legitimate email addresses and potential spam victims.  Another side note, news organizations are also dealing with fallout from the Michael Jackson death, aside from the impact on their websites.  That is the fact that celebrity gossip site TMZ was the first to break the news.  Interestingly, TMZ’s site CNN.com did not initially go with the TMZ report even though the two sites are co-owned by Time Warner.  And, finally, I have to say I have no idea what the line means --  “showing how funky strong is your fight” which is from Michael Jackson’s Beat It.                   

      INTERNET YOUNGER THAN MICHAEL JACKSON:  All right, that’s kind of a funky headline, but it is interesting --  from both perspectives when you think about it.  In 1969 when the military put Arpanet out to bid (thus creating the first computer network and the precursor to the Internet), Michael Jackson was 11 years old, a part of The Jackson Five, and had just signed a contract with Motown Records.  This isn’t some random thought that I came up with out of the blue.  The Open University based in the U.K. has put out a series of podcast interviews with pioneers like Vint Cerf and Tim Berners Lee and others commemorating the fact.

      THE BATTLE OF THE BROWSERS:  First Microsoft released IE8, Internet Explorer version 8, earlier this year.  Then Apple released version 4.0 of its Safari browser.  Now Mozilla is releasing version 3.5 of its Firefox browser.  More critically, underlying those new releases is something called HTML 5, which Safari has some of, but Firefox has more of.  As I’m sure most of you know, HTML stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language and is the language which allows web pages to talk to each other.  To hear some sites describe it, HTML 5 is the evolutionary equivalent of man walking upright or developing opposable thumbs.  Website BNET Technology says HTML 5 will transform IT “more profoundly than any development since the Internet.”  (Another reason why I recalled the birth of the Internet above.)  It sounds like one of those snake oil ads that claims to do everything, but according to BNET, HTML 5 allows the Web to become a universal operating system, making mobile devices more powerful than low end laptops, improves the quality of cloud-based applications, the efficiency of device storage, and could even be the “ultimate in disintermediation” by allowing every day people to collaborate in the Ethernet without big-time applications like Google or big-time companies like IBM.  I’m not sure whether to say “whew” or “wow.”  And, yes, I admit this may seem a little too techie for most of us, but this is the stuff that you will be hearing about and dealing with in the future.      

      FACTOID OF THE WEEK:  There are more than 150 BILLION web pages stored on the Internet Archive (archive.org) website.  Doing a little simple math, that is 25 websites for every single one of the 6 Billion men, women and children inhabiting this planet.  If you go just on the basis of people with Internet access (which, according to Internet World Statistics, numbers roughly 1.6 Billion), that’s almost 100 websites for every single person online.  And that is not the total number of websites. The archive site ‘only’ lists all websites from 1996 to just a few months ago.

      SCARY FACTOID OF THE WEEK:  At least if you are in television, it is.  TV shows online are commanding higher CPM’s than Broadcast TV shows, according to a report carried by Bloomberg TV and attributed to “global wealth management” firm Sanford C. Bernstein.  Candidly this would have been the headline for this week’s MfM if it hadn’t been for Michael Jackson’s death.  Before you dismiss it, the Bloomberg report quotes a stalwart of traditional media, David Poltrack, who heads research for CBS.  Even he admits that sites like HULU.com and TV.com provide advertisers a captive audience that has fewer commercials and higher viewer recall.  The Bloomberg report says, for example, that a prime time TV ad for The Simpsons would normally run $20 to $40 per thousand viewers.  On HULU, that same ad would for $60 per thousand viewers.  The Bernstein analyst cited in the report, Michael Nathanson, noted that a Simpson’s episode on HULU only has 37 seconds of ad space compared to the nine minutes in the broadcast version.  He also warned the networks not to “cannibalize their core business” in moving to the Web.  (As I say, I am surprised this hasn’t gotten more coverage.  It may be, I should note by way of balance, that the report runs counter to many other articles I’ve read about the abundance of ad space on the Internet.  I guess it depends on what the content is and what the delivery system is.)

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  We hinted at this in the section above about news organizations questioning the credibility of TMZ, but during the furor over Michael Jackson’s death, several websites and bloggers carried stories that actor Jeff Goldblum and then actor Harrison Ford also had died.  Apparently the rumors grew out of websites which allow you to fabricate reports using real news report by simply inserting a name.  Enough so-called ‘legitimate’ news operations carried the story, forcing Goldblum’s publicist to issue a statement that Goldblum was alive and well and living in Los Angeles.  As long as we’re on the subject of ‘fake news,’ the best example of all had to be the story out of Bolivia where a TV newscast aired images from the television series Lost, believing for some unknown reason that the footage was from the Air France plane crash.  Finally, as a footnote to all this, the Federal Trade Commission (the same people who want to hold public hearings on the future of news), wants rules to regulate bloggers. First off, they want bloggers to disclose when content is sponsored by advertisers.  The agency also wants bloggers and review sites to be held liable for consumer injuries resulting from unsubstantiated claims.  This follows the growing interest in review sites online, and follows in the wake of a number of businesses masquerading their pitches as blog comments.          

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - June 22, 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        June 22, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

      SOCIAL MEDIA-TED ELECTION

      MASSIVE MEDIA MOVEMENT

      MEDIA IMMUNITY IN THE RECESSION

      COCKTAIL CHATTER – HAPPINESS AND DRINKING

      ADDENDUM – TOO MUCH 411

 

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. 

 

      SOCIAL MEDIA-TED ELECTION:  Yes, the U.S. Presidential election was a watershed/ turning point/ big deal in the use of social media in politics, but one factoid about the controversial Iranian election and social media speaks volumes.  The founder of Twitter and its IP provider, NTT America, agreed to hold off a ‘critical’ upgrade of the service because of the role Twitter was playing “as an important communication tool in Iran.”  Reportedly, opposition party leaders in Iran used Twitter and other social media to coordinate and monitor their election efforts and since the loss, it has been used to coordinate the protests.  On the official twitter blogsite, Twitter founder Biz Stone said it was “humbling” to know the service could be playing a “globally meaningful role.” He was careful to emphasize that while the U.S. State Department asked for Twitter to continue, it was a decision by Twitter.  Until it was blocked by Iranian authorities, Facebook was also used to coordinate opposition efforts while protest video has been posted on YouTube. 

Yes, I know I’ve written about Twitter before, but it seems like social media – and Twitter in particular – have dominated media news over the past two weeks.  Also, as a personal side note, I have been asked by a couple of people if they could follow me on Twitter which is odd because I don’t twitter.  This isn’t another paean to twittering but rather a perspective on twittering.  For example, several websites (compete.com and quantcast.com) indicate that the two-year-old service may have peaked with its just under 20 Million users.  In May of this year, Twitter grew by a little more than a percent, dramatically less than other social networking sites.  Web analytics site HubSpot reports in its second annual “state of the twittersphere” that more than half (54.88%) of the Twitter accounts have NEVER tweeted; more than half (55.5%) are NOT following ANYONE; and more than half (52.71%) have NO followers.  Based on having less than ten followers, or ten friends or ten updates, the analysis says one in ten twitter accounts is dormant.  Another study by the Harvard Business Review found that more than half of Twitter users ‘tweet’ less than once every 74 days and that the top 10% of frequent ‘tweeters’ account for more than 90% of all tweets.  The Business Review study also found that, contrary to all other social networking, twitter is a male-driven activity rather than a female driven one.

None of this is meant to discount the impact of Twitter.  Again, I refer to the point above about Iran.  Website editorsblog.org notes that despite some criticisms on Twitter of mainstream media’s coverage of the Iranian election, it cites the CNN headline referring to “teargas and Twitter” in coverage of the Iranian protests.  Website PR 2.0 Blog makes the point that Twitter may be the broadcast medium for the new media generation.  The mediashift blog of PBS.org notes that more and more journalists are turning to Twitter for both personal and professional reasons.  And recently in New York, there was a “140 character conference” which is to be followed by two more – in Los Angeles and in London, which by the way is the twitter capital of the world.  But you know there is a rebellion in the offing when Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is quitting Twitter because of the Internet “trolls” who blankety-blank-blank-blank everything he does on Twitter.

      MASSIVE MEDIA MOVEMENT:  In less than five years, the Global IP traffic is expected to increase more than five times over, according to the Visual Networking Index created by networking firm Cisco which provides much of the backbone for the Internet.  The company says that by the year 2013, there will be 56 EXABYTES of Internet traffic monthly – compared to the monthly average of nine exabytes of traffic last year.  The major reason – the growth in video which, in all its various forms (TV, VoD, Internet Video and P2P), will account for more than 90% of the total global consumer IP traffic.  Another part of the reason is what the report calls “consumer hyperconnectivity” which will increase what is ill-defined as the “network day” from 36 hours to 48 hours by 2013.  That hyperconnectivity includes active digital multitasking such as listening to music online while web browsing, as well as passive networking such as recording on a DVR while watching other programming.  The other big growth is in mobile broadband which the report says will double every year.  Of that traffic nearly two thirds (64%) will be mobile video.  Most of the Internet traffic occurs in the Asia-Pacific region which is expected to account for 21 exabytes of data a month by 2013, followed by North America (13 exabytes) and Western Europe (12.5 exabytes).  Even though the Middle East and Africa are growing the fastest, by 2013, they will only account for one exabyte of data a month. 

In what it calls some ‘fun facts,’ the report says the amount of traffic crossing the Internet would be the equivalent of 10 Billion DVD’s; that the surface area of the world’s digital screens in use by 2013 would be the equivalent of 2 Billion large-screen TV’s which translates into 15 times the surface area of Manhattan, or put another way, would circle the globe 48 times.  Okay, a quick lesson, so you don’t have to look it up, an exabyte is a thousand petabytes which is a thousand terabytes which is a thousand gigabytes.  Interestingly, although the report references the “overwhelming pace”, it doesn’t indicate any concerns about keeping up with the growth.

      MEDIA IMMUNITY IN THE RECESSION:  Sorry, don’t get your hopes up about some positive news about media sales.  Instead it’s a report about broadband penetration which echoes the growth noted in the Cisco study.  Broadband adoption in U.S. homes has jumped to nearly two thirds (63%) compared to just over half (55%) a year ago, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  What I had forgotten was that the previous report showed broadband adoption IN THE HOME (an important distinction) had been stagnant.  The report appears to indicate that broadband adoption has grown in the population areas which had been having low usage in the past.  For example, lower income groups such as those making less than $20,000 grew from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009; senior citizen usage grew from 19% in 2008 to 30% in 2009; broadband use among those with only a high school degree grew from 40% in 2008 to 52% in 2009; and in rural America, broadband use grew from 38% in 2008 to 46% in 2009.  The only population subgroup that did not grow as much was African Americans where growth was below average.  In comparison usage amongst the high income population as well as the higher education population grew but only slightly.  The point about the recession immunity comes from a part of the survey which showed that twice as many people had cut back or cancelled their cell phone or cable TV plan rather than the Internet service.  That’s even though the cost of broadband has increased, especially – you’ll love this – in areas where there is only one Internet provider as opposed to several Internet providers.      

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  As the Monty Python skits used to say… and now for something completely different. Despite the economic problems in the country, more than a third (35%) of Americans say they’re “very happy,” according to… you’ll love this… The Happiness Index, a survey of 2,400 adults in the U.S., put together by The Harris Poll.  That’s the same… again despite the economy… as last year.  The pollsters say a close network of friends and positive relationships with family turned out to be more of a deciding factor in the happiness quotient than money or economic stability.  Spiritual beliefs also play a part.  As does education -- the more educated you are, the more happy you are, according to the poll, although the variations are small.  Women are slightly happier than men (36% versus 34%) and more married women are happy compared to single women (38% versus 34%).  Oddly, there was no numbers for married men versus single men.  I asked the pollsters why not and haven’t received a reply.  Unrelated (or at least I think it’s unrelated), just under a third of Americans (29%) drink alcohol at least once a week while a quarter (25%) say they never drink alcohol.  Again, according to our friends at The Harris Poll.  Only six percent say they drink daily and the same percentage say they drink ‘once a year.’  Men are twice as likely to drink as women (40% versus 19%) and women are more likely than men to say they never drink (29% versus 22%).  The favorite drinks – beer (67%), domestic wine (49%), Vodka (41%), Rum (32%) and foreign wines (29%), followed by Tequila (24%), Champagne (18%) and various whiskeys after that.

      ADDENDUM:  Proof that I sometimes cram too much stuff into my messages, several people sent me the link to an online video even though I mentioned it in my previous MfM. (Either that or I’m a lousy writer.)  Anyway it’s the hottest viral video for us media types.  It’s Mad Avenue Blues, which is a song about The Day The Media Died, set to Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.  Here are two links -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CqRcCHk_Pc . Or http://tinyurl.com/qcz2sm.  As long as I’m repeating stuff, let me repeat the Association of Independent Creative Editors website (http://www.aice.org).  My favorite here is Gnarls Barkley Who’s Gonna Save My Soul which won the music video category.  Warning – it is a little graphic, but it is also poignant and touching.  Watch the two of them and let me know what you think.               

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.