Media News - Thursday, April 17, 2008

Yahoo seen closer to Google ad outsourcing deal

Yahoo Inc is looking to turn over Web search advertising to Google Inc following a successful test using Google's service to deliver ads alongside its Web search results, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Spokesmen for Google and Yahoo declined to comment. The possible partnership with Google would be part of a bid by Yahoo to forge a three-way deal where Yahoo would merge with Time Warner Inc AOL in return for Time Warner taking a stake in Yahoo, sources had told Reuters last week. The move by Yahoo to outsource Web search advertising to market leader Google would allow Yahoo to focus on its online brand advertising business where it has a stronger position. Yahoo and Google announced the limited ad test a week ago. Yahoo is seeking alternatives to a Microsoft Corp's unsolicited USD 31 per share takeover offer. It has said that that offer undervalues Yahoo and has signalled that it wants a higher offer before considering a Microsoft deal. The Journal also reported a tie-up with Google would not necessarily derail an eventual deal to merge with Microsoft. Yahoo could simply pull out of the Google deal if Microsoft bought it, sources told the paper. (Reuters)

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France’s Le Monde journalists vote for another strike

Staff at Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, voted Wednesday to hold their second one-day strike in a week to protest plans to axe a quarter of the daily's journalists. The strike, voted at a staff general assembly, means the debt-ridden afternoon paper will not be published on Thursday. It was missing from newsstands Monday in an earlier protest at plans to cut 129 jobs - including up to 90 journalists - and sell several magazines in a bid to pull the Le Monde press group out of a financial crisis. Management has said it will resort to forced departures for the first time in the newspaper's history. Another 170 jobs would be affected by the sale of two publishing houses, a cultural weekly and the La Procure religious publications. Chief editor Eric Fottorino said this week that Monday's strike came during "serious and exceptional" times at the newspaper but vowed to press on with the proposed cuts to save the publication. (AFP via The Tocqueville Connection)

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Japan radio station to air execution tape as hangings rise

A Japanese radio station will broadcast a 1955 tape of an execution in a special program next month, a rare move to raise public awareness as the government increases the frequency at which it hangs death row inmates. The tape, from a prison in Osaka, western Japan, includes voices from the condemned prisoner and a prison guard, and the sound of the rope stretching when the inmate was hanged, said Katsuhiko Shimizu at Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc, a private radio station. Educating the public about executions was becoming important before the start of a lay judge system next year in which citizens would help hand down verdicts and sentences for serious crimes together with professional judges, he said. The 55-minute program will also include interviews with prison guards, public prosecutors and journalists who have covered executions. Japan executed four convicted murderers just last week, in line with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama's policy of reducing the number of prisoners on death row. The hangings brought to 10 the number of executions under Hatoyama, who took up his post last August, and came only two months after the last round of executions, an unusually short period in Japan. Opinion polls show most Japanese support capital punishment although human rights groups such as Amnesty International condemn the practice. The government began revealing names and details of those hanged from December in a new policy aimed at bolstering support for executions. (Reuters)

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RAI selects eMediaMonitor to test real time content control solutions

An innovative research project will provide Itay’s public broadcaster RAI with a real time system to prevent offensive content reaching an unintended audience. The experimental platform can detect any foul or obscene word from any broadcast, live or pre-recorded. The real-time application creates a small delay in the transmission process and allows the home user to activate a filter on his decoder. Any offensive term to be replaced with a “beep” on the TV set. eMediaMonitor are working closely with the RAI technical team based in Turin. The ability to remove foul and obscene language from broadcast content is seen to offer significant protection to a viewing and listening audience. The core technology is also being used in providing solutions for other markets. These range from real-time TV and Radio news content for use in the Financial Services Market to analysis work in call centres. (eMediaMonitor via Media Network Weblog)

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Journalism student gets university help via Twitter after Egypt arrest

A University of California at Berkeley graduate journalism student received help from the institution after sending out messages through Twitter while under arrest in Egypt, the San Jose Mercury News reports. James Karl Buck was arrested while photographing a demonstration in Egypt. He sent out the message “Arrested” on microblogging service Twitter, and friends in his network quickly notified Berkeley and the U.S. Embassy. The next day a local attorney hired by his university got him out of jail, although his interpreter, who is not an American citizen, apparently remains behind bars. (The Chronicle of higher education)

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Japan tackles unauthorized school Web sites

Japan has more than 38,000 unofficial middle and high school Web sites that are not overseen by the schools, an Education Ministry survey shows, and many are used for bullying and contain sexual content and violent slang. Online bullying, where hateful messages and pictures are posted on Web sites and abusive e-mails are sent through mobile phones and the Internet, has been a problem in Japan, which has around 15,000 middle and high schools. The Education Ministry survey showed that out of the 2,000 Web sites examined in depth, half contained hateful messages, almost 40 percent had sexual slang and a quarter carried violent words, like "drop dead" and "I'll kill you." Most of the unofficial sites were set up by students. Out of about 1,500 middle and high school students who responded to the survey, a quarter said they look at unofficial school Web pages and 14 percent said they posted messages there. The chief cabinet secretary, Nobutaka Machimura, who serves as the government spokesman, said it was not easy for the government to respond to the emergence of the Web sites. "There are some countries that could just shut them down straightaway. But Japan cannot legally do that," he said. "I think it is a question of the morals of the children and the parents who use them." (Reuters via International Herald Tribune)

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