Media News - Thursday, August 14, 2008

New media habits form with Olympic games

About half of the people who are using mobile phones to pull down video or information about the Olympics have been trying out that technology for the first time, NBC said on Wednesday. NBC Universal, the American company that has the rights to broadcast the Games there, has been using the Olympics as a chancew to research the adoption of new media technology. Since the opening ceremony last Friday, the company has made content available online, through video on demand and via cell phones along with traditional TV. The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small - 494,506 on Sunday and 476,062 on Monday - but NBC executives say they're stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before. Also, Americans downloaded some 1.7 million video streams of Monday's stunning swimming relay where the American team came from behind to beat France and keep Michael Phelps' gold medal streak alive. An estimated 1.5 million video streams were e-mailed from one person to another, Wurtzel said. NBC Universal worried in past Olympics years that its decision to air much of the events on cable outlets like CNBC, MSNBC and USA would siphon interest from prime-time, which is still where the network earns the bulk of its advertising revenue. But the opposite proved to be true and, this year, the same thing has happened with the digital content, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. (AP)

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Thailand: Internet data law goes into force next week

From 23 August, private firms, organisations and government agencies will be required to store all Internet traffic data for 90 days so it is available as digital evidence for police. Pol Col Yannapol Youngyuen, commander of the Bureau of Technology and Cyber Crime at the Department of Special Investigation, said the IT Ministry order has no exceptions and will include banks, hotels, schools and Internet cafes. He said digital evidence gathered from computers is useful in tracking those engaged in cyber crime. Cyber offences, ranging from email forwarding of pornographic pictures to posting libellous messages on forums, are on the rise, Pol Col Yannapol said, but police agencies find it hard to gather the evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice. He said internet cafes will also be required to collect information to identify computer users, such as ID cards, time of logging in and sites visited. Shops that fail to heed the rules will face fines. (Asia Media)

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Nearly one in three worldwide watched Olympics opening

Almost one third of the world's population - a little over 2 billion people - watched the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, according to the global market research company Nielsen on Thursday. The number of viewers, though high, was less than the 4 billion China's state-run media had predicted. The Nielsen Company said in a statement that it collected data from 38 key markets around the world, including host nation China, the United States, Brazil, South Africa, Italy and Australia. Comparing regions, the highest audience reach was in the Asia-Pacific, where more than five in 10 people watched the opening ceremony, followed by Europe, where 30 percent of the population watched, and North America, at 24 percent. (Expatica)

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Russian state radio stations, newspaper become available in South Ossetia

Russian FM radio station and the [government-owned] Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper will become available in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia that has suffered from Georgia's aggression. “[State-owned] Vesti FM radio station began broadcasting on VHF and medium wave frequencies in Tskhinvali today [12 August]. Tomorrow we hope to open the [state-owned] Mayak radio station on 106.3 FM,” said Russian Telecommunications and Mass Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev. He was speaking in Moscow on 12 August at a telephone conference of the federal operational headquarters for eliminating the consequences of the armed conflict in South Ossetia. He said that the first special issue of Rossiyskaya Gazeta would be published this week. “We intend to send the main print run to South Ossetia via the Defence Ministry, so that people there are not cut off from information,” he said. Base stations are being restored in Tskhinvali, Shchegolev said. The ministry is sending two mobile stations and a satellite station for that purpose, he said. (Media Network)

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British journalist detained by Beijing police after covering Free Tibet protest

Police in Beijing roughed up and detained a British journalist after he covered a Free Tibet protest close to the city's main Olympic zone earlier Wednesday. The incident appeared to be the clearest breach yet of the host nation's promise of free media access during the Games. John Ray, of Independent Television News, said he was pinned down by police, dragged along the ground and pushed into a police van. He said the authorities had also confiscated his equipment, pulled off his shoes, filmed him and accused him of trying to unfurl a Tibetan flag. After his release some 30 minutes later, he said he was shaken but unharmed. Beijing police said eight foreign Free Tibet protesters, including seven US citizens and a Japanese national, were arrested and their deportation was being supervised. They made no comment about Ray's treatment. (Media Guardian)

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And the winner of the worst writing of 2008 is …

A grotesque comparison of a steamy love affair to a New York City street has won a Washington man this year's grand prize in an annual contest of bad writing. Garrison Spik, a 41-year-old communications director and writer, took top honors in San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this opening sentence to a nonexistent novel: “Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped ‘Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.’” The contest is named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel “Paul Clifford” famously begins, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Entrants are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Awards are given for many categories, including awards for “purple prose” and “vile puns.” The top winner receives a $250 (168 EUR) prize. (CNN)

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