Media News - Monday, August 27, 2012

UK firm develops software to unmask fake Twitter accounts

Lady Gaga has almost 30 million, Wayne Rooney nearly five million and David Cameron a more-than-respectable two million plus. But how many of their Twitter followers actually exist? A British start-up company has pledged to root out and expose the phantom, fake and fraudulent followers being used to massage the numbers claimed by celebrities, politicians and the merely insecure within the Twittersphere. The company, Status People has devised a software tool that divides followers into the fake, the inactive and the good. Company executive Rob Waller said it had been decided to create the "fake follower" tool after reports that former Tory MP Louise Mensch had 40,000 fake followers. The fake follower tool aims to expose the true extent of the problem of phantom Twitter followers. Almost every Twitter account has a small percentage of fake followers because, unlike Facebook, anyone can follow you – from a genuine friend to a computer-generated account set up to promote pornography. That freedom has created a market for the sale of Twitter followers. Scores of internet sites offer thousands of Twitter followers for small sums of money. According to the New York Times, it would be possible to buy 220,000 followers for GBP 260. (The Guardian)

I. Coast papers halt publication after arson attack

Opposition newspapers in Ivory Coast that once supported ousted president Laurent Gbagbo on Friday suspended publication for two days following an arson attack on a press group. Notre Voie, the daily of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), and five other papers were absent from the newsstands to "protest against... sanctions, threats and now aggression," they announced in a joint statement. The headquarters of the Cyclone group, which edits the daily Le Temps, was vandalised and partially burned down by raiders overnight on Saturday. Hours earlier, an armed group attacked the FPI headquarters in Abidjan, abducting two people and wounding three. In suspending publication, newspapers close to the former president said they wanted to alert the public "to the danger of death that hangs over their journalists and their workers", according to the joint statement. The papers also denounced "threats and intimidation combined with heavy targeted sanctions by the National Press Council", the authority that regulates the press, which has several times taken action against opposition papers for failing to uphold professional standards. (AFP)

Philippine police arrest 357 in cyber crime raid

The Philippine National Police said that early Friday morning officials raided some 20 residences and arrested 357 people as part of a massive investigation into online fraud and account theft ring. According to police, the groups had been calling individuals in China, posing as Chinese state police members. The scammers told victims that their bank accounts had been compromised by hackers and instructed them to transfer all of their funds to a supposed "safe account" controlled by the criminals. Police said that the suspects were mostly nationals of Taiwan and mainland China who had moved their operation to the Philippines following a Chinese police crackdown on cyber crime and fraud operations. Sophos security blogger Paul Roberts noted that the large-scale raids were part of a larger joint operation between authorities in China and the Philippines to target criminals who were preying on Chinese citizens from abroad. (V3.co.uk)

Pew study: different media skew campaign coverage differently; most balanced: newspapers

A new study of news coverage by mainstream media, released by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, confirms what everyone pretty much has assumed for a while regarding campaign coverage of President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney: “Portrayal in the news media of the character and records of the two presidential contenders in 2012 has been as negative as any campaign in recent times,” the project reports. But then there’s this: “Neither candidate has enjoyed an advantage over the other.” As it has done in the previous three presidential campaigns, the Pew project set out to study news reports on presidential campaigns in a few dozen select media to see how much of the coverage could be characterized as positive and how much negative. The study pored over reports from May 29 through August 5 and also found this non-surprise: whether the candidates are most likely portrayed positively or negatively depends on the news medium. And this: the most balanced of all news media, including on-line media, are newspapers. Overall: Pew found news reports on Obama were 28 percent positive and 72 percent negative. For Romney, the references were 29 percent positive and 71 percent negative. (Orlando Sentinel)

Magazine publisher Bonnier creates accelerator program for media startups

Magazine Publisher Bonnier Corp. is beginning an effort to identify promising early-stage startups in the media space and accelerate their development. The accelerator, called Bonnier Innovation Lab, is asking for applications from companies trying to change the way content is created, distributed or consumed. It will select four to receive at least USD 25,000 in seed funding as well as services and support in areas such as public relations, e-commerce, web hosting and human relations. The four startups will also participate in a 14-week program at Bonnier's Boulder, Colo., office to go over topics such as content strategy, audience development, search engine optimization, social media, product development cycles and investor relations. Other magazine publishers are seeking or encouraging digital innovation in various ways, hosting showcases for startups, maintaining units to incubate ideas internally and buying or investing in various digital enterprises. But Bonnier's accelerator program might help it better identify and integrate startups early. Outside of print, Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting unit recently created an accelerator program called Media Camp. Its Media Camp Academy offers participants up to $20,000 in funding. (Advertising Age)

Spain: Bullfighting returns to television

Spain’s state television said Friday that it would again air live bullfights after a six-year halt, helping a tradition hit by falling popularity and the economic crisis. The policy change comes under the new conservative Popular Party government, which opposes all attempts to curtail bullfighting in Spain. Under the previous Socialist government, state television had stopped showing live evening bullfights for economic reasons and because they coincided with children’s viewing times. Bullfighting has been hit hard by the economic crisis, with fewer bullfights and smaller attendance. In 2011, the northeastern region of Catalonia became Spain’s second Spanish region to ban bullfighting, joining the Canary Islands, which stopped the practice in 1991. (AP)

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