Journoz: Updates for Australian Journalists

From the horse's mouth

The United Nations has its own news service for those who want to keep track of its doings. News is available in print, radio, TV and video and digital images. See the range of offerings at http://www.un.org/av/.

Not over yet

They aren't giving up on the Alan Jones/Telstra issue at the Communications Law Centre at UNSW. While the Centre welcomes the ABA's recent report on the issue -- for those who haven't seen it, it's at http://www.aba.gov.au/radio/investigations/projects/telstra-2gb/documents/Jones_Telstra_2GBReport.pdf -- Derek Wilding, Director of the Centre, wants some matters cleared up. Read the letter he has sent to the ABA (www.aba.gov.au/) at http://www.comslaw.org.au/publications/pub56.pdf. The ABA's report, entitled Investigation relating to sponsorship of the Alan Jones Program on Radio 2GB pursuant to an Agreement between Telstra Corporation and Macquarie Radio Network Pty Ltd, is 71 pages long. You'd think they could get matters clearer with that many pages to play with.

Get the picture

Moving History is a new site that provides a guide to the United Kingdom's twelve public sector moving image archives. Use the site to see what's in the different archive collections. There are more than 100 film and video clips available to give a taste of what's in store. The Moving History site is at http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/

Digital TV and media ownership

The Parliamentary Library has issued an e-brief on digital television and datacasting before as well as one on media ownership regulation in Australia. Both have now been updated so deserve a fresh look as some of the issues have changed. The digital TV one is at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/INTGUIDE/SP/Digital_television.htm and the media ownership one is at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/INTGUIDE/SP/media_regulations.htm.

Media ownership

With the US FCC set to change US media law, it is timely to see the effects of deregulation elsewhere. Canada deregulated its media 20 years ago, and Online Journalism Review has a piece about it at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/law/1054219939.php. In another OJR piece, columnist Mark Glaser sees the FCC's Review of the Commission's Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a boost for online media. Read his thoughts (and link to the FCC's report) at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1054167431.php. Poynter has a 5-minute guide to what the FCC's proposed changes mean at http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=35642.

Media ownership in the US

Wired News has a simple Q&A today to help people understand the US Federal Communications Commission's proposals to change media ownership laws in the US. The story reads: "Current rules ban mergers between major television networks -- NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox -- and limit the number of television and radio stations that a company can own in a market. The rules prohibit any company from owning television stations that reach more than 35 percent of U.S. households, or owning a newspaper and a radio or television station in the same city." Read the full piece at http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58993,00.html/wn_ascii.

Who owns whom and what?

Information on US media, telephone and cable companies can be found in the Well Connected database, created by the US Center for Public Integrity. The database is at http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/analysis/default.aspx and you can do a number of different searches

• Search Ownership Database by Area
• Search Ownership Database by Callsign
• Search Ownership Database by Company Name
• View an overall ownership database summary
• View top Industry Corporation lists

The database is part of the Well Connected project by the Center, a three-year investigation into the United States telecommunications industry, where the three largest local phone companies control 83% of home telephone lines.

Interactive TV, anyone?

If you have been wondering about the future of digital television and interactive services, you might want to look for clues within the 40-page White Paper, Future Opportunities for UK Telephony and interactive Services, produced by BT agilemedia, an arm of BT, (the UK equivalent to Telstra). You can get the full report at http://www.agile-media.co.uk/mc_downloads.htm. The report covers what interactive business opportunities companies can exploit in fixed and mobile telephony, as well as online.

New Zealand Television - back to tight regulation?

The Institute for Social Research has published a new Working Paper called Television Reform in New Zealand: Broadcasting Blues or Blue Sky? by Marion Jacka. It covers NZ government attempts to renew intervention in broadcasting markets after the ill effects of earlier deregulation. Find the report at http://www.sisr.net/publications/workingpapers/No7_MJ_final.PDF.

The ABC at seventy

Ken Inglis examines the health of Aunty after seventy years at http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/items/00181.shtml.