Communication Chronicles

New website hopes to open journalism to all

David Lawsky (Reuters, 07.01.09):  A year-old website, inspired by the use of Twitter and internet media reporting out of Iran, hopes to become the go-to forum for citizen journalists everywhere as traditional media pull back.  Allvoices.com, a fledgling social-networking-cum-news aggregator site launched in 2008, uses algorithms to help it sort news from around the world in a manner akin to what Google Inc does.  Its twist is that is encourages and enables anyone to be a reporter and uses an in-house system to rate would-be journalists on popularity and credibility...  Quantcast says Allvoices monthly traffic is running to more than 3 million unique users, more than two-thirds of them outside the United States...  Contributors are free to post almost anything.  Credibility is rated by people who read postings and by the in-house algorithm, which is designed to help measure postings against traditional media dna other sources.  But throwing the site open to the public has its pitfalls.  One recent post with a high credibility rating said the Ark of the Covenant was about to be unveiled.  Other stories cited no sources, anathema in traditional journalism.

Film studios pulling the plug on niche pics

Sharon Swart, writing for Variety (07.01.09):  With the first half of the year in film festivals behind us, it's hard not to notice the nearly complete lack of specialty film pickups by studios.  Even Fox Searchlight, one of the few remaining studio specialty divisions, has been somewhat quiet.  Since picking up "The Wrestler" at Toronto last fall, the label has made just one purchase:  "Adam," a small indie drama that played in Sundance's competition in January.  The consolidation of the indie and specialty-division landscape is alarming to filmmakers and sales agents, but Searchlight isn't happy about it either...  The indie divisions need movies to feed their pipelines.  Yet, at every fest this year, they seem to be sitting on their hands while Sony Pictures Classics, IFC Films and Magnolia basically just back up the truck...  When it comes to the studio arms, these days it's all about in-house production, pre-buys or, most typically, doing nothing.

Relatedly, Michael Cieply, reporting from Los Angeles for the New York Times (07.02.09):  Just days before shooting was to begin, Sony Pictures pulled the plug on "Moneyball," a major film project starring Brad Pitt and being directed by Steven Soderbergh.  The last-minute demise of a prestige picture is a rare spectacle in Hollywood -- one that is painful, expensive and damaging to all involved.  This one is estimated to have cost Sony $10 million in script development and costs like scouting locations.  But such disasters may become increasingly common as an increasingly nervous film business comes to terms with a sharp decline in home video revenue and with the diminishing leverage of even the most popular A-list stars, like Mr. Pitt.

World Cinema Fund (Berlin) doling out film project money

Wendy Mitchell, reporting for Screen Daily (07.01.09):  The Berlinale's World Cinema Fund jury has selected five new film projects for production funding and two for distribution funding.  The recipients were selected at the 10th session of the WCF jury on June 26-27.  The WCF also announced that the German Federal Cultural Foundation, under culture minister Bernd Neumann, has extended the WCF's funding until the end of 2011.  The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival in cooperation with the Goethe Institute....  The total $315,000 (Euros 222,400) funding round went to... [projects proposed by filmmakers in Chile, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Argentina, and Lebanon].

CFP: 2008 Presidential election and new media

Mass Communication & Society:  "The Facebook Election:  New Media and the 2008 Presidential Campaign" special symposium.  Tom Johnson and David Perlmutter, guest editors.  Some political observers dubbed the 2008 presidential campaign as the Facebook election.  Barack Obama, in particular, employed online social-interactive media (OSIM) such as blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook to run a grassroots style campaign.  Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul similarly campaigned using OSIM technology in their organizing efforts.  The Obama campaign was keenly aware that voters, particularly the young, are not simply consumers of information, but conduits of that information as well.  They often replaced the professional filter of traditional media with a social one.  OSIMs allowed candidates to do electronically what previously had to be done through shoe leather and phone banks:  contact volunteers and donors, and schedule and promote events.  OSIMs changed the way candidates campaigned, how the media covered the election and how voters received information.  In this special issue of Mass Communication and Society, we seek theoretically driven and empirically grounded manuscripts on the role of OSIMs in the 2008 election campaign.  This special issue will appear at the end of 2010.  Submitted papers should follow the standard submission procedures outlined in the inside back cover of the journal.  Authors should specify in their submission letter that they wish their submission to be considered for the 2008 Campaign New Media Symposium and must be received by January 12, 2010.

European Commission OK's French film production rebates

John Hopewell reporting in Variety (07.02.09) from Madrid:  The European Commission signed off Thursday on France's tax rebates for foreign shoots - meaning the rebates will likely be available in the fall.  With the greenlight, the government will now be able to pass the decrees putting the rebates into effect and opening up the rebate to Hollywood.  A committee judging applications should meet some time in August and September, said Patrick Lamassoure, managing director of Film France, Gaul's national film commission...  Levied at 20% of expenditure in Gaul, the tax rebate on international productions was approved in December by the National Assembly.  The rebates are capped at E4 million ($5.7 million) and are on offer to foreign shoots that don't draw coin from France's CNC Film Institute as official co-productions.  The Commission has approved the cultural tests that projects must pass to ensure they have something to do with France -- a stipulation required in countries with similar tax-rebate scheme including the UK and Germany.

Associational news from ICA

New newsletter (June/July 2009) from the International Communication Association.  Highlights:

• Strong attendance at the May Chicago conference -- 2,197 attendees (1,531 Americans, 420 Europeans, 101 East Asians).
  
• James Katz (professor and chair at Rutgers) picked to edit Human Communication Research.
  
• Closing plenary address by Naomi Klein.
  
• London will host the 2013 ICA conference, June 18-23.
  
• Among the award winners -- Tarleton Gillespie (Cornell) won the Outstanding Book Award for Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture (MIT 2007); Boris H.J.M. Brummans (U Montreal), Linda Putnam (UC - Santa Barbara), Barbara Gray (Penn State), Ralph Hanke (BGSU), Roy Lewecki (Ohio State), and Carolyn Wiethoff (Indiana U), won the Outstanding Article Award for "Making Sense of Intractable Multiparty Conflict:  A Study of Framing in Four Environmental Disputes," Communication Monographs 75.1; Brant Burleson (Purdue) won the association's mentorship award; and five new ICA Fellows named:  Robert T. Craig (Colorado - Boulder), Youichi Ito (Akita International), Michael Roloff (Northwestern), Dave Seibold (UC - Santa Barbara), and Barbie Zelizer (U Penn).

Brian Newman steps down as CEO at Tribeca Film Institute

Wendy Mitchell reporting at Screen Daily (07.03.09):  Tribeca Film Institute, the non-profit branch of Tribeca Enterprises, has lost its popular CEO Brian Newman.  Tribeca said in a statement: "Brian Newman has resigned from his position as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute effective immediately.  We wish him the best in his new endeavors.  In the interim period [Deputy Director] Eileen Newman will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of TFI and Reframe project while Beth Jansen will oversee programming as our Artistic Director."

Huge annualized traffic jump for Facebook

From Jack Loechner at MediaPost (07.03.09):  According to Nielsen, total minutes spent on social networking sites in the U.S. has increased 83% year-over-year.  In fact, total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700% year-over-year, growing from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in 2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site for the month... and worth $10 billion last week according to analysts.  Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen Online, notes "We have seen major growth in Facebook... and a subsequent decline in MySpace.  Twitter... (is) perhaps changing the outlook for the entire space... regardless of how fast a site is growing... it can quickly fall out of favor with consumers... (who) are willing to pick up their networks and move them to another platform... at a moment's notice."

RSA 2010 Minneapolis conference call

CALL FOR PROPOSALS | RHETORIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

14th Biennial Conference

May 28-31, 2010

The Minneapolis Marriott City Center

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Conference Theme -- RHETORIC:  CONCORD AND CONTROVERSY

I have often and seriously debated with myself whether men and communities have received more good evil from oratory and a consuming devotion to eloquence -- Cicero.

But put identification and division ambiguously together, so that you cannot know for certain just where one ends and the other begins, and you have the characteristic invitation to rhetoric -- Kenneth Burke.

In the de Inventione, Cicero recognizes two opposing dimensions of rhetoric, the one divisive and conflictive, the other irenic and unifying.  Kenneth Burke, in characteristic fashion, converts this either/or into a both/and.  For him, rhetoric simultaneously divides and unifies, separates as it identifies and dwells most naturally in the in-between space where sameness and difference ambiguously embrace one another.  The theme of our conference calls these distinctions and confusions to mind.  It asks, among many other things:  Does rhetoric civilize?  Or does it repress or control?  Or both?  Does it express the self?  Or dissolve it into a cultural miasma?  What is the price of community gained through the language of social control?  What is the limit of dissent expressed through the language of difference and personal liberation?  Where do diversity and sameness meet on the human tongue and in the human condition?

We welcome any and all papers that touch on this theme or that redefine it or reconstruct it or deconstruct it.  We also welcome all other papers that deal with any aspect of rhetorical scholarship - historical, theoretical, critical, pedagogical, sophistical or Platonic, Aristotelian or Foucaultian.  All are welcome to meet in Minneapolis, a space between the coasts, and a place where nice is the norm, but where nastiness has left it as the only spot in the U.S. where the number of senators has equaled the number of governors for half a year.  Celebrate the confusion and the order of Minnesota and of the rhetorical world to which it belongs.  Join us at RSA in May.

Proposals for sessions, special events, and individual presentations - due by SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 - must be submitted electronically as a Word document.  Instructions for submitting abstracts can be found at the Rhetoric Society of America main site.  There you will also find information (and regular updates) on housing, special features, and other aspects of RSA 2010.

IFJ expresses concern over press freedom issues in UAE

From the International Federation of Journalists (07.03.09):  

The IFJ has said today that the press law in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) needs to be reformed to ensure press freedom.  The call followed a judgement of the Federal High Court in Abu Dhabi, on Monday 29 June, which upheld the suspension of the EMARAT AL YOUM newspaper in a libel suit brought by race horses owners based in UAE.  The judgement of the Federal High Court cannot be appealed.  "There is an urgent need for a progressive press law to promote genuine press freedom in the UAE," said Paco Audije, IFJ Deputy General Secretary.  "Our colleagues face uphill struggle to overcome existing repressive laws which seek to protect the powerful against media scrutiny."

UK National Theatre Live attracts 14,000 for cinema screening

From Screen (07.03.09):  The London National Theatre's live cinema broadcast of Phedre, starring Helen Mirren and Dominic Cooper, pulled in an audience of 14,000 from 73 screens across the UK.  It was the first performance in the National Theatre Live season.  The play, the first to be shown through an initiative between independent cinema chain City Screen and the National, was shown on a further 200 screens internationally, including the Guthrie in Minneapolis and Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre.

Briggs-Bunting steps down at Michigan State

From Susan Vela at the LANSING STATE JOURNAL (07.03.09):

Jane Briggs-Bunting - a veteran reporter, media attorney and Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame inductee - has been asked to step down as director of Michigan State University's School of Journalism.  The tenured professor, 59, said she has a contract to stay at the helm of the department until next summer.  But Briggs-Bunting said the new MSU dean overseeing her department, Pamela Whitten, spent her first day on the job asking for her resignation.

YouTube launches reporters' center

From cyberjournalist.com, 06.29.09:  YouTube today launched a new resource to help people learn more about how to report the news, called the YouTube Reporters' Center.  YouTube's Oliva Ma:  "It features some of the nation's top journalists sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting" (Katie Couric on interview prep, Bob Woodard on investigating, etc.).

More trouble for Clear Channel

From David Hendricks, reporting for MySanAntonio online (06.27.09), an update on Clear Channel's fading financial prospects.  Contrary to speculation that its parent company (CC Media Holdings) would reconfigure holdings between the radio and billboard parts of the company to help weather the storm, it now looks, according to Hendricks, like "the lenders evidently want to steer the company into bankruptcy so they can pick up the assets cheap and sell them.  The lenders apparently believe that is the way to get the most amount of money back from the loans made when Boston-based firms Bain Capital Partners and THL Partners acquired the San Antonio company in one of the last big private equity deals as the credit crunch worsened."  The future looks bleak:  "Analysts believe Clear Channel, now with about $22 billion in total debts, will have trouble making scheduled payments later this year.  The company [is] already down to about 800 stations from its peak of about 1200..."

US releasing $4B for broadband

Reuters reporting July 1 that a $4B allocation is about to be released for the purpose of expanding broadband access for Americans:  "The funds are part of a $7.2 billion program to build an affordable high-speed Internet structure in rural areas.  The project is being pushed by President Barack Obama seeking to shore up the U.S. economy with job creation," and was embedded in the February stimulus package.  Funding and program details available here.

Science journalism: The Arab boom

From Nadia El-Awady, a freelance science journalist based in Cairo, writing in NATURE (06.25.09, pg. 1057):

In 2006 I helped to launch the Arab Science Journalists Association, which has since grown to 179 members as of May 2009.  We are now co-bidding – with the US National Association of Sciences Writers - to host the 7th World Conference of Science Journalists in Cairo in 2011 (the 6th conference is being held in London next week)...

Although the science staff of media organizations in the United States and Europe face cutbacks, a survey of ASJA members in January 2009 indicated that full-time jobs for Arab science journalists have remained relatively stable over the past five years, and freelancers report more opportunities.  The AL-AHRAM daily newspaper in Egypt, for example, which started a weekly science section in the 1950's, employs 20 full-time science journalists.  The WASHINGTON POST, a US paper with a similar circulation, has eight.  AL JAZEERA, despite being one of the largest and most famous Arab news outlets, has no full-time science reporters, but Egypt's AL-MANARA science research channel has 40 full-time staff...

Despite... strong links between science and the media, Arab science institutions remain relatively closed to journalists.  As I sit at my desk in Cairo, it is easier for me to know what is happening in American universities halfway across the globe than to know what is happening within the walls of Egypt's National Research Center just across the street.  There is a lack of communications officers in Arab science-related institutions and universities.  Press releases are rarely sent to journalists, and websites are often poor and badly maintained.

Another problem for science journalism stems from a more general issue.  Many media platforms are government-owned and, as a result, many journalists provide uncritical coverage of government announcements.

HT:  FramingScience

ICA health communication award nomination call

The Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award recognizes a significant and original contribution, in the form of a monograph, book, and/or program of research, to the study and application of the field of health communication.  

NOMINATION CRITERIA.  There are five nomination criteria.  The scholar's work must have:  (a) a significant and long-lasting effect on the field of health communication; (b) strong heuristic value; (c) influence over others' work; (d) originality regarding theory, research, and/or practice; and (e) contributed to the development of health communication as a distinct field of study.

NOMINATION PROCEDURE.  Although nominations are open to anyone who had made a significant contribution to the health communication field, preference is given to members of ICA's and NCA's health communication division.  Nomination packets include:  (a) A single, detailed letter of nomination addressing the aforementioned criteria; (b) the scholar's vita; and (c) the single most influential or representative piece of work from the scholar.  Self nominations are encouraged.  The deadline for nominations is JULY 31, 2009.

Send nominations to:

Jeffrey D. Robinson

Rutgers University

Department of Communication

4 Huntington Street

New Brunswick, NJ  08901

jrob@rutgers.edu

Big media buy advertising slide expected to continue

Marc Graser in Daily Variety (06.25.09, pg. 4), reports on a GroupM revision of its global advertising forecasts for 2009, "predicting it will fall 5.5% to $417 billion vs. the 4% drop it originally anticipated in March."  The projection is that this amount will rebound somewhat in 2010.  The report argues that this rebound will mainly be fueled overseas, particularly India, China, Russia, and Brazil.  And Wayne Friedman (MediaDailyNews, 07.01.09), quoting a new BIA Advisory Services report, notes that "TV stations are now estimated to fall a big 17.3% in advertising revenues to $16.6 billion in 2009, versus last year." BIA is of the view that growth in the television market will be the result (in the United States) of the FCC reconsidering its regulations pertaining to cross- and local-ownership rules.

Call for nominations: AFA argumentation research awards

The DANIEL ROHRER AFA RESEARCH AWARD recognizes outstanding scholarship in argumentation and forensics published in the previous calendar year.  Any published article, text, or book in the field of argumentation and/or forensics is eligible for nomination.  To nominate a published scholarly article please send a letter of nomination detailing why the publication should be honored and a copy of the compete publication.  If the publication nominated is a book, a copy of the table of contents and of one chapter is sufficient.  Electronic submissions are preferred; hard copy submissions should include six (6) copies of all necessary materials.  Eligible scholarship for 2009 must have a publication date of 2008.  The award shall be presented at the annual American Forensic Association business meeting to be held in Chicago in 2009.  The committee chair must receive nominations by no later than October 1, 2009, and nominations received after this date may not be considered.

The AFA OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION OR THESIS AWARD recognizes the best dissertation or thesis in the theory and practice of argumentation and forensics completed in the previous calendar year.  The candidate must be a member of AFA.  To nominate a thesis or dissertation, a letter of nomination detailing the significance of the dissertation or thesis (usually from the project adviser), a copy of the table of contents, and a representative chapter of the completed study.  Electronic submissions are preferred; hard copy submissions should include six (6) copies of all necessary materials.  Eligible scholarship for 2009 must have a publication date of 2008. The award shall be presented at the annual American Forensic Association business meeting to be held in Chicago in 2009.  The committee chair must receive nominations by no later than October 1, 2009, and nominations received after this date may not be considered.

Send nominations and submissions for the 2009 awards to:  Jim Dimock, Speech Communication Department, 230 Armstrong Hall, Minnesota State University - Mankato, Mankato, MN, james.dimock@mnsu.edu.

Defending academic debating

A new newsletter (June 2009) from the American Forensic Association includes a statement from the AFA President, Daniel Cronn-Mills (Minnesota State - Mankato) on debate assessment.  Offered in the immediate aftermath of an AFA-sponsored Wake Forest University conference on debate, Cronn-Mills notes that intercollegiate debate will face a stronger future in part to the extent that it is able to offer well-evidenced and methodologically defensible data on debate's benefits (as opposed to anecdotal statements of support).  Ideas under discussion range from (quoting Cronn-Mills) "the development of national assessment profiles for intercollegiate debate and intercollegiate individual events" organized outside the purview of any particular organization, which in turn would generate online research databases.  "Forensics needs to step to the forefront and engage in systematic educational assessment of student learning outcomes."

Cannes: "Seismic shift" from TV to digital

Tim Bradshaw, reporting on the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for the Financial Times (06.30.09, pg. 20), notes that after five and a half decades of celebrating "the best creative work in television produced by agencies around the world," this year marked a "seismic shift" to the celebration of digital work.  The "grand prix" celebrated an interactive online video produced for Philips TV.  The Obama campaign also received an award for its work in mobilizing grassroots digital support.  Part of the shift, writes Bradshaw, reflects the growing audiences for online media, the poor economy (obviously TV campaigns are much more expensive), and the continuing shifts to niche marketing (which favor interactive media).  A challenge for ad agencies is that digital work provides lower margins compared to the more elaborate work undertaken to produce television advertising.

Industry battleground over virtual social gaming

Chris Nuttall and David Geller, writing in the FInancial Times (06.30.09, pg. 20), provide an analysis of social gaming.  Some highlights:

• "Social gaming, where social networks become venues for virtual pets and fantasy mob wars, is becoming a real world battleground for industry players trying to cash in on the phenomenon."
• "Popular games such as Farm Town and Pet Society are attracting more than 100 million players on sites like Facebook..."
• "Industry analysts estimate the cottage industry of social gaming will earn $300m to $400m in revenues this year, compared with around $500m for Facebook..."

Interviews posted at Communicast

Communicast is an site hosted by the SUNY New Paltz Communication & Media Department that posts streaming audio on communication research topics.  Newest:  an interview with Dudley Cahn (on the SUNY-NP faculty) relating to his text, Family Violence:  Communication Processes.  Other interviews posted there include talks with James McCroskey, William Rawlins, Patricia Sias, and James Chesebro.

EU converting theaters to digital

Ian Mundell, reporting from Brussels for Daily Variety (6.19.09, pg. 8), updates on EU efforts to help movie houses convert to digital projection, an initiative motivated by its interest in protecting small theaters perceived as important to local communities.  Mundell notes that by end of 2008, just 4% of European theaters had converted.  Three options were announced laying out options for subsidizing the transition, which range from a plan that would assist in enabling financing, to a more ambitious plan that would identify an intermediate organization to orchestrate the changeover.  Mundell:  "The [European] Commission will publish a broader strategy on digital cinema in Europe later in" 2009.

Michael Jackson death strains online media outlets

Financial Times (06.27-28.09, pg. 3) reporting that the Jackson death news slowed several major web sites to a crawl, including Twitter and Facebook.  They note Nielsen's announcement that traffic generated by those seeking information on Michael Jackson's passing "far exceeded those of the recent swine flu scare and also surpassed the Obama inauguration."  Especially hard hit:  the Los Angeles Times, which was commonly mentioned as first reporting the singer's collapse, and TMZ, the first outlet to report that he had died.

Jon Fine: Charging for content gets closer

Jon Fine (Business Week, 07.06.09, pg. 63) argues that new models for generating income on the Web are rapidly being developed.  He quotes Gordon Crovitz (Journalism Online) as expecting "a very large number of news sites will have some elements of paid content beginning in the fall."  Combining free and "premium" content, revenue-generating services hope to (quoting Fine) use "data from these" premium user's "browsing habits to help sell ultra-targeted – and thus higher-priced – advertising."  Fine quotes NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker and IAC CEO Barry Diller as exemplifying a new openness to charging for content, connected to a new confidence that models for online revenue models might succeed.