“The individual user has been king on the Internet, but the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward edited information vetted by professionals.” Read Newsweek: “Revenge of the Experts” Here

“Is mainstream media unbiased? No, but we aren’t ideological. What we really thrive on is conflict.” Read Newsweek article here

The Long Tail Blog: Wired Cover Story on Free now live… Read it Here

Or jump straight to The FULL Wired Cover Story Online Read it Here (There is a video of Chris Anderson too)

What does the “Media Business Model” mean? From the Wired How to Wiki Read it Here

As always, Loving Wired.

Also on the Wired Cover story be sure to read the comments at the bottom (as I write this there are 29..). There is some very strong contention and counter arguments - constructive of course - to this article that widen the scope of the topic quite significantly.

Watch three Price Water House Cooper presentations on Video

1. Roadmap for convergence readiness
2. Media companies preparing for 2010
3. Delivering on Consumer Choice”Companies can harness the opportunities around convergence and translate them into value creation. The corporate winners will be those companies who nimbly manage change to fuse state-of-the-art technology with a clear vision of the future.”

View the videos at the PWC site here

Read Advertising Age: Article commenting on these results here - “Magazine Revenue will grow but slowly”

Also - Guess who won the 2007 National Magazine Award for Online General Excellence? Contenders were www.espn.com, www.slate.com and www.people.com. The winner.. Here

And now back home..
TVNZ has signed up to a groundbreaking partnership with Google to bring TVNZ content to YouTube - another New Zealand first for the broadcaster… Read More at tvnz.co.nz

From a Pre 1800 neanderthal carving on a wooly mammoth tooth through the 19th, 20th and 21st century where we are now with wiki, blogs, podcasts and e- books etc. View the University of Minnesota Media History Timeline

In the news - Fairfax reporter deported from Fiji

I am on Vacation till 21st June. In the words of Google - If your bored, Try Google News.

Back to Paris, News Count- 471 Articles Going Down…

Frontiers of Freedom Article: “Paris Hilton a Judicious Hissy Fit & Media Made Circus”- There are problems with Paris Hilton’s treatment, but it is the unfairness of it – not the fact that there is too much coverage. She should go home. Read it Here

Read the Frontiers of Freedom - “The Ten Tenets.”

For a more detailed legal argument read US Attorney Jonna Spilbor’s report: “The Fame and Misfortune of Celebrity: Why Paris Hilton does not belong behind bars” 

 An extra outtake:

Tony Blair in Slate: After asserting early on that a “free media is a vital part of a free society,” and that his “reflection is not about ‘blaming’ anyone,” Blair gets busy disdaining the freeness of the free media—that is, media that expresses itself in ways that he does not approve—and blaming the responsible parties for the decline of the press

He much prefers the old order, in which information could be more easily managed by the government.” Read more here

• Pour $$$ into Digital
• Make WSJ Free
• Stop Google owning the World (On that note check out Google Gears)

Read the Interview in the WSJ Here

And an old New Yorker archive from 2003 - Eleven pages on all you wanted to know about Dow Jones and the Bancroft Family. The Annals of Communication: Family Business

There were 3315 stories about the proposed $5b NewsCorp takover of Dow Jones in May 2007. The graph above shows stories of “takeover” theme (left) versus “ïntegrity” theme on the right.

What does Murdoch currently own? Well knowns right across the media spectrum - incl Fox, Harper Collins publishers, MySpace (!), NY Post, extensive list goes on.

Is this huge number of stories and reports just media interest and obsession with itself as a medium? or genuine concern on the loss of media channel diversity (currently very slim as it is) or whether or not Murdoch would preserve the respected WSJ, would “his track record mesh with the Journals reputation and tradition.”

I believe the first suggestion is the most accurate - the flow on effects from this transaction would most likely have an impact on various media outlets to some degree and if not a tangible impact they are sure to at least have some intangible impact such as feelings that this is further decreasing the number of diverse channels avaliable to shape pubic opinion and education. Others generating these 3315 stories - writing for a publication, citizen journalists, bloggers, etc no doubt are interested also for the latter rationale above, it is not ideal to see the continual merge of media globally -many people correlating this with journalistic decline - for the lack of varying opinions and channels as well as continual cost and resource cutting. Can Rupert Murdoch pass the stink test?

People turn to media for information and to form opinions - keeping up to date with events, issues, developments, warnings, some would say almost all of what we know and learn external to our own daily lives. Scholars have identified areas of concern (researched through political campaign media communications) as regards the media’s delivering of subjective information to the public, most of which are relevant on a general basis.

1. Emphasis on sensationalism
2. The Shrinking Soundbite
3. An emphasis on image over issues
4. A focus on the negative
5. Media narcissism and meta communication

Berelson in the 1960’s - “It is essential in a democratic society that citizens have access to information in order to make informed decisions that enable self governance.”

Even earlier, Edmund Burke in late 18th century England - Media labelled the “Fourth Estate”, based on the idea that press should have equal political power with the Lords, the Church and the Commons.

“Social responsibility theory” - Media serve to inform, entertain, sell, and “most importantly raise conflict to the plane of public awareness”. This theory differs from the three other press theories Authoritarian, Libertarian and Soviet Totalitarian in that it must fulfil the obligation of delivering info to the public and if they don’t someone must ensure they do.

Im not sure if I really have a point from the jump from the proliferation of NewsCorp Media to here. If I did, it would be something along the lines of - if media was serving solely to inform (SRI theory) there are a vast number of critical issues globally that would be a lot better slotted in and assigned some of the column width taken up by the 3315 NewsCorp stories in May.

White (1950) and Schneider (1967) looked at how editors, “gatekeepers” selected and shaped messages in the newsroom. This research found that editorial decisions are based on 1) “Newsworthiness” (I will get into this more another time…) 2) Organisational Norms and 3) Space Constraints.

I think its a frightening fact that the information we have access to to make informed decisions (Berelson) and that shapes our world is controlled by these gatekeepers who make the decisions based on their own personal subjective idea of what is newsworthy and what isn’t. To go even deeper, they not only select it but then write it up, shape it, massage it with full control over what we do or don’t see.

Infotainment. Tabloidisation. Sensationalism. These are all supposedly a result of breakdown of gatekeeping in the media Shaw (1994). Im not sure it could ever have been, or will be an ideal situation anyway. The solution, if you thought I was getting to that, I think can only be the building of awareness of how things are. who owns. vested interests.

Or just quite simply, grain of salt.

The Bancroft family, which controls 64% of Dow Jones, said in a statement that they would meet with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to discuss its $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The family also said it would consider other bidders and options for the company. Read the Bancroft Family Statement Here
In the media, as in any industry, big corporations play a vital role, as so do small, emerging ones. When you lose small businesses (NOT saying DJ is by any means a small business) this leads to

Losing big ideas and independent, passionate thinkers who have to innovate and identify and deliver to niches to compete. They love what they do and thats why they are doing it when the big guys have such a (seemingly untouchable) dominance. Because of this they are

Quicker to seize new technology and think outside the square because they have to which means we have

Unique, exciting content and higher quality media and more diversity of opinion/thought and creativity which enables

People to be better informed and who, at the end of the day are receiving information and messages from more than ONE ORIGINAL MOTHERSHIP SOURCE.

FACT: People generalise, distort and delete information based on their previous experiences, biases, prejudice and passions.

When critical information flows to us from the media I think, based on the fact above, it is essential to know and understand the psychological/social/emotional AND economic factors driving your source - whether it be Fairfax, Dow Jones, News Corp, APN or a new blogger on the block.

Media companies e.g. NC and DJ have grown incredibly large and powerful, their dominance has become so detrimental to the survival of small, emerging companies.One alternative: bust up the big conglomerates.Ted Turner is founder of CNN and chairman of Turner Enterprises talks “My Beef with Big Media”

There is much debate in the newspaper publishing business about whether family ownership is better than public ownership, whether a two-tiered stock structure is better than giving all shareholders the same voting rights.Here’s one thing: Dow Jones has been overpaying the dividend for years to the long-term detriment of the company and for the principle benefit of the Bancrofts. Read it Here at the Columbia Journalism Review

View results of this here with NewsCorp and DowJones share price movements in the last five years here