History of Cable

In the past 65 years, cable has emerged from a fledgling novelty for a handful of households to the nation’s preeminent provider of digital television, movies and state-of-the-art broadband Internet service available to millions of Americans.

Today, thanks to broadband cable and other breakthroughs, the technological landscape is unrecognizable compared with even a few years ago. Consumers now enjoy video content and Internet access from multiple services on multiple devices. They can go online anytime, anywhere with more options and opportunities than ever.

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Click on the graph above for a more in depth view.

The 1940s and 1950s

Cable television originated in the United States almost simultaneously in Arkansas, Oregon and Pennsylvania in 1948 to enhance poor reception of over-the-air television signals in mountainous or geographically remote areas. “Community antennas” were erected on mountain tops or other high points, and homes were connected to the antenna towers to receive the broadcast signals.

By 1952, 70 “cable” systems served 14,000 subscribers nationwide.

In the late 1950s, cable operators began to take advantage of their ability to pick up broadcast signals from hundreds of miles away. Access to these “distant signals” began to change the focus of cable’s role from one of transmitting local broadcast signals to one of providing new programming choices.

The 1960s

By 1962, almost 800 cable systems serving 850,000 subscribers were in business. Well-known corporate names like Westinghouse, TelePrompTer and Cox began investing in the business, complementing the efforts of early entrepreneurs like Bill Daniels, Martin Malarkey and Jack Kent Cooke.

The growth of cable through the importation of distant signals was viewed as competition by local television stations. Responding to broadcast industry concerns, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expanded its jurisdiction and placed restrictions on the ability of cable systems to import distant television signals. As a result of these restrictions, there was a “freeze” effect on the development of cable systems in major markets, lasting into the early ‘70s (see below).

The 1970s

In the early 1970s, the FCC continued its restrictive policies by enacting regulations that limited the ability of cable operators to offer movies, sporting events, and syndicated programming.

The freeze on cable’s development lasted until 1972, when a policy of gradual cable deregulation led to, among other things, modified restrictions on the importation of distant signals. The clamp on growth had adverse financial effects, especially on access to capital. Money for cable growth and expansion all but dried up for several years.

However, concerted industry efforts at the federal, state, and local levels resulted in the continued lessening

of restrictions on cable throughout the decade. These changes, coupled with cable’s pioneering of satellite communications technology, led to a pronounced growth of services to consumers and a substantial increase in cable subscribers.

In 1972, Charles Dolan and Gerald Levin of Sterling Manhattan Cable launched the nation’s first pay-TV network, Home Box Office (HBO). This venture led to the creation of a national satellite distribution system that used a newly approved domestic satellite transmission. Satellites changed the business dramatically, paving the way for the explosive growth of program networks.

The second service to use the satellite was a local television station in Atlanta that broadcast primarily sports and classic movies. The station, owned by R.E. “Ted” Turner, was distributed by satellite to cable systems nationwide, and soon became known as the first “superstation,” WTBS.

By the end of the decade, growth had resumed, and nearly 16 million households were cable subscribers.

The 1980s

The 1984 Cable Act established a more favorable regulatory framework for the industry, stimulating investment in cable plant and programming on an unprecedented level.

Deregulation provided by the 1984 Act had a strong positive effect on the rapid growth of cable services. From 1984 through 1992, the industry spent more than $15 billion on the wiring of America, and billions more on program development. This was the largest private construction project since World War II.

Satellite delivery, combined with the federal government’s relaxation of cable’s restrictive regulatory structure, allowed the cable industry to become a major force in providing high quality video entertainment and information to consumers. By the end of the decade, nearly 53 million households subscribed to cable, and cable program networks had increased from 28 in 1980 to 79 by 1989. Some of this growth, however, was accompanied by rising prices for consumers, incurring growing concern among policy makers.

The 1990s

In 1992, Congress responded to cable price increases and other market factors with legislation that once again hampered cable growth and opened heretofore “exclusive” cable programming to other competitive distribution technologies such as “wireless cable” and the emerging direct satellite broadcast (DBS) business.

In spite of the effect of the 92 Act, the number of satellite networks continued their explosive growth, based largely on the alternative idea of targeting programming to a specific “niche” audience. By the end of 1995, there were 139 cable programming services available nationwide, in addition to many regional programming networks. By the spring of 1998, the number of national cable video networks had grown to 171.

By that time, the average subscriber could choose from a wide selection of quality programming, with more than 57 percent of all subscribers receiving at least 54 channels, up from 47 in 1996. And at the end of the decade, approximately 7 in 10 television households, more than 65 million, had opted to subscribe to cable.

Also during the latter half of the decade, cable operating companies commenced a major upgrade of their distribution networks, investing $65 billion between 1996 and 2002 to build higher capacity hybrid networks of fiber optic and coaxial cable. These “broadband” networks

can provide multichannel video, two-way voice, high-speed Internet access, and high definition and advanced digital video services all on a single wire into the home.

The upgrade to broadband networks enabled cable companies to introduce high-speed Internet access to customers in the mid-90s, and competitive local telephone and digital cable services later in the decade.

Enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 once again dramatically altered the regulatory and public policy landscape for telecommunications services, spurring new competition and greater choice for consumers. It also spurred major new investment, with America’s then-largest telecommunications colossus, AT&T, entering the business in 1998, though exiting four years later (see below). Almost simultaneously, Paul Allen, a founder of Microsoft, began acquiring his own stable of cable properties. And America On-Line moved on an historic merger with Time Warner and its cable properties, to form AOL Time Warner.

A generally deregulatory environment for cable operating and programming companies enabled the cable industry to accelerate deployment of broadband services, allowing consumers in urban, suburban, and rural areas to entertain more choices in information, communications, and entertainment services.

2000 and Beyond

Arrival of the new millennium brought with it hopes and plans for acceleration of advanced services over cable’s broadband networks.

As the new millennium got under way, cable companies began pilot testing video services that could change the way people watch television. Among these: video on demand, subscription video on demand, and interactive TV. The industry was proceeding cautiously in these arenas, because the cost of upgrading customer-premise equipment for compatibility with these services was substantial and required new business models that were both expansive and expensive.

In 2001, partly in response to those demands, AT&T agreed to fold its cable systems with those of Comcast Corp., creating the largest ever cable operator with more than 22 million customers.

Lower cost digital set-top boxes that started to become the norm in customer homes in the mid 1990s proved effective in accommodating the launch of many of the new video services. In general, however, more expensive technology would still be required for cable to begin delivery of advances such as high definition television services, being slowly introduced by off-air broadcast stations as well as by cable networks such as HBO, Showtime, Discovery, and ESPN.

By 2002, the cable landscape largely reflected the findings of a study sponsored by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM). The study showed that roughly two of every three U.S. households had access to three cutting-edge communication tools: cable television, cellular phones and personal computers. Digital cable could be found in 18 percent of U.S. television homes, suggesting an overall digital cable penetration among cable customers in the range of 27 percent. As for data services, the research revealed that 20 percent of cable customers with PCs are using high-speed modems today.

Cable operators with upgraded two-way plant have been witnessing dramatic growth in “broadband” data. Cable has quickly become the technology of choice for such services, outpacing rival technologies, such as digital subscriber line (DSL) service, offered by phone companies, by a margin of 2 to 1. Subscribership to high-speed Internet access service via cable modems had grown to more than 10 million by the end of the third quarter of 2002.

As for telephone service using the cable conduit, growth was evident in all the limited market areas where such service was offered. More than 2 million customers were using cable for their phone connections by mid 2002.

To accommodate accelerating demand, cable programmers are rapidly expanding their menu of digital cable offerings. By 2002, about 280 nationally-delivered cable networks were available, with that number growing steadily.

At the end of 2002, the consumer electronics and cable industries reached a “plug-and-play” agreement that allowed “one-way” digital television sets to be connected directly to cable systems without the need for a set-top box. These new sets are marketed under the name Digital Cable Ready television sets (DCRs). A security device called a CableCARD is provided by cable operators to allow cable customers to view encrypted digital programming after it is authorized to do so by the cable operator. Talks to resolve issues related to “two-way” digital television sets began in 2003 and continue.

The digital TV transition leapt forward in 2003, as substantial gains were made in the deployment of High-Definition Television (HDTV), Video-on-Demand (VOD), digital cable, and other advanced services. Competitive digital phone service gained momentum as cable introduced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services. At the start of 2006, cable companies counted a total of about 5 million telephone customers, representing VoIP customers and customers for traditional circuit switched telephone service.

An NCTA survey of the top 10 MSOs showed that by September 1 of 2004, 700 CableCARDs were installed. By mid-November, that number had grown to over 5,000 CableCARDs. One year later, at the end of 2005, NCTA estimated that number had reached 100,000.

Results at the end of the Third Quarter of 2005 provide ample evidence of the growth potential of cable’s new position as a broadband provider. Cable’s capital expenditures reached $100 billion. Cable’s high-speed Internet service ended the quarter with 24.3 million subscribers, and the number of digital cable customers had grown to 27.6 million.

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Analysis of UGC NET July 2016 PAPER II Questions 1 to 20 In Depth Analysis

UGC NET July 2016

PAPER II

1.     Embedded Journalism is considered as a type of_____

                    Right answer is military offensive      

                      Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

        At the start of the war in March 2003, as many as 775 reporters and photographers were traveling as embedded journalists. These reporters signed contracts with the military promising not to report information that could compromise unit position, future missions, classified weapons, and information they might find. Joint training for war correspondents started in November 2002 in advance of start of the war. When asked why the military decided to embed journalists with the troops, Lt. Col. Rick Long of the U.S. Marine Corps replied, "Frankly, our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment.

          An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'.

2.  Inner Margin of a book or document refers to ___________ 

The right answer is Gutter Margin. 

   Footnote is an additional piece of information printed at the bottom of a page.

In publishing, a colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. A colophon may also be emblematic or pictorial in nature. Colophons were formerly printed at the ends of books, but in modern works they are usually located at the verso of the title-leaf.

The gutter margin is a typographical term used to designate an additional margin added to a page layout to compensate for the part of the paper made unusable by the binding process. In a facing pages layout (Word refers to this type of layout as "mirror margins"), the gutter margin is on the very inside of both pages. So this is the Correct answer.

A swash is a typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph. The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's La Operina, which is dated 1522. As with italic type in general, they were inspired by the conventions of period handwriting. Arrighini's designs influenced designers in Italy and particularly in France.

3.   Magazines have well-defined formats to reach out to _______

  The editor is committed to the magazine, to it reaching a 

readership, to its identity and survival. So the right

answer is select audiences.

4.     Factor of __Localisation__ has contributed for the emergence of a specialized media audience.

5.     In Semiotics, smoke is considered as________

The right answer is Indexical communication.

                  

Based on the ideas of Peirce, three modes of relationship between sign vehicles and their referents are commonly referred to.

• Symbolic: a sign which does not resemble the signified but which is 'arbitrary' or purely conventional (e.g. the word 'stop', a red traffic light, a national flag, a number);

• Iconic: a sign which resembles the signified (e.g. a portrait, a cinematic image, an x-ray, a diagram, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, 'realistic' sounds in music, sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures);

• Indexical: a sign which is directly connected in some way (existentially or causally) to the signified (e.g. smoke, weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level, footprint, fingerprint, knock on door, pulse rate, rashes, pain).

    

6.     In communication, pleasure results from a particular relationship between meanings and __Power.

This is taken from John Fiske’s book “Television Culture”. Below is a paragraph from his book.

Pleasure results from a particular relationship between meanings and power. Pleasure for the subordinate is produced by the assertion of one’s social identity in resistance to, in independence of, or in negotiation with, the structure of domination. There is no pleasure in being a “cultural dope”: there is, however, real pleasure to be found in, for example, soap operas that assert the legitimacy of feminine meanings and identities within and against patriarchy. 

7.     “ Another Communication is ____ receiver centric.

The Growth of a Deeper Understanding of the Nature of Communication Itself The perspective on communication has changed. As explained above, early models in the 50s and 60s saw the communication process simply as a message going from a sender to a receiver (that is, Laswell’s classic S-M-R model). The emphasis was mainly sender- and media-centric; the stress laid on the freedom of the press, the absence of censorship, and so on.

Since the 70s, however, communication has become more receiver- and message-centric. The emphasis now is more on the process of communication (that is, the exchange of meaning) and on the significance of this process (that is, the social relationships created by communication and the social institutions and context which result from such relationships).

‘Another’ communication “favours multiplicity, smallness of scale, locality, de-institutionalisation, interchange of sender-receiver roles (and) horizontality of communication links at all levels of society” (McQuail, 1983:97). As a result, the focus moves from a ‘communicator-‘ to a more ‘receiver-centric’ orientation, with the resultant emphasis on meaning sought and ascribed rather than information transmitted.

8.      The term ‘audiences’recognizes ___ The resistance__  of media consumers.

   

In my opinion resistance is the appropriate word. Some of the related lines below.

 Audience can be active (constantly filtering or resisting content) or passive (complying and vulnerable).

Audiencehood and consumerhood should be seen as process where the elements of both power and resistance work simultaneously.

9.     Louis Wirth and Talcott Parsons see mass communication as a tool of __________.

Theorists such as Louis Wirth and Talcott Parsons have emphasized the importance of mass media as instrument of social control (Right answer).

Louis Wirth studied in the United States and became a leading figure in Chicago School Sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behaviour and mass media and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists. Wirth's major contribution to social theory of urban space was a classic essay Urbanism as a Way of Life, published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1938.

His research was mostly concerned with how Jewish immigrants adjusted to life in urban America, as well as the distinct social processes of city life. Wirth was a supporter of applied sociology, and believed in taking the knowledge offered by his discipline and using it to solve real social problems.

Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) is an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in the early development of American sociology. After earning a PhD in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1979, and in 1930, was among the first professors in its newly created sociology department.

Based on empirical data, Parsons' social action theory was the first broad, systematic, and generalizable theory of social systems developed in the United States. For this reason, his contemporaries viewed him as the founder of scientific sociology and Auguste Comte, the founder of the discipline, once called him, "the founder of the religion of humanity".

10.  When the consequences of exposure to a communicated message get delayed, it is known as _________________.

Sleeper Effect (Right Answer)

If you are interested in persuasion and understanding how a person's attitude might change over time, then you will want to know about the sleeper effect. A concept in psychology, it describes the way a message, when paired with some sort of discounting cue, has a delayed impact on the recipient.

A useful, concrete example is advertising. Have you ever seen a TV ad that plays again and again? Maybe it was an ad for a breakfast cereal or a car that appealed to you. However, as you saw the same ad the next day, and then again the day after that, it might have started to lose some of its excitement and appeal. In fact, you probably started to get tired of that cereal brand or car even before you tried it for yourself. This is normal; research shows that exposure to the same message multiple times leads to a decrease in the message's efficacy. Most viewers gradually return to their original attitude about the subject of the persuasion, in this case the commercials' products.

On the other hand, maybe you have seen an ad accompanied by a disclaimer. In psychology, we call this sort of disclaimer a discounting cue. The cue could be a warning about the side effects of a preservative in the cereal or a defect in the car's air bag. Yet another example would be a message at the end of a political ad showing that the opposing candidate funded the ad. Any disclaimer or reason leading you to doubt the credibility of the message's source is a discounting cue. These cues make you skeptical about the ad's message, and you consequently won't allow it to seriously persuade you. However, even with the presence of a discounting cue, over time you and most other viewers will be affected by the ad and come to accept its message. This delayed persuasion is the sleeper effect. A good way to remember it is to think of the ad's message as sleeping inside of you while the disclaimer is awake; little by little, the ad's underlying message wakes up and wins you over when the discounting cue falls to sleep!

How It Works

We are not completely sure how the sleeper effect works, but some psychologists have hypothesized that it has to do with forgetting. According to this hypothesis, with repeated exposure to the same message, we simply forget about the discounting cue over time, even while we remember the underlying message! Another, related hypothesis has to do with dissociation. Here, researchers believe that rather than forgetting the discounting cue altogether, we disconnect ourselves from it and prioritize the initial message, taking its meaning more seriously once it isn't readily associated with the discounting cue.

While recent research on these theories seems to support the hypotheses to some extent, the terms are too absolute in nature. Most viewers or listeners are unlikely to forget or dissociate from the discounting cue entirely, and certainly not quickly. Instead, we tend to do so gradually over time. There is a slow process going on in our brains as one message fades in strength while another grows in importance.

11.  Who is the author of “ Saving the Media” ?

12.  John Fiske considers speech as a ______________

John Fiske’s Codes of Television

An event to be televised is already encoded by social codes (Right Answer) such as those of:

Level one: "REALITY"

appearance, dress, make-up, environment, behavior, speech, gesture, expression, sound, etc. these are encoded electronically by technical codes such as those of:

Level two: REPRESENTATION

camera, lighting, editing, music, sound which transmit the conventional representational codes, which shape the representations of, for example: narrative, conflict, character, action, dialogue, setting, casting, etc.

Level three: IDEOLOGY

which are organized into coherence and social acceptability by the ideological codes, such as those of: individualism, patriarchy, race, class, materialism, capitalism, etc.

Fiske have put speech as a social code, and dialogue (i.e. scripted speech) as a technical one, but in practice the two are almost indistinguishable: social psychologists such as Berne (1964) have shown us how dialogue in "real life" is frequently scripted for us by the interactional conventions of our culture.

13.  Truth of the statement is not a defence against ___Defamation____.

Defenses to Libel and Slander

Truth:   

                In many legal systems, adverse public statements about legal citizens presented as fact must be proven false to be defamatory or slanderous/libellous. Proving adverse public character statements to be true is often the best defense against a prosecution for libel or defamation. Statements of opinion that cannot be proven true or false will likely need to apply some other kind of defense. The use of the defense of justification has dangers, however; if the defendant libels the plaintiff and then runs the defense of truth and fails, he may be said to have aggravated the harm.

14. Examination of professionalism is derived from the public’s right to ________.

I didn’t find its answer anywhere and according to me its answer is Education (Right Answer).

15.  The technique of propaganda is used in international communication to manipulate ___Cognitions____.

A working definition of propaganda which focuses on the communication process is as follows: “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” ( Jowett & O'Donnell 2006 ). 

16.  The protagonist of culture imperialism theory was ___________.

Out of the four options only William Hachten (Right Answer)is related to Culture imperialism theory.

17.  Name the influential scholar who applied liberation theology to education and communication in development context.

The right answer is Paolo Friere (Right Answer). This question is directly lifted from book Communication for Development in the Third World : Theory and Practice for Empowerment written by Srinivas Melkote and H. Leslie Steeves.

In chapter 8, Communication and Spirtiality in development, “ Probably the most influential scholar to apply liberation theology specifically to education and communication practice in development contexts is Paolo Friere (1970,1973).

18. The notion of multiplicity of paradigm is elaborated by __Jan Servaes___

In the book “New Frontiers in International Communication Theory” written by Mehdi Semati on 59^th page it is clearly written “ The new paradigm, which can be broadly described as multiplicity in one world, is gradually emerging but still in the process of formation ( Jan Servaes 1991, 52). This statement from Servaes, an advocate of the multiplicity paradigm, summarizes the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the paradigm”.

19.  The dependency theory has identified obstacles to development as _______

The right answer is External.  In the book Appalachia’s path to dependency written by Paul Salstrom it is clearly written, “ The insight behind dependency theory is that economic development can be hampered not only by local obstacles but also by obstacles that are external to a region or country. In these regions Dependency theory can aid understanding better than can modernisation theory”.

What is Dependency Theory?

Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system".

The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy.

20.  A systematically – qualitative data set is amenable to ______ analysis

I could not find the exact answer but I think the answer is Grounded Theory.

Grounded theory is a general research method (and thus is not owned by any one school or discipline); which guides you on matters of data collection and details rigorous procedures for data analysis. You can use quantitative data; or qualitative data of any type e.g. video, images, text, observations, spoken word etc.

Grounded theory is a research tool which enables you to seek out and conceptualise the latent social patterns and structures of your area of interest through the process of constant comparison. Initially you will use an inductive approach to generate substantive codes from your data, later your developing theory will suggest to you where to go next to collect data and which, more-focussed, questions to ask. This is the deductive phase of the grounded theory process.

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The Evolution of Mass Communication ( Short notes) Part II (Final)

New Media

· From Colossus to ENIAC, to Apple, computers & the Internet pivotal in all changes

· Blogs have changed society, particularly politics.

· eBay & Craigslist revolutionized retailing.

· Facebook, MySpace & Twitter, Google, YouTube, Yahoo. . .

Blogs

· Coined in 1997, describes web logs: daily postings with content personally posted on narrow topics, often watchdogs & self-proclaimed experts

· In 1999, a few companies began offering blog software; by 2002, Pyra Labs claimed 970,000 users

· Gone from obscure fad to a genuine alternative to mainstream news outlets

· Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party marked the turning point; Trent Lott complimented Thurmond’s segregationist party involvement in his run for presidency in 1948; Lott’s comments virtually ignored by mainstream press; blogs kept it alive; 4 days later, Lott apologized; 2 weeks later, Lott was out as Senate Majority Leader

· CBS’s Dan Rather (story on George W. Bush’s military stint), presidential candidate John Kerry (“Swiftboat” incident) helped cement the future importance of blogs eBay

· Online selling site begun by Omidyar in 1995

· Originally called AuctionWeb; 1st sold a broken laser pointer for $14.83

· Bought PayPal in 2002; now have a 25% stake in Craigslist


Craigslist

· Begun by Craig Newmark as e-mail list for friends; later, job & apartment listings added; now has everything!

· Most postings free; expenses covered through job postings; 1 million jobs posted each month; now more than 50 million users

· Negative press because of “Erotic Services” section that had been a well kept secret (now called “Adult Services”); allegedly, Philip Markoff, a Boston med student, met victims using the site; in April, 2009, Julissa Brisman killed, Markoff charged; on 8/15/10, what would have been the 1st anniversary had he gotten married, Markoff found dead in his cell, a suicide; his death has renewed interest in the site that has now been removed with “Censored” on the site instead



Facebook

· Originally called “thefacebook.com”; begun by Harvard sophomore Zuckerberg in his dorm room as a hobby

· Later extended to Stanford & Yale

· Forbes called him “the youngest billionaire on earth & possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever” (2008)

MySpace

· Begun by Greenspan, DeWolfe & Anderson in ’03; #1 social networking website in ‘06
· In ’07:

o Approximately 180 million MySpace.com accounts in ’07
o Typical user has 278 “online friends”
o Teens spend an average of 15 hours per week on site

· Bought by News Corporation in ’05; looked like a wise decision; site steadily lost its stature over years

· New team, different logo (no longer the “place for friends”), and a smaller workforce may help site bounce back

Twitter

· Founded by Dorsey, Stone & Williams in ’06; users limited to only 140 characters; messages known as “tweets”

· Postings answer the question, “What are you doing?”

· Growing fast, thanks in large part to the celebrities that now have accounts Google

· Founded by computer science grad students Page & Brin at Stanford in 1998

· Wanted to find a way to retrieve information from the web; began the search engine BackRub that later became Google (named for the number represented by the number 1 with 100 zeros behind it)

· In ‘98, Google opened its office in Menlo Park, CA; so powerful, it now owns YouTube ($1.65 billion)

YouTube

· Founded by Hurley, Chen & Karim in 2005; now the world’s most popular online video sharing site (people watching hundreds of thousands videos daily)

· President Obama one of the 1st politicians to take advantage; his info watched for 14.5 million hours

· Average viewer watches 15 minutes a day; would take two centuries to watch all of the videos

· Gets two million views a day, double the number of viewers watching network television in primetime, combined

· 70% of traffic comes from outside the U.S.

Yahoo!

· Begun in ‘94 by two Stanford electrical engineering Ph.D. candidates, Filo & Yang; originally begun as “David & Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”

· “Yahoo” stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” though founders say definition sold the name

· Leading global Internet, commerce and media company offering services to more than 345 million each month worldwide

Convergence

· Now allows access to all types of media products whenever desired.

· Hulu is the site offered by News Corporation & General Electric; allows viewing of Fox, NBC & other network programs

· TV.com is CBS’s version of Hulu offering CBS programs

· ABC programming available on the network’s website & iTunes

Concentration of Ownership

· More media companies are owned by fewer & fewer people.

· Should encourage the widest possible dissemination from diverse sources

· Marketplace of ideas shrink; new & independent voices are stifled.

· Osama v. O.J., Whitewater, Princess Di; embassy bombings v. Lewinsky; all focus on insignificant issues instead of pressing concerns.

Top Powerful Media Corporations (2008)

· Time Warner
· The Disney Company
· News Corporation
· General Electric/NBC Universal
· Viacom

Ted Turner & Warner Brothers Merge; Time Warner Results (#1)

· Turner already owned:
        o CNN & Headline News
        o MGM/United Artist pre-1986 libraries (TNT)
        o Hanna-Barbera Productions (Cartoon Network)
        o WTBS

· Turner merged w/Time Inc.; Warner Brothers merged also to become Time Warner

· Time Warner owns: CW (50%), Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, HBO, Cinemax, CNN, Headline News, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, TBS, Cartoon Network, AOL, Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune, Atlanta Braves, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, DC Comics

The Disney Company (#2)

· Disney Company owns: ABC, Pixar, Disney Studios, Buena Vista, Touchstone, Miramax, ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, SoapNet, Classic Sports Network, pieces of Lifetime, E! (portion of), A&E, History Channel, Disneyland, Disneyworld, ESPN magazine, 62 radio stations

· Previous animated hits: Beauty and the Beast, Lion King (pen & ink animation)

· More recent hits: Pirates, Freaky Friday, National Treasure

· Disappointments: The Alamo ($100 million), King Arthur, Around the World in 80 Days

· 2001-2002, tried Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 4 times a week; rebounded with Desperate Housewives, Lost, & Grey’s Anatomy

· Had the opportunity to work with Pixar

Pixar Animation

· As of January, 2006, had won 20 Academy Awards (2007’s Ratatouille : most nominated animated film)

· Had a previous deal with Disney, beginning in 1991 with Toy Story (1995); shared box office receipts & licensing revenues; Disney retained the right to make sequels to movies such as Monsters Inc.

· Hits: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars (all digital animation)

· Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, also owns ½+ of Pixar; talks of a deal w/Disney broke down when Michael Eisner was CEO

· Cars was to be their last joint effort; Disney’s new CEO, Robert Iger, worked well with Jobs; agreed to be a major partner w/iTunes, releasing two ABC hits to Video iPod.

· ABC’s release of popular programs helps cement the success of Video iPods.

· New relationship helped hasten the merger; now Jobs is the largest Disney shareholder

Power of Steve Jobs

· Named by Fortune magazine as 2007’s most powerful person in business; founded Apple Inc. in 1977; the Apple II began the PC era

· Gave us “desktop publishing,” the laser printer, & pioneered personal computer networks

· Bankrolled Pixar, a brand new business model for creating computer-animated feature films; Jobs bought the Pixar technology from George Lucas

· Left Apple in 1985, returned in late 1996; changed consumer electronics with the iPod

· Persuaded the music industry, the television networks, and Hollywood to distribute their content with iTunes Music Store; opened successful Apple Stores (retail); ushered Apple’s entry into cell phone business (iPhone)

· So the five industries that Jobs has influenced:

       o Computers
       o Hollywood
       o Music
       o Retail
       o Wireless phones

· According to Fortune, “no one has more influence over a broader swath of business” than Jobs; he figured out a reason & a way for people to pay for media

Apple Statistics

· Apple’s computer division had a record 2008, selling 9.7 million Macs (twice the growth of industry average); as of 2009, Apple has sold 6 billion songs in 6 years to 75 million people.

· The iPhone, the 1st true mobile computer, is generating billions

· Apple released the iPad (already successful)

News Corporation (#3) & Rupert Murdoch

· News Corp owns: Fox, 34 O & Os, My Network TV, 20th Century Fox, FX, Fox News Channel, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Sports, The SPEED Channel, National Geographic Channel, Madison Square Garden Network, Newspapers, satellite TV, HarperCollins, MySpace.com, Wall Street Journal

· Chairman & CEO News Corp is Rupert Murdoch; Fortune named him the #2 most powerful person in business

· Career began in 1953 when he inherited control of 2 Australian newspapers; expanded to Britain in the 1960s, the U.S. in the 1970s, and Asia in the 1990s; in Britain, he owns the biggest tabloid, the Sun; in the U.S., the New York Post, Fox News Network, 20th Century Fox, etc.

· His purchase of MySpace.com & Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, as well as the recent launch of the Fox Business Network, position him as a global-spanning financial news powerhouse.

· “At 76, Murdoch appears to be at the height of his power” (Fortune, CNNMoney.com)

GE/NBC Universal & Comcast (#4)

· NBC Universal owns: NBC, Telemundo, part of PAX, 14 NBC O & Os, 15 Telemundo O & Os, NBC Universal Studios, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Trio, USA, Sci-Fi, 5 theme parks

· Comcast has purchased NBC Universal (NBCU); presently, Comcast is the largest multiple system operator (MSO), meaning it owns multiple cable operations across the country (23.8 million customers)

· Comcast provides high-speed Internet service to 15.7 million; voice service to 7.4 million; owns the Golf Channel and portion of E!; Philadelphia Flyers (hockey), 76ers & their 2 arenas; now owns majority NBCU (after the sale is approved by the government)

Things to Watch When Comcast Takes Over

· Jeff Zucker’s fate: NBCU chairman who grew the cable side

· Leno’s fate: will they embrace him?

· Olympics: will they bid for the next or leave it to Disney?

· NBCU name: will likely go away

· Hulu: network programming likely free; cable likely will be a pay model (has already begun pay model)

Viacom (#5)

· Viacom owns: CBS, CW (50% ownership with Time Warner), 16 CBS O & Os, 18 UPN O & Os, 5 others, Paramount Studios, CBS Productions, King World Productions, Showtime, Spike TV, MTV, MTV2, Noggin, VH-1, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, TV Land, CMT, Flix, Sundance Channel, Blockbuster, Simon & Schuster, Infinity (184 radio stations)

Extent of Media’s Reach in USA

· 37 million people in the U.S. will tune in to a primetime TV show on a typical Sunday night

· 98% of all homes have a TV set

· 91% have a VCRs & DVDs

· TV sets are on more than 8 hours a day in a typical U.S. homes

· 2/3 of all U.S. adults will read a newspaper each day

· 2/3 will listen to radio for some part of every day

· Internet population exceeds 938 million people

· 71 million Americans use e-mail every day

· 66% of the entire U.S. population regularly uses the Internet; 90% of teens, 12 to 17

· Americans spent more than $8.8 billion buying 1.4 billion movie tickets (’05) The Economy

· Not just individuals harmed by bad economy; fewer people working means fewer buying; fewer buying means fewer advertisers; less advertising, less money for media

· One in every 5 journalists who worked in 2001 likely gone.

· There will always be a need for talented, eager & passionate media employees.

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