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News of the movement for June 18, 2012 |
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Time Warner Cable Posts Its Political File Online, So Why the Fuss, NAB? If posting already-public information on political ad spending is so damaging to broadcasters, as the National Association of Broadcasters argues, then why has one of the country's biggest cable providers been doing it since 2010?
The Justice Department is right to investigate whether cable TV operators, by penalizing customers for high use of bandwidth, are hampering rivals. U.S. Probe of Comcast, Broadband Giants Echoes Net Neutrality Battles The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a "wide-ranging" investigation into whether cable, satellite and telecom providers are stifling fast-growing Internet video services like Netflix, according to multiple reports. The probe carries echoes of recent battles over Net Neutrality, the idea that broadband providers shouldn't discriminate against rival services.
Verizon: A Surge in Data -- and Costs Verizon Wireless announced plans for a double-digit increase in the entry-level price for using a smartphone. The company defended the move, saying it should help subscribers with multiple wireless devices. But the heart of the plan is higher charges for using Verizon's network to transmit data, which is what customers have increasingly been doing since the advent ofApple's iPhone. The announcement was a worrisome reminder that a handful of companies stand as potential gatekeepers to one of the most vibrant sectors of the U.S. economy. Verizon: Let Us Charge You More for Less! Verizon Wireless introduced data-sharing plans that will give users a monthly allotment of data to be used across all of their devices. With this new shared-data model, unlimited data is still not an option, but customers will be forced into unlimited voice and text plans. The new option to share data will push customers to pay more for a limited amount of data, and it comes with a fee just to connect a device to the network. The New Math on Smartphone Plans and Providers Soon you'll be able to use an iPhone for as little as $30 per month. Alternately, your iPhone could lock you into a contract that costs upwards of $140 monthly. A new lineup of shared family plans from Verizon might run far more than that. Considering the huge range in prices, as well as the recent changes in plans and providers in the marketplace, it's time to at least start thinking about switching wireless services.
Newsrooms Need to Do More to Reach Out to Communities The media landscape is shifting and becoming more participatory, and people want to do more than just read the news. They want to be co-creators, collaborators and distributors. While newsrooms have invested in various forms of community engagement, there is still a lot we don't know about how to assess and measure the impact of this work. The run-up to the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in -- the burglary that gave rise to America's gravest political crisis -- has inevitably been accompanied by the mythology that has shaped and distorted popular understanding of the epic scandal. Reporter Interrupts Obama During Statement on Immigration Neil Munro from the Daily Caller interrupted President Obama at his news conference on immigration last week. The interruption stunned White House correspondents and television viewers. And it clearly surprised President Obama, too. The Hard Truth: Newspaper Monopolies Are Gone Forever Many newspapers seem to have forgotten what business they are actually in, and that misunderstanding goes a long way toward explaining the rush to implement monopoly-style features like paywalls. This kind of rear-guard action will ultimately be futile for all but a select few.
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