MEDIA
and the Internet and E-commerce		 This page was created in December 2000
by 
Aaron Di Nardo, Soniya Utarid, Harry Lee, Tracy Ng
who were students in IEC 702 
 www.witiger.com/senecacollege/IEC702/outline702g.htm 
at Seneca College, Toronto, Canada
 www.iec.senecac.on.ca

 

GLOBALIZATION
What is Globalization?

Globalization is….

With the power of the Internet we can be readily exposed to news coverage around the world.
The Internet allows for instantaneous access to International news or newspaper sites.
An example of this can be found:  http://www.newspapers.com/country.asp
The importance of this is that no longer does an individual have to rely on their own area’s newspaper (or bias) for international news.  An individual has the ability to surf the Internet to get a different perspective on a topic.

Example:  U.S. Elections being written about all over the world.  Individual has the ability to search U.S. News websites
 

CONVERGENCE
Media Mergers Timeline
 
Recent Major US Mergers and Acquisitions

Here’s a reverse chronology of recent major mergers and acquisitions that have shaped the media industry:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/cbs_viacom_chronology_990907.html

2000
Jan.: AOL to acquire Time Warner (stock swap valued at $166 billion). The merger would be the largest corporate combination ever. -- Floodgates opened

1999
Sept.: Viacom announces deal to buy CBS for $34.5 billion in what would be the biggest media marriage ever.

1997
Dec.: Westinghouse Electric changes name to CBS shortly after deciding to sell its traditional businesses.

1996
Oct.: Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System complete $7.6 billion merger.
Feb.: Walt Disney Co. buys Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, creating a media conglomerate in movies, television and publishing.

1994
Aug.: Viacom buys video rental chain Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. for $8 billion.
July: Viacom Inc. buys Paramount Communications Inc. for $10 billion - a movie, publishing and sports company.

1993
Sept.: The NY Times Co. buys Affiliated Publications Inc. (The Boston Globe) for $1.1 billion - biggest takeover in U.S. newspaper history.

1990
 Jan.: Warner Communications Inc. and Time Inc. complete $14.1 billion merger, creating world’s biggest media conglomerate.

 
Recent Major CDN Mergers and Acquisitions
BCE/CTV, Quebecor/In Canada, BCE, Quebecor, and CanWest all have assembled traditional lines of business - print + broadcasting

Here’s a reverse chronology of recent major mergers and acquisitions that have shaped the Canadian media industry:
2000
Sept.: BCE/CTV (Sympatico-Lycos) merges with Thompson's Globe and Mail newspaper.

Sept.: Quebecor Inc. gobbles up Group Viedotron Ltee., Quebec's biggest cable company, ISP, and web publisher (Canoe.ca).

July: CanWest Global revealed a $3.5 billion bid for Hollinger International's Canadian newspaper (National Post), Internet (Canada.com) and other publishing assets.

Feb.: BCE Inc. (Canada's largest teleco & ISP) bought the country's largest private TV network, CTV Inc., in a C$2.32 billion deal aimed at providing content for its Sympatico-Lycos Internet portal.

CDN Media Stats
http://www.canoe.ca/MergerMania/jul31_canwesthollinger.html

  • CanWest will control 29% of average daily circulation in Canada,
  • Quebecor Inc. will have 21%, 
  • Torstar Corp. 13%, 
  • Thomson Corp. 11% and
  • Hollinger 9 percent, plus its National Post 2.5% share.
Who is Next?

What Does All This Mean?
It is clear that today's global communication companies are consolodating - see above.
However, as Canadians, we need to ask what does this mean to us:

To try and answer these questions, we have to realize that the mergers are in their infancy state, so we need to look at it from various points of view:
 
Optimistic Opinion
 
  • Maybe the journalistic values will spill over to the Internet in an entertaining format.
    • Printed - journalistic based
    • TV - entertainment based
    • Internet - "raw unedited"
  • News is more trustworthy. The source is known and not anonymous (but this can also fall to the pessimistic side).
  • CDN's might be recognized globally

Sarcastic Opinion?

So what if they merge. They can't handle the power.

Magazine says: Stop worrying about the media mergers
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.28.00/news/media.html

"[The CDN media merger] are determined to become even more of what they already are -- bigger, slower, stupider, less profitable and, ultimately, a more pressing item on the agenda of monopoly-busting bureaucrats."
 

 Pessimistic Opinions

One voice influencing the thoughts of socitey ADD

"The power of media corporations such as AOL/Time-Warner is not merely economic, it is also the power to influence the thoughts of society. The power of the media is so strong that some people will believe what they see or read even when it directly contradicts their own experience."
http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2000-1/issue3/merger.html

Competition is sort of like democracry, everyone has their voice.Mergers will eliminate competition. HL

"In a larger media corporation, there is often less diversity and creativity in their products, because they have to be careful not to piss off their large national advertisers by printing any articles critical of them, or by running their ads alongside something that would ruin the consumer's "buying mood.""
http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2000-1/issue3/merger.html

"For fledgling start-ups that have thrived in a bull market, the merger is a blow. “It’ll be harder to have the great new Internet idea and make it,” Craig says. “As this space starts to consolidate and big media companies really take this seriously and have shares locked up, it’ll be harder and harder to start a new AOL.”"
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/
TheStreet/time_aol_000110_bosquin.html
 

Think the pessimists are overreacting, try and find most of this information on the new AOL/Time-Warner sites.

ROLE
Creating The News
It is very difficult for online visitors to know whether the news they're reading is being written and distributed by sources that a have a stake in the events (1998).

When Wired News writes a series of articles questioning the quality of the Snap! Online search engine, the reader might not know that Wired's parent owns a competing search engine, or that Snap! Online is owned by CNET, which publishes content that competes with Wired News. 

http://ojr.usc.edu/content/print.cfm?print=118

Even though articles may be written to “create news”, the individual has the ability to research the ideas presented further.  A reader needs to utilize the Internet as a tool, and to keep an objective perspective.  The Internet provides the opportunity to research the sources of information from where the articles are being written. 

An example was demonstrated in class:  Survey of Canadians On-line, found source realized who and where people were surveyed

Express Opinions and Keep Informed about New Media

 
 
 
 

Excellent site that grew out of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) that brings together a network of information concerning Canadian (mostly) media in the areas of internet, broadcast, print, and telcommunications. It has an issues forum, resource room, debates, how to get inlolved, and the ownership of media.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/mediaown/mediaown.htm
 

The Commission's purpose is to establish a forum in which interested parties can set out their views on the new media and engage in a constructive discussion about issues of concern. The Commission also believes that the proceeding will offer Canadians a clearer perception of the potential benefits they may reap from the evolution of new media services, as well as of the economic and cultural contributions of such services to Canadian society. 
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/crtcnet.htm

Network News - Get the latest on Canadian Media Issues:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/news/news/newspage.htm
 

BUSINESS OF MEDIA
Traditional Media vs. New Media

Question:  How does New Media affect Traditional Media in terms of business?

New media has been portrayed as a threat to the business of  traditional media. However, with the Internet being used on such a global scale, tradional media have now seen it as a necessity to extend their businesses into the new media world.

“Broadcasting to the rescue of a chaotic Web? Things may not be what they seem!"
The article touches upon the the fact that traditional media are aggressively staking their claims online (online property claims) while adjusting to the new economy.  Migration of traditional resources to a new medium - the Internet, is inevitable.  Although they may be slow in  getting online, the "old guys" will bring a lot to the new media world, due to their recognized brands as well as huge archives of information that they carry with them.

”“The many-to-many communication of the net makes it possible to cater for individual needs in ways traditional methods is incapable of doing.”

“Instead of dealing with captive audiences, the Web depends on their quality and the interest of their content to get people to visit them” (push vs. pull audience)
 
Traditional Media

Includes:

  • newspapers
  • publishing houses
  • television
  • film
  • record companies
  • radio stations· 
 New Media

"[N]ew media is any media that didn't exist in the eyes of the general public more than five years ago -- as well as tomorrow's media --so we're talking about CD-ROMs, DVDs (digital versatile discs, originally called digital video discs), Web sites, and e-zines (electronic magazines), as well as photographs, animation, text, computer games, films, and audio recordings accessed through the Internet."
http://www.catalaw.com/logic/docs/crtc.html

Clipping Services
The reason in mentioning clipping services is that it is an example of how businesses are extending their services to meet the demands of new media, in particular is the vast volumes of online news being created now.

http://www.bowdens.com/
A subsidiary of Rogers Communications which offers value-added, timely news information, from press clippings to radio and television monitoring.
Traditional clipping services like Bowdens , a Canadian Company are extending their media monitoring services to the Internet.

Services for the Internet include:

  • media management tool accessed via the Internet·
  • monitoring services of Internet chat and forum sites
http://www.mediascan.ca/mainpageeng.htm

http://www.clippingservice.com

BUILDING READERSHIP
Tracking Eyeballs

New Media Sites track readership and information through:

Contests
The Toronto Star provides contests on-line where it can take it can take down personal information
http://www.thestar.com
 

Subscriptions
The NewYork Times splash page displays news article headlines, however to read the raticle you must login.
http://www.nytimes.com/

Polls
The Globe and Mail uses polls to determine visitors
http://www.globeandmail.ca/

Forums
Newspapers can have discussion forums that people can enter by providing information about themselves
http://www.nationalpost.com/
 

Advertising
Are companies moving away from traditional media?
One source showed that companies are still using both 
http://www2.unimass.nl/~buseurop/thesis/9.htm

Techniques and Costs of Advertising on line:  

  • Nationalpost.com provides stats on the types, income level, and age of readers as an incentive to advertise on-line.
  • Advertising rates available online (pdf file)
http://www.nationalpost.com

 
 

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT
 
New media reporters and editors have to be responsible. They need to put clear labels on what they write - news, review or editorial.
Newspapers still have to be the watchdogs, the guardian of the truth. Readers need to get more involved if you think something is unfairly biased.
Defining Different Types of Articles

A review is a piece which represents the facts objectively, then comments about them; typically in a variation of the pro and con format.

An editorial is based solely in opinion, without having to present both sides, or even a logical argument.

http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/bytes/bytes613.htm

Another interesting site is the Canadian Commentary (a personal web site by a professional writer) is dedicated to a serious continuing commentary on Canadian public affairs, in particular the way in which Canadian news is reported and commented on in the print media.

Good articles to read:

What should we look for when reading an article to determine the credibility of the particular artice? How do we judge if the author is accurate with their sources?

“Credibility in Online Media: Seven Voices from the News Business” http://www.contentious.com/articles/1-3/qa1-3/qa1-3.html

Examples of Two of the Q&A’s Responses

Nora Paul, The Poynter Institute http://www.contentious.com/articles/1-3/qa1-3/poynter.html

Scott Woelfel, Chief CNN.com http://www.contentious.com/articles/1-3/qa1-3/cnn.html

Results from the Q&A: ·

  • “credibility gap” between online and offline news far exceeds any real differences between these two types of news organizations ·
  • often more difficult to judge something online as having “credible context”, whereas it is easier to determine whether something is credible or not with traditional media (ie. National Enquirer vs. Toronto Star)·
  • Encourage online readers to always think critically about what they are reading
The one thing online news media can do to increase their credibility is to provide further links to their subject matter as to reinforce the validity of information that the reader may question