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Singing praises to photojournalism
“just people”
“Every picture tells a story,” goes that great old tune about opening one’s eyes. There’s more story than words in John Stanmeyer’s World Press Photo first prize winning photograph, announced in Amsterdam (February 14) by the World Photo Organization.
The photo captures a group of displaced African men at night holding illuminated smartphones hoping to find a distant signal. “It’s just people trying to call loved ones,” said Stanmeyer to AFP (February 14). “It could be you. It could be me. It could be any one of us.” (See the Stanmeyer photo and others honored by the WPO here)
Stanmeyer shot the photo last year in East Africa on assignment for National Geographic. “People are very skittish, they don’t want to be seen,” he said describing the scene to the British Journal of Photography (February 14). “Understandably. And I love photographing at night. It was a full moon that night.” It was selected from 98 thousand entries.
It and others from the WPO awards collection speak volumes about the enduring place of photojournalism in today’s media.
“Son, you better see the world,” says that same old tune.
Editor with digital “vision” quits
Newspaper crisis continues
The next shoe to fall, so to speak, at French daily Libération was the departure of editor-in-chief Nicolas Demorand, seen as architect of a revenue enhancement plan unpopular with the editorial staff. (See earlier article on Libèration here) Chairman Bruno Ledoux immediately accepted the resignation.
M. Demorand, a Canadian, arrived at Libération in 2011 from French national radio channel Europe 1 saying he wanted to “settle down for a long time.” Over time he became more unpopular internally as circulation and revenues fell, decisions questioned and investors wiggled in their seats. Last November the editorial staff voted for his removal. “Being loved is not my job,” he said at the time.
“My decision is primarily dictated by the situation,” M.Demorand told Le Monde (February 13). “Libération is in open crisis. I crystallized some of the debates and I believe it is my responsibility to give the boss room to maneuver and negotiate with different parties.”
“I regret the resignation of Nicolas Demorand,” said M.Ledoux to Les Echos (February 13). “I always thought he was a journalist with a vision of the digital media future. The shareholders will consider the best way to move the project forward.”
M.Demorand indicated he is “already working on other projects,” likely television. He is the second high profile European editorial chief to leave a major newspaper in the last two weeks. At the end of January El Mundo editor-in-chief Pedro J. Ramirez was fired. (JMH)
Press freedom mission questioned
“Who to speak to?”
It is common for international media watcher to organize missions to countries where deficiencies in media freedom are in the news and top of mind. For example, WAN-IFRA representatives recently visited the UK as their current government prepares to regulate newspapers after allegations of bribery and privacy violations. These missions always involve well-choreographed meetings and nice reports.
“I do not see much point in meetings,” said Oksana Romaniuk, director of Ukrainian media watcher Institute for Mass Information (IMI) on a Facebook page, reported by Telekritika (February 12). “They do not see the actual mechanisms or have resources to influence the situation. So, who to speak to?” (See more on media in Ukraine here)
Representatives of OSCE, Open Society Institute, IFJ, UNESCO and others are set to visit Ukraine February 19th and 20th.
Ms Romaniuk was targeted last October by hackers who ripped into her personal computer files and published some of it in a disparaging way on a spoof news site.
Just a moment for radio
And a plea for equality
World Radio Day has come around, an opportunity to salute the widely popular and long standing media platform. The UNESCO-sponsored event is in its 3rd year with many broadcasters taking a well-earned victory lap.
Over a hundred German radio broadcasters paused from regular programming on Thursday morning (February 13) to give listeners a moment called “I’m your radio. Your life is my program.” The little moments were created by Grabarz & Partners and produced by Studio Funk. ”Radio is like a friend who goes with you side by side through life,” said radio association Radiozentrale managing director Lutz Kuckuck in a statement. “No medium is so close.”
German private broadcasters association VPRT took the opportunity to remind one and all of the quality and diversity of radio broadcasting as well as the need for “fair conditions in competition,” “must-carry status in digital networks” and “equal treatment with fee-funded radio in EPG displays.” (See VPRT presser here – in German)
UNESCO’s themes for this World Radio Day are gender equality on-air and enhancing the role of women in broadcasting organizations. “From pioneering executives in the early 20th century to those today reporting from conflict zones, women have played a key role in the growth of radio,” said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova in a statement. “As citizen journalists, reporters, producers, technicians and key decision-makers, women are working at every level of the broadcasting industry to ensure the free exchange of opinion, information and ideas over the airwaves.”
The UN General Assembly endorsed World Radio Day for observation in all Member States on February 13th.
New measurement system reports bigger audience
More work, too
Radio measurement in Sweden made the switch to the electronic meter (PPM) a year ago. Programmers at the big radio broadcasters – MTG, SBS Radio and public broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) – have had a year of daily reports of minute-by-minute audience behavior. There are, quite expectedly, differences from the previous telephone survey methodology, reported by Swedish media portal dagensmedia.se (February 7).
Most obviously, the PPM measurement shows far greater daily reach, 75.3% under the new system, 69.6% under the old comparing like periods year on year. Station-to-station comparisons would be worse than apples to oranges but some stations dropped 7% to 10%. (See more on audience measurement here)
Working with so much data has been a challenge. “There is much more work to handle daily listener figures compared with managing listener figures that come four times a year,” said SBS Radio president Staffan Rosell. Media buyers love numbers.
PPM measurement results present a new challenge for SR. Minute-by-minute results show an “icicle problem” when newscasts are broadcast on national network P4. A quarter of listeners seem to “leave.” (JMH)
Broadcasters to ad people: We’re still standing
All that glimmers…
Broadcasting in its many forms faces many challenges from online media. The common perception, oft repeated by purveyors of the digital dividend, is that traditional television and radio are dinosaurs bellowing for mercy at the bottom of the internet swamp and that the ad people have all but given up. Broadcasters are fighting back.
“We are living in a true golden age of television,” heralded Association of Commercial Television Europe (ATC) in a 2014 preview. The subject is open for some debate but commercial broadcasters are seeing some clear air. The ACT notes that the TV year began with a record 111.5 million folks tuning into the American Super Bowl last Sunday. Of course, about half Americans were snowbound. (See ACT presser here)
And now the Sochi Winter Olympic Games are underway. Some 3 billion folks worldwide tuned into last Friday’s opener and the stray dogs stories have faded. With the football World Cup later this year in photogenic Brazil the ad people can’t possibly ignore traditional broadcasting.
The ACT also noted that TV screen size is growing, more than double in Germany over that last decade. Perhaps it’s the home theater effect. Maybe it’s a decade of deteriorating eyesight from squinting at smartphone screens.
German private broadcasters association VPRT reported radio and TV the favorite media in 2013 and “the engine of the creative economy.” (See VPRT presser here – in German) Quoting the usual third-party sources, 93% of Germans watched TV in the average week and 94% listened to radio. Looking ahead, “we expect a further increase in demand and growth for ad-supported business models, pay TV, teleshopping online and mobile deals,” said VPRT development director Frank Giersberg.
Maybe another day for digital radio
Spring, summer, now fall…
The long discussed Vienna pilot test of the digital radio platform DAB+ has been pushed back to September. Digital radio association Digitalradio Österreich had hoped for something to happen this spring, then summer. The group now suggests tying the platform’s first appearance in the Austrian capital to the 90th anniversary of radio broadcasting in the country, reported Der Standard (February 10).
The lack of excitement for the DAB+ platform in Austria is palpable. Public broadcaster ORF still holds about three-quarters of all radio listening more than 20 years after the arrival of private radio broadcasting, who have been less than enthusiastic about taking on the expense or the uncertainty. ORF infrastructure subsidiary ORS has bid for the pilot test along with Media Broadcast, a subsidiary of TDF. Music rights negotiations have added to delays. (See more on digital radio here)
"I am convinced that digital radio in Austria can only be successful if all radio broadcasters, the private sector as well as the ORF, want this and move together,” said Austrian broadcast and telecom regulator RTR managing director Alfred Grinschgl in a statement last fall. Tests of the DAB digital radio platform in Austria ended in 2008. (JMH)
Tweets irritate politicians, reporter banned
Do you have another question?
On Friday last Today’s Zamen reporter and online editor Mahir Zeynalov was marched to the airport by Turkish police and deported to his home country Azerbaijan. He was ordered off Turkish soil for sending a disparaging message in December about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter. Mr. Zeynalov had a valid work permit, due to expire in March, and was accompanied by his Turkish spouse to Baku. “I had to pack a suitcase in ten minutes,” she said to zamen.com (February 10).
The deportation order was signed by an Interior Minister official, reported bugün.com (February 8). There was no court order as there was no court hearing. PM Erdogan’s office had filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Zeynalov, whose name was subsequently placed on a “list of foreign individuals who are banned from entering Turkey.” All international media watchers reacted swiftly and negatively. (See more on media in Turkey here)
Several foreign media workers, interviewed anonymously for media portal PostMeyda (February 10), reacted with trepidation. It could happen to them. “This is a regrettable thing,” said a French journalist. “No journalist should be deported for little tweets.”
“It is a terrible thing,” said another identified only as an American journalist. “Journalists should not be deported because they must be brought under control. This is censorship.”
“I've got to take care of three children,” said another. “I have to think about them. It gives me a headache.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc took questions from reporters, sort of, the day after Mr. Zeynalov was deported. When asked about the deportation order Mr. Arinc, who is charged with media affairs, was clearly annoyed. “Did anybody hear me? You’ve had three days to prepare good questions.” Asked about the proposed new internet law, he dismissed it with “Do you have another question?”
The deportation of Mr. Zeynalov came days after the Turkish Parliament passed a bill giving the government tighter control over the internet, allowing the telecom regulator to block websites within four hours of a complaint and holding individual’s internet browsing records for two years. President Abdullah Gul has two weeks to sign the bill into law or let it fade away.
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