MEDIA JOB WATCH: ITS A KNOW-WHO WORLD

Guess who found a top media job of late at AOL? None other than Mary Cheney:

The Advocate reports:

”After stumping for her father’s vice presidential campaign last year, Mary Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, has returned to the private sector with a marketing position at AOL. Cheney will be working under AOL vice chairman Ted Leonsis, who leads the company’s Audience Business, a marketing division of the internet behemoth that seeks to grow AOL’s Internet audience via Web-based programming and products, sources tell Advocate.com.

JOURNALISTS EXILED IN EUROPE

The European Journalism Center reports:

“The media, press freedom organisations, refugee groups and governmentsacross Europe could do more to protect journalists who flee persecution,says a new report from the UK-based media ethics charity MediaWise.

“Exiled Journalists in Europe is a journalistic investigation designed to provide a snapshot of the support available for journalists living in exile in Europe. It examines the help and opportunities on offer in eleven countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Much of the research hasbeen carried out by exiled journalists based in these countries.

The report, funded by the Open Society Foundation, also contains recommendations about how media organisations, voluntary groups and government agencies could make a difference.”

Copies of the report are available at:
http://www.mediawise.org.uk

ITALY (EJC): DON’T MESS WITH MR. B

”Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose family controls Italy’slargest media group, named seven comedians who he said used state television
firm RAI as a vehicle for their satirical attacks against him. The last time Berlusconi read out such a list, in 2002, the comedienne and two television journalists named were swiftly barred from the airwaves.

“Opposition leaders accused Berlusconi of seeking to censor his politicalfoes as part of a wider bid to re-write Italy’s political broadcastingrules before the election, which is expected to be held on April 9, 2006. His ire was sparked by a show called RockPolitik that appeared on RAIlast week that included satirical skits against both the right and left”

INDIA

India has a vibrant press-despite some government officials’ efforts to discourage it

By Ritu Sarin

WASHINGTON, September 19, 2005 - Earlier this year, I wrote front-page stories in The Indian Express newspaper in which one of the government’s highest law officers (the attorney general or a subordinate) advised narrowing or shutting down probes into political scandals by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s premier investigating agency. This was no small matter. The CBI is analogous to the American FBI, and a significant number of the cases under its jurisdiction deal with corruption and
public fraud.

“A few days later, I heard from a concerned minister of the government’s ruling United Progressive Alliance Party.

“I will have to put you under surveillance,” the minister warned me. “You are leaking all the files of my ministry.”

“Investigative journalists play an active, vital role in India as watchdogs of the government. Revelations in the media often set the tone and agenda for sessions of Parliament, even as a new national “sunshine law” promises journalists a less obstructed view of government dealings in the very near future.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/ga/report.aspx?aid=738&entry=feed

MEDIA REFORM BATTLE UNDERWAY

Advocates Fight to Preserve Educational Programming Rules as Children’s Television Act Turns 15 Years Old

Washington, D.C.–The Children’s Media Policy Coalition marked the 15-year anniversary of the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (CTA) by urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement new CTA rules for digital television as scheduled on Jan. 1, 2006. Children’s advocates are defending these rules against television industry
challenges both at the FCC and in the courts.

“The Act, which became law on Oct. 18, 1990, established that broadcasters should provide
programming that serves the special educational and informational needs of children, and limits the amount of advertising on all programming intended for children on both broadcast and cable channels. The FCC is also required to consider whether a television station has served children’s educational needs during the station’s license renewal process.

“The Children’s Television Act has been instrumental in ensuring that the educational power of television is harnessed in a way that serves children’s developmental needs,” said Patti Miller, Children Now vice president, during a Capitol Hill press conference”

In DC, the Center for Creative Voices in Media filed a report with the FCC arguing that there is no level playing field in the cable industry.

http://www.creativevoices.us>www.creativevoices.us

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE AVAILABLE FROM PROJECT LOOK SHARP

“Project Look Sharp Offers FREE Kit to Help Educators Unravel Media Messages about the Middle East Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College has just released the third in a series of nationally distributed curriculum kits: “Media Construction of the Middle East.” The kit can be accessed via the Web site www.projectlooksharp.org, where a CD/DVD version can also be requested at no charge. “Media Construction of the Middle East” includes all the materials that teachers need to actively engage students in developing a deep and critical understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the U.S. War in Iraq, and the rise of militant Islamic movements. In addition to learning core content, students are trained to critically analyze and decode media messages in a variety of forms including Web pages, film clips, TV news, magazines, newspapers, and school textbooks.

looksharp@ithaca.edu

These people do excellent work. They have produced a Teacher’s Guide to use of my film WMD. To download: www.wmdthefilm.com