For years, we have been advocating reforms and transformation by the Mainstream Media. Now what seems to be happening is that the public–or at least younger people–is abandoning it and moving online for news and information…

INTERNET WINNING MEDIA RACE IN EUROPA

The rise of high-speed internet and the explosion in online video content is fuelling a widespread decline in the number of people watching television according to a worldwide study by Ofcom. On average around one-third of consumers with broadband access watch less television since going online the findings, which sampled a thousand people in each country, concluded.

Alongside tech-savvy younger generations watching traditional TV channels on their PC or laptop, instant messaging, blogging, social networking sites such as MySpace and user generated content sites including YouTube are driving more and more to ditch old fashioned sit-and-watch viewing habits.

Ofcom said the Netherlands (58 per cent), Sweden (45 per cent) and Japan (44 per cent) had the highest percentage of their populations connected to high speed broadband, while China led the world in the percentage of people watching music videos and television programs over broadband.

A separate study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) revealed that online usage was closely linked to broadband penetration. It found broadband penetration was up 14 per cent across Europe year-on-year with Europeans now spending over 11 hours a week online.

Source:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-11-29T151354Z_01_L29478017_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-INTERNET-TELEVISION.XML&WTmodLo
- Reuters

NEW BLOG ON MEDIA CONVERGENCE

The International Herald Tribune (IHT) now has its own blog, Metamedia, focusing on the convergence of media and technology. The blog is commented by two reporters, Doreen Carvajal from the Paris IHT and Eric Pfanner from the London IHT.

The postings, about different trends in the media, are all written in a dualistic structure, one reporter commenting and the other responding. More and more newspapers assign or encourage their reporters to work on the ‘enemy front’, blogs.

Source:
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news//2006/11/international_herald_tribune_becomes_a_b.php#more
- Editors Weblog

CLAMOR MAGAZINE CLOSES
http://breitbart.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/clamor-closed/

IFEX: YEMEN: Official daily smears award-winning editor New York, November 28, 2006 - Yemen’s leading state-run newspaper Al-Thawra attacked independent editor Jamal Amer upon his return from the United States where he received the Committee to Protect Journalists 2006 International Press Freedom Award.
The daily ran a front-page article on November 26 suggesting that he was a U.S. agent and warning of possible legal action in response to his critical coverage of neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The article accused Amer and his independent weekly Al-Wasat of harming Yemen’s ties with Saudi Arabia and accused him of collaborating with U.S. intelligence. The attack appeared to be in response to Al-Wasat’s republication earlier this month of an article by former CIA case officer Robert Baer in Atlantic Monthly. Baer wrote that the ruling House of Saud was in danger of collapse.

The Al-Thawra article, titled “In whose interest the targeting of Yemeni-Saudi relations?” said that “The bad intention behind the publication of such an article and who is likely to benefit from it are no secret to anybody; particularly when we know that the editor of Al Wasat is currently visiting the USA and enjoying the care of . . . some Americans known for their closeness to the intelligence services.”