Microsoft updates search engine to better compete with Google
Microsoft Corp. planned on Tuesday to officially launch its updated and renamed Internet search engine, the latest step in a massive effort to make headway against market leaders Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.
Live Search had previously been available in test form and is the successor to MSN Search, Microsoft`s current search engine. It ranks a distant third in U.S. popularity after Yahoo and Google, according to the most recent data from Nielsen/Net Ratings.
The release also is part of the Redmond software company`s push to offer a number of free, web-based services under its new "Live" brand name. The approach has been aimed at helping the company establish a fresh, separate Internet brand for those services, but it also has confused some users more familiar with the company`s traditional MSN Internet branding strategy.
Source: Editor & Publisher 12 September 2006
Nepali Government firm to democratise media
State Minister for Information and Communications Dilendra Prasad Badu on Saturday said that the government would implement the recommendations forwarded by the High Level Media Recommendation Commission (HLMRC) with priority.
The HLMRC constituted with a mandate to give suggestions to manage media sector submitted its report to the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Friday.
The recommendations would be implemented after collecting suggestions from the public by holding discussions with the stakeholders, Badu said speaking at an interaction organised by Reporters’ Club Nepal.
Source: The Rising Nepal 17 September 2006
Journalists and Bihar bashing
Bihar has been the favourite punching bag of the Indian English language journalist community, actually not just the journalists but many English speaking "elite" of India. We see the parody of Bihar bashing being played out everyday. Sometimes one feels upset, some time angry and sometimes pities those indulging in this. If one had hoped that with the end of the Lalu raj in Bihar, Bihar bashing would stop or at least abate, well nothing of the sort has happened.
What is it that makes Bihar bashing such a favourite pastime? Actually, it is not just a pastime, but a vocation or "dhandha" for a certain class of the journalist brethren, as we shall presently see.
Come to think of it, the rusticity of Lalu was just another ruse to denigrate Bihar and Biharis. Making fun of Bihar has existed for much longer than that.
Source: Patna Daily 18 September 2006
Washington Post hires top Bush speechwriter
Few media marching bands have beat the Iraq war drums more frantically and with more influence than the editorial pages of the Washington Post. On Monday, the Post announced the hiring of another drummer boy, one who played a key propaganda role inside the Bush White House.
The Post editorial pages were an echo chamber for pre-war distortions and paranoid fantasies originated by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG). So it’s grotesquely fitting that the Post would hire as an op-ed columnist, Michael Gerson, Bush’s top speechwriter who - as a key wordsmith within WHIG - helped originate the flights of rhetorical fancy that so dazzled the Post’s laptop warriors. Gerson spun the deceit; the Post peddled it. Now they’ll operate under the same roof.
In explaining why the Post was adding yet another pro-war voice to its op-ed page, hawkish editorial page editor Fred Hiatt described Gerson as being "a different kind of conservative from the other conservatives on our page." Thanks, Fred, for all the diversity.
Source: Common Dreams 14 September 2006
Muslim press anger over Pope
The Vatican has stressed that the Pope meant no offence to Muslims. The furore over Pope Benedict`s remarks about Islam and violence prompts some Arabic papers to demand an immediate apology.
Newspapers in many Muslim countries query the reasons behind his controversial reference, at this particular moment, to a medieval Christian text attacking Islam.
Some English-language newspapers in Saudi Arabia and Turkey offer a more conciliatory tone and urge Muslims not to inflame the situation.
Source: BBC 16 September 2006
Analyst`s forecast: Mainstream media outpacing everyone on Web
"Traditional" media companies that in 2000 won just 16 percent of total advertising and marketing spending on Internet and mobile services are on pace to grab 45 percent of the spending by the end of this year, according to the Communications Industry Forecast 2006-2010 released Tuesday by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS).
The New York City-based private equity and mezzanine capital fund management company that concentrates on media and related information industries predicts that Internet and mobile services will grow at a rate of 14.7 percent over the next five years -- and that the fastest growth will come from traditional media companies.
"Despite increased competition and fragmentation, traditional media companies have positioned themselves to capitalize on an increasing share of the surge in spending on broadband video advertising, music and game downloads, and mobile marketing services," VSS said.
Source: Editor & Publisher 12 September 2006
India Today group to come out with a morning daily
The India Today group is going to launch a morning daily general newspaper. The proposed newspaper is expected to be launched in Delhi.
With this move, the Aroon Purie-promoted media giant will clash head on with Bennett, Coleman & Co (which runs Times of India) and Hindustan Times Ltd.
India Today CEO Ashish Bagga declined to comment on the group`s new foray. However, industry sources said it was looking at a tabloid format and could go in for foreign institutional funding to finance the project partly.
Source: Business Standard 15 September 2006
9/11: Press for truth -- special online film screening
As a balance to the much-maligned ABC/Disney mini-series `Path to 9/11,` MediaChannel offers this online screening of `9/11: Press for Truth` in its entirety (124 minutes).
Based on Paul Thompson`s Complete 9/11 Timeline and the true story of how some family members fought a relentless, emotional battle (against the will of the White House) for an independent investigation of the attacks. The film features never-before-seen interviews and stitches together overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences to reveal a pattern of official lies, deception and spin. As a result, a very different picture of 9/11 emerges, one that raises new and more pressing questions. This film does not posit a conspiracy theory: it systematically reviews accounts, quotes, official White House statements and catalogs the many disturbing contradictions. After watching this film, it is simply impossible to believe the `official story.`
Source: Media Channel 19 September 2006
(Compiled by Dr I Arul Aram)