News

3 January 2006

New English news channel secures fourth place in ratings

The opening numbers of Rajdeep Sardesai's "journalist's channel" - CNN-IBN - are here and at least for the week in question, the numbers spell good news for the English news genre itself. Even though ratings might not be the final deciding factor, for a channel like this, it has a role to play in indicating what the Indian viewer, especially the relevant target, feels about the channel. Before we...

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3 January 2006

New study finds steep increase in Internet use among older Americans

NEW YORK: Online users 55 years and older are spending more time on the Internet and less time with offline media sources, according to a report released Monday by BURST! Media. Offline media outlets are seeing more competition than ever from Internet sources for what is seen as their base demographic -- 55 years and older -- according to a survey of nearly 1,000 web users 55 years and older...

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3 January 2006

Google AdSense hijacked by porn Trojan

Google has confirmed it is investigating a Trojan horse that replaces its AdSense advertisements with fake ones hawking pornography and gambling sites, among others. The malware was first reported last week and discovered in the wild by Web publisher Raoul Bangera. The Trojan apparently installs itself on Windows systems via a website, and then creates fake ads which are positioned to cover up...

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3 January 2006

Web censorship for dummies

Given all the bad porn on the Internet, I guess it's only fair that there should be some truly terrible ideas about stopping porn on the Internet too. The latest comes from a group called CP80, which sadly isn't a phalanx of uptight androids who enjoy mysteriously homoerotic relationships with mailbox-shaped companions. Instead they're a group pushing something called the "Internet Channel...

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3 January 2006

Brokeback media

Perhaps it's just me, but news seems to be coming our way faster and with a greater fury than ever before. A tsunami of "breaking news " bulletins course through the veins and ganglia of what passes for an information system. A corporate news machine then pumps it out on a plethora of platforms dedicated to "more news in less time" -- in the press, on the web, on TV, on the radio and now on the...

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3 January 2006

Eye on Eurasia: FSB targets journalist

TALLINN, Estonia, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Russian Federation's Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged that a Finnish journalist during a September visit to the Mari Republic in the Middle Volga not only gathered "negative" information about conditions but transferred money and instructions to opposition groups there. Thus, the News12.ru website reported on Dec. 28, the FSB concluded that Ville...

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3 January 2006

Circulation soars as UK broadsheets go tabloid

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- The U.S. national newspapers -- The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today -- are broadsheets, in keeping with a tradition that a broadsheet connotes seriousness, while a tabloid is sensational. That view was long held here in the U.K. as well, but this past year several "serious" newspapers here switched over to tabloid format and found their circulation...

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3 January 2006

Iran closes newspaper and bans women's publication

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The Iranian government on Monday ordered the closure of a daily newspaper and banned a new women's bi-weekly from publication in the first media crackdown since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August. "The Supervisory Board on the Press agreed to the temporary closure of Asia newspaper and Nour-e Banovan and ordered their cases sent to court," said the Culture...

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3 January 2006

China becomes world's top daily newspaper producer

China has become the world's largest producer of daily newspapers, accounting for 15 percent of the world's total daily production. A report reviewing China's newspaper industry in 2005 is the first time in which the Chinese government detailed the development of the country's newspaper industry. It shows there are currently 90 newspapers in 13 languages in print used by Chinese minorities, and...

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3 January 2006

Wall Street Journal launches law blog

NEW YORK: The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday launched an online page devoted to legal issues, as well as a law blog that the paper says will "provide timely news and analysis on events and trends important to the legal market." In a release, Dow Jones & Co. unveiled the new service at blogs.wsj.com/law/, which it says will include "original online-only content relevant to law firms, lawyers and...

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