News

Oct. 19, 2005 - Interactive, viral behavior is on the rise–especially among young people. That might sound like a public health warning, but it's just advertising jargon for the new media ads that consumers manipulate in some way and pass along to each other–like a virus. One of most enticing of this genre allows fans to insert themselves, Zelig-like, into a clip from the movie "Wedding Crashers"...

Earlier this year, Wall Street analysts were ready to write obituaries for America Online Inc., which was losing dial-up Internet subscribers at a rate of 2 million per year. Now the Dulles-based service is suddenly at the heart of a bidding war among Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. because it has something they all want: Eyeballs. AOL is still losing subscribers, but it has radically...

After Google Print stumbled over a writers' block, it is now the turn of Google Earth to run into rough weather. Indian President APJ. Abdul Kalam has expressed concern about the free mapping program from Google, warning that it could help terrorists by providing satellite photos of potential targets. RASHTRAPATI BHAWAN: All are welcome. The Google site contains clear aerial photos of Parliament...

Three journalists were killed in the October 8 earthquake in Muzzafarabad and Bagh areas of the Pak-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) Kashmir while at least five newsmen are missing, according to information received by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. "50 journalists have suffered personal losses." A PFUJ release said that the journalists who died in the quake were Sardar Hanif of Jang, Bagh...

UNESCO has announced the publication of "Public Service Broadcasting: A Best Practices Source Book", to provide information on core concepts of public service broadcasting (PBS) to media professionals, decision makers, students and general public. The purpose of this reference publication, that was prepared in close cooperation with media professional organisations and edited by Indrajit Banerjee...

International concern over the Nepal monarch's recent ordinance imposing restriction on the country's Press is rising. The latest to condemn the draconian law have been UNESCO and the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Nepal, which comprises 11 international media organisations. PRO-DEMOCRACY NEPALI PROTESTORS: They will get their elections only in 2007. UNESCO...

Many words have been traced on newspaper pages and debates exchanged at different forums about the recently announced ordinance bringing some amendments in the Communication Act. It is amazing that everyone, including many journalists who don’t belong to any newspaper or who never write, seem to be experts on the issue. In fact even a foreign government has entered into the fray! Unfortunately...

The Palm Beach Post says it's become the first newspaper to offer click-to-call service to all its online classified advertisers. eStara provides the technology, which the daily paper is passing on free of charge to advertisers. By clicking a "Talk to Seller" link, interested buyers can request a phone call with whoever took out an ad. eStara's automated system can put the call through immediately...

The long-awaited "explanations"–one from the New York Times and another from the newspaper’s senior correspondent Judith Miller–about what led her to go to jail rather than testify before a federal grand jury, and then testify 85 days later, have raised more questions than answers. The Times’ page one news story and Miller’s "personal account" published Sunday portray behavior that has far more in...

I THOUGHT IT WAS only in fairy tales that Cinderella married a prince, but now handsome suitors are lining up to court the once-derided, much-maligned AOL. Who would have guessed? AOL's very name was such an embarrassment that it was ignominiously stripped from the media and entertainment entity it helped create, AOL Time Warner. Now the dowdy dial-up Internet service, long overshadowed by the...