China's New Media Blossoming as Business Models Revamp

Daniel Shore writes: Despite the low spending by advertisers in China, the immediate global status of China recognized by this article is that China is already a leading commercial market for companies and is only going to get bigger. As we compare our own market with ones such as China, there's simply nothing we can do when it comes to number of consumers. As quoted below, "The fact that China is already the world's largest Internet and mobile market, without even having reached 50 percent penetration..."

It is evident that China is a global leader for marketing, and as we have discussed in class, will thus be a target for international companies to market in. The interesting aspect shown by this consumer-base is that not all types of marketing carry over to other cultures--MySpace being the recent example of a style of media not able to permeate a foreign market. However, the model of interactive media is clearly one that will be able to carry advertisers through even the toughest financial times and into present-day consumerism.

China's New Media Blossoming as Business Models Revamp

BEIJING, Dec 08, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- In a vast market like China, where advertising spends per capital only approximate 2-3% of the level in the US, the blossoming new media sector is likely to see the fastest growth in consumer demand and wealth creation, according to a recent report by Z. H. Studio. New media leaders are outpacing the old media players as the key driver of innovation, both technology- and business-wise, as well as enhanced value chains.
Just about two years ago, Focus Media was almost a synonym of the "new media" concept in China. The company spearheaded the all-in-one-digital-signage model and operated LCD screen ads in elevator lobbies 24 hours a day. After a high-profiled IPO at NASDAQ, the company's founder Jiang Nanchun became one of the richest men in China at the age of 33. Ever since, LCD screens have been popping up in supermarkets, buses, air flights, railway cabinets, parking lots, restrooms, hairdressing salons ... just everywhere you go you will see the screens operated by Focus Media - or its copycats.
Does the Focus Media model still stand for "new media" today? No longer. In most cases, people are not looking to be entertained - merely as recipients - by those "unavoidable" ads. Consumers like to get more "active participation" with the media.

Interactive instead of unilateral
Small wonder, then, user-generated content and ads have become new fad. KFC Group was among the earliest companies to experiment with guerrilla marketing on Internet. In 2007, it ran a campaign for a new product launch on BlogBus, a Shanghai-based blogging service provider somewhat like Six Apart. Over 200 users blogged about their off-line experience associated with the campaign and created prime buzz for the product. According to Dou Yi, founder and CEO of BlogBus, the site annually generates 10-million-RMB revenue from such product placement campaigns and well-known brand advertisers include Absolut Vodka, General Motor, Lenor, Gillette, Garnier, and L'Oreal.
"Many companies are turning to the Internet users to help with their marketing messages and ads are blending in with entertainment content," says Mr. Dou. "Brands create partnerships with leading influencers on the social web ... In the end, the best advertisements are those that don't look like ads."
James Li cannot agree more. The founder and CEO of Bihu, a leading technology firm specializing in IGA (in-game ads), contends that "pure ads" will have no future due to commercial forwarding devices in the digital entertainment age. It took his company four years to develop a system that enables game publishers to embed commercial ads on a real-time basis, without changing any source code. What's particularly inspiring to Li is the base of 70 million active online gamers in China, plus another 50 million non-active users.
"The fact that China is already the world's largest Internet and mobile market, without even having reached 50 percent penetration, means that Chinese companies can - and in many cases will have to - do things that companies in other markets will never be able to do in terms of scale," argues Steven Schwankert, Desk Editor of IDG News Service in Asia. "Therefore, they can experiment, and a smaller percentage of their customer base embracing something can be counted as a success."
The new media sector has seen experiments in all areas like video-sharing sites, wireless, broadband, avatars in second life, local map, social networking (SNS), and many more. The highly interactive platforms not only enhance the stickiness of media users but also scale back customer acquisition costs.

Making a historic mark
According to iResearch, one of China's most authoritative research agencies on new media, Internet users in China has amounted to 253 million by June 2008. The company's vice president Michael Ruan remarks at the Digital Media Summit 2008 in Beijing that the marketplace has seen an evolving trend of diverse revenue models among Internet-related businesses, and degree of consolidation is expected to drop.
"China leads the world in new in many ways; and I'm not sure that either people in China or in other markets like the U.S. realize it," says Schwankert, half-jokingly.
Indeed, Kevin Wang is one of those who do realize it. When he founded ZCOM - now the largest digital publisher of magazines in China - back in 2004, Wang was determined to make a major mark, by the Chinese, on the world of innovation.
Nowadays, any of the 40 million ZCOM users may browse through over 300 different magazines anytime, which offer an interesting blend of static and interactive content. The articles look like what we'd find in a typical magazine, but what's mostly appealing is the natural embedding of the interactive elements - only possible in the digital world. Interactivity generates the very accurate demo stats, which in turn creates an enabling platform for direct marketing campaigns by brand advertisers.
Among the company's most successful campaigns were for BMW, Intel, Braun, LG, L'Oreal, iPod, Siemens, EPSON and a lot of other well-known brands.
Over 9500 magazines and 2000 newspapers are circulating in China, 50% beyond the levels in the US, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley. Kevin Wang believes that when numerous players are jockeying for position in the sector, ZCOM's strong brand awareness and "gateway" position in the virtual world creates a competitive edge.
Funded by Carlyle Group, ZCOM has also nurtured a cohort of collaborators - such as Toshiba (chip), Lenovo (PC) and Kingsoft (game) -- in distribution of e-magazine content.
"A lot of the new media companies are asset-light but network- and/or human capital-heavy," contends Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, a well-renown independent research firm specializing in TMT industry. "In China, new media players are outpacing their big [old media] brothers when it comes to digitalizing the product-distribution-service chain activities," Yu adds.
While most of new media players in China are overseas VC-backed, industry executives cite the importance of "keeping the business relevant to China". BlogBus CEO Dou Yi says the models of Six Apart, MySpace, Cyworld are not necessarily well-suited for China, where local customer insight - e.g. social context, consumption patterns, opinion leadership, etc. - serves as a key success factor for new media players.
BlogBus hosts over 5 million blogs now; and bloggers are typically higher-end, urban dwellers with decent purchasing power. "These groups tend to be both powerful influencers and early adopters," says Dou Yi. In that light, his company is establishing add-on platforms - ranging from free trial harbor, print media to live performance - with the aim to further monetize the BlogBus' user base.

Caveats and challenges
Still, the new media sphere in China is never without challenges. Relative to quality editorial content, the long-tailed UGC raises the search cost and therefore is typically hard to attract paid subscription, according to Liu Xiangming, Chief Editor of CEOCIO magazine, a 10-year-old journal jointly owned by IDG Group. He believes that new media practitioners will count, to a larger extent, on the scarcity and scalability - as "content creators are always scarce assets and it's critical to have teams that are able to scale up [content creation] in a sustainable fashion."
Regulatory may be another caveat. As state-owned assets, old media companies often benefit from favorable government policies. On the other hand, the inherently swift progress in new media space makes it difficult for policy-makers to keep up. Because of such a "lag effect", new media policies may sometimes create sharp volatility. That said, as a side benefit, new media appear to have stronger "immunity" than their old brothers. Also, regulatory restrictions prevent cross-regional ownership for old media companies; but new media are not subject to such constraints.
The economic meltdown will likely make many organizations conservative towards ads spending. As Edmund Li, a former 4A agency senior executive, warns, "try and err" costs may shift media buyers back to traditional, "proven" platforms, leaving new media companies vying for a smaller slice of the cake.
Despite the fact that global financial crisis makes many lower outlook, some players in new media sector remain optimistic. James Li of Bihu recalls the SARS epidemic period in 2003, in which the business of online gaming managed to double its size. "Our [online game-related] business enjoys a 'counter-cyclic' element: we see 'obsessive' customer loyalty in an economic downturn."
SOURCE: Z. H. Studio Z. H. Studio
Ms. Li CHEN, 86-10-58769825
li.chen@zhstudio.net
Copyright Business Wire 2008

Wikipedia child image censored

Big Brett back again, with my second (and last?) blog on this COLOURFUL website (spelled colorful with a "u" because my chosen article comes from the BBC). Anyways, enough stalling. I found an article today which stated that many UK internet providers are now blocking a page from Professor Pitts' favorite online resource: Wikipedia. There was a dispute over a German band's album cover that displayed a naked girl on it. While one of my favorite albums by Nirvana has a naked baby on it, the naked girl on this German band's album is a whole different issue (plus I don't like heavy metal). Do you think the UK internet providers were right in blocking this Wikipedia page? Is the UK the new "Red China?" Read on and let me know what you think.

A decision by a number of UK internet providers to block a Wikipedia page showing an image of a naked girl has angered users of the popular site.

The blocked page of the online encyclopaedia shows an album cover of German heavy metal band Scorpions, released in 1976.

Internet providers acted after online watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation warned them its picture may be illegal.

The IWF said it was a "potentially illegal child sexual abuse image".

Some volunteers who run Wikipedia said it was not for the foundation to censor one of the web's most popular sites.

They also argued that the image was available in a number of books and had never been ruled illegal.

But the IWF, which warns internet providers about possible images that could be linked to child abuse, said it had consulted the police before making its decision.

The foundation's list of proscribed sites is widely used by British internet service providers to filter out images showing child abuse and other illegal content.

As a result, the addition of the Scorpions Wikipedia page has made it inaccessible to the majority of British internet users.

The IWF, which lists the BBC, News International and internet companies AOL (UK) and Ask among its members, said as many as 95% of British users would now be unable to access the page.

Wikipedia volunteer David Gerard said he and fellow users were angry that as well as the photo, the text on the page had been blocked.

"Blocking text is a whole new thing - it's the first time they've done this on such a visible site," he said.

Mr Gerard also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the album cover was still available as part of the band's box set and could be viewed on retail websites.

"When we asked the Internet Watch Foundation why they blocked Wikipedia and not Amazon, apparently the decision was 'pragmatic', which we think means that Amazon had money and would sue them, whereas we're an educational charity."

Access blocked

Susan Robertson, of the IWF, said the image could potentially contravene the Protection of Children Act 1978.

"We only act on the reports we receive, and as I understand it, the only report we received regarding this content, as of Friday, was the content on Wikipedia," she said.

Ms Robertson also said the IWF needed to "take a view" on the images available on Amazon with its "analyst team and police partners".

Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, which manages the encyclopaedia, said the removal of the page also appeared to have stopped thousands of UK users from editing articles on Wikipedia, which allows readers to self-edit its pages.

"It appears that there's a large number of editors - I can't say all - who appear to have access issues," he said.

The IWF spokeswoman said a reader had brought the image to the foundation's attention last week and it had contacted the police before adding the page to their list.

Wikipedia is one of the world's most popular websites. It is a multi-lingual online database written, edited and funded largely by its users. It has 2.6m articles in English alone.

Pakistan Feared Indian Attacks

Im sure we have all been hearing about the attacks in Pakistan. I thought this article was an interesting read...


Pakistan feared India was planning to launch a military strike at the height of tensions over the Mumbai attacks, a senior Pakistani diplomat has said.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to London said there was evidence that India wanted "to teach Pakistan a lesson".
Islamabad denies involvement in the attacks which left at least 170 dead, but some of the gunmen are said to have had links to Pakistani militants.
Both sides have taken care not to openly inflame the situation.
High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hassan told the BBC that he had received the information in the wake of the three-day siege of key sites in Mumbai.
How would we have reacted? That could be anybody's guess
Wajid Shamsul HassanHigh Commissioner
"This is what we were told by our friends that there could possibly be a quick strike at some of the areas they suspect to be the training camps, an air raid or something of that sort," he said.
Mr Hassan said he alerted his president, Asif Ali Zardari, to the danger and Pakistan urgently passed on its concerns to high level US and British officials, who intervened to calm the situation.
"There was circumstantial evidence that India was going to make a quick strike against Pakistan to teach her a lesson," he said.
Mr Hassan said that in his opinion it was unlikely the two countries, which both possess nuclear weapons and have fought several wars since partition in 1947, would have ended up in all-out conflict.
"We wouldn't have gone, and I'm sure India wouldn't have gone for full-scale war," he said. "But then, on the other side, how would we have reacted? That could be anybody's guess. We are a smaller country, we have to defend ourselves."
India has so far made no comment on Mr Hassan's comments.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarked on a diplomatic mission to ease tensions - flying to Dehli and Islamabad for talks this week.
She also called on both countries to show moderation in their response to the Mumbai attacks.
Analysts say that despite both sides' rhetoric, there has been no concrete signs by either side of heightened military activity, such as troop movements to border areas.
Hoax call denied
In an earlier indication of how strained relations had become during the attacks, the Pakistani Dawn newspaper reported that the country had been put on high alert during the crisis after what the paper called a hoax call was made to President Zardari.

India says the surviving gunman, Azam Amir Qasab, is Pakistani
A caller claiming to be Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to the Pakistani leader in a threatening manner on 28 November, Dawn reported.
The newspaper said Mr Zardari's staff had bypassed usual verification checks for a call to the president.
But Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman later denied it could have been a hoax.
"It is not possible for any call to come through to the president without multiple caller identity verifications," he said in a statement.
"In fact the identity of this particular call, as evident from the CLI (caller's line identification) device, showed that the call was placed from a verified official Phone Number of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs."
In another development, Indian police have arrested two men in the eastern city of Calcutta suspected of handling mobile phone cards later used by the Mumbai attackers.
Nine of the 10 militants believed to have mounted the attack on 26 November died.
Indian media have named the surviving gunman as Azam Amir Qasab, a Pakistani, and say he has links to a Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group denies involvement.

Somalia

Hey everyone it's Sarah. I found this story on the CNN website. Somalia has been in the news a lot because of the recent pirate attacks. I just thought it was interesting because it really forces you to think about what life as an international journalists is like and the potential problems that exist.

(CNN) -- Four journalists have been kidnapped in the Somali port city of Bosasso, officials and an international press freedom group say.

One journalist is British, said Bile Qabow Sade, an adviser to the president of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia.

Another is a Spanish freelance photographer, a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The two others are local Somali journalists, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Unknown assailants seized the four around midday Wednesday after they left their hotel, the CPJ said, citing Abdiqani Hassan, chairman of the Puntland Journalist Club.

"This underscores what an incredibly dangerous place Somalia has become for both local and foreign journalists," said Tom Rhodes, CPJ's Africa Program coordinator.

Spain has no immediate word on the photographer's condition or the circumstances of his kidnapping, the foreign ministry spokesman said.

Two other freelance journalists are still being held captive in Somalia, the CPJ said. Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan were kidnapped in August outside the capital, Mogadishu.

Somalia's coast has been the center of media attention amid an escalation in piracy along key shipping routes close to the region. Earlier this month a super tanker laden with millions of dollars worth of oil was abducted by Somali pirates.

Warner Bros. in Italy

It's Blake O'Neal, I was just doing some research on Warner Bros. and found this article posted on their website. It just goes to show how pervasive American media actually is in other countries. It also talks a little about foreign film.

Richard Fox has Been Named Commendatore Dell’Ordine al Merito Della Repubblica
November 18, 2008

Richard Fox, Executive Vice President, International, Warner Bros., has received yesterday in Rome the honorary title Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic). He has been awarded this recognition by Gianni Letta, Undersecretary of State for the Prime Minister at a ceremony in Rome at the historic Palazzo Chigi, the office of the Italian Prime Minister.

The Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana is conferred by the President of the Italian Republic on Italian and foreign citizens who have shown great merit and distinguished themselves through lasting contributions to Italian society in the fields of literature, the economy, public service, and social, philanthropic and humanitarian activities. Among the award’s prior recipients are diplomats, academicians, senior Italian politicians, high ranking officials and religious leaders. Previous honorees include Carlo Verdone, Giuseppe Tornatore, Giorgio Armani, Luciano Benetton, Michael Schumacher, Pedro Almódovar and Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.

Fox is being honored for his lifetime commitment to cultural diversity, exemplified by his achievements in the international film industry, and for his significant contribution to the development of local production in the Italian movie industry.

"Richard's respect for and understanding of the Italian tradition of filmmaking have helped Warner Bros. build an enviable reputation in the world of international film," said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros.

"We are all extremely proud that Italy, with its rich history and love of film, has recognized Richard's contributions to strengthening the country’s film industry and his commitment to cultural diversity in the arts and entertainment by honoring him with this prestigious award," added Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros.

Since 1992, Fox has overseen local language co-production, acquisition, marketing and distribution in more than 20 countries around the world on behalf of Warner Bros. Entertainment. He began his career at Warner Bros. in 1975 and 10 years later was named President, Warner Bros. Pictures International, where he headed the distribution of the Studio's film product in all overseas markets before moving into his present position in 1992.

Under his leadership, Warner Bros. has been involved in such successful film projects as Romanzo Criminale, directed by Michele Placido, Mio Fratello è figlio unico, directed by Daniele Luchetti and Giorni e Nuovole, directed by Silvio Soldini, all critical and box office successes in Italy; Pedro Almodóvar's recent releases Talk to Her, Bad Education and Volver as well as the upcoming Los Abrozos rotos for Spain and Italy; and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Un Long Dimanche De Fiancailles (A Very Long Engagement), which became the most widely distributed French film in history.

Global Focus: International co-production treaties

Hey guys, I found this article from The Hollywood Reporter about production companies from different companies working together on movies. The article talks about the perks of working with producers from more than one country: you have a bigger budget and it's easier to get a movie published in a different country if one of the production companies is from that country. The article also mentions the treaties that India has made with other countries. I think it will be really interesting to see what kind of movies come out of an Indian and German collaboration. If you want to see who countries have treaties with, follow this link. The list is at the bottom of the page.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i60b39c4b57a9d7759395c8d055a3b9e6

Global focus: Int'l co-production treaties

By Scott Roxborough

Nov 20, 2008, 06:00 PM ET

International co-production has come a long way from the days of Europudding and cobbled-together tax write-offs that no one, anywhere, would pay to see. Recent cross-border efforts, such as Fernando Meirelles' Cannes opener "Blindness," Oscar winner "The Last King of Scotland" or Roger Spottiswoode's "The Children of Huang Shi" show how creative producers can use international treaties to their advantage, delivering high-end features that would be impossible to finance out of a single, non-U.S., territory.

"We've gotten a lot smarter in doing co-productions," says Christine Ruppert of Germany's Tatfilm, which co-produced "The Last King of Scotland" and is in post on Belgium-Germany-Poland feature "Within the Whirlwind." "Now we realize that films need their own integrity, their own roots. We can't shoehorn in 'alibi' actors from the various countries just to get funding, as used to happen a lot in the 'Europudding' days."

Veteran producers have gotten better at making multinational features that work around the world. A recent study by the European Audiovisual Observatory found that European co-productions get released in more than twice the number of markets that 100% national productions do. A separate study showed African or Asian films have a much easier time securing distribution in Europe if they have a European co-producer on board.

Globally, co-productions are starting to fill the gap between big studio tentpoles and small-budget indies. By spreading risk among several partners and tapping soft money opportunities around the globe, the $10 million-$40 million feature is becoming financially viable again.

A new territory for cross-border co-productions is television. The success of limited series "The Tudors," set up as a co-pro between Canada and Ireland, has gotten producers thinking beyond the big screen. Expect to see more TV series produced and financed outside the U.S., with the domestic sale an add-on.

When it comes to setting up international co-productions, Europe has an obvious advantage. The 1992 European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production allows cross-border productions within the EU to dip into subsidies from all the participating countries. But several other territories, notably Canada, Australia and South Africa, can also point to attractive production incentives and an impressive track record.

All eyes are now on India, home to a massive local industry and piles of investment capital, which has recently signed treaties with the U.K., Germany, Italy and Brazil. If the power of Bollywood can be harnessed to make sellable international features, a whole new range of opportunities will open up for ambitious indie producers.

Despite the obvious advantage of doing co-productions -- a bigger budget -- veterans of the bilateral game warn of the hidden costs of flying around talent and crews. Not to mention having to give up substantial rights to your French, Japanese or Brazilian co-production partners.

But with private capital running scared during the global credit meltdown, regional subsidies and tax breaks -- the financial backbone of international co-productions -- look a lot more enticing. Producing a film across two or more borders requires doing a lot more homework and often means a few more headaches, but when it works, it can turn you into a truly global player.

Mumbai Attacks

Hey everyone it's Sarah. I'm a lead blogger this week. I thought this story from the New York Times was an interesting follow up to the recent Mumbai events. The article focuses on citizen reporters and how technology is really changing the field of communications and journalism. I think the media is rapidly becoming very dependent on citizen reporters for their ability to report on events immediately especially when otherwise the media outlets may have trouble gathering information about the story or event.

Citizen Journalists Provided Glimpses of Mumbai Attacks

By BRIAN STELTER and NOAM COHEN

Published: November 29, 2008

From his terrace on Colaba Causeway in south Mumbai, Arun Shanbhag saw the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel burn. He saw ambulances leave the Nariman House. And he recorded every move on the Internet.

Mr. Shanbhag, who lives in Boston but happened to be in Mumbai when the attacks began on Wednesday, described the gunfire on his Twitter feed — the “thud, thud, thud” of shotguns and the short bursts of automatic weapons — and uploaded photos to his personal blog.

Mr. Shanbhag, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said he had not heard the term citizen journalism until Thursday, but now he knows that is exactly what he was doing. “I felt I had a responsibility to share my view with the outside world,” Mr. Shanbhag said in an e-mail message on Saturday morning.

The attacks in India served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media.

At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word “Mumbai” in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years.

Those descriptions and others on Web sites and photo-sharing sites served as a chaotic but critically important link among people across the world — whether they be Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn tracking the fate of a rabbi held hostage at the Nariman House or students in Britain with loved ones back in India or people hanging on every twist and turn in the standoff while visiting relatives for Thanksgiving dinner.

“When you look at TV, you see one channel at a time, then you go to another channel,” said Dina Mehta, an ethnographer and social media consultant in Mumbai. “On Twitter, you get feeds from many different people at the same time.”Citizen journalists avoided some of the bureaucratic headaches faced by media organizations. At the end of the day on Friday, CNN’s license to transmit live video in India expired, forcing the network’s correspondents to report via telephone. CNN and other channels in the United States relied on live coverage and taped reports from Indian networks.

The cameras and phones carried by people swept up in the attacks were not subject to any such rules. Mr. Shanbhag photographed one of the fires at the Taj hotel and the wreckage outside a popular cafe that was attacked on Wednesday and posted them on his Flickr stream. Some people transmitted video from inside the Taj hotel to news networks via cellphones. And reporters used cellphones to send text messages to hotel guests who had set up barricades in their rooms.

Much of this activity flourished early in the crisis, while there was a vacuum of official information either from government sources or from mainstream media outlets still struggling to understand the extent of the attacks.

Sreenath Sreenivasan, the dean of student affairs and a professor at the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, said, “A little bit of information is better than no information at all.”

For a small segment of the Lubavitch Hasidic community in the United States, Twitter became a way to follow the fate of their rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife, Rivka, and their son, who were being held hostage in Mumbai.

“I relied on Twitter heavily,” said Mordechai Lightstone, 24, a freelance journalist and Lubavitcher with a Twitter account. “As a person interested in what is going on over there, it gets frustrating when the news cycles on itself.”

Mr. Lightstone said that only a week or so ago he persuaded the leaders of his community to use Twitter as a publishing tool. He has been running that Twitter account, as well as his own.

Reading Mr. Lightstone’s posts, as well as those of another Lubavitcher, Reuven Fischer, gave a glimpse into a community fearing for one of its own but wanting to remain hopeful about its mission.

Mr. Lightstone wrote, “This is pure hearsay, but I was told that the shlucha was rescued — again this unsubstantiated #chabad #mumbai,” using the Yiddish word for the rabbi’s wife and marking keywords with pound signs so that the post would be easier to find in a search of Twitter.

As the news that the rabbi and his wife had been killed emerged, and the Sabbath approached, Mr. Lightstone and Mr. Fischer took pains to temper their sadness with the joy of the day of rest.

Mr. Fischer wrote, “We should Honor Shabbos with joy this week. We can mourn after Shabbos doing Mitzvot in honor of ALL effected by this tragedy.”

Though traditional in dress and beliefs, Lubavitchers pride themselves on harnessing all of the available tools to spread their teachings.

“We are not afraid of using the world to further our goal and tasks,” Mr. Lightstone said. “It’s really amazing, sitting in a basement in Brooklyn, we are all sharing a common goal, looking for good news, staying in touch.”

Siege ends at Mumbai Jewish centre

I don't know how many of you have been following this, but the situation in Mumbai is unbelievable. The terrorist attacks going on there have been outrageous, and many Westerners from American and Britain have been taken as hostages in the ordeal. Over 150 people have been recorded as dead, and the madness continues. They even took people hostage at the Taj Mahal, and many of the guests were either killed or trapped for a multitude of hours. These attacks are supposedly an attempt to gain attention, but hopefully it ends soon.

Siege ends at Mumbai Jewish centre

Indian commandos have ended the siege of a Jewish centre in Mumbai, storming the building and recovering the bodies of five hostages, while fighting continued at a luxury hotel elsewhere in the city. The siege at the Nariman House ended on Friday, the private NDTV news channel said, two days after attackers carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across India's financial capital. Al Jazeera's Matt McClure, reporting from outside the Nariman House in south Mumbai, said several gunmen have been killed in the assault by the security forces . "Now we are told they [security forces] are slowly moving room-to-room there to make sure there are no booby traps," he said. Raging battle The bodies of five hostages were recovered from the building, an Israeli emergency medical crew that entered the building after the raid, said. Among the bodies were those of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, who ran the centre, and his wife, the Chabad Lubavitch organisation said. A day earlier, two workers and the rabbi's son had escaped from the building. The battle at the building that houses the headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch, included a team of at least nine commandos rappelling onto the roof from helicopters. Several large explosions were also heard. Elsewhere in the city, gunfire and grenade blasts were heard at the Taj Mahal hotel and security forces at another hotel, the Trident-Oberoi, found 24 bodies after gaining control of the building. More than 150 people are now known to have been killed since the attackers launched a series of assaults across Mumbai on Wednesday night. Indian troops earlier took control of the Trident-Oberoi hotel, which had also been the scene of a hostage standoff, killing two attackers, the chief of India's national security guard said. "We are just now sanitising each and every room," J K Dutt said. Some frightened civilians inside the hotel are refusing to leave their rooms, he said. Twenty-four bodies were found inside the hotel, Hasan Ghafoor, Mumbai's police chief, said. Meanwhile, at the Taj Mahal hotel at least one gunman was said to still be inside. "The Oberoi-Trident is completely clear, there is one terrorist left in the Taj who is giving us trouble and he could hold hostages and that is why we are very cautious," Gafoor said. Hundreds trapped James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent outside the Taj Mahal hotel, reported: "The authorities believe they have secured the majority of the Taj hotel. We were told some time ago their attention was focused on the ballroom, but it's still a confused situation." The chief of India's Marine Commando Force said that his troops had come across "12 to 15 bodies" while sweeping through the Taj. "The [attackers] were the kind of people with no remorse - anybody and whomsoever came in front of them, they fired," the commando said. "We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests ... The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was blood all over and in trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful," he said. Foreigners killed Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the Taj Mahal hotel, said the attackers had detailed knowledge of the layout of the buildings. The strikes by small bands of armed men starting on Wednesday night shocked Mumbai, the nerve-centre of India's growing economic might and home to the Bollywood film industry. At least eight foreigners, including an Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national, have been killed. Fourteen policemen, including the head of Mumbai's counter-terrorism force, have also been killed, police say. A US investigative team is heading to Mumbai, a state department official said on Thursday evening. Media speculation Police said they had taken nine suspected attackers into custody. The Indian media, citing unidentified police investigators, reported that three alleged attackers had confessed to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group which aims to end Indian rule in Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means army of God, had earlier denied any role in the attacks. The Hindu newspaper said interrogation of the suspects revealed that Lashkar operatives had left Karachi in Pakistan in a merchant ship early on Wednesday and went ashore at Mumbai on a small boat before splitting up into teams to attack multiple locations. Earlier, a little known group calling itself the Deccan Mujahidin claimed responsibility for the attack in emails to news organisations. Dipankar Banerjee, a retired Indian general, told Al Jazeera that he does not rule out the possibility that the Indian Mujahidin, blamed for previous attacks, were responsible for the Mumbai assaults. In a speech on Thursday, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, blamed "external forces", a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistan-based fighters. Pakistan has condemned the attacks and has said it will fully co-operate with an Indian investigation. But in a diplomatic exchange that raised the prospect of renewed tension between India and its neighbour, Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, urged Pakistan to dismantle infrastructure that supported armed groups. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad said: "More and more people here are inclined to think that this is an indigenous, internal Indian phenomenon and that India is scapegoating Pakistan. "Since yesterday the Indian media insinuated that elements within Pakistan were involved. However on the Pakistani side there has been relative quiet and also a sense of responsibility shown by the journalists not to jump to conclusions," he said.

American media aided Bush

What must be done now!
26/11/2008 05:02:00 PM GMT
America’s right-leaning media imbalance was a big reason why Bush was able to misgovern the U.S. for eight years.
By Robert Parry
Having spent more than three decades in Washington, I’ve seen enough mistakes made – and opportunities missed – for a lifetime. So, at this turning point in American history, I’m venturing beyond my normal role as reporter to offer a few ideas about what must be done now.
For one, the progressive side of American politics must invest much more in media and do so immediately.
Looking back over the past three decades, the cost of the Left’s complacency on media – i.e. its failure to create a reliable way to get important facts to the public and to counter the Right’s propaganda machine – has been almost beyond calculation.
America’s right-leaning media imbalance was a big reason why George W. Bush was able to misgovern the United States for eight years, leaving the nation in two bloody wars and wallowing in the worst financial crisis since World War II. Hundreds of thousands are dead and millions may soon be out of work.
Despite Barack Obama’s election victory, this media asymmetry will not go away. Indeed, it is almost certain to limit his ability to bring about significant change and could tilt the country back in the direction of the Republicans in the not-to-distant future.
It is a pattern I have seen often since 1977 when I arrived in Washington as a reporter for the Associated Press.
During that time, while the American Left has been largely absent from the national media landscape, wealthy right-wingers (from foundations like Olin and Scaife to media moguls like Sun Myung Moon and Rupert Murdoch) have poured tens of billions of dollars into media.
Over those years, the Right built a towering – and vertically integrated – media structure reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to talk radio, cable TV and the Internet, an apparatus concentrated in the power centers of New York and Washington.
The Right also invested money in attack groups to go after mainstream journalists who dared dig up information that put right-wing policies or politicians in a negative light. Offending journalists were accused of “liberal bias” and often found themselves hounded from the national press corps.
Over time, this imbalance had a spillover effect. Many right-wing and neoconservative pundits landed prime spots on mainstream TV news shows and the Op-Ed pages of leading newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Even the most dangerous of right-wing ideas – such as free-market absolutism at home and neoconservative imperialism abroad – got respectful if not reverential treatment across the mainstream-to-right-wing media spectrum, the news outlets that most Americans read, heard and watched.
Left’s miscalculation
The Right’s bullying was made more effective by the fact that the progressive side of American politics chose – also starting in the mid-to-late 1970s – to withdraw from any serious commitment to national media.
One of the Left’s favorite slogans became “think globally, act locally.” In practice, that meant favoring local activism (such as direct philanthropic spending on projects like feeding the poor or buying up endangered wetlands) over national media (i.e. building the kind of informational infrastructure that the Right had).
So, it was not so much that the Left lost the “war of ideas” to the Right over the past three decades; it was more that the Left abandoned the battlefield.
The Left’s neglect of media proved disastrous. The Right, with its three-decade project of building media and controlling the federal government, showed it could create far more poor people than well-meaning progressives could feed – and put more wetlands at risk than could ever be bought up.
Another result of the Left’s media miscalculation has been that even when moderately progressive politicians have managed to claw their way to power – as Bill Clinton did in 1993 and the congressional Democrats did in 2007 – they must operate within a hostile environment, fighting relentless media assaults and often scaling back plans.
It has been no accident that the last three decades have been dominated by three Republican presidents who have held the White House for a combined 20 years. At each step, the media played a pivotal role, most notably in promoting the incompetent George W. Bush over the well-qualified Al Gore.
Only in the last few years has there been a modest pushback from the Left. Adding to a few earlier media standbys – such as Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” radio/TV program and some liberal magazines – there were these new developments:
--Often operating on a shoestring, Internet sites rose up to challenge both Bush and the fawning coverage he was getting from the major news media.
--In 2004, a poorly funded Air America took flight with the goal of putting at least a few liberal voices on AM talk radio.
--Progressives got an unexpected boost with Comedy Central’s surprise hit, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and a spin-off, “The Colbert Report” with Stephen Colbert.
--MSNBC, after trying for years to out-fox Fox News with flag-waving jingoism, took a different tack when it elevated former sportscaster Keith Olbermann to a prime-time broadcast called “Countdown,” which made a point of mocking Bill O’Reilly and other right-wing blowhards on Fox.
--When profit-obsessed MSNBC executives realized that Olbermann was boosting their ratings, they hired Air America host Rachel Maddow to put on a show that follows “Countdown,” creating a four-hour block of relatively progressive news content.
The Obama movement
Though still operating at a fraction of the budgets available to right-wing media, this combination – grassroots Internet sites, a struggling radio network and a few toeholds inside corporate media – helped create a climate that permitted the growth of Barack Obama’s political movement and his election on Nov. 4.
But this new media ecology is very fragile.
There is also the reality that a generation of mainstream journalists has learned the lesson that tilting stories rightward protects your precious career. They have seen what happens even to media icons, like anchor Dan Rather, when the Right’s ire is stirred.
So what must be done now?
If America’s media imbalance is to be corrected, progressives – both individuals and liberal foundations – must invest heavily in a media infrastructure that is national but focused on the news centers of Washington and New York.
This investment should have both micro and macro components.
Financial support is needed for the gutsy Web sites that stood up to Bush – like our own Consortiumnews.com – but money also should go to larger media institutions, which can then help publicize stories that are generated by the smaller outlets.
For instance, a properly capitalized and well managed Air America could not only improve the radio network’s programming but could place ads at Web sites with links back to Air America so listeners can click on Webcasts and get information about local Air America affiliates.
That way Air America could grow; its affiliates would be strengthened; and ad money could help keep Internet news sites afloat. They, in turn, could provide the radio network with original content for shows, rather than having Air America hosts rely on warmed-over conventional wisdom from mainstream outlets like Newsweek.
There are plenty of other examples of how cooperation could work within this loose confederation of independent journalism. At Consortiumnews.com, for instance, we produce our own original articles, but we also serve as a portal to the independent video news site, TheRealNews.com.
Another example is how media critic Norman Solomon’s Institute for Public Accuracy, through the work of the indefatigable Sam Husseini, supplies broadcast outlets with the names of off-the-beaten-path experts, including independent journalists, to provide fuller context for news than what often is heard in the mainstream press.
Needed: A leader
This strategy for building independent media would be most effective if someone with access to plentiful resources took the lead, much like former Treasury Secretary Bill Simon did for the Right in the late 1970s. Simon used his perch at the Olin Foundation to coordinate with other right-wing foundations on media funding.
Bill Moyers, who has run the Schumann Foundation and knows his way around New York/Washington media circles, would be an ideal candidate for such a role now.
Other possible leaders would be major directors/producers from Hollywood, given their expertise in producing media content.
If Hollywood did take the lead, my nominee for coordinating this infrastructure work would be Stuart Sender, an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles who understands the rigors of investigative journalism and the value of multi-media formats (or someone like him).
But the bottom line is, as they say, the bottom line. Without an investment of serious money in a timely fashion, even a well-conceived plan and the involvement of well-qualified people won’t go anywhere.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said in the context of opposing the Vietnam War (and Barack Obama frequently reiterated during his campaign), there is at crucial moments “the fierce urgency of now. … There is such a thing as being too late.”
-- Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush , can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.com.-- Middle East Online
© aljazeera.com

Tension rises after Syrian TV show

Interviews with terrorists arose Lebanese anger

By NOUR MALAS

BEIRUT -- A primetime broadcast on Syrian state television two weeks ago worked the region's media into a storm -- and neighbors Syria and Lebanon into renewed political tension.

On Nov. 6 Syria TV aired a series of edited interviews with a group of people claiming responsibility for a September car bomb in Damascus that killed 17 people.

Ten men and one woman confessed on air to being members of Fatah al-Islam, a militant group that battled the Lebanese army for more than three months in neighboring North Lebanon in summer 2007. Sole woman in the group was identified as the daughter of Fatah al-Islam fugitive leader Shaker al-Absi.

The montage of interviews against a black background also showed captured militant weapons, including TNT, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rifles.

The state broadcaster made no mention of the programming on its website, and the government has yet to release details of when and where the alleged terrorists were detained.

The international media has described the broadcast as an attempt by Syrian authorities to portray themselves as partners in the global war on terror. The U.S. has long accused Syria of failing to cooperate with anti-insurgency efforts along the Syria-Iraq border.

But in Lebanon, reactions have focused on the allegation that explosives for the Damascus car bomb were brought in from North Lebanon, where -- the interviewees said -- Fatah al-Islam is financed by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri and his anti-Syrian Future party.

In response, the Hariri-owned Al-Mustaqbal newspaper published statements by Fatah al-Islam militants captured in Lebanon who claim the group was instead armed and trained by Syrian intelligence officers.

All this has taken place just as Syria and Lebanon finalize the establishment of diplomatic relations for the first time in their history.

Katine

I found out about this project on the homepage of The Guardian UK website. It's pretty interesting and seems very relevant to our class, since it is a media organization helping people in another part of the world in more ways than just reporting on the conditions there. I would really encourage you all to actually go the article on the Guardian because it contains several links that give more information about the project and other organizations involved. heres the link for the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/sep/23/background.news

 - Greg

In partnership with

Katine: What's it all about?

• Liz Ford
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday September 23 2008 15.26 BST
• Article history

Welcome to Katine.

In October 2007, the Guardian and Observer embarked on a three-year project to support development work carried out by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and Farm-Africa in Katine, a rural sub-county of north-east Uganda.

The project was launched by the editor of the Guardian newspaper,Alan Rusbridger.

The £2.5m project is being funded by donations from Guardian and Observer readers and Barclays, which initially gave £500,000 to the project and will match-fund donations over the course of the project up to £1m. You can read more about our partners here.

But the Katine project is more than just a fundraising push. On our dedicated Katine website you will get the chance to find out how the money is spent, how development works (the successes and the failures) and how the lives of the sub-county's 25,000 inhabitants have changed.

The project is focusing on five key areas, and improvements in each will be recorded in dedicated sections on the site. So, you can find out about the project goals and catch up on progress in education, health,water, governance and livelihoods at the click of a button.

An important part of the Katine project is listening to its residents – finding out about their lives and giving them a forum to express their views, not only on the work of Amref and Farm-Africa in their communities, but also on the decisions made by Ugandan politicians in Kampala that could impact their lives. The NGO Panos, which works to strengthen media, debate and information in developing countries, will hopefully help empower locals to tell their stories, which you can read in our village voices section.

Throughout the project we will be attempting to put the work going on in Katine into context by reporting on Uganda's history and politics, including the war being waged in the north of the country by the Lord's Resistance Army, a war that has directly affected Katine.

We will also explore the wider issues of international development in ouraid and development section.

Over the course of the project, Guardian and Observer journalists will visit Uganda to report on progress. We have also employed an award-winning senior staff writer from the Weekly Observer newspaper in Kampala, Richard M Kavuma, to spend two weeks each month in Katine to write regular news reports.

An independent moderator, Rick Davies, has been contracted by the Guardian to visit Katine to see if the work being carried out by Amref and Farm-Africa on the ground corresponds to the project plans. Regular reports will be published online. The first can be read here.

Obviously, fundraising for the project is important, and there is a page on the site that explains the different ways you can make a donation.

We are also encouraging schools to get involved in the project through our school resource section, which contains ideas for raising money, videos and lesson plans that can be downloaded.

All of the work going on in Katine is being captured through the written word, pictures, audio, and video, with a number of films produced byGuardianFilms. There is also a helpful interactive map of Katine, which allows you to take a virtual tour around the region. You can read more about the project on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

We believe the Katine project can offer a unique insight into the world of international development, so tell us what you think. Join the debate on our Katine Chronicles blog, or email me, the Katine website editor, at katine.editor@guardian.co.uk, with any comments or suggestions you have for the site, or on the project.

UK identities being sold

Hey guys

I came across this article and I thought you might find this interesting. Internet fraudsters are selling complete financial identities for just £80, according to an online safety group. The Safe Online group, who is backed by police, government and banks, says ID theft is a serious problem because of an international trade in stolen identities and data. The information that is being sold online are names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as credit card numbers. The experts says that with six out of 10 people now managing finances online, the public needs to do more to prevent e-crime. The article stated that online marketplaces, often sited in countries with lax controls against e-crime, sell bundles of data harvested in concerted attacks against poorly defended computers in wealthier nations. The link to the article is listed below. I find this very disturbing that people's personal information is beling tampered with. I wonder how will this effect the UK? Do you guys think that it is possible to effect the US? With all these identity theft cases in the UK and the US how damaging could this be to the economy in the US and UK? What do you guys think?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7732569.stm

La Mara

Japanese economy now in recession

I thought this article was an intersting read. As America goes through this recession it was surprising to see that one of our big product-supplying countries is going through similar economic peril.

Japan's economy has entered its first recession since 2001 after shrinking by 0.1% in the third quarter.
The world's second-biggest economy had previous shrunk by 0.9% in the April to June quarter.
"The downtrend in the economy will continue for the time being as global growth slows," said Japanese Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano.
The eurozone officially slipped into recession last week, and the US is expected to follow.
"We need to bear in mind that economic conditions could worsen further as the US and European financial crisis deepens, worries of economic downturn heighten and stock and foreign exchange markets make big swings," Mr Yosano added.
In Osaka, Japan's second biggest city, some companies are looking to the heavens for help
Duncan Bartlett, BBC correspondent
Osaka puts economic hope in new ideas
The benchmark Nikkei share index fell on opening after the growth data was released, but it later rebounded and closed up 0.7%. The Nikkei has lost a quarter of its value since the beginning of October.
Growth in Japan has been hit by the global economic slowdown which has curbed demand for Japanese exports.
"The risk of Japan posting a third or fourth straight quarterly contraction is growing, given the fact that we can no longer rely on exports," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
Japan's economy had experienced its longest period of economic growth since World War II until the sub-prime crisis started a year ago.

Eurozone slips into recession

Hey guys, it's not my time for a post, but I stumbled across this interesting article on Al-Jazeera's website. Apparently things are rough in markets all over the world. Germany, the mainstay of the European market, is thought to be the main cause of this, but other countries are struggling as well. It also mentions that Hong Kong recently announced a recession too. It even said that the US did better this past quarter than the Eurozone. Can we expect our economy to improve if the European economy does, and vice versa?

Eurozone slips into recession

The eurozone has officially slippped into recession after European Union (EU) statisticians estimated the economy of its 15-member states shrank by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, released the figures on Friday. The fall follows a 0.2 per cent economic contraction in April-June. Two consecutive quarters of shrinking growth is a widely accepted definition of technical recession. Year-on-year economic output grew by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter - half of its growth rate in the second quarter. The eurozone performance was weaker than that of the US, where output fell 0.1 per cent on the quarter and grew by 0.8 per cent in annual terms. German decline Traders believe the eurozone's decline was prompted largely by a technical recession in Germany, Europe's biggest economy. Italy, the eurozone's third-biggest economy, is also classified as being formally in recession. France, Europe's second largest economy, defied expectations on Friday by posting a 0.1 per cent growth in the third quarter. Howard Wheeldon, financial analyst at BGC International based in London, told Al Jazeera: "It means confidence in the economy is going out the door. We have moved from a period of growth into a period of decline. "Germany is the economic engine of the eurozone and it is the most powerful within the eurozone. It is the one we will all be watching to see when that decline halts. "I think it will be 2009 ... we have got to baton down the hatches." Troubled forecast The news came as Hong Kong announced it too had formally tipped over into recession. The announcements will serve to deepen fears that a global recession is unavoidable and also follows a bleak assessment of the financial crisis released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD on Thursday slashed its economic output forecasts for major economies and said its 30-strong membership appeared to have entered a recession. The news that more major economies have slipped into recession will put further pressure on the G20 - the world's top 20 economic powers - to find a way of avoiding all-out global financial meltdown. The G20 leaders are holding an emergency summit in Washington this weekend to discuss the financial crisis. George Bush, the US president, said the talks would focus on the following five objectives: understanding the causes of the crisis, reviewing the effectiveness of responses, developing principles for reform, launching a specific plan and assuring the world that free-market principles were the only way to reach propsperity. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Friday that Russian and EU positions ahead of the G20 summit were very close. Sarkozy made the comment during a joint press conference with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, following an EU-Russia summit in the French city of Nice. Immediately after the meeting, Sarkozy and Medvedev will fly directly to the G20 meeting in Washington.