Oda says no, Yahoo stringers, and the decline of TV

Oda rejects media concentration report: Heritage Minister Bev Oda has rejected a Senate committee’s report on media concentration, which found that “the concentration of ownership has reached levels that few other countries would consider acceptable.” Among its recommendations, the report said that the CBC should get “stable and long-term funding” in order to become ad-free, and that media organizations should regularly publish their ownership structure. Antonia Zerbaisis reports that Oda “brushed most recommendations aside.”

Yahoo turns its users into photo stringers: Reuters is asking members around the public to be (unpaid) photojournalists, in a new online project with Yahoo. You Witness News, a venue for citizen journalism where people can upload photos and videos for possible publication, launched this morning. The President of Reuters told the New York Times: “This is looking out and saying, ‘What if everybody in the world were my stringers?’. Yikes.

The rise in online video viewing is coming at the expense of television time. At least in Britain. Of 2,070 people the BBC polled found 43 per cent of Britons who watch video on the internet or mobile devices at least once a week watch less television as a result. Only three per cent said they watched more television. Online and mobile video is most popular among young people, with 28 per cent of respondents between the ages of 16 and 24 saying they watch at least once a week. Online video stealing viewers from TV

Good thing we updated our security cards: Pity the folks at Fox News. Some weirdo, whose unassuming presence got him past security guards, got into the studio, sat down next to anchor Rudi Bakhtiar and began acting weird enough to prompt another nearby Fox correspondent to say “something is going on” and request that security escort the man out. mediabistro.com: FishbowlDC

CanWest has announced its lineup of original programming in production for 2007. “The sophomore return of drama Falcon Beach, and the premiere of The Best Years, plus 124 hours of original content across CanWest’s specialty networks. CanWest MediaWorks Announces ‘In Production’

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4 Responses to “Oda says no, Yahoo stringers, and the decline of TV”

    Kevin says:

    Meanwhile, back in my home country, an angry nutbar gatecrashed a talk show on the Irish CBC-equivalent (may be NSFW due to language, use headphones):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBbWf-aveR8

    A couple of days later he drove his car into the broadcasting centre’s foyer, and has since been given a two-mile exclusion order!



    bob says:

    funny, that “Yahoo stringers” proposal sounds a lot like the plans for the new CBC-TV local news.



    Dwight Williams says:

    Our Heritage Minister seems to be proving utterly and sadly predictable in my POV as a private citizen.



    Justin Beach says:

    I don’t think Oda will be in the job for long at any rate. Perhaps there will be another look at the recomendations after the spring election?