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CROSS-MEDIA PROMOTION
134/MEDIA MONITOR
OK, OK, we’ve made the point before, but here goes. We said that the AOL Time Warner merger would lead to us being carpet bombed with promotions for the vast array of the global group’s products. If you subscribe to Time you get a CD every few weeks inviting you to sign on with AOL, for example.Now Time is a news magazine, allegedly. Why then is the front cover for 12 May a publicity shot of the film stars in The Matrix Reloaded, the sequel to The Matrix, with the headline ‘Secrets of the New Matrix: We’re the FIRST to see the movie and play the video game! If we told you everything, they’d have to kill us’ emblazoned on it?
Inside the magazine there is a ten-page section promoting the film and video game.
Was this really the major news story of the week, meriting front-page treatment?
The answer is in two parts. Pictures of films stars sell more copies of Time than faces of politicians or scenes of people living in the real people. The other is that The Matrix Reloaded is a Warner film and the logic of the AOL Time Warner merger was that synergies resulting from it would boost the company’s profits. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that, but in a determined bid to restore profitability and reduce its massive debt of $31.2 billion, AOL Time Warner has to make sure that the new film gets maximum publicity to boost profits.
Last modified: Sunday, June 15, 2003
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Miscellany
ITALIAN AFFAIRS
A LETHAL COCKTAIL:
Racism, the press and the PCC
WITHOUT COMMENT (1)
WITHOUT COMMENT (2)
SELECT COMMITTEE REPORT
DON’T DO IT HERE, DON’T DO IT THERE: HBO’s The Sopranos Is As Good As It Gets
US MEDIA OWNERSHIP
WORTH READING
REVIEW: The Wages of Spin by Bernard Ingham, John Hardy Publishers £18.99
Excerpt from PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW, Friday 25 April
FOX HUNT
PETITION: STOP THE FLORIDA-TION OF THE 2004 ELECTION
Informed Dissent - A CD by undercurrents and Peace News £6.50
WITHOUT COMMENT
AD INDUSTRY LOBBY FOR SELF-REGULATION
FOX HUNT
Excerpts from a speech given by US Federal Communications Commissioner on media concentration
GREG DYKE'S "BIG CONVERSATION" IS JUST A "BIG CON"
New Free Press on site
SPIES AND LIES
Protests at BBC World Service Sackings
BBC whips up a storm of protest
The dogs of Fleet Street show their teeth.
MEDIA MONITOR: BBC to remove channels from Sky Digital
Fox, Monsanto and The Right to Lie
Do You Trust Polls or Journalists?
HBO�s The Sopranos Is As Good As It Gets
Censored 2003: The Top 25 Censored Stories by Peter Phillips and Project Censored Seven Stories Press £12.99
CPBF AGM 2003
