Commercial Television Stations Research Articles

Systemic approach explored in the context of passive target tracking

For obvious reasons of cost, discretion and reliability costs, locating and tracking aerial targets under an electromagnetically completely passive paradigm, relying exclusively on illuminators of opportunity, is very appealing not only for military but also for civilian tasks. Such a passive radar system could exploit signals emitted by existing commercial television or radio stations or even satellite signals, such as the ones belonging to the global positioning system. This study considers target locating and tracking using a network of passive receivers and/or non-cooperative illuminators (a multi-static radar configuration) by making use of the Doppler shift only. A concept, the systemic approach, is used to combine and interpret information available from different sensors. Both the formalisation of the problem and the hardware and software implementation are presented. Implementation makes use of multi-component polynomial-phase signal models and genetic algorithms. For increased performance, implementation on field programmable gate array is envisaged.

MOTION AND DISTORTION

Jompet Kuswidananto and Tintin Wulia are two young Indonesian artists who create art installations consisting of a rich variety of media, ranging from video and sound to kites, passports, masks and bicycles. While many other young video makers create slick short films in the style of MTV video clips, Jompet and Tintin usually integrate their videos into art installations to give a multimedia and multilayered critique on processes of mediation and media interactivity. In this respect, they fall outside current trends in Indonesian video art and continue the tradition of media metadiscourse as established by the pioneering generation of Indonesian video artists. I argue here that underlying Jompet and Tintin's work is a personal dissatisfaction with the Indonesian broadcasting world. If their work is about a new ethics for the media, their subtle call is specifically directed at the Indonesian public and commercial television stations, which have neglected and underestimated the intellectual skills and informational needs of the Indonesian public for many years. *I would like to thank Krisna Murti for drawing my attention to the work of Jompet and Tintin. Also thanks to Amrih Widodo for personally introducing me to Tintin. Jompet and Tintin have both been very generous with assisting me in the research on which this article is based.

MOBI JOURNALISM IN SLOVENIA

The practice of so-called mobi journalism at a commercial television station, which has been promoting itself as the first case of citizen journalism in Slovenia, is explored by text analysis combined with an analysis of discourse processes using ethnographic methods. The article examines whether the television station actually follows the purposes of this model of audience participation. The analysis reveals that it is, in fact, a market-driven quasi-citizen journalism practice, abusing the term “citizen journalism” and exploiting new media technologies for commercial purposes. In the news published on the website and in the television programme, it is the media producers who covertly make key decisions, defining the content and the structure of the news; while the audience members’ activity is reduced to “spying” (searching for and taking photos of alleged offences or irregularities by lower public officials) and denunciating (sending such photos to a television station). The success of this practice results from an unusual connection between the past socialist and contemporary profits-oriented journalistic practices and behaviour patterns.

The state of the media in Kosovo

Introduction It is easy to speak about the Kosovo media in derogatory cliches. Kosovo is the only place in Europe deprived of foreign direct investment in the media. Newspaper circulation figures are the lowest on the continent. Radio stations serve as jukeboxes. Commercial television stations excel only in soaps. The public service broadcaster is best known for a gaffe which triggered widespread rioting in 2004. Political interference is rife. Copyright is infringed day and night. Yet, almost unnoticed, over the past few years considerable progress has been made. Most of the framework of legislation, regulation and education has been put in place, and the media have gradually improved. The Kosovo Assembly adopted a commendable civil defamation law, which was recently promulgated by the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral (SRSG), Kosovo's proconsul. This defamation law, which will open the way to revoking the existing criminal code, was the last part of the legal jigsaw. All other media laws had come into force in the previous two years. Kosovo now has a copyright law which meets European standards, as well as a public broadcasting law and a law establishing the broadcast media regulator. And the existing Law on Access to Official Documents has moved closer to proper implementation through an administrative directive. The print media have established a multi-ethnic Press Council, which enforces a code of conduct. An Independent Media Commission has started to regulate the broadcast media. The Kosovo Institute for Communication and Journalism, a centre of journalistic excellence situated on the outskirts of the capital, is running twoyear MA courses in journalism. The Kosovo Media Institute will shortly add to this the vital ingredient of mid-career training. However, a lot remains to be done.

Telling More Than News: Commercial Influence in Local Television Stations

This article reports on content analysis of evening newscasts from a nationwide sample of commercial television stations in large, medium, and small markets. The study focuses on the frequency of air time consumed by four types of commercial influence (most often involving station advertisers) on ostensibly noncommercial newscast content. Results indicated that newscasts by 90% of the 294 network-affiliated stations studied contained at least 1 instance per newscast of “stealth advertising” (commercial messages outside regular commercial blocks). Small-market stations in the #76-210 rankings by Nielsen Media Research showed the greatest proportion of such materials. This study suggests paths for future research into broadcasting's responses to consumer avoidance of traditional commercials.

Market Competition, Station Ownership, and Local Public Affairs Programming on Broadcast Television

This study examines the relationship between competitive conditions in television markets, ownership characteristics, and commercial broadcast television station provision of local public affairs programming. The results from an analysis of a random sample of 285 fullpower television stations showed that half of the stations in the sample did not air any local public affairs programming during the 2-week sample period. Among the study’s other findings are that competitive conditions and station financial resources do not necessarily increase the provision of local public affairs programming and that ownership characteristics bear little meaningful relationship to local public affairs programming provision. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00320.x In the U.S. system of broadcast regulation, the provision of locally produced informational programming traditionally has been considered an important component of a station’s fulfillment of its obligation to serve the public interest (Federal Communications Commission [FCC], 1999b), with informational programming generally defined as local news and public affairs programming. It is through the provision of such programming that stations are able to serve the informational needs and interests of their local communities. This localism principle refers to media policy makers’ long-standing commitment to assuring that media services effectively serve and reflect the needs and interests of local communities—as opposed to having a primarily national or regional orientation in the services that they provide (FCC, 2004). The manifestation of this principle at one point took the form of specific FCC-imposed requirements for minimum levels of local news and public affairs programming (FCC, 1976). The FCC traditionally has operated under separate definitions of news and local public affairs programming. The commission has defined public affairs programming (the focus of this analysis) as ‘‘programs dealing with local, state, regional, national or

Region-enhanced passive radar imaging

The authors adapt and apply a recently-developed region-enhanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image reconstruction technique to the problem of passive radar imaging. One goal in passive radar imaging is to form images of aircraft using signals transmitted by commercial radio and television stations that are reflected from the objects of interest. This involves reconstructing an image from sparse samples of its Fourier transform. Owing to the sparse nature of the aperture, a conventional image formation approach based on direct Fourier transformation results in quite dramatic artefacts in the image, as compared with the case of active SAR imaging. The region-enhanced image formation method considered is based on an explicit mathematical model of the observation process; hence, information about the nature of the aperture is explicitly taken into account in image formation. Furthermore, this framework allows the incorporation of prior information or constraints about the scene being imaged, which makes it possible to compensate for the limitations of the sparse apertures involved in passive radar imaging. As a result, conventional imaging artefacts, such as sidelobes, can be alleviated. Experimental results using data based on electromagnetic simulations demonstrate that this is a promising strategy for passive radar imaging, exhibiting significant suppression of artefacts, preservation of imaged object features, and robustness to measurement noise.

Television in Living Color: Racial Diversity in the Local Commercial Television Industry

For the past 30 years, one issue that has been at the center of controversy and concern is the lack of racial diversity in the broadcasting workforce. This article uses a diversity framework in using Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Annual Broadcast Employment reports from U.S. commercial television stations to examine their minority workforce during the 26 years of federal monitoring. The study examines levels of minority representation in different job categories in the industry, compares the performance of the TV industry to other U.S. industries in hiring minorities, and analyzes the distribution of specific racial groups across industry job categories. Despite an increase in racial minorities in all job categories, gains have not been consistent, and there were signs of erosion in the 1990s. The article concludes with some suggestions for researching diversity and policy recommendations for monitoring racial diversity in broadcasting.

Competitive Position and Promotion Rates: Commercial Television Station Top Management, 1953-1988

While the scholarship on internal labor markets and promotion chances has contributed substantially to the sociology of organizations and labor markets, it has not developed a rich understanding of how career trajectories are influenced by the firm's competitive position in its product market. Our central claim is that a firm's implicit bargaining power over its employees depends on its product market position and its sensitivity to environmental change. The greater the firms bargaining power, the less the firm will be compelled to use promotions as a device to induce productivity. Firms occupying robust competitive positions should have greater bargaining power in the labor market and be less likely to fill vacancies through internal promotions. Analyses of promotion rates among top managers in a longitudinal sample of television stations support our thesis.

In the Public Interest? The State of Local Television Programming Fifteen Years after Deregulation

The authors' research tests the assertion that deregulation of broadcasting has caused a decline in the amount of local non–news programming produced by commercial television stations. Locally produced programming from stations in three markets was analyzed for the years 1976 (before deregulation), 1985 (during deregulation), and 1997. The markets were selected to give a broad representation of market size. Local programlistings were taken fromsystematically selected back issues of TV Guide to formconstructed weeks for analysis. The number of public affairs programs airing in the markets has declined. There was also a significant decrease in the number of hour-long programs aired and a significant relationship across all markets between the year studied and the days of the week on which a programaired. The analysis suggests that stations have not maintained their commitment to local public affairs programming. A recent Gore Commission report adds relevance to these findings.

Perceptions of Branding among Television Station Managers: An Exploratory Analysis

This research assessed the perceptions of branding and branding practices among general managers of commercial television stations. The study concluded that general managers perceived branding to be an "important tactical management function" with branding applications in areas most related to news and promotion. In addition, the managers' commitment to brand research was linked to their understanding and positive perceptions of branding. Market sizes and news leadership were also related to perceived branding practices.

Battling the Commercialisation of the Swedish Mediasphere

The regulation of national broadcasting is a forum for the official expression of a country's media priorities. Sweden has consistently attempted to prevent foreign broadcasters from establishing themselves in the Swedish mediasphere. Subsequently, wherever a non-Swedish broadcaster has demonstrated market demand for a media product not available in Sweden, the government has attempted to create a Swedish equivalent to meet public demand and prevent the loss of audience share to non-Swedish broadcasters. This dynamic is especially clear in terms of the introduction of commercial broadcasting. Sweden was the last country in Western Europe to license a commercial television station, in 1992. This case study addresses the accommodation of the historically socialist government to the demands for commercial broadcasting, and the policy debates which informed these deliberations. It is argued that one reason for the Swedish government resisting commercial television was an opposition to the country's further integration within global capitalism, regardless of the fact that Swedish technology has helped the expansion of transnational broadcasting systems.

The ecology of organizational demography: managerial tenure distributions and organizational competition

This paper argues that turnover processes in top management teams create inter-organizational interdependencies. I argue that managerial capabilities are shaped by their experiences in a given competitive context; differences in managerial tenure therefore lead to differences in managerial capabilities. A comparison of the tenure distribution of a top management team with those of its competitors therefore captures the extent to which a firm relies on managerial capabilities similar to those of its competitors. Overlap in managerial capabilities will lead to greater competition for resources, since managers shape a firm's pattern of resource utilization. I hypothesize that organizational growth rates will decline to the extent that competitors are crowded around a firm's location in the tenure distribution. Analyses of growth in viewership among commercial television stations support this claim. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

Indonesian Television News-Making Before and After Suharto

The first part of the article sketches the fast-changing Indonesian television landscape: until a few years ago Indonesian audiences were used to watching the state-owned TVRI channel only. Nowadays they can choose among five additional commercial stations. The second part of the article looks at the extent to which the national context allows for `quality' in television news or if, on the contrary, it constitutes an impediment to it. In-dept interviews with local news-makers and policy-makers in both state television and commercial television stations highlight two major problem areas for news-making: an omnipresent political control and a lack of professionalism. Finally, the article examines the roles played by Indonesian television news departments during the current period of political upheaval and reform.

Competition among broadcast‐related web sites

An exploratory content analysis examined 62 World Wide Web sites sponsored by English‐language commercial television stations in the United States. There was no relationship between the characteristics of station sites and either the degree of broadcast competition faced by the station or the extent of web sites operated by competing stations.

Changing television in Greece the commercialization of creek TV and the historical, legal, economic and social environment

It was just seven years ago when a commercial television station broadcast on the Greek airwaves for the first time. Today, 1997, the number of these stations has risen to 160. The formation of hundreds of commercial TV and radio stations resulted in Greece being one of the most dense media environments on the planet. Commercial television in Greece was born on 20 November 1989, when Mega Channel began broadcasting in the greater Athens area. By 1996 commercial television channels in Greece had captured approximately 90 per cent of the total viewing audience and 95 per cent of TV advertising revenue. This paper investigates the historical, legal, economic, political, and international phenomena which led to the birth of commercial television in Greece, the changes that television itself went through, the effects of these changes on Greek society, and the future prospects for Greek TV.

Which Factors Primarily Influence the Number of Infomercial Hours a Commercial Television Station Airs?

A national mail survey was conducted to discover which factors primarily influence the number of infomercial hours a station airs. Results suggest that primary influences are network affiliation, the number of viewer complaints, the number of fringe infomercials (e.g., selling baldness cures) aired, market size, audience size, and restricting infomercials to certain dayparts. Viewers may perceive distinct classes of stations that vary based on these influences.

Legal Aspects of Comparative Advertising and a Strategy for Its Use

This paper will consider the web of laws governing the use of comparative advertising in Australia, with some attention given to the law in Europe and the US. It should also be acknowledged that in Australia at least, there exists a plethora of industry associations enforcing a range of voluntary codes. These include the industry- wide codes of the Media Council of Australia (MCA), codes adopted by associations of media proprietors, such as the Federation of Commercial Television Stations (FACTS) and the Federation of Australian Broadcasters (FARB). The Advertising Standards Council (ASC) is an independent Council which deals with complaints that advertisers breach MCA codes. All advertisements must be approved by the appropriate body before they are broadcast (eg FACTS for television advertisements).

Contraceptive advertising in the United States

Despite the fact that most Americans support the advertising of family planning methods, the minority opposition has influenced the formulation of contraceptive advertising policies. This article attempts to clarify the current status of contraceptive advertising and to suggest a sensible public policy for the future. Opening with a review of opinion polls taken since 1985, the article points out that 70% of station managers reported their belief that contraceptive advertising would offend many people despite the fact that 87% of respondents in a public survey indicated no objection to such advertising. The policies that network television stations have adopted are traced from those instituted in the 1960s by the National Association of Broadcaster's Code Authority. These policies govern the airing of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) as well as advertisements. Magazines and newspapers also resist accepting contraceptive advertising, although they do not face the same regulations as the broadcast media. US Food and Drug Administration policies also act as a barrier to product-specific advertisements on network television despite the fact that the American Medical Association no longer opposes such advertising and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists offered to provide valid information about advertising claims to the media. A review of attempts to advertise contraceptives shows that opposition has dropped significantly in the past 10 years for advertisements in newspapers, on cable television, in magazines, on some commercial television stations, and on many radio stations. However, the major television networks still fail to accept such advertisements. Part of the change that is occurring can be attributable to the emergence of AIDS and the need to promote methods to prevent the disease. However, much AIDS-related advertising has been in the form of PSAs, which are less and less available. The major obstacles to contraceptive advertising today are media reluctance, government regulation, lack of consistent effort on the part of advertisers, and a lack of consensus in society about the importance of this issue. These limits are the symptoms of a society which has an unrealistic view of sexual activity. Therefore, contraceptive advertising alone will not change the US's high unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.

Commentary: Brand Marketing the First Private National Commercial TV Station in Central Europel

Describes how, three years after the fall of the communist government in Czechoslovakia, NOVA, the first privately owned commercial television station in Central Europe began broadcasting throughout the recently formed Czech Republic. The primary challenge was to position the new station successfully as a clearly differentiated brand in a market which had never previously experienced television as anything other than a government‐controlled commodity. The station′s management sought to establish itself with the Czech television audience as the nation′s broadcast brand of choice by utilizing substantial numbers of Hollywood hit motion pictures and popular US television series, as well as presenting news shows which were significantly more irreverent and independent than the competing government‐sponsored stations. Prior to launch, the station management executed the most intense national advertising and promotion campaign ever utilized to promote a media product in the Czech Republic.