Media Bits and Bytes – Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind Edition

Eat Amazon; Cable news clash; Silicon shake-up, I and II; Gimme data; Making noise for net neutrality

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America’s Amazon Problem

By Matt Stoller
June 16, 2017
HuffPost

Like Google and Facebook, Amazon uses technology and data to sidestep traditional restrictions on monopoly power. Our lives are increasingly organized by the platforms these companies run, platforms which now mediate the way we communicate and engage in commerce with each other. We are living in a world organized by tech monopolists, a change in power relationships that no one voted for but has been imposed upon us nonetheless.
Now, Jeff Bezos is attempting to add more power to his empire with the surprise announcement that the company will pay $13.7 billion for Whole Foods Market. Amazon will now have a store footprint in neighborhoods across America.

Cable News Wars: Inside the Unprecedented Battle for Viewers in Trump Era

By Brian Steinberg,  Cynthia Littleton
June 13, 2017
Variety

After a presidential election, so the rule goes, audiences dissipate. According to the Pew Research Center, viewership for the primetime schedules of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC increased 55% to 4.8 million viewers in 2016, while daytime cable viewership grew 36%. In the first half of this year, viewing levels have not shrunk.
In this endless cycle of breaking political headlines, television news is facing its biggest moment of opportunity since Fox News Channel and MSNBC came on the scene 21 years ago. The competitive fervor among the Big Three to turn these added eyeballs into regular viewers is further stoked by the fact that the longtime market leader — Fox News — is vulnerable after a year of turmoil on both sides of the camera.
 

Employee Headcount: The Rise and Fall of Job Numbers at Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint

By Mike Dano
June 14, 2017
FierceWireless

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The data below are derived from Securities and Exchange Commission filings from the nation’s largest wireless carriers for the past three years. In reviewing these numbers, it’s clear that AT&T is by far the largest employer in the wireless carrier space. It’s also clear that AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have all reduced their employee headcounts during the past three years, while T-Mobile has slightly increased its employee headcount.
However, these figures carry plenty of caveats. First, and perhaps most importantly, these figures aren’t specific to the wireless business. Verizon and AT&T manage extensive ventures beyond their wireless operations, and therefore their numbers can’t be directly compared with those from Sprint and T-Mobile, which almost exclusively focus on the wireless industry. AT&T and Verizon only report their total employee headcounts and don’t provide any numbers specific to wireless.

A Labor Movement is Brewing Within the Tech Industry

By Angelo Young
June 10, 2017
Salon

As Silicon Valley is increasingly bifurcated into haves and have-nots, labor rights activists are becoming more vocal about the need for these tech companies to “make the world a better place” for the tens of thousands of low-wage contract laborers that make it possible for technology companies to function.

Open Letter to Facebook From a Data Journalist

By Jon Keegan
June 15, 2017
Columbia Journalism Review

Releasing more data (anonymized, of course) about users’ habits on its platform would only help Facebook. Where are Spanish-speaking single mothers living in Texas getting their news? Which sources do self-identified conservative men over 60 in West Virginia share? How balanced are the “news diets” of people from different age groups and educational backgrounds? What does engagement look like within extended families with diverse political views on Facebook? Are there communities—perhaps breaking outside of geography—where the discourse online is less polarized, and what makes them different? We cannot answer these questions without access to more data.

Four Steps to Writing an Impactful Net Neutrality Comment (Which You Should Do)

By Gigi Sohn
June 15, 2017
Mashable

The Trump FCC’s proceeding to repeal the 2015 network neutrality rules and the legal footing (Title II of the Communications Act of 1934) in which they are grounded is in full swing. The rules ensure that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon don’t discriminate in favor or against certain Internet content and services. Already, nearly five million comments have been filed at the agency, and many more are to be expected by the comment deadline on July 17. Reply comments are due on August 16.
Several organizations have templates for comments, and that works if what you want to do is express general support for net neutrality and Title II. But others allow you to draft your own comments, and of course you can file your thoughts directly to the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) yourself. These tools give you the ability to take a deeper dive into why the rules are important and should be retained.