Now if you blame the media, someone else will have to share in the losses.

Insurance company Aviva (AV) is taking the side of camera-wielding, microphone-thrusting pushy press folks with a new form of protection that will cover everything from electronics to foot-in-mouth syndrome (i.e., liability). The insurance product will be available to a variety of companies, including both online and print publishers, broadcasters, photographers and marketing and advertising companies. So, if you're responsible for the news, the ads or the process of putting them in front of eyeballs, Aviva probably has you in mind.

Do you remember when MySpace was all the rage? Of course you do. Then came Facebook; then came Twitter. Something else will come along, too. Unfortunately, though, News Corp. (NWS) committed itself to MySpace by buying it back in 2005. What a mistake that was.

I'm sure everyone knows about the growth problems at the social-networking site. This recent article at Reuters discusses them. Morale at the company appears to be waning. Unique visitors aren't what they used to be. An ad agreement with Google (GOOG) is about to expire; any new transaction on that front may not be as valuable now that MySpace has been relegated to not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be status.

Nobody's naming names right now, but Social Times reports from SXSW that "a number" of companies are paying Twitter hefty fees for unrestricted access to the "firehose." While some Twitter data is accessible free through the company's developer program, the full data set is only available to those willing to write a check – and, it turns out, a substantial one.

Back in October, Twitter inked high-profile data-licensing deals with Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), which brought in $25 million and put the social media service on the revenue map. Since then, it has brought more clients into the fold through its data-licensing program, including Kosmix and Scoopler, by opening up what it calls the "firehose"; i.e., unfettered access to the Twitter data stream.

There seems to be some stress afoot in the world of radio broadcasting. A proposed fee, which has been termed a performance tax, now threatens to take a jab at your local country music, or top forty, radio station.

Broadcasting companies such as Citadel Broadcasting (CTDB), and Radio One (ROIAK), are now facing the real possibility of having to pay newly imposed fees (taxes) for the music that they play. Opponents of the action are worried that the new fees could seriously affect virtually all local radio stations which provide mainly music based formats. Dialogue based formats would not be affected.

Apparently, all the hype wasn't worth it. After Twitter COO Dick Costolo explained that the company was going to unveil a "non-traditional" advertising model and claimed that "people will love it," what we're seeing is a foray into decidedly charted territory.

According to AllThingsD, Twitter's ad model will resemble the one that has been so successful for search and online ad giant Google (GOOG). Ads, essentially, will be tied to search.

Yawn.

Last year, Twitter got a taste of significant revenue when it inked data-licensing deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG). The multi-year deals were worth a total of $25 million, but Yahoo! (YHOO) found an alternative way to access the social media site's data – free – which made it seem like the licensed data business model was on the brink of a short life. Well, it looks like some new deals have breathed a bit more life into this approach, though the details remain unclear.

In a blog post Monday, Twitter announced that it was opening its data "Firehose" to a number of companies: Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup, Crowdeye and Chainn. According to the post, this step makes it "possible to move far beyond the Twitter experiences we know today."

The internet, the enemy of print newspapers, is, conversely, the friend of television, at least initially in the digital age.

The phenomenon, The New York Times (NYT) reported Wednesday, has to do with the promotional effect that the internet's social dimension has created for television. Specifically, the recent explosive growth and popularity of Facebook (with an astounding 400 million users), has created a new, de-facto 'office water-cooler chat' for television.

DreamWorks Animation (DWA) continues to post evidence that its business model of building animated franchises should be a robust driver of solid shareholder value. It isn't without risk, of course; when you're dealing with Hollywood, failure scenarios are a constant threat. For now, though, the company's fourth-quarter results, released Tuesday after the bell, show a studio with future promise.

It's true that the quarter itself didn't show growth. Revenues took a modest dip, and earnings per share dropped 14% to 50 cents. However, estimates indicated a much more pessimistic outlook at 37 cents per share. And for the twelve-month period, growth actually was produced, as net income rose 10% to $1.73 per share.

Are you still suspicious of the $6.5 billion Facebook valuation that resulted from Digital Sky's $100 million investment last July? And doubtless, the $15 billion valuation implied by Microsoft's (MSFT) 2007 investment in the company was, to say the least, aspirational. Well, the insanity is continuing to mount – throughout the Facebook ecosystem. A recent report by Global Silicon Valley Partner's NeXt Up Research organization puts the price tag of Zinga, the Facebook application developer, at a whopping $3.3 billion ... half of Facebook's!

Granted, Zynga has done a few things to wow social media market-wachers and investors. NeXt Up Research forecasts 35% growth for this company over the next four years and just upped its 2014 revenue projection to $1.1 billion. The previous estimate was only $460 million. What could possibly justify these numbers? Well, Zynga has grown from 30 million users to 230 million in only 10 months, largely as a result of the strength shown by Facebook over this period. Farmville has been the company's engine, with close to 80 million monthly active users.

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PLA) published its quarterly numbers today, and while there were some positive developments, overall, I think it's safe to say that the stock is a risk that should be avoided. Unless, of course, you simply want to roll the dice and speculate.

Hey, nothing wrong with having a little fun, I suppose, although there surely are more attractive speculative bets out there. According to , Playboy lost 83 cents per share in Q4. Last year at this time, there was a loss of $4.40 per share.

Twitter is at a crossroads right now. What it does in the next few months will either solidify it as a long-term contributing member of the global economy ... or relegate it to a history that includes TheGlobe.com and talking sock puppets. The company posted solid growth stats in 2009, but most of the upside came in the first half of the year, leaving the company flat from the beginning of July through the end of the year.

Revenue came into the company in October through real-time search deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), but they involved multiyear deals, which means the company needs to find new ways to make money. Maybe its advertising model will be accelerated as a result. With the user trend flat, however, and the dearth of Twitter use occurring on the website, there are flaws in the advertising model ... unless there's another way to look at the market.

The December 2009 data from comScore (SCOR) were released Tuesday, and the results for the social media sector are nothing short of staggering. Fifty-four percent (112 million) of the 205 million-strong U.S. internet-user population are on Facebook, with 27% (57 million) still using News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. But according to data from both comScore and Experian Hitwise (EXPN), the most active users were on Tagged, MyYearbook and Orkut. And Facebook users were more active than those on MySpace.

There's no doubt that plenty is happening in the social media space, but there are some facts that just might surprise you, either because of the speed of change or the discovery of players that may not have occurred to you.

You'd think retailers would flock to any place where they could find 400 million people. With the sixth anniversary of Facebook closing in, its robust user base still hasn't opened the eyes of many retailers.

Despite all the Black Friday social media engagement this year, a substantial 75% of the top 100 online retailers don't have a formal presence on Facebook, according to a study by ForeSee Results. Another 25% haven't even hit 10,000 fans.

World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) story hasn't changed too much, in my opinion. It's holding up pretty well with its business model, but as far as unambiguous growth is concerned, management remains in a challenged position.

WWE released Q4 earnings to the market on Thursday, and the results were rather mediocre for the most part. Per-share profit dropped three pennies to 15 cents. Revenues saw a modest decline. Excluding items, adjusted operating income increased 9% on a dollar basis.

Viacom, Inc. (VIA) recorded a significant increase in per-share profit in the fourth quarter. On an adjusted basis, earnings from continuing businesses increased over 40% to $1.09 per share. The call on Wall Street was for only 88 cents per share.

Sure, that's a wide margin for the beat, but in many ways, the Viacom story is a precarious one to buy. There are two major divisions in this company: media networks and movies. Operating income at the former went up 3% in Q4, while profit at the latter increased over 250%. Viacom had a strong theatrical film slate in 2009, and it is reaping the financial windfall from that slate in the ancillary markets.