If media agencies want to take the lead in the integrated marketing communications process, it means more than just having total communications studies: They will have to become adept at unlocking channel insights for all marketing/communications stakeholders.

Everyone agrees by now that the single most profound and structural change in information, communications and in media generally is that the individual is in control. Where agreement wanes among traditional media honchos is on what this means. And without a clear sense of how users are changing, it's awfully hard to offer or embrace new models. Here, then, is my take on the biggest recent shifts in how consumers use media:

Life on a bus is not all it is cracked up to be. I suppose that may be the difference between being a rock star and a guy running for the U.S. Senate. My bus stops in over 20 small towns a day. Keeping track of where I am would be a nightmare if it weren't for the real time GPS navigation in my BlackBerry P90--the first projection-screen BlackBerry.

Former CNET chairman and CEO Shelby Bonnie is jumping into the 2008 presidential race - as a Web publisher. Bonnie and other former CNET execs have launched Political Base, which aims to be a nonpartisan source for information and opinion on political issues and candidates at all levels.

For the cover of its October issue, Discover magazine turned to user-generated content of the crayon kind.

Putting a new twist on the intersection of church and state, Beliefnet has launched a widget to track the role of religion in the presidential race: the God-o-Meter.

One phrase I've been hearing frequently over the last year is "media is the new creative." I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's generally being uttered by a group harboring years of angst from feeling like the ad industry's third wheel - the media specialists. These media folks are walking around with an air of what my mom would call "I-told-you-so-itis."

Yahoo's Presidential Mashup Debate wound up being neither a mashup nor a debate. (Discuss.) With its "first-ever online-only presidential candidate mashup," Yahoo appeared poised to leapfrog the CNN/YouTube debate in advancing online political participation.

Talk the talk with the latest lingo.Bitcoms: Branded comedy clips developed by Turner Broadcasting to retain viewer attention going into a commercial break. As a break starts, for example, a stand-up comedian delivers a small set leading into the ads.Blego: The blogging self (blog + ego). "Increasingly used to describe the out-of-control egos of many bloggers," according to Influential Marketing Blog. It refers to the tendency of some bloggers to be judgmental, narrow-minded and arrogant.

Arbitron has promised to issue "sample guarantees" beginning Oct. 1 after being hit with a raft of complaints from clients. The company said in a letter made public in September that it will issue partial refunds to subscribers if samples fall below the target size for their market. The size of the refunds has yet to be determined.