Notes Media landscape final
Week One: Defining the media landscape
New eras & types
Branded content, native advertising, and content marketing
What is “the media industry”?
- Broadcasting, print, film and recording industries
Traditional conception of media industry
Advertising, marketing, PR
Social media companies
There are companies that are not a perfect fit
Netflix = yes
Google = no
Ultimately a media company’s Primary function is to produce or distribute media
content
Defining mass media (content)
Mass media: “media” in the traditional sense think...
Radio
- Television
Print Newspapers
- Magazines
There are 5 key characteristics
1. One-to-many, one-way
Identical message to a mass audience
Typically meant by radio, everyone has this shared experience with the same
message at
same time
No individual fragmentation
Television, only a couple of networks with the same message
Notes Media landscape final 1
, 2. Experiential goods
All about the experience you get
Value = immaterial attributes
Media is all about originality, intellectual property, stories told
Not like a banana
3. High fixed/first copy costs
You invest lots of money to create the first version
And then you distribute thousands of copies
Low marginal costs
Economies of scale: price per unit decreases as the quantity of output increases
4. Potential for (cheap) re-versioning
Re-selling in different formats leads to economies of scope
spin-offs, branded products, etc
Not just more copies but versions
You make a movie and then they make versions on DVDs, Netflix, releasing
it to tv
stations
Frozen movies and then they make dolls, backpacks, sequels, and so on
5. But, high risk
Consumer taste is fickle and hard to predict
High first copy cost regardless # of consumers
These five characteristic regards not just movies but newspapers, magazines,
books, radio
programs, television shows, and so on
Defining the mass media market
Dual-product market- Media companies produce two things:
Content, sold to audiences
Notes Media landscape final 2
, Audiences, sold to advertisers
Attention economy
Attention is the real product being sold/bought
Resulting → advertising goals influence content/strategy
Problematic for journalism
Go from quality news → tabloids, negativity, scandals
Creative industries vs commercial needs $$
But, the mass media market is changing
4 main outcomes:
1. Convergence- Previously separated channels fused; channels, content, and
computing
2. Interactivity- Two-way replaces one-way; users become (mass) producers
3. Diversification- Heightened user control & choice; fragmentation/expansion of
content
Mobility
4. Media ‘on the go’ -becomes the norm ‘Always on’ culture
Complications
Media organizations should be socially responsible
Core Responsibilities
Forum for exchange of ideas/opinions
Integrative influence for diverse societies
Protection of core values/vulnerable audiences
If there are commercial needs these core responsibilities might be harder to
accomplish
- Journalism
When there is change = strong reactions
McLuhan’s optimism
Technology itself matters
Notes Media landscape final 3
, New tech extends senses
New ‘cooler’ media:
Liberates audiences from hierarchies, isolation
Away from officialdom towards everyday talk
Transformation towards a global village
Tech as a solution to man-made problems
Postman’s pessimism
Print age: detailed, relevant, localized, coherent, rational
Post-telegraph: dazzling stories from afar outweigh the relevant, local
Tv/images → superficiality
Attention, rationality decreases
Passive audiences
Blames technology for social problems
Critiques of the critiques
Both classify as technological determinism
Technology itself = primary cause of social change
Simplifies & overplays technology, ignores social context
Disregards power relations behind development/use
Problematic because it lets people in power off the hook because they no longer
have to
fix mans problems, lets them blame tech because only focus
Another approach
Du Gay’s Circuit of culture
Tech significance best understood through 5 processes
1. Production: how/when/why was it developed
2. Representation: how is it talked about?
Notes Media landscape final 4
Week One: Defining the media landscape
New eras & types
Branded content, native advertising, and content marketing
What is “the media industry”?
- Broadcasting, print, film and recording industries
Traditional conception of media industry
Advertising, marketing, PR
Social media companies
There are companies that are not a perfect fit
Netflix = yes
Google = no
Ultimately a media company’s Primary function is to produce or distribute media
content
Defining mass media (content)
Mass media: “media” in the traditional sense think...
Radio
- Television
Print Newspapers
- Magazines
There are 5 key characteristics
1. One-to-many, one-way
Identical message to a mass audience
Typically meant by radio, everyone has this shared experience with the same
message at
same time
No individual fragmentation
Television, only a couple of networks with the same message
Notes Media landscape final 1
, 2. Experiential goods
All about the experience you get
Value = immaterial attributes
Media is all about originality, intellectual property, stories told
Not like a banana
3. High fixed/first copy costs
You invest lots of money to create the first version
And then you distribute thousands of copies
Low marginal costs
Economies of scale: price per unit decreases as the quantity of output increases
4. Potential for (cheap) re-versioning
Re-selling in different formats leads to economies of scope
spin-offs, branded products, etc
Not just more copies but versions
You make a movie and then they make versions on DVDs, Netflix, releasing
it to tv
stations
Frozen movies and then they make dolls, backpacks, sequels, and so on
5. But, high risk
Consumer taste is fickle and hard to predict
High first copy cost regardless # of consumers
These five characteristic regards not just movies but newspapers, magazines,
books, radio
programs, television shows, and so on
Defining the mass media market
Dual-product market- Media companies produce two things:
Content, sold to audiences
Notes Media landscape final 2
, Audiences, sold to advertisers
Attention economy
Attention is the real product being sold/bought
Resulting → advertising goals influence content/strategy
Problematic for journalism
Go from quality news → tabloids, negativity, scandals
Creative industries vs commercial needs $$
But, the mass media market is changing
4 main outcomes:
1. Convergence- Previously separated channels fused; channels, content, and
computing
2. Interactivity- Two-way replaces one-way; users become (mass) producers
3. Diversification- Heightened user control & choice; fragmentation/expansion of
content
Mobility
4. Media ‘on the go’ -becomes the norm ‘Always on’ culture
Complications
Media organizations should be socially responsible
Core Responsibilities
Forum for exchange of ideas/opinions
Integrative influence for diverse societies
Protection of core values/vulnerable audiences
If there are commercial needs these core responsibilities might be harder to
accomplish
- Journalism
When there is change = strong reactions
McLuhan’s optimism
Technology itself matters
Notes Media landscape final 3
, New tech extends senses
New ‘cooler’ media:
Liberates audiences from hierarchies, isolation
Away from officialdom towards everyday talk
Transformation towards a global village
Tech as a solution to man-made problems
Postman’s pessimism
Print age: detailed, relevant, localized, coherent, rational
Post-telegraph: dazzling stories from afar outweigh the relevant, local
Tv/images → superficiality
Attention, rationality decreases
Passive audiences
Blames technology for social problems
Critiques of the critiques
Both classify as technological determinism
Technology itself = primary cause of social change
Simplifies & overplays technology, ignores social context
Disregards power relations behind development/use
Problematic because it lets people in power off the hook because they no longer
have to
fix mans problems, lets them blame tech because only focus
Another approach
Du Gay’s Circuit of culture
Tech significance best understood through 5 processes
1. Production: how/when/why was it developed
2. Representation: how is it talked about?
Notes Media landscape final 4
