Summary Lectures Media Landscape

Lecture 1:
What is the media industry?  not universal agreement
- For sure part of media industry  Broadcasting print, film and recording industries;
Advertising, marketing PR, Social media companies
- Not a perfect fit  tech giants  parts of work dedicated to media
o Google, apple, Microsoft
 Parts that do go in media but also other parts

Media company = a company whose primary functions is to produce or distribute media
content (not just tools)
Social media  do not create but distribute
Messaging applications  still difficult
Not easy because of conglomerates who fit into a larger mother company

Boundaries  roles are changing
Industry  implies commerciality  not a good fit for individual artists

Why define it? Define scope and analysis is easier (for the course), industry can define itself,
think about markets, competitors, strategies

(Chapter one)
Defining mass media (content)
- Mass media: media in traditional sense  Radio, TV, print newspaper
- 5 key characteristics:
1. One to many, one-way communication
a. Identical messages to mass audience
b. Not interactive
2. Experiential good  the experience you have with the good
a. Value = immaterial attributes
i. NOT: Eating a banana, the experience of the taste
ii. Immaterial
b. Originality, intellectual property
c. Makes them unique framework
3. High fixed/’first copy’ costs
a. A lot of money it costs to make one good  all the different people that
need to get paid for it all, but a second one is low because you just copy it
 Economies of scale
b. Low marginal costs
c. Economies of scale
i. High first copy cost, the rest after that is all low
ii. Price per unit decrease as quantity of output increases
4. Potential for (cheap/low) re-versioning
a. Reselling in different formats, leads to economies of scope
i. Production of movie is expensive, but streaming is cheap
b. Economies of scope
i. average production costs decrease as variety of output increases
c. Also, spin-offs or branded products  reversion: frozen one and two, as
well as frozen everything

, 5. High risk
a. Only experience and no material value, do not know if you like something
till you experience
b. Consumer taste is fickle and har to predict
c. High first copy costs regardless of # of consumers
d. Movies  biggest box office  cost of production vs money got from
watching  mortal engines  180 million losses
i. Bomb  only a budgetary connotation

Defining mass media market
- Dual product market
o Produce 2 things
 Content  Sold to audiences
 Audiences  Sold to advertisers; ears and eyes sold
- Attention economy
o Attentions (eye balls) the real product being sold/bought
o Money is made
- Results: advertising goals influence content/strategy
o Problematic for journalism
 Serve a roll in Western, political and society, but can’t do this if need
to worry about money, making more tabloids
- Broader tension
o Creative industries VS commercial needs €€

(Page 11-14)
Digitalization/digital technologies are biggest force
- Four outcomes
o Convergence
 Previously separate channels fused; channel, content and computing
o Interactivity
 Two way replaces one way; users become (mass) producers
o Diversification
 Heightened user control & choice; fragmentation/expansion of content
o Mobility
 Media on the go becomes norm always on culture

Another complication
- Media organizations should be socially responsible
- A few core responsibilities
o Forum for exchange of ideas/opinions
o integrative influence for divers societies
o Protection of core values/vulnerable audiences

Spotify  joe Rogan, misinformation, just a channel not responsible, Facebook also did this

(Page 2-4)
Strong reactions to change
- McLuhan’s optimism
o Media is the message

, o Technology itself matters
o New tech extends senses
o new cooler media
 liberates audiences from hierarchies, isolation
 away from officialdom towards ‘everyday talk’
 toward a global village
o new media can be great

- Postman’s pessimism
o print age: detail relevant localize, coherent, rational arguments
o Post-telegraph: dazzling stories from afar outweigh the relevant, local
o TV/image  superficiality
o Attention, rationality decreases
o Passive audience

- Critiques of these critiques
o Both approaches = technological determinism
 That technology itself is primary cause of social change, focuses on
text
o simplifies and overplays tech, ignores social context  what technology is
made by who and why
o Ignores power relations behind development/use
 Optimism: tech as solution to man made problems
 Pessimism: blames tech for social problems
 Do not care about the people who create, no social responsibility, mark
Zuckerberg on Facebook

Media life
- Media now so central that we don’t notice them  fish do not notice the water they
swim in
o We don’t just live with media but in media
- 2 clear manifestations
o Personal/individualized information space  version online is our version,
cookies
o Always-available global connectivity
- 2 main consequences
o Liquified boundaries between work/play and alone/interaction  no clear
boundaries
o Life changed to accommodate/exploit media  Instagram everything
- Perhaps the metaverse as the ultimate example of media life?
o Produced by advertisement and controlled by media
- Remember diversification, interactivity, mobility, conversance
o All reflected in media life notion
- Technological changes/responses create this new individualized connectivity 
fragmented in new ways but still connected

, Key Concepts
 5 characteristics of mass media
a. One to many, one-way communication
b. Experiential goods
c. High fixed first copy costs
d. Potential for cheap re-versioning
e. High risk
 Economies of scale
o Price per unit decrease as quantity of output increases
 Economies of scope
o Average production costs decrease as variety of output increases
 Dual product market
o Content is sold to audiences; audiences are sold to the advertisers
o Attention economy
 4 main outcomes of digitalisation
o Convergence: fusion of previous separate channels
o Interactivity: two-way communication, users become mass producers
o Diversification: heightened user control and choice; fragmentation/expansion
of content
o Mobility: media “on the go” becomes the norm, “always on” culture
 Media’s core responsibilities
o Forum for exchange of ideas, opinions
o Integrative influence for diverse societies
o Protection of core values, vulnerable audiences
 McLuhan’s optimism vs Postman’s pessimism
o Extension of senses, technology as solution to man-made problems Vs
superficiality, technology as social ill
 Tech determinism
o Technology affects society, passive audience
 Media life (article)
o We don’t notice media, they are so central
o We live IN media
o 2 consequences: liquified boundaries b/n work - play and alone – interaction
o Creation of individualised connectivity