Lecture 4 - Media organisations &
professionals
Spice girls: all very specific personages, so that a certain type of audience can relate to all of them.
1. Structure and agency in media production
Political constraints
You can handle political constraints in different ways:
Compliance: accepting the regulation.
Preemption: industries anticipate on regulation. Instead of waiting for the government, the
media develops their own regulation.
Interpretation: they can interpret it in their own way.
Ignore: big tech companies do this (google for example). They don't ask for permission, they
just do it. Than the regulators have to respond. This way they create successful stuff
(streetview). It becomes popular, what makes it different to regulate it afterwards.
Challenge: lobbying for different regulation, or for more agency.
Economic constraints
2 main challenges:
High costs of producing media: invest in equipment, actors, marketing etc.
The unpredictability of audience tastes
Celebrities are a way of dealing with the unpredictability. Working with a famous actor will make
sure your products will get a lot of attention.
Formats --> successful ones are often being replicated. It gives you a sense of what works.
, In talkshows are a lot of returning guests. They want to be sure that the people they invite are funny
and engaging.
Media production: the importance of cooperation
The production of media needs cooperation (movie, solo-album).
Quote Karl Marx --> history shapes what's happening in the present.
Conventions: a practice or technique widely used in a field, which is the result of the routinisation of
work. Conventions are the result of routines.
Examples: how magazines look/musicgenres. They all have there own structures.
Routines: the rationalisation of work practices through procedures.
Conventions: continuity and change. conventions are not static but dynamic.
For example news: the way it's presented changes. First people sat down, now people walk around in
the studio --> new convention.
Conventions should also be recognisable to the audience.
Socialisation: the process by which we learn the basic ground rules of a role.
Professional socialisation: a professional learning process.
Occupational/professional roles: bundles of expectations.
2. Structure and agency in the case of journalism?
People are less willing to pay for journalism, but still expect high quality.
Another challenge is the acquisition of fake news.
professionals
Spice girls: all very specific personages, so that a certain type of audience can relate to all of them.
1. Structure and agency in media production
Political constraints
You can handle political constraints in different ways:
Compliance: accepting the regulation.
Preemption: industries anticipate on regulation. Instead of waiting for the government, the
media develops their own regulation.
Interpretation: they can interpret it in their own way.
Ignore: big tech companies do this (google for example). They don't ask for permission, they
just do it. Than the regulators have to respond. This way they create successful stuff
(streetview). It becomes popular, what makes it different to regulate it afterwards.
Challenge: lobbying for different regulation, or for more agency.
Economic constraints
2 main challenges:
High costs of producing media: invest in equipment, actors, marketing etc.
The unpredictability of audience tastes
Celebrities are a way of dealing with the unpredictability. Working with a famous actor will make
sure your products will get a lot of attention.
Formats --> successful ones are often being replicated. It gives you a sense of what works.
, In talkshows are a lot of returning guests. They want to be sure that the people they invite are funny
and engaging.
Media production: the importance of cooperation
The production of media needs cooperation (movie, solo-album).
Quote Karl Marx --> history shapes what's happening in the present.
Conventions: a practice or technique widely used in a field, which is the result of the routinisation of
work. Conventions are the result of routines.
Examples: how magazines look/musicgenres. They all have there own structures.
Routines: the rationalisation of work practices through procedures.
Conventions: continuity and change. conventions are not static but dynamic.
For example news: the way it's presented changes. First people sat down, now people walk around in
the studio --> new convention.
Conventions should also be recognisable to the audience.
Socialisation: the process by which we learn the basic ground rules of a role.
Professional socialisation: a professional learning process.
Occupational/professional roles: bundles of expectations.
2. Structure and agency in the case of journalism?
People are less willing to pay for journalism, but still expect high quality.
Another challenge is the acquisition of fake news.
