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making media; production,
professionals, practices
week 1
what makes a company a media company?
1. diversity of products
2. unpredictable character of value
3. artisanal work in industrial context
4. production based on editorial & flow
5. modest internationalisation
illusion of choice: we think we have a choice (100 television channels, 20 movies and books
each week), but when we trace back the money, only 4-6 companies control all of that. do we
then still have a choice?
hourglass
global media industry has two sides
represents the number of people working somewhere
top: handful of big corporations in business of securing copyrights, distributing and
marketing products
middle: average companies
bottom: thousands of tiny companies often with 4-5 employees that actually produce content
arrows: dynamism; buying smaller companies from the bottom part and including them into
the work flow, securing rights to their content and selling them off again
making media; production, professionals, practices 1
, NIDCL: new international devision of cultural labor
production of media is a global phenomenon, whereas the work in media is local
business models
are changing fast (sales, advertisements, subscriptions)
variety of business models: different ways to make money, what works today won’t work
tomorrow, creative strategies with great opportunities
engagement: value proposition, simply producing and distributing is not enough, people need
to do stuff with it (involvement)
how do media companies spend money
spreading costs: producing multiple projects, hoping 1 or 2 will work
price fixing: seeing what others ask for the product, finding ways to make up for losses
(e.g. sony doesn’t make a profit from selling an xbox, but earns it back through selling
games)
not paying wages: most people are underpaid
speculative work = work you do now in hopes of getting paid for it later (e.g.
scriptwriting)
outsourcing risk: trimming staff and hiring people onto specific projects
making media; production, professionals, practices 2
, long tail model
no guaranteed mass audience anymore, we all watch different shows
if you can’t get a mass audience, you can agregate a small one. instead of producing 10
movies and hoping 1 will work, you produce 500 movies that each will have a tiny
audience, but together they are a big audience (Netflix approach)
traditional management approach → contemporary management approach
media are not produced as a single-use, one-off product for a specific medium, but as part of a
larger portfolio of multimedia products
exploitative vs explorative innovation
can’t keep producing what you’ve always done → audience not interested anymore because
there is so much other stuff
you have to come up with new things and find a balance between old and new
editorial logic = a logic where decisions are made based on what other people like you (your
peers) think is good. source of reference for decision-making are colleagues and bosses, and
whether the public likes it is not important.
market logic = what sells well is what we will produce
data logic = algorithms act in two ways: 1) demand predictor 2) content creator. data on
consumers is used to make predictions on what people would like to see next
convergence logic = culture of production and consumption converge. some of the decisions
media companies make are governed by their collaboration with audiences (e.g. focus groups)
platform logic = platforms sit in between everything we want from media and everything
media produces
making media; production, professionals, practices 3
making media; production,
professionals, practices
week 1
what makes a company a media company?
1. diversity of products
2. unpredictable character of value
3. artisanal work in industrial context
4. production based on editorial & flow
5. modest internationalisation
illusion of choice: we think we have a choice (100 television channels, 20 movies and books
each week), but when we trace back the money, only 4-6 companies control all of that. do we
then still have a choice?
hourglass
global media industry has two sides
represents the number of people working somewhere
top: handful of big corporations in business of securing copyrights, distributing and
marketing products
middle: average companies
bottom: thousands of tiny companies often with 4-5 employees that actually produce content
arrows: dynamism; buying smaller companies from the bottom part and including them into
the work flow, securing rights to their content and selling them off again
making media; production, professionals, practices 1
, NIDCL: new international devision of cultural labor
production of media is a global phenomenon, whereas the work in media is local
business models
are changing fast (sales, advertisements, subscriptions)
variety of business models: different ways to make money, what works today won’t work
tomorrow, creative strategies with great opportunities
engagement: value proposition, simply producing and distributing is not enough, people need
to do stuff with it (involvement)
how do media companies spend money
spreading costs: producing multiple projects, hoping 1 or 2 will work
price fixing: seeing what others ask for the product, finding ways to make up for losses
(e.g. sony doesn’t make a profit from selling an xbox, but earns it back through selling
games)
not paying wages: most people are underpaid
speculative work = work you do now in hopes of getting paid for it later (e.g.
scriptwriting)
outsourcing risk: trimming staff and hiring people onto specific projects
making media; production, professionals, practices 2
, long tail model
no guaranteed mass audience anymore, we all watch different shows
if you can’t get a mass audience, you can agregate a small one. instead of producing 10
movies and hoping 1 will work, you produce 500 movies that each will have a tiny
audience, but together they are a big audience (Netflix approach)
traditional management approach → contemporary management approach
media are not produced as a single-use, one-off product for a specific medium, but as part of a
larger portfolio of multimedia products
exploitative vs explorative innovation
can’t keep producing what you’ve always done → audience not interested anymore because
there is so much other stuff
you have to come up with new things and find a balance between old and new
editorial logic = a logic where decisions are made based on what other people like you (your
peers) think is good. source of reference for decision-making are colleagues and bosses, and
whether the public likes it is not important.
market logic = what sells well is what we will produce
data logic = algorithms act in two ways: 1) demand predictor 2) content creator. data on
consumers is used to make predictions on what people would like to see next
convergence logic = culture of production and consumption converge. some of the decisions
media companies make are governed by their collaboration with audiences (e.g. focus groups)
platform logic = platforms sit in between everything we want from media and everything
media produces
making media; production, professionals, practices 3
