Historical trends and patterns in media economics (original) (raw)
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Theoritical and Empirical Aproaches of Media Economics
Up to Date Journal , 2014
Media economics provides a means to understand the activities and functions of media companies as economic institutions.It involves the application of economic theories, concepts, and principles to study the macroeconomic and microeconomics aspects of mass media companies and industries. Concomitant with the increasing consolidation and concentration across the media industries,media economics emerged as an important area of study for academicians, policymakers, and industry analysts. Media economics literature encompasses a variety of methodological approaches involving both qualitative and quantitative methods and statistical analysis, as well as studies using financial, historical, and policy-driven data.The main objective of the article are to examine the historical development of the field of media economics, tracing its roots to the founding of economics as well as theoretical and methodological dimensions of media economics and addressing the importance of the study of media economics.
Media economics research: a history of the field
A Research Agenda for Media Economics, 2019
The overarching goal of this volume is to establish a research agenda for the field of media economics. To look forward, it is helpful to first consider the history of this area to understand its nuances and development as an area of study. "Study the past if you would define the future" is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius and is relevant to the task faced by the editor and contributors of this volume. While we may not be able to predict future trends for the field of media economics, we do hope to offer guidance and suggestions for new generations of PhD students and scholars interested in this rapidly changing field over a variety of topics. What is media economics? Media economics is a sub-field developed out of the larger area of general economics. Media economics involves the application and study of economic theories and concepts to the media industries (Albarran, 2017). In terms of theories, much of the development of the field has been influenced by theories based in microeconomics, such as the industrial organization model and the theory of the firm. Concepts drawn from mainstream economics include the firm, the industry and different types of markets (for example, monopoly, duopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, perfect competition) all found across media economics research. There are also concepts developed to help explain specific aspects of media economics research such as the dual product market, media competition and multiplatform distribution. Macroeconomic theories have also influenced scholars interested in media economics. Among these are studies related to aggregate economic activity such as gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP) metrics, public policy actions in the form of laws and regulation, and labor and employment trends. Interest and inflation rates are important macroeconomic concepts. A further strand of theories revolve around the area known as political economy, a critical approach with origins in Marxism, which looks at topics such as media hegemony and technological determinism. Political economy developed as an alternative view of media economics research. In this volume, our focus is on the mainstream areas of research drawn from microeconomic and macroeconomic
The Rise and Expansion of Research in Media Economics
2018
Media economics is the study of choices, what incentives and disincentives influence them, and how to make better choices to inform company decisions, public understanding, and policymaking. The present paper reviews the development of the field since the beginning in the 1970s with scholars such as Alfonso Nieto at the University of Navarra, Nadine ToussaintDesmoulins at the University of Paris 2, and Karl Erik Gustafsson at the University of Gothenburg to the emerging of the field with more scholars from different countries. Nowadays the field of media economics research has matured and become multifaceted, encompassing a wide variety of theories and approaches necessary to explore multiple developments and issues in media structures and operations. It is particularly relevant because media and communications are amid a massive transformation created by technology, social changes, and changes in demand. Expansion of commercial media and personal communications, new means of produc...
Mass Communication and Society, 2008
An area of study can be said to have come of age when it is considered a definable entity, when it emerges from the shadow of its parent sciences and paradigms and begins to take a form of its own. The study of media management and economics (MME) is emerging as such an entity, and editors of and contributors to the Handbook of Media Management and Economics have advanced the task through the publication of the field's first handbook, an edited volume of 30 chapters running nearly 700 pages that sets out to define the field. Readers of the handbook will discover quickly that MME is a broad area of inquiry that draws from multiple disciplines and attracts scholars with diverse interests. Piecing these disciplines and interests together into a coherent text is a formidable task, but editor Alan Albarran and co-editors Sylvia Chan-Olmsted and Michael Wirth-all senior scholars and respected leaders in MME research-have done a masterful job of creating a comprehensive handbook that not only examines the many approaches to studying MME but also shows how they all fit together. The result is a book that has multiple uses to several audiences: as a primer for scholars interested in the conceptual frameworks and specific areas that define MME; as a text for graduate students seeking to link professional issues to scholarly approaches; and as a bridge to media managers who see the value of academic, non-proprietary scholarship. Most important, perhaps, the book looks to the future by plotting and synthesizing the developments in the discipline, pointing to numerous possibilities for expanded areas of inquiry. The book is organized into four parts: First, an overview with 5 chapters defines the MME landscape; the second part includes 17 chapters, each exploring a specific issue or area of inquiry; next, 5 chapters review the analytical tools (generally methods) that have been used in MME scholarship; and a final section of 3 chapters considers how profound changes in media (e.g., increasing audience control, fragmenting audiences, new technologies and media products, public policy deregulation, and globalization) point toward fertile ground for future MME research.
Media Economics Research: methodological perspectives and areas for future development
Palabra Clave, 2005
This paper offers a commentary, and not an exhaustive summary, of the research methodologies used in media economics research, and discusses the need for improvement and development of better tools for analysis and research approaches. As media economics scholarship continues to evolve and develop in Colombia and the South American regions, perhaps some of the efforts made by scholars in other parts of the world can be beneficial to scholars in this rapidly growing region. Likewise, the research completed by Columbian scholars, and efforts to develop methodological approaches specific to the needs of studying media economics in Columbia and other South American nations, will help to benefit the field.
Media Economics and Media Policy: The Good and the Bad
2004
This paper explores the role and function of economics in media policymaking and policy analysis. This paper begins with an overview of the distinctive economics of media industries in an effort to demonstrate the importance of focused and specialized economic analysis of these industries. The paper then chronicles the growing role of economics in US media policymaking and examines both the positive and the negative implications of this transition for media policy.
Reconsidering Media Economics: From Orthodoxies to Heterodoxies
Media Industries Journal, 2015
This paper argues the case for closer attention to media economics on the part of media, communications, and cultural studies researchers. It points to a plurality of approaches to media economics, including the mainstream neoclassical school and critical political economy, but also new insights derived from perspectives that are less well known outside of the economics discipline, such as new institutional economics and evolutionary economics. It applies these frameworks to current debates about the future of public service media, noting limitations to both "market failure" and citizenship discourses and identifying challenges relating to institutional governance, public policy, and innovation as public service media worldwide adapt to a digitally convergent media environment.