Mass Media and Society Chapter 13: Economics
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Transcript of Mass Media and Society Chapter 13: Economics
Mass Media and Society
Chapter 13: Economicsof Mass Media
April 7, 2014
Chapter 13: Economics• Characteristics of media
industries• Internet’s effects• The information economy• Globalization• Culture and economics
Industry characteristics• Monopoly: When one
entity controls a product or service
• Oligopoly: A few companies control a product or service
• Monopolistic competition
Revenue• Companies make money
either from consumers or from advertising
• Book publishers on one end, TV networks on the other
• Print newspapers: high first copy costs, lower marginal costs
Revenue• Large media
conglomerates own most TV networks
• One company usually dominates local cable provider market
• Radio is heavily consolidated
Revenue• Big four music companies
dominate that industry; closely linked with radio
• Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged; performed same service
• Large companies dominate movie market
Internet’s effects• Online space is much
more inexpensive than print or broadcast media
• Most newspapers now allow free online access; many use paywalls, charging for some content or after a certain number of pageviews
Online synergy• Combination of media
outlets across platforms, such as newspapers producing video or TV networks producing text stories for the web
• Advertising targeting and models changing
Advertising• Google: text ads next to
search results, on web pages, targeting specific web visitors
• Cost barrier to advertising lowered
• Bulk of Google’s revenue comes from advertising
Digital delivery• Google News and other
aggregators provide categories to links to news stories online: news sources are critics
• File sharing, streaming of music and video affects sales in those categories
DMCA• Digital Millennium
Copyright Act: 1998 law is effort to stop illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted material
• Copyright holders can send notices over use of material (such as on YouTube)
Digital Divide• Can be a barrier for
workers, particularly older ones, in job market
• “Bottom billion”: of 6.8 billion people in the world, only 1.6 billion are connected to the Internet
• One Laptop Per Child
Legislation• Federal Communications
Commission regulates the information economy
• Antitrust legislation is used by the government to encourage competition
• Telecommunications Act (1996) solidified trend of deregulation
Vertical integration• Media companies
produce and distribute content
• Disney: manages theme parks, movie studios, ESPN, ABC; synergy creates opportunities and potential ethical concerns
Digital files• Digital Rights
Management protection limits use of files or controls copying
• Piracy remains an issue• Digital music sales
advance greatly ($187 million in 2004 to $1.8 billion in 2008)
Globalization• Media are a cultural
product• Spread of culture across
borders can lead to homogenization
• Media companies now tailor content to global markets (“Titanic”)
Culture• Cultural imperialism:
describes U.S. role as an influential cultural superpower
• McDonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control
• Making money from whatever cultural elements it can