Handbook of media management and economics

Abstract

Handbook of Media Management and Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. 750 pp. $195 hbk. $79.95 pbk. We might never again see so many academic leaders on the business side of journalism gathered together in a single volume. Comprehensive at 750 pages, this is the first handbook on the study of the business dynamics of mass media companies and their managerial foundations of technology, advertising sales, finance, marketing, and personnel. It is unique as a single resource summarizing existing knowledge in media management and media economics, and it should inspire other researchers to explore even further. The Handbook is divided into four sections. Articles by thirty-four national and international scholars examine theoretical components, key issues, analytical tools, and suggested directions for future research. Researchers will especially appreciate the extensive bibliographies after each article and the detailed index. Alan B. Albarran of the University of North Texas and Robert G. Picard of Sweden's Jonkoping University start the book with overviews of historical research trends in media management and in media economics, respectively. Like most of the Handbook's writers, Albarran and Picard are widely published. Albarran is best known as the author of Management of Electronic Media, while Picard's sixteen books include The Economics and Financing of Media Companies. The remaining twenty-eight articles are too numerous to describe here other than to say that they consistently show strong scholarship in each of the major subjects. A few examples, to give an idea of the systematic range of topics and the quality of scholars chosen to cover them, follow: * Philip M. Napoli of Fordham University, author of Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace, wrote the article Issues in Media Management and the Public Interest. * Douglas A. Ferguson of the College of Charleston, author of several books about television including Media Programming: Strategies and Practice, wrote Industry-Specific Management Issues. * Randal A. Beam of Indiana University, former head of AEJMC's Media Management and Economics Division, wrote Quantitative Methods in Media Management and Economics. Many of the Handbook's other writers are department chairs and long-time professors in media management or media economics, and some are from universities abroad. There's even one management consultant. One could always wish that authors and editors of other important books on media management and economics would have been represented, such as Ben Bagdikian, Robert McChesney and Geneva Overholser-but you can't squeeze in everybody. …