The Development of Media Management as an Academic Field: Tracing the Contents and Impact of Its Three Leading Journals

Abstract

This chapter takes stock of the development of media management as an academic field. We draw on Bird et al. (Family Business Review 15(4): 337–350, 2002) to assess how these fields measure up on three criteria that determine maturity as a discipline. While the existence of professional associations is evident in media management and career opportunities for media managers and scholars alike indicate that two prerequisites have been fulfilled, systematic theory is less evident and that is problematic. The authors reach this conclusion based on review of the most-cited articles published in the three leading journals of the field (Journal of Media Economics, International Journal on Media Management and Journal of Media Business Studies). Drawing on Whetten (Academy of Management Review 14(4): 490–495, 1989), the chapter observes that while considerable progress has been made in identifying the what (i.e. factors relevant to understand empirical phenomena related to media management) and quite a bit of less to how these factors are related, the why (i.e. the underlying dynamics explaining the characteristics of the field) and the who, where and when (as boundary conditions placing limitations on the theory or model) are in need of substantial work in order for a systematic body of theory about media management to develop.