Media Economics Research Articles

Doubting the Global War on Terror

Soon after Al Qaeda's terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the Bush Administration described its new grand strategy: the "Global War on Terror". This article examines the 'two-track' process that US neoconservatives and 'echo chamber' media used, to promote the GWOT grand strategy. It re-examines why many experts and institutions expressed doubt about specific claims the Bush Administration made to support the 2003 Iraq War. Historical counterfactuals suggest that the Bush Administration's Global War on Terror could have evolved very differently . . . or not occurred at all.

The Logos of the Blogosphere: Flooding the Zone, Invention, and Attention in the Lott Imbroglio

This essay examines the significance of a particular metaphor, flooding the zone, which gained prominence as an account of bloggers' argumentative prowess in the wake of Senator Trent Lott's toast at Strom Thurmond's centennial birthday party. I situate the growth of the blogosphere in the context of the political economy of the institutional mass media at the time and argue that the blogosphere is an alternative site for the invention of public argument. By providing an account of how the blogosphere serves as a site of invention by flooding the zone with densely interlinked coverage of a controversy, this essay theorizes how the networked public sphere facilitates invention with speed, agonism, and copiousness. The essay then identifies how flooding the zone has been adopted by corporations and the state in order to blunt spontaneous argumentation emerging from the periphery of communication networks.

A semi-public diasporic space: Turkish film screenings in Belgium

This article presents an analysis of Turkish film screenings in Belgium as a case study of diasporic media practices in Europe. Turkish blockbusters have only recently become part of the programs of Belgian mainstream film theaters. This study provides insight into both historical and recent dynamics that characterize this new film and audience segment in film exhibition. After analyzing transnational patterns of distribution, selection and promotion (in Belgium and in Europe), we put forward that changing circulation patterns and the associated power relations (co-)define the social and spatial conditions of reception, resulting in the creation of new semi-public diasporic spaces. Thus, the links between the political economy of media and audience research are discussed. The findings of this article are based on archival and press research and a series of semi-structured expert interviews with exhibition and distribution professionals, as well as social workers and representatives from Turkish cultural associations.

Financialization and the “Crisis of the Media”: The Rise and Fall of (Some) Media Conglomerates in Canada

New media have expanded the size of the media economy without cannibalizing the economic base of traditional media. The current woes facing some media primarily reflect a short-term, cyclical decline in advertising revenue caused by the economic downturn, the accumulated results of media consolidation, and the financialization of the media. The latter process saw vast sums of capital investment in the creation of massive media conglomerates based on wildly optimistic projections where future profits would grow faster than the expanding network media economy and exceed the high profits that characterized the media in the past. When that rosy scenario failed to materialize, some media companies were indeed in trouble and saddled with unsustainable debts, but there has been no crisis of the media per se.

Can the media in Africa shape Africa's political future?

This article seeks to make an assessment of the media's role in shaping the political destiny of Africa as a continent. It looks at how the media responds to political crisis and its role in shaping Africa's political future with emphasis on three main issues: control and censorship of media, political economy of media and ethnicization of national politics in African countries. With reference to control and censorship of media, the focus is on how control and censorship of the media affect political reporting. The article further discusses how the political economy of the media influences its relationship with the government and how this impacts on its role in enhancing political accountability. The article then looks at the ethnicization of national politics and whether the proliferation of vernacular stations is to blame for increasing ethnicization of national politics in African countries such as Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya.

Using the media to hold accountants to account: some observations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to broaden discussions about the role of the public sphere in broadening social choices, with particular focus on accountancy magazines and national press in particular.Design/methodology/approachIn replying to the commentary appearing in this edition, the paper shifts the debate to a political economy of media. In action research traditions, it also shows how academic interventions can lead to unexpected outcomes that can enrich research, teaching and social choice debates.FindingsPublic debates can be galvanised through academic interventions.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests possible strategies for fermenting public debates and engaging with the institutions of accountancy.Social implicationsThrough engagement social choices can be broadened.Originality/valueThe paper is based on personal interventions and this offers first‐hand account of some of the public interventions and how these led to new alliances and arrangements to problematise conventional views about accounting and accounting firms.

The Impact of Network Size and Financial Incentives on Adoption and Participation in New Online Communities

The success of online communities depends heavily on the providers' abilities to motivate potential users to adopt the service and to actively participate. Because research in this field of media economics is rare, especially with regard to newly established communities, this study analyzes what drives community adoption and how direct and indirect financial incentives influence user participation. Extending Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, this article shows, in 2 empirical studies, that network size significantly affects adoption in newly established communities. The results of the first study indicate a strong effect of indirect financial incentives (saving money) on the intention to adopt. The second study indicates that direct financial incentives (earning money) may well help increase the network's size without altering user motivation through crowding-out effects. It is interesting to note that the presence of direct financial incentives attracts new users, but it does not increase usage.

Capitalist Crisis, Communication, & Culture – Introduction to the Special Issue of tripleC

The worldwide economic downturn is indicative for a new large crisis of capitalism. The future of capitalism is in this situation not determined, but depends on collective human agency. This introduction to the special issue of tripleC on “Capitalist Crisis, Communication & Culture” presents general arguments about the crisis, a general model of the political economy of capitalist communication, and a systematic typology of literature about capitalist crisis & communication. The introduced model of the political economy of capitalist communication is comprised of seven interconnected moments: 1) the media content industry, 2) the media infrastructure industry, 3) the interaction of the media economy and the non-media economy, 4) the interaction of the finance sector and the media economy, 5) alternative media, 6) media reception, 7) media prosumption. The model is used for classifying actual and potential research about the communicative dimension of the new capitalist crisis.

Capitalist Crisis, Communication, & Culture – Introduction to the Special Issue of tripleC

The worldwide economic downturn is indicative for a new large crisis of capitalism. The future of capitalism is in this situation not determined, but depends on collective human agency. This introduction to the special issue of tripleC on “Capitalist Crisis, Communication & Culture” presents general arguments about the crisis, a general model of the political economy of capitalist communication, and a systematic typology of literature about capitalist crisis & communication. The introduced model of the political economy of capitalist communication is comprised of seven interconnected moments: 1) the media content industry, 2) the media infrastructure industry, 3) the interaction of the media economy and the non-media economy, 4) the interaction of the finance sector and the media economy, 5) alternative media, 6) media reception, 7) media prosumption. The model is used for classifying actual and potential research about the communicative dimension of the new capitalist crisis.

Review Essay: Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media

Review Essay: Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media

Twenty years on: the second-order prediction of the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model

October 2008 marked the 20th anniversary of the publication of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Their Propaganda Model (PM), which attempted to explain the behaviour of the media in the United States, found that it consistently served the interests of corporate and state power. Furthermore, they anticipated that the PM would be generally ignored within academia, which, all too often, also served the interests of corporate and state power. This commentary breaks new ground by focusing upon their second-order prediction, concerning the reception of the PM within academia; it demonstrates that the PM has been systematically marginalized within the field of media and communication studies, just as Herman and Chomsky forecast it would. The commentary is divided into six sections. The first section highlights the contrast between the liberal pluralist perspective and the Marxist-radical critique of how political and media systems function in capitalist, liberal-democratic societies. The second section situates the PM within the Marxist-radical tradition of media and communication studies. The third section provides an overview of the PM, more specifically its three hypotheses, its five operative principles and the evidence presented by Herman and Chomsky in support of the PM. The fourth section, which assesses how the PM has been received within the field of media and communication studies since 1988, is concerned with the second-order prediction that the PM would be neglected. More specifically, it surveys the way in which scholars have engaged with the PM; it provides data on the proportion of media and communication journal articles that have attended to the PM; and it submits data on the number of media and communication texts that refer to the PM. The fifth section suggests a number of reasons to explain why the PM has been generally dismissed, while the sixth section makes the case for the continued relevance of the PM.

The politics and practice of television ratings conventions: Australian and American approaches to broadcast ratings

As we now know, once you introduce audience ratings, as China has done, you have not just introduced ‘a measure’; you have introduced a huge apparatus that brings with it certain types of agreements, values and behaviours. No doubt, China's leaders saw the ratings as a neutral mechanism in mapping broadcast audiences. The history of ratings, however, is quite the opposite. It is a set of standards, values and conventions that drives particular kinds of expectations in organizations, technology and content. Audience ratings first provided a coordination rule for advertiser-supported media and then became a convention, harnessed by TV to change media economics. In this paper the authors provide an insight into how audience ratings, as a convention – a compact – emerged in Australia and America, and some of the major differences between them.

On the Intersection of Media Studies and Market Research: Exploring the Exchange Between Academia and Business

On the Intersection of Media Studies and Market Research:Exploring the Exchange Between Academia and Business Justin Wyatt (bio) The SCMS Professional Development Committee has asked me to consider the opportunities for Film and Television Studies doctorates for work in the so-called "media industries." Immediately betraying my own academic roots, I must start this project with a series of caveats, large and small. The largest caveat is that I must situate all my comments and analysis within the very specific world of "market research" within the media industries. It's the region of the bulk of my own work within the industry, and I feel that it would be disingenuous to extrapolate to other areas within the media industries (such as production, distribution, new product development, and finance). While there is certainly movement between market research [End Page 110] and these allied areas, most media researchers stay within the boundaries of marketing, occasionally venturing into the closest allied fields of creative advertising, marketing strategy, and media planning. Market research occupies a particular niche within the media industries: closer to the "technical" field of finance and further from the creative fields of production and development. Compared to the worlds of consumer packaged goods, market research is considered to be an imperfect fit by many for the media industries. Creative executives often chafe at the idea of considering consumer insights about their film, TV, and multimedia products. Nevertheless, insights from market research inform a variety of levels within the media industries: from market sizing to pilot testing and ad testing. The world of media market research operates along two sets of axes: quantitative/qualitative research and client/supplier affiliation. Generally, most media market research divides into two functional areas: quantitative research (large-sample testing through online, phone, or occasionally mail surveys) and qualitative research (small-sample projects including focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographies, and usability testing). These projects are usually serviced directly by suppliers for clients, although, in the recession, more market research is being conducted in-house by clients rather than outsourced. So, keep in mind that my own boundaries and my analysis are set by media market research within the realm of marketing. Further, I want to stress that my comments are, first and foremost, driven by my own direct experience from both fields: market research and academia. Anyone seeking advice through an informational interview in the media industries soon discovers that almost all "objective advice" is filtered through the prism of personal experience and lived history. Rather than hide this tendency, I want to foreground it, with the hope that my personal experience may be useful to others in traversing these fields. Media Economics: Another Time, Another Place. My own academic training encompasses both Economics (BA degree at the University of British Columbia) and Film and Television Studies (MA and PhD degrees at the University of California-Los Angeles [UCLA]). In large part, my academic and media industry career has been an attempt to reconcile the diverse learning from these fields. The differences are readily apparent, but the similarities may not be so visible. My economics training was focused strongly on neoclassical microeconomics, centered on the theory of the consumer, the producer, and the marketplace. Built around a fixed set of objectives (maximize profit or utility), agents (consumers, producers), and interactions (production, consumption, exchange), neoclassical economics posits a worldview that is inherently narrative in nature: everyone has goals, and these are met, as closely as possible, through trade and exchange. Consider, for instance, the construct of the "Invisible Hand"—the notion that consumers acting selfishly toward their end goals leads to resources being put to their best use and prices being set to clear the market. Rather than leave the concept abstract, the name gives it a strongly visual presence and encourages the narrative of economic theory. The pioneering work of Deirdre McCloskey considers this characterization of economic theory through the rhetoric used by economists to build their arguments, theories, and tenets. McCloskey's work demonstrates how my interest in [End Page 111] economics and in narrative and storytelling dovetailed. I discovered the world of Film and Television Studies, then, through model building, albeit models encapsulating the...

Critical Events and Reception of Foreign Culture

/ This study examines the impact that critical historical events might have on a society’s acceptance of foreign culture. It focuses on whether the 9/11 attacks in 2001 have changed Americans’ reception of foreign-language films. Drawing upon the concept of cultural discount from media economics, the article first postulates that movies of low-context genres and from a less culturally distant market should perform better at the box office. It then asks if the impact of such cultural factors varied before and after 9/11. Analysis of the data of 594 foreign-language movies shown in the US between 1984 and 2006 reveals that the expectations derived from the cultural discount thesis receive empirical support only after 9/11. The findings have important implications for the cultural discount thesis and illustrate that critical events like 9/11 can bring about sudden historical shifts in a society’s cultural attitudes.

Who Does God Want Me to Invite to See The Passion of the Christ?: Marketing Movies to Evangelicals

This article explores the dominant themes of The Passion of the Christ's marketing campaign to better understand the role and tactics of marketing in the religious media economy. In particular, this marketing-centered textual analysis covers how Passion's purported accuracy, authenticity, rating, and use as a proselytizing device were framed to appeal to evangelicals' skepticism of mainstream Hollywood ideals, R-rated movies, and potential sacrilege of the subject matter.

Tendências da Pesquisa em Jornalismo em Portugal: 1974-2010

This work seeks to draw the trends in Journalism Studies in Portugal between 1974 and the present time. It focuses on reading and reviewing Portuguese books, written by Portuguese authors, devoted to the research on journalism during that time. We conclude that, prior to 1974, essays were the main result of Portuguese journalism studies, but in more recent years essays were replaced by a scientific approach, marked, however, by theoretical and methodological hybridity. Nine trends can be identified on Portuguese journalism studies: 1) Journalism theory; 2) Journalistic production; 3) Sociology of journalists; 4) Journalism, politics, and democracy; 5) Analysis of journalistic messages; 6) History of journalism; 7) Journalistic media economics and management; 8) Journalism law and ethics; and 9) Proximity journalism. The most relevant of these research trends are: journalism history; journalistic messages analysis; and the processes of journalism production. We can include another field of research: newspaper’s ombudsmen views on journalists’ professional practices.

European Media Markets: Competition, Media Bias and Cultural Diversity (Europäische Medienmärkte: Wettbewerb, Meinungsvielfalt und Kulturelle Vielfalt)

The papers analyses the emergence of an European media regulation, predominantly through competition policy institutions. Next to ‘narrow’ competition considerations, issues of media bias and cultural diversity are put into focus. Modern media economics views media markets involving issues of public opinion and cultural development as being rather special markets that deserve specialized economic theories. Against the background of these recent scientific insights, some exemplary recent decisions of the European Commission are analysed and it is found that no sufficient attention is paid to the modern economics of media, media bias and cultural diversity. Note: Downloadable document is in German.

Block Booking Migrates to Television

This article examines the recent Hollywood studio practice of distributing international television programming via a bundling strategy, labeled an output deal, and situates the practice as a further iteration of the early Hollywood system of “block booking” feature films. Using Germany as a case study, the authors looks at how Hollywood compelled German distributors and broadcasters to take on large packages of television programming that combined highly desirable blockbuster motion pictures with far less valuable television series. Just as the original practice of block booking exerted financial pressure on theater owners, the burdensome practice of television programming output deals led to a major upheaval in Germany’s entertainment industry, driving the second largest German media company into bankruptcy. The international television output deal persists, however, because transnational media regulations cannot hope to marshal the enforcement powers of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Supreme Court. Market forces within the global entertainment industry have done little to curtail the expansion of global media conglomerates. And yet, even as global power dynamics remain essentially the same, with Hollywood retaining its primary position, this case study points to rising instabilities that threaten an American-dominated international media economy.

Editorial

October 2008 marked the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Their Propaganda Model (PM), which attempted to explain the performance of the media in the United States (US), found that the media consistently served the interests of corporate and state power. Furthermore, they anticipated that the PM would be generally ignored within academia, which, all too often, also served the interests of corporate and state power.

Healthy Sex and Pop Porn: Pornography, Feminism and the Finnish Context

Objections to pornography as the commercialization of the intimate, as sexist or as generally harmful are voiced internationally, yet their investments and dynamics cannot be reduced to those expressed in the US in the wake of the sex wars. Addressing Finnish traditions of porn regulation, consumption and research, as well as the Nordic discourses of ‘good sex’, this article argues for the centrality of local histories in making sense of pornography. It conceptualizes pornography in terms of a dynamic nexus of actors, discourses, media economies, technologies and consumers that can only be studied through and within its specific articulations.