Media Executives Research Articles

It is a small world: The effect of analyst-media school ties on analyst performance

We examine the effect of school ties between sell-side analysts and media executives on the improvement in analysts' performance during the release of informative negative news. Our baseline results and mechanism tests show that analysts obtain fragmented private information to improve their earnings forecast accuracy by taking advantage of the school ties with financial media executives. To establish causality, we perform several identification strategies, such as entropy balancing matching, cross-sectional analyses during university anniversary gatherings, and a placebo test. Further, we find that analysts with less herding behaviors benefit more from the school tie effect. Besides, we reveal that connected analysts are more likely to issue reports in a timely manner after the release of informative negative news, and these revisions in earnings forecast elicit significantly positive market reactions. At the same time, we notice that the media are more likely to interview alumni-affiliated analysts, providing potential evidence of an informational interaction between financial analysts and the media.

The News Media Bargaining Code: Impacts on Australian journalism one year on

AbstractThe Australian News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC) is the first successful legislative attempt to compel digital platforms to pay news media organisations for third party news content. This paper focuses on the NMBC after its first year to explore whether the Code was successful in meeting one of its publicly stated purposes; supporting public interest journalism. We argue that the Code delivered outcomes that met the ACCC's policy objectives around an industry power imbalance, but there are several issues that remain unaddressed. Using semi‐structured interviews from Australian news media executives involved in negotiations with Meta and Google during the initial implementation of the Code, we explore: (a) how news organisations used financial compensation provided by agreements under the Code, (b) how individual organisational priorities were framed and articulated, and (c) whether these actions have supported public interest journalism in Australia. Our findings indicate that many of issues with the Code have emerged mostly from the unintended impacts of the Code, including: lack of designation of platforms within the legislation, the registration criteria for news outlets eligible to enter negotiation, and the definition of stakeholder relationships within the legislation.

The New Invisible Hand: How Common Owners Use the Media as a Strategic Tool

While research has uncovered an array of visible competitive dynamics, a strategic world of competition lies beneath the surface that should also be theorized and empirically traced. We investigate the strategic consequences of “media–rival” common ownership, in which investors own a media company and a non-media focal firm’s rivals. We posit that focal firms receive worse coverage from media outlets when institutional investors hold substantial ownership in both a media company and the focal firm’s rivals because the investors’ common holdings provide them with incentives and power to enhance the competitiveness of their portfolio firms by tainting the focal firm’s media coverage. We account for three moderators to show that this effect amplifies when investors have stronger incentives and power to influence the media and when media executives have incentives to cater to the interests of their investors. Using a novel dataset on common ownership of rival firms and media companies, we find support for our theory. Our study reveals a new invisible hand underlying competitive markets and offers a new view of the media as a strategic tool.

Do media connections help? Evidence from IPO pricing in China

This study examines how social connections between media executives and firms affect initial public offering (IPO) pricing using manually collected Chinese data. We find media-connected firms receive more frequent and more positive coverage than their unconnected peers, resulting in reduced IPO underpricing. However, media-connected firms have worse post-IPO market performance. Although media-connected firms have better pre-IPO accounting performance, they conduct more earnings management under the cover provided by their connected media. Additional results show that the negative effect of media connections on IPO underpricing is more pronounced for media that are not controlled by the central government and are based in the same city as the firm. It is also more pronounced for firms with less institutional ownership and non-state-owned enterprises. Our results remain valid after various robustness tests, such as alternative proxies for IPO underpricing, eliminating alternative hypotheses, matching analysis, instrumental variable analysis, as well as placebo tests. Collectively, our findings suggest that media connections compromise IPO pricing efficiency.

Business models and sustainability in the newspaper industry: Perspectives from European and North American executives

The digital age has posed considerable challenges to media business model sustainability while diversifying opportunities for editorial organizations and journalists. The chaotic management of media companies is threatening the very fabric of various media industries. This article aims at understanding the sustainability of the media business models, and how media managers tailor their practices to cope with digital transformation in a competitive market. Media executives from three US newspaper companies (from the United States of America and Canada) and three European newspaper companies (from Ireland, England and France) were interviewed for this article. The results of the interviews with executives from the six newspaper companies interviewed suggest that there is a better adaptation to the digital transformation on the part of North American companies compared to European companies. All interviewed newspaper companies continue to face significant challenges in the search for ways to enable the sustainability of their business models to motivate their partners, shareholders and employees and contribute to greater diversity in the information market. The six media companies agreed that sustaining a media business and financing model is not equivalent to achieving the long-term sustainability of a media business model and financing.

Fastabiq.Id: A Model of Muhammadiyah’s Management Media Community at the Grassroots

This article focuses on evaluating community media through a media management strategy, considering the rapid development of the media in terms of function, information, and management. This development results from the emergence of community media with a smaller readership but similar purpose. The study aims to identify the existing management pattern by conducting in-depth interviews and open interactions with media executives. The selected community media platform, fastabiq.id, operated by an individual affiliated with Muhammadiyah in Minggir-Sleman, is investigated due to its consistent generation of news content despite limited resources. The research employs in-depth interviews and open interactions with media executives to determine the current management pattern. Qualitative analysis is conducted to study the media management model. Fastabiq.id, a community media platform affiliated with Muhammadiyah, is chosen based on its ability to consistently generate news content at the grassroots level, despite resource limitations. The findings demonstrate that the community media management model employed by fastabiq.id aligns with the movement within the Muhammadiyah community. The study evaluates how Muhammadiyah’s community media at the grassroots level adapts to the popularized movements within the community and establishes a management model that aligns with the evolving media usage patterns. This study contributes to understanding community media by analyzing the management model employed by fastabiq.id, a media platform affiliated with Muhammadiyah. It highlights the adaptability of community media at the grassroots level and its significance in providing ongoing information.

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon about Power, Politics, and Political Science

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon about Power, Politics, and Political Science

Online Hate Speech: User Perception and Experience Between Law and Ethics

‘Governance’ of online hate speech (OHS) has become a buzzword in social media research and practice. Inputs from a plethora of stakeholders, international organisations, platforms, governments, and NGOs are discussed by academics, (social) media executives and lawmakers around the globe. In these discussions, the opinions of users remain underexplored, and data on their experiences and perceptions is scarce. The present paper focuses on five case studies of model OHS postings in the context of the Austrian OHS governance system. For these case studies, 157 respondents assessed in an online survey whether a posting should be deleted according to their own ethical standards, whether they believed that this posting was currently punishable under Austrian criminal law, and whether it should be punishable. Furthermore, respondents indicated how they deal with OHS in their daily lives when confronted with it on digital platforms. Using social sciences, human rights, and criminal law approaches, we found that OHS-awareness among our respondent group was high and that there is a preference for state regulation, i.e., punishability under national criminal law, and for the deletion of OHS postings. Simultaneously, readiness for counter-speech and reporting of postings for deletion remains relatively low. Thus, OHS postings are hardly ever answered directly or forwarded to specialised organisations and/or the police. If OHS postings are reported, it is mostly done via the channels of the respective platform.

The cauldron has cooled down: a systematic literature review on home advantage in football during the COVID-19 pandemic from a socio-economic and psychological perspective

The phenomenon of home advantage (home bias) is well-analyzed in the scientific literature. But only the COVID-19 pandemic enabled studies on this phenomenon—for the first time in history—on a global scale. Thus, several studies to date examined the effects of empty stadiums by comparing regular matches (with supporters) before the COVID-19 restrictions with so-called ghost games (games without supporters) during the pandemic. To synthesize the existing knowledge and offer an overview regarding the effects of ghost games on home advantage we provide a systematic literature review on this topic. Our findings—based on 26 primary studies—indicate that ghost games have a considerable impact on the phenomenon of home advantage. Deeper analysis further indicates that this effect is based on a reduced “referee bias” and a lack of “emotional support from the ranks”. From a psychological perspective, we argue that our conclusions are highly relevant by emphasizing decision making under pressure and crowd-induced motivation in sports. From a socio-economic perspective, we argue that our findings legitimize a discussion regarding compensation of fans after sporting success as plausible and worth considering. Thus, our results are significant for scientists, sports and team managers, media executives, fan representatives and other persons responsible in the football industry.

Implementation of the Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes in Vietnam: Marketing Practices by the Industry and Perceptions of Caregivers and Health Workers.

Background: The promotion of breastmilk substitutes (BMS) is an important barrier to successful breastfeeding. Objective: To examine the enactment and implementation of the Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes (the Code) in Vietnam with a focus on marketing practices by the baby food industry and perceptions of caregivers, health workers, and policy makers. Methods: From May to July 2020, we conducted a mixed-method, cross-sectional study including a survey of 268 pregnant women and 726 mothers of infants aged 0–11 months and in-depth interviews with a subset of interviewed women (n = 39), policy makers, media executives, and health workers (n = 31). Results: In the previous 30 days, two mothers (out of 726) participating in the quantitative survey reported that health workers had recommended BMS, at private hospitals in both cases. In-depth interviews with health workers showed that hospitals have internal procedures to prevent the promotion of BMS by health workers. However, companies employed representatives to promote products not covered under the Code (e.g., commercial milk formula for pregnant women) at antenatal care visits and by gaining contact information from women and using this information to promote BMS outside the hospital, often on social media. In the 30 days preceding the survey, one-fifth of pregnant women were exposed to promotions of commercial milk formula for pregnant women and 7.1% to promotions of BMS. Among mothers of infants, 7.3% and 10.7% of respondents with infants aged 0–5 and 6–11 months, respectively, were exposed to some form of BMS promotion in the past 30 days. Around the time of birth, parents commonly brought BMS to maternity facilities (52.5%) or purchased it nearby (35.4%). Conclusions: Although Vietnam has a strong regulatory environment for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding, there are implementation, monitoring, and enforcement gaps. Stronger enforcement of national policies to regulate the presence of BMS industry representatives in health facilities—both public and private—and the promotion of BMS products on digital platforms are needed.

Letter from the Editors

Letter from the Editors

Actors (Media policy/ Meta journalism)

Actors (Media policy/ Meta journalism)

The development of video streaming industry in Egypt: examining its market environment and business model

ABSTRACT This study examines the development of video streaming industry in Egypt, a country characterised by a large segment of young consumers and active online media users in the Arab region. Interestingly, while the international and regional video streaming services have been able to achieve good audience shares, the Egyptian platform, Watch iT, is struggling to survive in the market. Based on in-depth interviews with 17 media executives, this study investigates how the market environment affects the development of different video streaming platforms in Egypt and what business model factors influence the performance of this market. The results highlighted the importance of economic and cultural factors in setting the parameters of competition and the need for flexibility in pricing and partnerships.

Social Media Marketing Strategies: Air Arabia as a Study

Social media marketing is one of the best tools used by different companies to reach targeted customers. The main objective of the research was to assess social media marketing strategies in Air Arabia airlines and its productivity in interacting with potential and loyal clients. The study objectives include: to determine the social media marketing strategy used by Air Arabia and to assess the effectiveness of social media marketing strategic plans for current and future clients. The study adopted a qualitative approach. In order to attain the target, content analysis was used as the data collection method, which was taken from the social media channels reports provided by air Arabia social media executives. The data were thematically analyzed to gain a better understanding of the data collected. The study findings indicated that the company’s social media strategy is based on posting regular content that is mainly videos and photographs, with increased interaction on photos. The company’s Facebook account has the highest number of subscribers. The main reason for using social media marketing was to tap the new technology in their business, thus drawing in a pool of customers online. The study concluded that Air Arabia gained a competitive advantage over other airlines due to its strategic use of social media. Air Arabia’s main strategic plan for communicating with its customers was to build loyalty, thus increasing its competitive ability in the traveling industry. The main recommendation from the research is for Air Arabia to create its brand to the target market and listen actively to their clients online to expand its customer base. Overall, the social media strategy of Air Arabia is effective in achieving its goal.

Kerner Issue: The Role of HBCUs in Training Journalists to Improve Media Images Post-Kerner

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) produce 80% of African American media professionals with college degrees (Crawford, 2013). Howard University, in particular, has been a leading source of Black journalists and other communicators for a half-century. Little research has been conducted to examine the role of Howard University and other HBCUs in diversifying the media and assisting in the expansion of career opportunities for Black journalists, particularly in the aftermath of the release of the 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Popularly called the Kerner Report, it harshly critiqued mainstream journalism’s role in perpetuating the unrest of the 1960s and the inequalities experienced by African Americans. Specifically, the report faulted the news media in failing to hire African Americans who could provide a more accurate depiction of the challenges faced by African Americans in their communities. Released amid the civil disorders of the 1960s, the Kerner Report became the impetus for as many as six HBCUs to later establish substantial journalism and mass communications programs to train Black journalists to enter mainstream newsrooms as the demands grew to diversify the profession. This article would add to the literature by highlighting the role of HBCUs in desegregating the media and by documenting the efforts of Howard University’s School of Communications, as well as programs at other HBCUs, to expand opportunities for Black journalists and media executives, as well as to offer a counternarrative to the mainstream media’s deficit-based approach in reporting on the lives of Black people.

The Media Landscape: From Showtime to Screen Time

The media landscape is changing quite rapidly. Many users spend most of their waking hours online and consume more content than ever, which they can reach through a great variety of devices — often using more than one simultaneously. They can be entertained and informed in multiple ways. Media companies struggle to define their strategies; some integrate forward, trying to reach customers directly, while others focus on content and attempt to widen their audience by using as many distribution channels as possible. We have tried to understand the situation of the industry through the eyes of the executives who manage the companies in the ecosystem. We interviewed 26 top executives from media companies, those people that “make it happen” in the industry. Some agreed to be cited by name, and we did so when authorized, while others preferred to remain anonymous, in which case we respected their wishes. When we cannot cite by name in this text, their quotes reference their role and the type of company they work for, such as “executive from a leading digital news portal.” In any case, the understanding of the industry reported in this paper stems directly from the ideas conveyed by these executives, explicitly cited or not, who volunteered their time for the interviews. We have complemented the executives’ views with data available from published sources and our own understanding, developed from working with media executives in the Media AMP program, the Digital Mindset focused program and a number of custom programs for media companies we run at IESE Business School in our Barcelona and New York campuses.

Tracking Hate Speech Acts as Incitement to Genocide in International Criminal Law

AbstractIn this article, I argue that we need a better understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the current debates in international law surrounding hate speech and inchoate crimes. I construct a theoretical basis for speech acts as incitement to genocide, distinguishing these speech acts from speech as genocide and speech denying genocide by integrating international law with concepts drawn from speech act theory and moral philosophy. I use the case drawn on by many commentators in this area of international criminal law, the trial of media executives for the roles they played in the Rwandan genocide through public speech acts by media entities insulting an ethnic group or advocating violence against an ethnic group. Each of these men were institutional leaders and were charged with using their positions within Rwandan society to distribute what I call genocidal hate speech, genocidal incitement speech, and genocidal participation speech. I argue for a distinction between these three types of speech, and a difference in individual criminal liability for the dissemination of each type of speech. I also argue that there should be a difference in individual criminal liability for speech acts within the context of an ongoing or recent genocide, and speech acts that can be separated from a site of mass violence.

Assessing Racial Preferences in Movies: The Impact of Mere-Exposure and Social Identity Theory

Current media attention on the lack of racial diversity in the movie and TV industry in the US suggests that there is an innate bias of Whitewashing in the US media by media executives (Jones, 2016). However, some have suggested that the Whitewashing is an audience preference. Is the preference for White actors a product of bias by media executives or driven by audience preferences? This study tested whether social identity theory or the mere-exposure effect would have an impact on the racial preference of actors for monoracial People of Color, Multiracial, and White individuals. We found a preference for White actors and Whitewashing, but this preference was only found for Western stories and by monoracial People of Color Minorities when they were exposed to Asian actors. These findings suggest that other factors, specifically cultural values may be important in understanding preference for White actors in the media.

Book Review: This Program Is Brought to You By . . . . by Joshua A. Braun

This Program Is Brought to You By . . . . Joshua A. Braun. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. 336 pp. $35.00 pbk. $33.25 ebk.The whole wired world appears, at first glance, to be our personalized digital oyster. As Joshua Braun, assistant professor of journalism studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst, addresses in his book, it is imperative that look inside of online media distribution to fully appreciate inner working and efforts of contemporary media organizations. The connected individual has become a focal point for developing technologies that address fundamental shifts in content creators' relationship with, and engagement of, online media consumers. Braun shares that we appear to have entered a phase in which much of news work revolves around a somewhat different concern: How do journalists get non-journalists to distribute their messages? (p. 5). This deceptively simple observation is at very core of a new Conversation Economy that requires leveraging of online content consumers and their social networks. For good reason, Braun calls for a paradigm shift in research that is more inclusive of roles and implications of distribution, noting that past scholarship has skewed more heavily toward production efforts and consumer effects. As foundation for his research, Braun utilizes a case study methodology with three primary field sites and numerous interviews set in larger MSNBC constellation of independent units, cable TV shows, and management, as it was structured in 2010.Central to importance of this inquiry is veil of instantaneous access to peruse and procure online media that obfuscates highly orchestrated and negotiated journey that content travels. This path often includes an incredible degree of curation, often automated, taking place to ensure that content gets on right websites and devices for right consumers. Braun hints that final distribution routes hidden inside this black box may come at costs have yet to understand, stating that decisions about distribution, whether made by media executives or file sharers, are-in barest terms-attempts to control who has access to information and culture, and under what conditions (pp. 7-8). To render these socio-technical systems visible, Braun chooses to rely heavily on science and technology studies perspectives on infrastructure. In first chapters of book, Braun builds upon study of seafaring Portuguese merchant ships charting trade routes, or Voltas, amid natural phenomena and human interests to allegorically depict journey of online media content to consumer. The comparison is an apt one, and Braun steers clear of over-applying it, returning to metaphor to tie concepts of first section of book together cohesively.Braun approaches some technological artifacts, like MSNBC video player, through an anti-art lens, seeking an elevated discussion of whether the object in itself has politics or is making a statement (p. …

Evaluating organisational ethics in Spanish news media

Drawing from 420 surveys addressed to news media practitioners, 30 in-depth interviews with media executives and 6 focus groups, this article focuses on the institutional dimensions of ethics in journalism and explores the way in which ethical standards are perceived by journalists and other representative groups involved in Spanish news media. The data show that participants ascribe moral obligations to journalistic institutions. Interviewees emphasise the predominance of market-driven interests over ethical values as one of the main threats to journalism. However, differences between the perceptions of journalists and media executives reveal that the latter believe that journalistic ethics pertain to individual journalists.