The Media Economy

This fully updated third edition analyzes the media industries and their activities from macro to micro levels, using concepts and theories to demonstrate the role the media plays in the economy as a whole. This textbook breaks new ground through its analysis of the rapidly changing and evolving media economy from two unique perspectives. First, the book explores how media industries function across global, national, household, and individual levels of society. Second, it assesses how key forces such as technology, globalization, regulation, and consumer aspects are constantly evolving and influencing media industries. This new edition incorporates thoroughly updated theory and research as well as expanded case studies that include examples from international markets such as Asia, Europe, and Latin America. It builds on the contributions of the previous edition by providing new references and current data to define and analyze today’s media markets and offers a more expansive assessment of streaming business models as well as the effects of Covid-19 on the media economy. Written in an accessible style and presenting a holistic global perspective of the role of media in the global economy, the textbook provides crucial insights for students and practitioners of media economics, media management and media industries.

How are “grey market” imports changing media industries? What is the role of piracy in developing new markets for movies and TV shows? How do jailbroken iPhones drive innovation? The Informal Media Economy provides a vivid, original, and genuinely transnational account of contemporary media, by showing how the interactions between formal and informal media systems are a feature of all nations – rich and poor, large and small. Shifting the focus away from the formal businesses and public enterprises that have long occupied media researchers, this book charts a parallel world of cultural intermediaries driving global media production and circulation. It shows how unlicensed, untaxed, or unregulated networks, which operate across the boundaries of established media markets, have been a driving force of media industry transformation. The book opens up new insights on a range of topical issues in media studies, from the creative disruptions of digitisation to amateur production, piracy and cybercrime.

How the media are organised and funded is central to understanding their role in society. Critical Political Economy of the Media provides a clear, comprehensive and insightful introduction to the political economic analysis of contemporary media. Jonathan Hardy undertakes a critical survey of political economy scholarship encompassing worldwide literature, issues and debates, and relationships with other academic approaches. He assesses different ways of making sense of media convergence and digitalisation, media power and influence, and transformations across communication markets. Many of the problems of the media that prompted critical political economy research remain salient, he argues, but the approach must continue to adapt to new conditions and challenges. Hardy advances the case for a revitalised critical media studies for the 21st century. Topics covered include: media ownership and financing news and entertainment convergence and the Internet media globalisation advertising and media alternative media media policy and regulation Introducing key concepts and research, this book explains how political economy can assist students, researchers and citizens to investigate and address vital questions about the media today.

Handbook of Media Economics provides valuable information on a unique field that has its own theories, evidence, and policies. Understanding the media is important for society, and while new technologies are altering the media, they are also affecting our understanding of their economics. Chapters span the large scope of media economics, simultaneously offering in-depth analysis of particular topics, including the economics of why media are important, how media work (including financing sources, institutional settings, and regulation), what determines media content (including media bias), and the effects of new technologies. The volumes provide a powerful introduction for those interested in starting research in media economics. Helps academic and non-academic economists understand recent rapid changes in theoretical and empirical advances, in structural empirical methods, and in the media industry's connection with the democratic process Presents the only detailed summary of media economics that emphasizes political economy, merger policy, and competition policy Pays special attention to the economic influences of the Internet, including developments in social media, user-generated content, and advertising, as well as the Internet's effects on newspapers, radio, and television

This book provides a critical political economic examination of the impact of increasingly concentrated global media industries. It addresses different media and communication industries from around the globe, including film, television, music, journalism, telecommunication, and information industries. The authors use case studies to examine how changing methods of production and distribution are impacting a variety of issues including globalization, environmental devastation, and the shifting role of the State. This collection finds communication at a historical moment in which capitalist control of media and communication is the default status and, so, because of the increasing levels of concentration globally allows those in control to define the default ideological status. In turn, these concentrated media forces are deployed under the guise of entertainment but with a mind towards further concentration and control of the media apparatuses many times in convergence with others

The Media Economy analyzes the media industries and its activities from macro to micro levels, using concepts and theories to demonstrate the role the media plays in the economy as a whole. Representing a rapidly changing and evolving environment, this text breaks new ground through its analysis from two unique perspectives: 1) Examining the media industries from a holistic perspective by analyzing how the media industries function across different levels of society (global, national, household, and individual); 2) Looking at the key forces (technology, globalization, regulation, and social aspects) constantly evolving and influencing the media industries. Building on the contributions of the original text, this Second Edition provides new references and current data to define and analyze today’s media markets. To understand the role of media in the global economy, the insights included here are crucial for media students and practitioners.

One of the foremost media critics provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic and political powers that are being mobilized to consolidate private control of media with increasing profit--all at the expense of democracy.