Traditional Media And The Internet

This special issue addresses the topic of Internet business models from the perspective of the traditional media sectors. The eleven special-theme articles tackle the issues of online content delivery business models, the relationship between online and off-line media products, the Internet's impact on a media value chain, online marketing of music products, Internet content strategies, and comparative studies of Web content and strategies in different countries. From theoretical discussions to empirical investigations, the authors examine fully the traditional medial incumbents' efforts to develop business strategies that leverage their online competencies and suggest the factors that might play a role in this process. This focused theme issue provides readers with a deeper understanding of how the Internet has changed the playing field for the media industries and gives a preliminary view of things to come.

"This book analyses issues of the internet and mass media in a rapidly changing environment. It covers a wide range of fundamentals which will be in effect for a longer time, and reflects the benefits of international and interdisciplinary collaboration." - Heinz-Werner Nienstedt, President, European Media Management Education Association "This excellent book will be of great use to researchers, teachers and students interested in the relationship between the Internet and the mass media and it offers an invaluable contribution to the literature. The overall picture that emerges from this book is one that is very balanced, stressing both the radical potential of the internet and the ways in which the various media sectors have experienced the impact differently." - Colin Sparks, University of Westminster What impact has the Internet really had on the media industries? What new regulatory policies and business models are driven by the Internet? And what are the effects of the Internet on how we produce, access and consume music, film, television and other media content? After an initial flurry of analysis and prediction of the future of the dot com boom, this is the first book to review the developments of the first Internet era and investigate its actual outcomes. Bringing together sophisticated analyses from leading scholars in the field, The Internet and the Mass Media explores the far-reaching implications of the Internet from economic, regulatory, strategic and organizational perspectives. This cross-disciplinary, international view is essential for a rich, nuanced understanding of the many technological, economic, and social changes the Internet has brought to the way we live and work.

The internet has fundamentally transformed society in the past 25 years, yet existing theories of mass or interpersonal communication do not work well in understanding a digital world. Nor has this understanding been helped by disciplinary specialization and a continual focus on the latest innovations. Ralph Schroeder takes a longer-term view, synthesizing perspectives and findings from various social science disciplines in four countries: the United States, Sweden, India and China. His comparison highlights, among other observations, that smartphones are in many respects more important than PC-based internet uses. Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a sophisticated theory of the role of the internet, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media and society, the internet and politics, and the social implications of big data.

Internet Newspapers: The Making of a Mainstream Medium examines newspapers on the Internet, and addresses the emergence of online newspapers and the delivery of news through this outlet. Utilizing empirical research, chapters explore the theoretical and practical issues associated with Internet newspapers and examine the process through which online newspapers have grown into a mainstream medium. Contributions to this work emphasize three key areas: the structure and presentation of newspapers on the Internet; the medium as an interactive process; and the ways in which the public interacts with Internet newspapers. This collection makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of newspapers on the Internet, covering their development and changes as well as the impact that news delivery through this medium has had on other media, audiences, and society. It also sheds light on improving operation and performance of Internet newspapers to better serve the public and gain competitive knowledge. The volume encourages additional scholarship in this area, and also shows how researchers can benefit from an empirical approach to their examination of Internet newspapers. Internet Newspapers will appeal to scholars, researchers, and students of journalism and mass communications, and can be used as a supplementary text in advanced courses covering journalism, communication technology, and mass media and society.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Historically, alternative media have been viewed as fundamental, albeit at times culturally peripheral, forces in social change. In this book, however, Kenix argues that these media do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that are so central to mainstream media - in fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always been based on the professional standards of the mainstream. Kenix goes on to posit the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception. She argues that, although alternative media can - and do - construct distinct alternative communications, they have always existed on the same continuum as the mainstream and the two will continue to converge. Through comparative analysis, this book argues that many alternative and mainstream media are merging to create a continuous spectrum rooted in commercial ideology. Indeed, much of what is now considered alternative media actually draws very little from principles of the independent press, whereas many contemporary mainstream media now use communication techniques more commonly associated with media that do not operate for financial gain. This book puts forward a controversial but convincing argument around the relationship between alternative and mainstream media, drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen and develop the central premise.

Dedicated to the theme of the impact of technology on the media, this special issue evaluates the extent to which technology is actually changing the mass media and whether these changes represent a fundamental restructuring of the industries in the short, medium, and long term. The different approaches to the issue of new technology is reflected in the contributions--four of which engage critically with the idea that new technology offers some kind of panacea. Although these papers point to the changing nature of the media industries, they are also careful to point to the difficulties that the media industry is faced with in the current climate of technological change. Taken together, the articles demonstrate that there are many challenges to the existing media industries by developments in technology that not only offer opportunities to be harnessed, but also difficulties ahead.