Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Making Media: Production, Practices, and Professions
- Production
- Research
- 2 Media Industries: A Decade in Review
- 3 Media Production Research and the Challenge of Normativity
- 4 Access and Mistrust in Media Industries Research
- 5 Cultural and Creative Industries and the Political Economy of Communication
- 6 The Platformization of Making Media
- Economics and Management
- 7 The Disappearing Product and the New Intermediaries
- 8 Value Production in Media Industries and Everyday Life
- 9 Transformation and Innovation of Media Business Models
- 10 Shifts in Consumer Engagement and Media Business Models
- 11 Media Industries’ Management Characteristics and Challenges in a Converging Digital World
- Policy
- 12 Global Media Industries and Media Policy
- 13 Media Concentration in the Age of the Internet and Mobile Phones
- Practices
- Innovation
- 14 Making (Sense of) Media Innovations
- 15 Start-up Ecosystems Between Affordance Networks, Symbolic Form, and Cultural Practice
- Work Conditions
- 16 Precarity in Media Work
- 17 Making It in a Freelance World
- 18 Diversity and Opportunity in the Media Industries
- 19 Labour and the Next Internet
- Affective Labour
- 20 Affective Labour and Media Work
- 21 Affective Qualities of Creative Labour
- 22 A Business of One or Nurturing the Craft: Who are You?
- Professions
- Music
- 23 Music in Times of Streaming: Transformation and Debate
- 24 Popular Music, Streaming, and Promotional Media: Enduring and Emerging Industrial Logics
- Television
- 25 Show Me the Money: How Revenue Strategies Change the Creative Possibilities of Internet-Distributed Television
- 26 Flexibility, Innovation, and Precarity in the Television Industry
- Social Media
- 27 Creator Management in the Social Media Entertainment Industry
- 28 #Dreamjob: The Promises and Perils of a Creative Career in Social Media
- Public Relations and Advertising
- 29 Redefining Advertising in a Changing Media Landscape
- 30 Perceptions and Realities of the Integration of Advertising and Public Relations
- Digital Games
- 31 Game Production Logics at Work: Convergence and Divergence
- 32 Reflections on the Shifts and Swerves of the Global Games Industry
- Journalism
- 33 ‘It Never Stops’: The Implicit Norm of Working Long Hours in Entrepreneurial Journalism
- 34 Transmedia Production: Key Steps in Creating a Storyworld
- Conclusion
- 35 Making Media: Observations and Futures
- Author Biographies
11 - Media Industries’ Management Characteristics and Challenges in a Converging Digital World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Making Media: Production, Practices, and Professions
- Production
- Research
- 2 Media Industries: A Decade in Review
- 3 Media Production Research and the Challenge of Normativity
- 4 Access and Mistrust in Media Industries Research
- 5 Cultural and Creative Industries and the Political Economy of Communication
- 6 The Platformization of Making Media
- Economics and Management
- 7 The Disappearing Product and the New Intermediaries
- 8 Value Production in Media Industries and Everyday Life
- 9 Transformation and Innovation of Media Business Models
- 10 Shifts in Consumer Engagement and Media Business Models
- 11 Media Industries’ Management Characteristics and Challenges in a Converging Digital World
- Policy
- 12 Global Media Industries and Media Policy
- 13 Media Concentration in the Age of the Internet and Mobile Phones
- Practices
- Innovation
- 14 Making (Sense of) Media Innovations
- 15 Start-up Ecosystems Between Affordance Networks, Symbolic Form, and Cultural Practice
- Work Conditions
- 16 Precarity in Media Work
- 17 Making It in a Freelance World
- 18 Diversity and Opportunity in the Media Industries
- 19 Labour and the Next Internet
- Affective Labour
- 20 Affective Labour and Media Work
- 21 Affective Qualities of Creative Labour
- 22 A Business of One or Nurturing the Craft: Who are You?
- Professions
- Music
- 23 Music in Times of Streaming: Transformation and Debate
- 24 Popular Music, Streaming, and Promotional Media: Enduring and Emerging Industrial Logics
- Television
- 25 Show Me the Money: How Revenue Strategies Change the Creative Possibilities of Internet-Distributed Television
- 26 Flexibility, Innovation, and Precarity in the Television Industry
- Social Media
- 27 Creator Management in the Social Media Entertainment Industry
- 28 #Dreamjob: The Promises and Perils of a Creative Career in Social Media
- Public Relations and Advertising
- 29 Redefining Advertising in a Changing Media Landscape
- 30 Perceptions and Realities of the Integration of Advertising and Public Relations
- Digital Games
- 31 Game Production Logics at Work: Convergence and Divergence
- 32 Reflections on the Shifts and Swerves of the Global Games Industry
- Journalism
- 33 ‘It Never Stops’: The Implicit Norm of Working Long Hours in Entrepreneurial Journalism
- 34 Transmedia Production: Key Steps in Creating a Storyworld
- Conclusion
- 35 Making Media: Observations and Futures
- Author Biographies
Summary
The ongoing convergence of technology, media, and telecommunications has not only transformed the media industry, but also the management practices. This chapter outlines specific challenges for the management of media companies and discusses what convergence means from the perspective of managing media firms.
Introduction
In the last twenty years, there has been considerable discussion about the transformation of the media industry and its relation with telecommunications, bringing these industries closer and making them more convergent – mostly in terms of content management and distribution. Thus, convergence (especially driven by digitalization and deregulation) can be seen as a characteristic trend. This allows for and encourages a confluence between platforms that used to be treated as separate entities in policy issues and which did not often compete directly.
Due in large part to the severe economic recession, media companies in many information markets are not as profitable as they were in the past (especially in Europe and the United States), and traditional business models are no longer as valid as they used to be in the twentieth century. Also, the competition with digital and internet-based firms and online streaming services is growing. This has changed the competitive situation for traditional media companies.
The media industry is characterized by radical disruption and is going through a period of accelerated transformation. This has deep effects on management strategies and practices within and across media companies and industries. It is equally clear, however, that we find divergent characteristics among media industries that recommend distinct practices and strategies for responding to the specificities of diverse media companies and products. Demands on management competencies regarding key media-related practices and strategies are different depending on whether we are referring to a regional newspaper, a national telecommunications company or a transnational television company.
Nonetheless, many media industries are converging and companies are increasingly conglomerated. According to Gershon (2009, p. 269), ‘the clear lines and historical boundaries that once separated the fields of broadcasting, cable and telephony are becoming less distinct. A natural convergence of industries and information technologies is blurring those distinctions’. Thus, today's media managers face new industry players and more diverse issues compared with years past.
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- Making MediaProduction, Practices, and Professions, pp. 147 - 160Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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