Media Management and Economics
Media Management and Economics Division
Combating Economic Downturn During the Great Depression: The Recovery of Scripps-Howard Newspapers • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • The Great Depression created economic upheaval that affected corporate profits and caused unemployment as high as twenty-five percent nationally. A dramatic loss of advertising among newspapers was caused by the depression and the rise of radio. This article shows that the financial prognosis for the newspaper industry was not as dire as may be perceived. An examination of Scripps-Howard reveals that the company came out of the depression stronger than when they entered the economic crisis.
Let Radio’s Marketplace Decide: The Public’s Perception of Localism •Todd Chambers and Coy Callison, Texas Tech • This paper addresses the issues of localism in radio markets. Specifically, the paper examines the previous policies of localism to construct measures of localism. Using a nationwide telephone survey, the results indicated that there were some significant differences in the audience perception of localism between listeners of group-owned stations and independent-owned stations. Other findings included the development of a scale to measure perceptions of localism.
Supervisor Leadership Behavior’s Effect On Television Newsworker Professionalism • Natalie Corey, Alabama, • The effect of supervisors’ leadership behaviors on television newsworker professionalism is examined. McLeod & Hawley’s (1964) professionalism index and the Path-Goal leadership theory are used as a framework for this study. Professionally oriented newsworkers were found to be positively related to relationship-oriented leadership behaviors. A positive correlation between the professionals and the task-oriented leadership behaviors was also found. Findings suggest that effective supervisors exhibit both relationship- and task-oriented leadership behaviors in retaining professionally oriented employees.
A 20th Century Phenomenon: Employee-Owned Dailies Rare, And 71% Fail • Fred Fedler, Central Florida • As the United States moves into the 21” century, few owners seem likely to turn daily newspapers over to their employees. Thousands of dailies were published in the United States during the 201h century, yet only 14 were acquired by their employees – and 10 of those 14 failed, often in just a few years.
Applying the Structure-Conduct-Performance Framework in the Media Industry Analysis • W. Wayne Fu, Nanyang Technological University-Singapore • This article critically reviews the current state of applications of the Industrial Organization Structure-Conduct-Performance (S-C-P) paradigm in the literature of media economics. Within the applications done among media researchers, performance is often construed as the achieving of particular objectives with social or political values. Such conceptualizations and interpretations in media market studies are compared against conventional economic notions of market performance and accordingly commented upon. Issues which are often approached by the S-C-P model are also re-treated.
The Evolution of the Managerial Revolution: Corporate Newspapers, Profit and Organizational Change • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This secondary analysis of Q methodology data tests several theoretical assumptions of the mid-20th century managerial revolution hypothesis and Demers’ research on the corporate newspaper, its structure and emphasis on profit. The initial factor analysis yielded three types of newsroom managers. Respondents agree that newsroom managers must be more marketing conscious; however the types disagree about the impact change and profit motive is having on newsrooms and newspaper content.
Postmodern Journalism: Redefining Newspaper Leadership in a Chaotic World • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This essay assesses U.S. newspaper organizational change in a postmodern context. Numerous scholars have chronicled the end of modernity, and although postmodernism remains a somewhat elusive and vague concept, postmodern thinking is becoming more apparent in both organizational models and media practice. This essay offers insights into the postmodern societal and philosophical foundations driving change.
The Bigger, the Better? Measuring the Financial Performance of Media Firms • Jaemin Jung, Florida • This study examined the impacts of product diversification of media firms on their financial performance. For a pooled sample of 26 media firms from 1996 to 2002, this study tested the linear model adopted from the industrial organizational economics and the inverted-U shaped curvilinear model based on the strategic management studies. The results showed a U-shaped model not the expected inverted-U curvilinear model.
The Effect of Screen Quota System on the Self-Sufficiency Ratio in Domestic Film Markets • Byoungkwan Lee, Michigan State and Hyuhn-Suhck Bae, Yeungnam University-Korea • This study examined the impact of the screen quota system and other determinants on the self-sufficiency ratio. The regression models show that the quota system is a weak predictor of the self-sufficiency ratio, suggesting the system may not be an effective mechanism to limit foreign cinemas screened in its own territory. GDP, box office revenue, and production investment were found to be strong predictors; cultural discount is a moderate; and English-speaking is a weak determinant.
Internet Radio as a New Mass Medium • Seungwhan Lee, Indiana • Internet radio stations and audiences are increasing quickly in their numbers. This paper begins by reviewing the development of Internet radio and trying to conceptualize it from communication perspectives. It then surveys the current proliferation of Internet radio and analyzes the characteristics of Internet radio audiences. The paper categorizes Internet radio broadcasters into two different kinds of entities: the existing over-the-air radio broadcasters and Internet-only radio broadcasters and their different strategies are discussed.
Market Competition and Media Performance of Cable Television Industry in Taiwan • Shu-Chu Sarrina Li, and Xien-Ru Chi, Taiwan • Using industrial organization theory as the theoretical framework, this study examines the relationship between market competition and media performance of cable television industry in Taiwan. Cable television systems differ from these traditional mass media because providing various services such as installation, repairing or billing to their subscribers is an important part of their media performance. Furthermore, cable television systems use lots of resources from local communities and are expected to help the development of local communities.
Cross-Ownership: Does It Always Affect Media Content? • Yehiel Limor (also of Sapir College), Ines Gabel and Ravid Oren, Tel Aviv University-Israel and Semadar Salton-Ben-Zvi, Bar-Ilan University-Israel • The present study attempts to trace and assess the exploitation of cross-ownership or the synergetic power wielded by the conglomerates to promote their varied business interests. Two case studies – one regarding television and the other the music industry – examine two media conglomerates that control most of the mass media market in Israel. The findings of both studies were surprising and unexpected, as no significant correlation was found between media ownership and content.
Teaching Media Management in the 21st Century: What Curricula is Needed? • Kenneth D. Loomis and Alan B. Albarran, North Texas • A national survey of 223 radio and television general managers identified the ways these individuals have adapted to managing multiple stations in the new consolidated media marketplace. Implications of these adjustments are discussed for broadcasting management curricula. The findings indicated GMs are spending most of their time on financial management issues and are reliant on their department heads to effectively run the stations. Implications for curricula includes strengthening the financial management content of appropriate courses.
Some Effects from Horizontal Integration of Daily Newspapers on Markets, Prices, and Competition • Hugh J. Martin, Georgia • This study examines a strategy that creates clusters of commonly-owned, geographically adjacent newspapers. Results show one-third of all United States dailies are part of a cluster. As some newspapers are added to clusters, other clustered dailies are being taken out of business. Samples of clustered and non-clustered dailies were compared. The clustered newspapers competed less aggressively and had higher advertising and subscription prices than the non-clustered papers.
Has Lead-in Lost Its Punch? A Comparison of Prime Time Ratings Inheritance Effects Between 1992 and 2002 • Walter S. McDowell, Miami and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois • For decades, the single best predictor of a television program’s ratings performance has been the supposed inheritance effects derived from the ratings of the program leading into it. Recognizing the recent dramatic increase in the number of channels available to the typical American household coinciding with an equally dramatic decrease in audience ratings for the major broadcast networks, there was reason to speculate that over the past decade “couch potato” audiences have come out of their stupor and become more discriminating and therefore, less susceptible to this scheduling strategy.
Radio Business on the World Wide Web: An Examination of the Streaming Terrestrial and Internet-Based Radio Stations in the United States • Wen Ren and Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida • This study explores the Web content of the Internet-based radio stations and the terrestrial radio stations streaming online. It also compares the different strategies adopted by these two groups of Internet radio stations as reflected by their online contents. The websites of 176 stations were analyzed to examine two broad interactive dimensions-audience-oriented and source-oriented-and six strategic patterns-virtual information space, virtual promotion space, virtual distribution space, virtual communication space, virtual sponsorship space, and virtual transaction space.
Competition, Financial Commitment to Content, and Diversity in Dual Television Markets: The Netherlands and Germany • Andrea Roth, University of Amsterdam • This paper focuses on the competition between commercial and public television channels in Germany and the Netherlands. In the context of media policy and regulatory supervision in these countries diversity is seen as an important performance criterion. The central questions addressed are on the relationships 1) between market structure and diversity, and 2) between financial commitment to content and diversity.
How U.S. Television Stations are Responding to Digital Conversion • Brad Schultz, Mississippi • The study focused on the attitudes and responses of U.S. television stations to the mandated conversion to digital broadcasting. Responses from different groups of stations were applied to a theoretical model of organizational response. Results indicated that the model was a good fit. Public stations were much more ‘enthusiastic about conversion and more willing to implement; low-power and religious stations were pessimistic and more likely to resist conversion or exit the industry.
Strange Bedfellows: The Diffusion of Convergence in Four News Organizations • Jane B. Singer, Iowa • This study examines newsroom convergence •a combination of technologies, products, staffs and geography among the previously distinct provinces of print, television and online media • though the framework of diffusion of innovations theory. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data drawn from case studies of four newsrooms, it suggests that although there are ongoing culture clashes and other issues of compatibility, journalists see clear advantages to the new policy of convergence.
Effects of Culture on Cellular Phone Adoption: The Case of Taiwan • Kenneth C. C. Yang, Texas-El Paso • The recent deregulations of telecommunications industry in Taiwan have created a booming market for a variety of telecommunications services and equipment providers. Mobile telephony industry benefits most from such regulatory changes as it grows from non-existence to 100% penetration in less than 15 years. The present study aims to examine whether respondents’ cultural value orientations as proposed by Hofstede (1997) have effects on their adoption motivation and importance perception of cellular phone attributes.
Audience Concentration in the Media: Cross-media Comparisons and the Introduction of the Uncertainty Measure • Jungsu Yim, Seoul Women’s University-Korea • This article examined how audiences respond to item abundance by analyzing audience concentration of magazines, cable television networks, radio networks and broadcast television networks. The finding is that there is a positive relationship between item abundance and the degree of audience concentration measured by uncertainty ratios. The efforts to promote item diversity by policy makers can be undermined by the result that audiences are more highly concentrated on a smaller portion of items with an increase in item options.
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