Media Industries Journal

The Media Industries Scholarly Interest Group (MISIG) has launched the inaugural issue of its multi-media, open access journal Media Industries.

Journal statement from the editors:
Media Industries "promotes critical studies of media industries and institutions worldwide. We invite contributions that range across the full spectrum of media industries, including film, television, internet, radio, music, publishing, electronic games, advertising, and mobile communications. Submissions may explore these industries individually or examine inter-medial relations between industrial sectors. We encourage both contemporary and historical studies, and are especially interested in contributions that draw attention to global and international perspectives. Media Industries is furthermore committed to the exploration of innovative methodologies, imaginative theoretical approaches, and new research directions."

The first issue includes an opening essay from the members of the journal's "editorial collective." Additional articles include:

Dirt Research for Media Industries

Charles R. Acland

The Menace of Instrumentalism in Media Industries Research and Education

David Hesmondhalgh

On Automation in Media Industries: Integrating Algorithmic Media Production into Media Industries Scholarship

Philip M. Napoli

There Is No Music Industry 

Jonathan Sterne

The Case for Studying In-Store Media Joseph Turow

I may not have clicked into all the articles but I didn't find one that was over four pages of text; brevity seems to be an unspoken rule, at least for this first issue.   

Media Industries Project

On the heels of last night's inaugural PARGC lecture, it's my pleasure to feature The Carsey-Wolf Center's Media Industries Project, which last night's speaker Michael Curtin directs at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The mission of the Project is as stated:

MIP examines the profound changes affecting media industries worldwide. In our research and programming initiatives, we foster collaboration between the industry and academy, encouraging innovative thinking and critical insights about the future prospects of modern media. Moreover, our thriving website publishes timely updates, interviews, and independent analyses of industry practices, policies, and trends. 

MIP has four strategic objectives: 

• Foster dialog and awareness among the industry, academy, and general public
• Generate critical resources for scholars, students, and industry professionals
• Conduct independent research initiatives 
• Build a global community of scholars devoted to media industries research

The Project currently has two featured initiatives, Connected Viewing, which focuses on digital distribution, cloud storage technologies, and multiple screen exhibition practices and Creative Labor which focuses on labor issues in the global film and TV industries.

There's lots on the website. Check out sections The Buzz, Things to Know and Places to Watch which highlight current issues and trends from all over the world. And Helpful Links points you to media industry data, other research centers, trade and labor organizations, media activist groups, law and policy organizations, filmmakers services organizations, and online archives. Good stuff.

Media Industries Research--Business Press and Trade Journal Resources

The resource environment keeps improving for the study of media industries from an historical perspective. Penn's recent subscription to the  Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, which covers core US and UK trade magazines in film, music, broadcasting and theater from the early 1900s forward, comes to mind. (See blog post from November 2012). Last year saw the addition of the Vogue Archive whose pages, because its editors always had their eye on more than fashion, have much to contribute to media industry studies.  There is also the admirable open access Media History Digital Library's Lantern database of digitized classic media periodicals in the public domain which I described here this past August.

In addition to these, I was reminded of the solid offerings of trade journals of the last few decades that we rely on Dow Jones Factiva and EBSCO's Communication and Mass Media Complete serving up to us, when I ran across this article in the current Communication, Culture & Critique by Kenton T. Wilkinson and Patrick F. Merle called The Merits and Challenges of Using Business Press and Trade Journal Reports in Academic Research on Media Industries.

ABSTRACT
This article argues that media researchers should pay closer attention to the benefits and potential pitfalls of using business press and industry trade journal reports to inform academic research. To date, the use of these secondary sources in scholarly research concerning media industries has received little interest, as demonstrated in a preliminary examination of how academic literature and research methods textbooks treat the business press and trade journal reports. The authors call for a dialogue on this significant oversight, and offer suggestions for how researchers might begin addressing it as media across the globe grow in scope and influence during the 21st century.

Media History Digital Library Launches Lantern

Thanks to the folks at the Media History Digital Library (MHDL), media historians have fulltext online access to classic media periodicals and books in the public domain. Lantern is their newly launched search platform for this impressive collection containing digital scans of over 800,000 pages (and growing), from 1904 to 1963. The project is made possible by owners of the materials who loan them for scanning and donations to support the cost of scanning.

Materials in the MDHL, available for free viewing and free download, include:

▽  Business Screen (1938-1973)

▽  The Film Daily (1918-1948)

▽  International Photographer (1929-1941)

▽  Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1916-1949)

▽  Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (1950-1954)

▽  The Educational Screen (1922-1962)

▽  Motion Picture [Magazine] (1914-1941)

▽  Moving Picture World (1907-1919)

▽  Photoplay (1914-1940)

▽  Radio Age: Research, Manufacturing, Communications, Broadcasting, Television (1942-1957)

▽  Radio Broadcast (1922-1930)

▽  Sponsor (1946-1964)

▽  Talking Machine World (1906-1928)

▽  Variety (1905-1926)

You can keep up with DHDL by signing up to receive Blog posts alerts from the site.

Violence In Entertainment: Special Report from Variety

In response to the Sandy Hook tragedy, if not the on average 87 deaths per day in the United States due to gun violence, Variety has devoted a special supplemental issue VIOLENCE & ENTERTAINMENT (January 8, 2013)  featuring entertainment industry leaders' essays on the topic-- "a variety of voices looking for solutions."  Rather than focus solely on how the media (TV, movies, video games) portray violence and how often, contributors weigh in from multiple perspectives; essays raise questions about psychiatric drugs, football culture, gun control, parenting, mental health, the Hollywood liberal, and evil, to name a few.

You can access  Variety's entire special report here.

Polity's Global Media and Communication Series

Polity Press has just published (2011) three excellent overviews of media systems and policy abroad.

European media : structures, policies and identity / Stylianos Papathanassopoulos and Ralph Negrine.

Indian media : global approaches / Adrian Athique.

Arab media : globalization and emerging media industries / Noha Mellor, Muhammad Ayish, Nabil Dajani, and Khali Rinnawi.

All three books are aimed at both students without prior knowledge of the media landscape of these areas as well as more seasoned readers who want to make sure they have good perspective on the the whole picture. These books are interdisciplinary and combine facts with theoretical insight.

All three titles are available at both Annenberg Reference and Van Pelt.

New Reference Titles on the shelf

The Biographical Encyclopedia of American Radio, edited by Christopher H. Sterling (Routledge, 2011). Includes over 200 biographical entries on the most important radio personalities, writers, producers, directors, and network executives. Scholarly but very readable.

 Handbook of Comparative Communication Research, edited by Frank Esser and Thomas Hanitzsch (2012). "...30 topical chapters, contributed by scholars in 11 countries, are organized in three parts that focus on subdisciplinary fields, central research areas, and conceptual and methodological issues. Also included are substantial introductory and concluding chapters in which the editors integrate the contents, elaborate historical and conceptual frames for comparative research, and highlight challenges and opportunities for future work." --from the Foreward

Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Daily Life, edited by Matthias R. Mehl and Tamlin S. Conner (The Guilford Press, 2012). "This volume--more than any other book published in the last two decades--will change the field of psychology. Psychological scientists have long recognized that ultimately, if their research is to have any meaning, they must venture out of the lab to study psychological processes unfolding in the 'real world.' But until now there has not been a comprehensive resource to show them how. As the first complete, authoritative, and practical guide to studying daily life, this handbook is set to change the way research is done. Every behavioral scientist should own a copy."--Sam Gosling,University of Texas at Austin

Key Concepts in Media and Communications, edited by Paul Jones and David Holmes (Sage 2011). "A sprightly, critical and intelligent guided tour around the mansion of media and communications/cultural research." --James Curran

Key Readings in Journalism, edited by Elliot King and Jane L. Chapman (Routledge, 2012). The field's greatest hits? So says Robert McChesney (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Media and Cultural Studies Keyworks, Second Edition, edited by Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Update to previous edition with new material on new media, social networks,  and social movements

Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953: A History of Prime Time Programs Through the Ratings of Nielsen, Crossley and Hooper, by Jim Ramsburg (MacFarland & Company, 2012). Radio's golden age broken down year by year with industry statistics, daily program ratings and a chart of the year's 50 top programs.

Plunkett’s Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac 2012, edited by Jack W. Plunkett (Plunkett Research, 2012). Complete profiles on top companies with statistics and trends in film and video, radio and television, cable and satellite, magazines and books, gaming, newspapers, and new media.

Plunkett’s Games, Apps & Social Media Industry Almanac 2012, edited by Jack W. Plunkett (Plunkett Research 2012). Complete profiles on the top companies with statistics and trends in mobile gaming, game consoles, 3D games, online gaming, apps and smartphones, social media, games and apps developers, advertising and marketing.

Psychophysiological Measurement and Meaning: Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Media, by Robert F. Potter and Paul D. Bolls (Routledge, 2012). A comprehensive resource for psychophysiological research on media responses.

The Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis, edited by John Scott and Peter J. Carrington (Sage, 2011). Topics include: network theory, online networks, corporate networks, lobbying networks, deviant networks, measuring devices, key methodologies, software applications.

Television Journalism, by Stephen Cushion (Sage, 2012).

Sections: The role of news in television culture/From radio to television/Redefining what's newsworthy/Rise of partisan news consumption/Reporting the politics of developed nations/Entering the profession: Who are television journalists/Past, present and future of journalism scholarship.

Arab Media Outlook

The Dubai Press club has just released its third Arab Media Outlook edition, Arab Media Outlook 2009-2013: Inspiring Local Content. AMO is a media development initiative of the Dubai Press Club; others includes the Arab Media Forum and the Arab Journalism Award. The 199-page Report assesses the region's media landscape, aiming to" build a knowlege-base on the media for the media for the benefit of industry stakeholders, policy makers, media scholars, students and the general public."

The report this year is far more exhaustive in its scope and reach than the previous editions and is backed for the first time, by extensive market research in four significant media markets in the region, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon on shifting media consumption habits. We have expanded the coverage of the report to include 15 Arab countries, namely, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, the UAE and the Yemen.

The last edition of the report came out soon after the onset of the global financial crisis, leaving out little scope for incorporating a detailed analysis of its impact on the media industry. We have tried to more than compensate for that in the present edition, providing a much more focused assessment of the media industry against the backdrop of the financial meltdown. The impact of the crisis, needless to say, varies from country to country, depending on the extent to which each market is exposed to global markets. The country-wise assessment given in the report takes into
account the specificities of each market covered.
--Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News

Benton Foundation

The Benton Foundation is a private foundation in existence since 1948 that works in the areas of public policy, specifically serving the public interest in the media and telecommunications arena.
Current priorities include Current priorities include: "promoting a vision and policy alternatives for the digital age in which the benefit to the public is paramount; raising awareness among funders and nonprofits on their stake in critical policy issues; enabling communities and nonprofits to produce diverse and locally responsive media content."

They are worth pointing out on a library resource blog because their site is resource rich. Homepage sections includes Recent Headlines (free, daily summaries of articles on telecommunications policy), Policy Initiatives (on such topics as media ownership, affordable broadband, and other communication legislation), digital Beat Blog (Charles Benton and others' take on communications policy), and Community Media (the foundations work in educating nonprofits in this area) and more.

The Library and Topics sections are full of annual reports, research papers, news articles, and postings on a variety of topics in the areas of advertising, broadcasting, cable, children and media, community media, cyberwarfare and cybersecurity, digital content, digital divide, diversity, elections and media, emergency communication, energy and climate, FCC reform, health and media, indecency regulation, internet/broadband, journalism, labor, localism, media ownership, satellite, spectrum, telecom, violence, and wireless.

International Communications Market Report 2008

The International Communications Market Report 2008, published by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, is now available.

From the report's forward:

This is Ofcom’s third report on developments in international communications markets. Putting the UK market into an international context is becoming increasingly important, as communications service provision globalises and as technological innovation breaks down traditional national market boundaries.

This report sets out the availability, take-up and use of communications services among seven main comparator countries (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the US, Canada and Japan). Where data are available, we have included a further five European countries (Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland). We also consider separately the development of communications markets in the large emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

This year, we have put yet more emphasis on the importance of convergence by setting out a number of converging market themes. These demonstrate that as content and services are distributed to consumers over a variety of digital networks, and to many different devices, consumer behaviour towards communications services is changing – for example, their concurrent use of different media such as the internet and television. We have also included more time-series data this year on how, across our larger comparator countries, consumer attitudes towards communications services are evolving.

We are publishing this report to help fulfil our commitment to continually research markets, to inform our policy thinking and to fulfil the commitment we made in our 2008/09 annual plan. It complements the other research that has been published by Ofcom in 2008, and forms part of the Communications Market trilogy – together with The UK Communications Market (published in August 2008) and The Communications Market: Nations and Regions (May 2008). [These reports can be found at the Research and Market Data section of the website.]

The reference period of this report is the five years to the end of 2007. Consequently, our analysis does not fully take account of changing economic conditions over the past twelve months.

Consumer Use Of The Internet & Mobile Web 2008

Richard K. Miller & Associates' handbook, Consumer Use Of The Internet & Mobile Web 2008, compiles top-line consumer Internet use and expenditure data (estimated at $350 billion) into a single reference, with information sourced from Bridge Ratings, Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, ComScore, eMarketer, Forrester Research, Harris Poll, Hitwise, In-Stat, Internet Retailer, Ipsos Insight, JupiterResearch, M:Metrics, MediaPost, Nielsen Online, Online Publishers Association, Pew Internet & American Life Project, among many others. Slated to be updated annually, it provides the most comprehensive assessment of the entire scope of consumer use of the Internet available from any one source. The market data is presented along with analyses of trends and projections on how Internet use will evolve. The handbook also assesses wireless Internet access and applications using cellphones, PDAs, and other mobile devices.

Table of Contents: 1: Internet Access & Usage 2: Expenditure Assessment 3: Online Demographics 4: Web 2.0 PART I: ONLINE ACTIVITIES 5: Blogs 6: E-commerce 7: E-mail & Instant Messaging 8: Podcasting 9: Search 10: Social Networks 11: User-generated Content 12: Virtual Worlds 13: Voice-over Internet Protocol PART II: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT 14: Digital Music 15: Internet Radio 16: Internet TV 17: Online Video PART III: ONLINE CONTENT 18: Educational & Reference Websites 19: Fantasy Sports 20: Leisure Activities
21: Online Dating 22: Online Gambling 23: Online Health Search 24: Online Mapping 25: Online Travel 26: News 27: Social Shopping 28: Sports Online 29: Other Content PART IV: THE MOBILE WEB 30: Mobile Access 31: Mobile Applications

This title is available in Annenberg Reference.

Keeping Up With Social Networking

If you want to keep track of the latest happenings in the world of social networking add Gary Price's social networking category of the Resource Shelf to your feeder. The Archive for Social Networking represents a growing collection of related resources.

But hey, since we're in this area of the world, he also has a media and entertainment category, Archive for Media and Entertainment.

The entire Resource Shelf is always useful reading for information professionals. If you're already on the receiving end of too many blogs and listservs know that I try shuttle its more communication-related pearls your way here in CommPilings.

Arbitron Cinema Advertising Study; Pew Reports

The Arbitron Cinema Advertising Study 2007 is the follow-up to Arbitron’s 2003 study which examined the size, characteristics, and behavior of movie theater audiences. In this new report, Arbitron focuses on the moviegoer’s relationship with cinema advertising and evaluate its ability to influence young and affluent consumers.

And from Pew:

Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions What Americans Know: 1989-2007, a report from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press.

A Quarter's Worth of News Coverage A new report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism which finds that the four-year-old war in Iraq dwarfed all other topics in the U.S. news media during the first three months of 2007. However, more than 80% of war news focused on Americans -- those shaping policy, fighting or affected at home. Only about one-in-six stories was primarily about Iraqis, whether their government, their lives, or their casualties. The 2008 presidential campaign ranked second in coverage with news focusing primarily on Democratic candidates.

Also from PEJ, don't forget about their annual State of the News Media reports. State of the News Media 2007 has been out since March and is the fourth edition of this reputable report on the health and status of American journalism. (Earlier reports have been highlighted in a previous post.)

2007 Entertainment, Media & Advertising Market Research Handbook

Now in its 9th edition, The 2007 Entertainment, Media & Advertising Market Research Handbook combines current market statistics with trend analysis and marketing strategies, providing a comprehensive and reliable guide for strategic planning and market development across all media platforms. Published by the market research firm Richard K. Miller & Associates, this 230+ page handbook offers the latest data on the major advertising and media corporations, consumer uses of media (including multitasking), advertising by medium, political ad spending, cable and satellite services, consumer magazines, the internet, mobile media, newspapers (including online, college and free metro dailies), radio (including satellite and internet), and television (including online, mobile, and digital), filmed entertainment (in theaters and video sales and rentals), live performances and events, recorded music, and video games. There is an extensive section on marketing which includes branding, entertainment, and virtual worlds. Specific ethnic markets focused on are: African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American; also the Gays and Lesbian market, and markets divided into age groups (Millenials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers) and gender. There is also a section on faith-based media.

The handbook is available in the ASC Library as a print out. The ASC community can request the pdf version from me.

Keeping up with the MIT Communications Forum

Time to check in with MIT.WORLD for some worthwhile podcasts hosted or sponsored by the the MIT Communications Forum:

Emerging Technologies and Trends in Online Entertainment and Business with Jonathan F. Miller and David Faber.

What's New at the Media Lab with Frank Moss, Adam Boulanger, Ryan Chin, Hartmut Geyer, and Henry Jenkins.

Evangelicals and the Media with Gary Schneeberger, Jon Walker, and Diane Winston. Abstract: American Evangelicals have a long history of engagement with the media, dating back to the Great Awakening of the late eighteenth century. Today Evangelical groups are active in all media, from the Internet and cellular telephones to print journalism, broadcasting, film, and multi-media entertainment. This forum convenes speakers from the academy and Evangelical community to discuss the social and political impact of the evangelical movement's use of media technologies.

And most recently, an April 2007 conference: mit 5: creativity, ownership and collaboration in the digital age. Featured events: Folk Cultures and Digital Cultures; Collaboration and Collective Intelligence; Copyright, Fair Use and the Cultural Commons; Learning through Remixing; Reproduction, Mimicry, Critique and Distribution Systems in Visual Art.

All programs are available in audio and podcast.