Stuart Cunningham - Media Economics

Key Concerns in Media Studies

Series Editor: Andrew Crisell

Within the context of todays global, digital environment, Key Concerns in Media Studies addresses themes and concepts that are integral to the study of media. Concisely written by leading academics, the books consider the historical development of these themes and the theories that underpin them, and assess their overall significance, using up-to-date examples and case studies throughout. By giving a clear overview of each topic, the series provides an ideal starting point for all students of modern media.

Published

Paul Bowman Culture and the Media

Andrew Crisell Liveness and Recording in the Media

Stuart Cunningham, Terry Flew and Adam Swift Media Economics

Tim Dwyer Legal and Ethical Issues in the Media

Katie Ellis and Gerard Goggin Disability and the Media

Gerard Goggin New Technologies and the Media

David Hendy Public Service Broadcasting

Shaun Moores Media, Place and Mobility

Sarah Niblock Media Professionalism and Training

Sean Redmond Celebrity and the Media

Niall Richardson and Sadie Wearing Gender and the Media

Forthcoming

Steve Cross Religion and the Media

Brian McNair News Media

Monika Metykova Ethnicity and the Media

Kate ORiordan Science and the Media

Sue Turnbull Media Audiences

Media Economics

Stuart Cunningham

Terry Flew

and

Adam Swift

Stuart Cunningham, Terry Flew and Adam Swift 2015

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First published 2015 by

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ISBN 9780230293229

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Tables and Figures

Tables

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Acknowledgements

Research on which this book is based was in part supported by the Australian Research Council through its funding of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (SR0590002) and through the ARC Discovery Project (110101455), Informal Economics and Audiovisual Industries: Histories, Dynamics, Legal and Policy Responses, awarded to Julian Thomas, Stuart Cunningham, Ramon Lobato and Dan Hunter.

We would like to thank the Key Concerns in Media Studies series editor, Andrew Crisell, and Palgrave Commissioning Editor Lloyd Langman for their support and expert advice, and the anonymous referees who engaged very helpfully with the book in manuscript form. Thanks also to Bonnie Liu Rui for her work in assisting research for the book.

The authors and publishers thank the copyright holders for permission to reproduce the following:

from Ballon, P. (2014) Old and New Issues in Media Economics, in K. Donders, C. Pauwels and J. Loisen (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of European Media Policy (p.76). Basingstoke: Palgrave. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave.

from Williamson, O. E. (2000) The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead. Journal of Economic Literature 38: 595613. Reproduced with permission of Oliver E. Williamson and the American Economic Association.

adapted from Loisen, J. (2012) Prospects and Pitfalls for Douglas Norths New Institutional Economics Approach for Global Media Policy Research, in N. Just and M. Puppis (eds.), Trends in Communication Policy Research: New Theories, methods and Subjects (pp. 353). Bristol: Intellect. Reproduced with permission of Intellect Books.

This is a book on media economics aimed at scholars, teachers and students in media, cultural and communication studies, as well as anyone interested in how to make sense of rapid change in the media environment. A background in economics is not necessary, but an interest in issues that have an economic dimension is. Many discussions in media and related fields draw upon economic concepts, assumptions and histories while dealing with industry sectors that are, in many ways, at the forefront of structural economic change in post-industrial/advanced capitalist societies.

There is a general agreement that understanding the economic dynamics of media industries and markets is vitally important for the analysis of the media system as a whole. In this book, we do not attempt a comprehensive coverage of all topics covered by media economics. In such a short book, that is completely impractical, and there are already numerous primers which cover mainstream issues in the field very well (for example, Picard, 1989; Albarran 2002, 2010; Alexander et al., 2004; De Vany, 2004; Hoskins et al., 2004; Doyle, 2006, 2013; Mosco, 2009; Hardy, 2014). Here, we have attempted to outline the key elements of the mainstream literature and to complement that literature by pointing to what we believe to be traditions in economics that have been neglected in the field as it is applied to the media.

At regular intervals, we develop case studies to indicate that these different economic paradigms are not just theories but also provide important practical insights that illustrate the utility of considering diverse approaches in economics. These case studies (which appear inside boxed text in the first four chapters) and extended case studies (and the rapid emergence of a post-broadcast television ecology.

Having said that, we offer a distinctive way of organising an introduction to media economics. We do this because what counts as an important issue in media economics is strongly influenced by the framework or theoretical tradition being employed. We identify, in , the two main strands that dominate our understanding of media economics and which contend for overall legitimacy in the field: neoclassical, or mainstream, media economics and critical political economy of the media. These two variants deserve to be treated as the reigning orthodoxies as they produce powerful analyses of the way media works. But they are in many ways so divergent in terms of their objects of analysis, their methodologies and their founding assumptions that a conscientious student, coming at the topic from the disciplines of media, cultural and communication studies, may find that such a divergence makes it difficult to get to grips with media economics. Moreover, neither approach has typically held a particularly charitable view towards the other. Mainstream media economics, like economics more generally, has rarely acknowledged much that is of value in critical approaches to the field, while critical political economy has not only defined itself in opposition to the mainstream approaches, but has at times presented those approaches, and the media economists who use them, as being politically regressive and lacking in an ethic of the common good.