A course on the economics of the media industries.

2006

I approached this course experimentally. I had never taught a course like this before. I was very interested in understanding the economies of the media not only through the traditional venues (the media industries for example) but also new emerging user created medias and their economies.

I approached ‘economies’ not as an exchange of monies but as informational exchanges (barter economies are as legitimate as market economies). With this as a basis students learned about networked media economies such as youtube, craigslist and myspace (economies of agglomeration) as well as larger corporate media economies such as ‘Time Warner’ (economies of scale).

Media Economics BRC 301

Website :: http://www.oswego.edu/~mgrimm/brc_301/
Instructor :: Mark Edward Grimm :: meg156@columbia.edu
Oswego State University :: Department of Communication Studies ::
Teaching Assistant :: Brian Sunday :: bsunday@oswego.edu
102 Lanigan Hall MW 3:00-4:40
Spring 2006
Office Hours :: MW 1:00-2:30 or e-mail for appointment
Prerequisites: BRC 108 and a minimum of six hours in the major/instructor permission

Course Description
In short, this course is about economics and the economic issues that relate to and impact our media on the macro and micro levels, including journalism and the news industry, film production, entertainment programs, print, broadcast, advertising and public relations, and networked media such as streaming media and downloadable internet media. Students will learn a theoretical approach to understanding the media though the lens of an economist and will gain a practical approach of how too do media economics. Through practical learning exercises, presentations, contrasting readings and discussions, students will be able to understand the intricate financial mechanisms of the media industries and will as an economist, critically examine its larger political-economic and social ramifications.

Course Requirements
Students are expected to attend class regularly, complete all readings, participate in discussions of the readings and other material and complete all assignments, papers and exams/quizzes on time. It is imperative to this course that all readings are complete on the assigned date and that students come prepared to discuss them. This course is based on discussions and group work. Lectures will be short and brief, followed by group discussion and participation.

Learning Methods and Outcomes
This class is designed to be a forum for discussion. In this way, I as the teacher have an opportunity to learn from you and what you think as you will also have the opportunity to learn form me.

Some of the questions we will tackle: What is Media Economics exactly? What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative and how does that affect economic thinking? What techniques are there for running a small media business? A large media firm? What types of economic models are there and how can they be applicable to media old or new? What is the difference between economics models that preference competition over cooperation? Is there such thing as an economic model of cooperation and how can it be applied to the media? How has the Internet changed the way we think about media and the economics of the media? What is an Intellectual property right and how has the Internet changed this definition? What does it have to do with economics? How does government regulation and corporate ownership affect the media? What are the FCC and the Telecom Acts of 1996?

Technology and Connections
Students must have and accessible email account and access to the Internet. Again, many of the external reading are Internet based so in order for you to read the readings and participate in class access to the Internet is essential. Please email me at mgrimm@oswego.edu in the first week off classes with the email account that you are going to use for the semester. The heading must be MEDIA ECONOMICS BRC 301 + (Your Name). The body of the email can be blank. This is so I have a record of your address and will be our primary communication devise outside of class

For out of class connection and discussions I can be reached by email.

Attendance Policy
If you need to be absent for any reason please email me ahead of time to let me know. Attendance will be taken as soon as class begins. In order to be counted present you must be in class as soon as class begins. All missed work must be made up ASAP. If you miss class, participation grades and in-class assignments for the day are 0.

Grades
In-Class Discussions, Participation, and Activities 25%
Short Reaction Papers 25%
Quizzes and Exams 25%
Final Project 25%

In-Class Discussions, Participation and Activities
For the most part, each Monday I will give a brief presentation on the material due for that day. After my presentation the floor will be open for discussion of the assigned texts. Please back opinions up with assigned or outside readings.

Each Wednesday will have in class activities. Activities will include group work, readings, writing and/or discussions.

Short reaction papers
There will be 5 short reaction papers due at various times throughout the semester. Each paper is to be 2-3 pages in length 1.5 spaced, Courier New, Font size 11. Name and course to be at the top as heading. One space between paragraphs. No paragraph indentation.

These papers are to be a critical analysis of the assigned text based on your and your classmates understandings. You will be required to take a position on contrasting texts assigned, arguing your case for one side or the other.

Quizzes and Exams
There will be (8) quizzes and (1) exam. The quizzes will be given at random so make sure that you are up to date on your readings and are prepared each time you come to class. There is no quiz makeup and missing students will be given a 0 for the quiz unless a valid excuse is documented and presented to me.

There will be (1) exam at midterm. The grade for this is final and will be entirely based on the readings and in-class discussions. This is a written exam so be prepared to argue your case as you did in your reaction papers.

Final Project
Instead of an Exam I make each student do a final project. This can be done either individually or in a group to be presented in front of the class and turned in as a paper project. Each student will be given 15-20 minutes to present. This mean if you are doing the project by yourself you present for 15-20 minutes. If you choose to do it in a group then the group time is multiplied by the group members (a group of 3 would present for roughly 45-60 minutes). This can be done either in a standard way (paper presentation, PowerPoint) or media presentation (video, audio etc). If a video presentation is chosen then the individual or group does not have to speak the entire time over the video but instead may choose to introduce the video and give a brief conclusion. A short into/conclusion paper on the project would also be necessary to turn in along with the video. We can discuss topics and presentation methods etc later throughout the course of the semester.

Required Text (s)
Media Economics: Theory and Practice 3rd Edition
Alison Alexander, James Owers, and Rod Carveth
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
ISBN 0-8058-1842-1

All other texts used for out of class reading and/or in class discussion will be available to you either on reserve at the library, in the form of a class handout, or freely available online. In the later case Internet access is essential.

Books
Albarran, Alan B. (2002). Media Economics: Understanding Markets, Industries and Concepts 2nd Ed. Iowa: Iowa State Press

Alexander, Alison; Owers, James; Carveth, Rod; Hollifield, C. Ann; Greco, Albert N. (Eds.) (2003) Media Economics: Theory and Practice (3rd ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-80-584580-1

Bagdikian, Ben H. (2004) The New Media Monopoly, Beacon Press. ISBN 0-80-706187-5

Bucy, Erik P. (2005). Living in the Information Age. 2nd Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth

Colombia University School of Journalism in collaboration with Pew Charitable Trust (2004). The State of the News Media. An Annual Report on American Journalism. Http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/narrative_overview_publicattitudes.asp?media=1

Cooper, M. (2003). Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age. Stanford Law School: Center for Internet and Society.

Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W. (2006). The Business Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest. (second edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Doyle, Gillian (2002) Understanding Media Economics, SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-76-196874-1

Fidler, Roger (1997). Mediamorphosis. PineForge Pres

Greco, Albert N. (Ed.) (1999) The Media and Entertainment Industries: Readings in Mass Communications, Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0-205-30010-3

Halfon, J. (2003). The Failure of Cable Deregulation. Washington: U.S. Public Interest Research Group. www.uspirg.org

Hoskins, C., McFadyen, S., & Finn, A. (2004). Media economics: Applying economics to new and traditional media. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage

McChesney, Robert W. (1997) Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series), Open Media. ISBN 1-88-836347-9

McChesney, Robert W. (1999) Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times, University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-25-202448-6

Moeller, S. D. (2004). Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland. http://www.cissm.umd.edu/

Mosco, Vincent. The Political Economy of Communication.

Picard, Robert G. (2002) Media Economics: Theory and Practice, Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-82-322174-1

Wasko, J. (2004). How Hollywood Works. London: Sage

Films about Media

– Broadcast News
– The Truman Show
– Citizen Kane
– Running Man :: Paul Michael Glaser
– Hero
– EdTV
– Wag the Dog
– Pleasantville
– Tomorrow Never Dies
– Manufacturing Consent
– The Corporation
– Rollerball :: Norman Jewison
– They Live ::John Carpenter
– Network :: Sidney Lumet
– The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
– Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

Links

del.icio.us
For my links to current News Stories relating to the subject of ‘Media Economics’ please visit my bookmarks at del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/megrimm/media_economics
If you find a link that interests you and you think is relevent to the content of this class please email me the link and I will post it. You can also ‘register’ at del.icio.us for your own account to log your virtual bookmarks. This allows you to share your bookmarks with friends, students, teachers etc. and to begin creating a personal web of informative links to relative content: a media ecology or web 2.0

Media Ownership

* Who Owns What – http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/
* Media Channel.Org – http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/
* Corporate Influence on the Media – http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Corporations/Owners.asp

academic journals/other relevant groups:

* http://www.leaonline.com/loi/me
* http://www.cios.org/www/tocs/JME.htm
* http://www.paidcontent.org/
* https://www.erlbaum.com/shop/tek9.asp?pg=products&specific=0899-7764
* http://www.mediajournal.org

Online Articles:

* Media Economics: Concepts and Issues http://cjc-online.ca/printarticle.php?id=89&layout=html

Political, Media watch-dog groups, understanding media control, linguistics: (critical media economics)

* http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
* http://www.mediachannel.org/news/indepth/fcc/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership
* http://www.npr.org/news/specials/fcc/
* http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/040630-tk.html
* http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002228040_sundaygoodman03.html
* http://www.mediaed.org/handouts/pdfs/MediaOwnershipRegulation.pdf

US Media in the 1990’s From US GOV

* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/media/files/media1cd.htm
* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/media/files/media2cd.htm
* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/media/files/media3cd.htm

External links

* The Journal of Media Economics
* The Centre for Media Economics “an independent research unit formally organised under the Department of Public Governance at the Norwegian School of Management (BI), located in Sandvika, outside Oslo.
* [World Media Economics Conference, Montral, Canada, May 12-15, 2004|http://poste153-198.com.ulaval.ca/6thwmec/ 6th]
* The media, economics and education – economic information – Editorial
* Robert W. McChesney “McChesney is the author of eight books on media and politics, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and host of the weekly talk show, Media Matters”
* Media Economics: Theory and Practice “focuses on the principles of economics in the business sector and applies them to specific media industries. It examines the process of media economics decision making through an exploration of such topics as industrial restructuring, regulatory constraints upon media operations, and changing economic value, providing key insights into media business activities.”
* The Economics of Media Violence A paper.
* Arbitron
* NAB Radio/TV Ad Revenues
* Open-Buisness “Focussing on new media business models, in particular those which use Open Contente Licenses”

Syllabi

* External Institutional Syllabi on Media Economics

Extras

* Source book “Essentials of Economics third edition by John Sloman: Essentials of Economics third edition by John Sloman Amazon Link
* Resources for teachers: Why Study Economics
* Open-Source pdf on economic analysis: Economic Analysis
* Website for above with notes, resources, etc: Notes and Resources
* Amy Cheatle Notes – Notes on Economics and Media Economics