Friday, 29 November 2019
Media Organisation and Professionals
MIA - Chapter 5
- Comment by Marx: media professionals make their own products, but they do
not make them just as they please; they do not make them under circumstances
chosen by themselves but under circumstances directly found, given, and
transmitted from the past
The Limits of Economic and Political Constraints
- Working within Economic Constraints
- Profits come from high ratings and desirable audience demographics —>
strong advertising sales
- To be safe and ensure profits, programs are starting to look alike
- Economics of prime-time television shape decision making environment —>
audience tastes are unpredictable
- Producers attempt to interpret the current mood of the audience and create
programs that correlate those ideas
- Responding to Political Constraints
- Political forces shape media organisations environment
- Compliance strategy is used because it avoids conflict with regulators hence
allowing them to shape the actions of media organisations
- Preemption strategy is used by engaging in a public for of self-regulation
- Used in film, television, music, video gaming
- Government regulation is subject to interpretation
- Media industries can ignore regulations
- If the media organisation has the resources, they can challenge regulations,
trying alter them
Decision Making for Profit: Imitation, Hits and Stars
- All media industries face the problem of high costs of production and
unpredictability of audience tastes
High Costs and Unpredictable Tastes
- A television studio must have enough investment to create a pilot before they
know if audiences will be interested in the new TV show
- Though music recording for example is not as costly, promotion is expensive
- For music to be successful it must be promoted on the right platform and must
be familiar without being too typical
1
, Friday, 29 November 2019
Art Imitating Art
- Common strategy to ensure success is to copy previously successful products
- This is the reason that successful books are remastered into movies or tv
shows, as they have proven to be popular amongst audiences
- However, success depends on many factors therefore imitation does not
ensure success
Stars and the “Hit System”
- Pursuit of success can be done through fame or stardom
- Can be measured through the “Q-score” developed by marketing evaluations.
Q-score indicates the familiarity and appeal of anything from a Hollywood actor
to fast-food chain. Higher the Q-score the higher the popularity.
- Initial attention can have a “snowball” effect but once major stardom is
achieved, frame trends tend to be relatively stable
- Portraying a star in a media product increases the chances that it will be
successful
- Producers are looking for best sellers, thus they are looking for hits
- Stars with social media presence are valuable because their visibility is a key
resource in promoting potential new hits
Creating Hits and Producing Stars
- Audiences decide whether a media content is worth stardom
- Media products do not have the same chance for hit status
- Media organisers have advanced decisions about which media products are
likely to succeed
- Media products like films that are seen as potential hits will receive more
promotions, therefore products that are not seen as potential hits will likely be
promoted less, causing them to not reach hit status
- A band with a popular song is likely to be pressured by their label to produce a
similar sounding song next to ensure success
Using Stars to Combat Uncertainty
- The presence of a “star” in a movie or other media product helps reduce the
perception of risk
- The presence of a star provides an “agreed-on currency for assessing potential
projects”
- Programmers have to satisfy various constituencies (advertisers, local station
managers and network executives) in order to demonstrate that decisions are not
random
2
Media Organisation and Professionals
MIA - Chapter 5
- Comment by Marx: media professionals make their own products, but they do
not make them just as they please; they do not make them under circumstances
chosen by themselves but under circumstances directly found, given, and
transmitted from the past
The Limits of Economic and Political Constraints
- Working within Economic Constraints
- Profits come from high ratings and desirable audience demographics —>
strong advertising sales
- To be safe and ensure profits, programs are starting to look alike
- Economics of prime-time television shape decision making environment —>
audience tastes are unpredictable
- Producers attempt to interpret the current mood of the audience and create
programs that correlate those ideas
- Responding to Political Constraints
- Political forces shape media organisations environment
- Compliance strategy is used because it avoids conflict with regulators hence
allowing them to shape the actions of media organisations
- Preemption strategy is used by engaging in a public for of self-regulation
- Used in film, television, music, video gaming
- Government regulation is subject to interpretation
- Media industries can ignore regulations
- If the media organisation has the resources, they can challenge regulations,
trying alter them
Decision Making for Profit: Imitation, Hits and Stars
- All media industries face the problem of high costs of production and
unpredictability of audience tastes
High Costs and Unpredictable Tastes
- A television studio must have enough investment to create a pilot before they
know if audiences will be interested in the new TV show
- Though music recording for example is not as costly, promotion is expensive
- For music to be successful it must be promoted on the right platform and must
be familiar without being too typical
1
, Friday, 29 November 2019
Art Imitating Art
- Common strategy to ensure success is to copy previously successful products
- This is the reason that successful books are remastered into movies or tv
shows, as they have proven to be popular amongst audiences
- However, success depends on many factors therefore imitation does not
ensure success
Stars and the “Hit System”
- Pursuit of success can be done through fame or stardom
- Can be measured through the “Q-score” developed by marketing evaluations.
Q-score indicates the familiarity and appeal of anything from a Hollywood actor
to fast-food chain. Higher the Q-score the higher the popularity.
- Initial attention can have a “snowball” effect but once major stardom is
achieved, frame trends tend to be relatively stable
- Portraying a star in a media product increases the chances that it will be
successful
- Producers are looking for best sellers, thus they are looking for hits
- Stars with social media presence are valuable because their visibility is a key
resource in promoting potential new hits
Creating Hits and Producing Stars
- Audiences decide whether a media content is worth stardom
- Media products do not have the same chance for hit status
- Media organisers have advanced decisions about which media products are
likely to succeed
- Media products like films that are seen as potential hits will receive more
promotions, therefore products that are not seen as potential hits will likely be
promoted less, causing them to not reach hit status
- A band with a popular song is likely to be pressured by their label to produce a
similar sounding song next to ensure success
Using Stars to Combat Uncertainty
- The presence of a “star” in a movie or other media product helps reduce the
perception of risk
- The presence of a star provides an “agreed-on currency for assessing potential
projects”
- Programmers have to satisfy various constituencies (advertisers, local station
managers and network executives) in order to demonstrate that decisions are not
random
2
