1/10 Course Introduction
1/12 Introduction: What is “Media Industry Studies”?
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 1: Understanding Media Industries.”
1/17 Introduction: The Industrialization of Culture
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 2: The Industrialization of Culture Framework and Key Economic Concepts.”
DISCUSS: Research Reflection #1 & Media Companies
1/19 Introduction: Industrial Identity & Corporate Image
READ: Brookey, “The Digital Auteur: Branding Identity on the Monsters, Inc. DVD.”
1/24 Discussion: Industrial Identity & Corporate Image
DUE: Research Reflection #1
1/26 Media Industry Mandates
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 3: Media Industry Mandates.”
1/31 Economic Conditions in Media Industries
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 5: Economic Conditions in Media Production.”
2/2 What are “New Media Industries?”
READ: Smith & Hendricks, “New Media: New Technology, New Ideas or New Headaches” in Hendricks, The Twenty-First-Century Media Industry: Economic and Managerial Implications in the Age of New Media (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), 3-22.
2/7 Technological Conditions in (New) Media Industries
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 6: Technological Conditions of the Media Industries.”
2/9 No Class
2/14 Digitization in (New) Media Industries
READ: Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 9: “Digitization.”
DUE: Research Reflection # 2
2/16 Print Media Industry: Are eBooks Just Kindle for the Fire?
READ:
- Erickson, “Help or Hindrance? The History of the Book and Electronic Media,” in Thorburn & Jenkins, Rethinking Media Change.
- Stone, “The E-Reader Industry: Replacing the Book or Enhancing the Reader Experience?”
- (background) Coover, “The End of Books,” in Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, The New Media Reader.
- (background) Murphy, “Books are Dead, Long Live Books,” in Rethinking Media Change.
2/21 Regulatory Conditions in Media Industries
READ:
- Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 4: Regulation of the Media Industries.”
- (background) Coll, “Reboot: An Open Letter to the FCC About a Media Policy for the Digital Age,” Columbia Journalism Review 49.4 (2010): 26.
2/23 Radio & Recorded Music Industries
READ:
- Blacc, Manta, & Olson, “A Sustainable Music Industry for the 21st Century,” Cornell Law Review Online 101: 39-50.
- (optional) Bellamy & Gross, “The First Domino: The Recorded Music Industry and New Technology,” in Hendricks, The Twenty-First-Century Media Industry.
- (background) DeMars, “Local Market Radio: Programming and Operations in a New Media World,” in Hendricks, The Twenty-First-Century Media Industry.
DUE: Research Reflection # 3
2/28 Perceptions of Industrial Impacts from Piracy
READ:
- Patrick Vonderau, “Beyond Piracy: Understanding Digital Media Markets.”
- (background) Gayer & Shy, “Copyright Enforcement in the Digital Era,” in Illing & Peitz, Industrial Organization and the Digital Economy.
- (background) Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture.
3/2 Discussion: Group “Mobile App Proposal” Project
DUE: Research Reflection # 4
3/5 – 3/9 Spring Break, No Class
3/14 Film & Television Industries: Distribution & Aggregation
READ:
- Havens & Lotz, “Chapter 8: Media Distribution and Aggregation Practices.”
- (background) Owen, “The tragedy of broadcast regulation,” in The Internet Challenge to Television. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), reprinted in Hassan, The New Media Theory Reader.
3/16 Technological Change: Film, TV, & Digital Streaming
READ:
- Perren, “Business as Unusual: Conglomerate-Sized Challenges for Film and Television in the Digital Arena,” Journal of Popular Film and Television 38.2 (2010): 72-78.
- Lotz, “Channel Bundles Persist—for Now—Despite Digital Disruption.”
3/21 Technological Change: Digital Streaming & Consumption Patterns
READ:
- Chuck Tryon, “TV Got Better: Netflix’s Original Programming Strategies and Binge Viewing,” Media Industries Journal, 2.2: 104-116.
- (background) Tryon, “Pushing the (Red) Envelope: Portable Video, Platform Mobility, and Pay-Per-View Culture,” in Snickars & Vonderau, Moving Data: The iPhone and the Future of Media.
- (background) Walker & Bellamy, “DVRs and the Empowered Audience: A Transformative New Media Technology Takes Off,” in Hendricks, The Twenty-First-Century Media Industry.
DUE: Research Reflection # 5
3/23 Computers, Interactivity, & Interfaces: Digital Consumption
READ: Janet Wasko and Mary Erickson, “The Political Economy of YouTube,” in Snickers & Vonderau (Eds.) The YouTube Reader.
3/28 Spreadable/Sticky Media
DUE: Proposal Assignment #1
READ: Jenkins, Ford, and Green, “Introduction: Why Media Spreads,” from Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013)
3/30 Spreadable/Sticky Media: Social Industries & Algorithmic Power
READ:
- Taina Bucher, “Want to be on the Top? Algorithmic Power and the Threat of Invisibility on Facebook.”
- (background) Qualman, “Chapter 1: Word of Mouth Goes World of Mouth,” from Socialnomics.
- (background) Benkler, “Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production,” in Mandiberg (Ed.) The Social Media Reader.
4/4 Video Games Industries
DUE: Proposal Assignment #2 & #3 (individual submissions)
READ:
- Straubhaar et al., “The Game Industry,” from Media Now.
- Dring, “How Can We Solve Nintendo Switch’s Cartridge Cost Quandry?,” GamesIndustry.Biz March 27, 2017.
- (background) Yee, “Labor of Fun.”
- (background) Dymek, “Video Games: A Subcultural Industry” and O’donnell, “The North American Game Industry,” in Zackariasson & Wilson, The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future.
- (background) de Peuter & Dyer-Witheford, “A Playful Multitude? Mobilising and Counter-Mobilising Immaterial Game Labour,” in fibre culture 5.
4/6 Mobile Technologies: Personalized & Portable Digital Economies
READ:
- Fishman, “Where Do Media Companies Fit in the World of Mobile Apps?,” Acquia, March 04, 2015.
- Dediu, “(Much) Bigger than Hollywood,” Asymco, August 26, 2015.
- Dediu, “The iOS Economy, Updated,” Asymco, January 08, 2018.
- (optional) Bolin, “Personal Media in the Digital Economy,” in Snickars & Vonderau, Moving Data: The iPhone and the Future of Media.
- (optional) Cannon & Barker, “Hard Candy,” in Snickars & Vonderau, Moving Data: The iPhone and the Future of Media.
4/11 Mobile Application Interface Discussion/Workshop
DUE: Proposal Assignment #4 (group submission)
4/13 Mobile Application Interface Discussion/Workshop
4/18 “Mobile App Proposal” Group Presentations
DUE: Proposal Assignment #5 (individual submission)
4/21 “Mobile App Proposal” Due
DUE: “Mobile App Proposal” (group submission, on Blackboard by 12:00pm)
DUE: Proposal Assignment #6 (individual submission, on Blackboard by 12:00pm)