Media Management, Economics, and Entrepreneurship Division
* Extended Abstract * We are the people – audience engagement as catalyst for newsroom unionization? • Karin Assmann, University of Georgia • This study explores the tension between management, journalists and their audience around audience engagement with a focus on the role of newsroom unionization. Ethnographic work in three U.S. newsrooms and interviews with 131 journalists, newsroom managers and editors in four newsrooms, shows that audience engagement work encourages unionization and that journalists in already unionized newsrooms regard the relationships with their audience as more collaborative than combative.
Drivers of merger and acquisition activity: A quantitative investigation of the telecommunications industry • Yang Bai, Pennsylvania State University; Ryan Wang, Penn State University; Rachel Peng, Penn State University; Krishna Jayakar, Penn State Bellisario College of Communications • Over the last decade, merger and acquisition activity has significantly changed the landscape of the telecommunications industry. While a few mega-mergers have attracted a lot of media attention and public interest, the vast majority of M&A transactions are small mergers. The objective of this paper is to investigate the differences if any, between large and small mergers in terms of merger type, mode of financing and deal valuations. Data on 1725 mergers occurring between 2000-2019 involving at least one U.S.-based company in the SIC code 48 was collected from the Zephyr database. Significant differences were noted based on merger type, mode of financing, and the influence of factors such as interest rates and stock market performance.
Exploring the Dimensions of Media Brand Trust: A Contemporary Integrative Approach • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • As brands become more media-like and news and information platforms gravitate toward infotainment, this project aims at developing a reliable and valid media brand trust scale that reflects the reality of today’s mediated lives. As the first phase of the process, this study integrated deductive and inductive methods, using literature review to offer a conceptual basis and exploring the identified trust dimensions through the qualitative method of personal interviews. Eight key dimensions were uncovered for further investigations.
The Effect of Emotional vs. Informational Message Appeals on Crowdfunding Campaign Success: Testing Product Type as a Moderator • Ying Cheng, California State University, San Bernardino; Yongseok Jang, California State University, San Bernardino • This study examined the effect of emotional vs. informational appeals and their interaction effect with product types (i.e., hedonic vs. utilitarian product) on crowdfunding campaign performance. Using a sample of 249 Kickstarter messages and an online survey (N = 1892), the study revealed when a product was perceived containing higher (vs. lower) utilitarian values, messages perceived to be informational (vs. emotional) led to more positive campaign outcomes. No main effect of message appeals was observed.
Crowdfunding & Cryptocurrency – A New Conduit to Film Finance • J. Christopher Hamilton, Syracuse University • Raising financing for a film with cryptocurrency through blockchain is bound to change every aspect of not only film finance but our content ecosystem. As we witness COVID-19 ravage our economy and force us into a new version of normalcy, the strain on our content ecosystem will lean heavily on technology in the coming years to survive. The increased fragmentation of viewing audiences, the shrinking theatrical windows and the exploitation of the indie film market by streaming services like Netflix, has gutted the indie film business for filmmakers and over-leveraged the major studios. These global economic factors create a unique opportunity for the use of crypto to finance film content. There are still lots of regulatory, technological and credibility hurdles to surmount before crowdfunding with cryptocurrency becomes a viable or practical industry-wide solution for raising capital. But there’s strong evidence that the latter might be a real possibility sooner than we think. Equity crowdfunding coupled with cryptocurrency through blockchain will be the key to unlocking future capital. So, whether crypto through blockchain helps connect unbanked communities to the global economy, supplant Byzantine bureaucracies in bank and presales financing or just guarantees fair dealing in a business transaction with potentially dubious investors, it will certainly live up to its moniker as the internet 2.0 for Hollywood.
Public Service Mandate Versus Profit-Making Motive: A Study of the Daily Graphic Newspaper in Ghana • Paul Koomson, University of Oregon; S. Senyo Ofori-Parku, University of Oregon • This study examines the extent to which the Daily Graphic as a public newspaper operating as a limited liability company balances its public service mandate with its economic rationality. This case study is based on interviews with the newspaper’s editorial team members, managers, and executives of three top advertising media agencies and study of official documents. The content of the newspaper is also analyzed to determine the news – advertisement ratio. The study shows that despite its clearly stated public service mandate, the Daily Graphic’s organizational and individual-level economic logic (coupled with its advertiser client relations) informs its operations, news practices, and to some extent, content. The newspaper allocated more space to advertisements than news content. These processes are aided by advertiser clients and their collaborators within and outside the news organization. We offer some recommendations for addressing this challenge.
Media Repertoires of Chinese Young Users: An Exploratory Study Based on 2010-2015 Chinese General Social Survey • Weijia Li • This study adopts a repertoire approach to explore Chinese young users’ media usage patterns based on an analysis of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data from 2010-2015. The author used latent class analysis and multilevel multinomial logistic regression to demonstrate the patterns, changes and predictors of Chinese young people media repertoires. Results show that during 2010-2013, Chinese young users’ media repertoire remains stable, including four types: people who only watch TV; people who make a combination use of TV and Newspaper; people who make a combination use of TV and Internet and people who tend to use multiple media platforms including TV, Newspaper, Magazine and Internet. However, in 2015, a new media repertoire featured by the combination usage of TV, Internet and Mobile phone emerged while the previous media repertoire ‘TV + Newspaper’ is not existing anymore, indicating that new media has a growing influence on younger generation. Besides, the author integrated individual factors and structural factors to predict the media repertoire formation based on CGSS 2015. The study finds that age, education level, number of computers owned by individual, province mobile phone penetration rate and number of books per capita are the relatively powerful predictors of user’s media choice. This means that demographic variables, media access ability and regional media environment can shape audience media consumption pattern and influence their media choice.
Revisiting on news objectivity and its portrait of history: From the perspective of transaction costs • Lu Liu • The American news industry is arguably run by its laws of news values and business logic. This paper aims to explore the principle of news objectivity in American commercial newspapers from a theoretical perspective of transaction costs. Previous studies on professional ideology have overlooked its origin that rooted in American commercial environment and developed along with commercial newspapers. This study indicates that the principle of objectivity is not only an editorial policy for commercial newspapers, but also a business strategy and governance mechanism, which reduces both the internal and external transaction costs of news production and improves the use of resources. Furthermore, news efficiency can increase the profit margin, and this is the core reason for the emergence and maintenance of the principle of news objectivity.
Concentration of Journalistic Output Across Media Outlets and Outlet Types: An Analysis of 100 Communities • Jessica Mahone, Duke University; Qun Wang; Philip Napoli; Matthew Weber, University of Minnesota; Kathleen McCullough, Augustana University • This study provides a quantitative examination of the concentration of journalistic output in 100 U.S. communities. The primary objective is to determine the extent to which various types of journalistic output are concentrated within few outlets, or outlet types, within a community. The results indicate that in most communities one type of outlet produces most content; and that, in many cases, only one or two outlets are responsible for the bulk of journalistic output.
* Extended Abstract * “No One Knows What I Do”: Strategic Hires and Emerging Professions in the Context of Organizational Absorptive Capacity • Renee Mitson • Absorptive capacity theory posits organizations gain external knowledge primarily through research and development conducted to acquire external knowledge and apply that knowledge inside the organization. This study hypothesizes that until new hires and emerging job roles are fully absorbed into an organization, they remain sources of outside knowledge, even internally. Semi-structured interviews (n=18) were conducted in order to explore how the role of strategic hires and organizational readiness may impact a firm’s absorptive capacity.
* Extended Abstract * Alternative and Mainstream Local News Competition and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Computational Content Analysis • Angela Powers, Iowa State University; Yuxi He • The COVID-19 outbreak is having severe health, economic and political effects on society, as well as on the way media is reporting these issues. This study analyzes news coverage of COVID-19 in a computational content analysis of two local media outlets during the early outbreak. Variables including frequencies of themes, stories, issues and sources are analyzed. The purpose of the analysis is to reveal how alternative and mainstream local news media compete by differentiating products and finding market niches in times of crisis.
Who Cut the Cord?: Factors Which Predict Cord-Cutting Behavior Across Generations • Ashley Spiker, Kent State University • The existing literature in the field of television consumption utilizing new media platforms examines what streaming media service options exist and some possible motivations for adopting streaming media services. While research has examined technological adoption to predict and describe behavioral intentions and self-reported behavior, few have examined why individuals make the decision to stop using certain technologies or media services. This study aimed to examine the differences in cording-cutting behaviors across three Generations (Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers) and to identify predictors of cord-cutting behavior. Of 734 participants surveyed, Results indicated that five factors significantly predicted cord-cutting behavior among all generations, including: income (β =.173, p =.004), owning a tablet (β =.171, p =.004), preference of religious programming (β =.125, p =.036), preference of sports programming (β =.122, p =.039), and time spent watching television (β =.120, p =.042). These factors explained 12.8% of variance in cord cutting behavior.
Predicting the Consumption Behaviors of Foreign Broadcast Programming in the Age of Global Over-the-Top (OTT) Video Streaming Market • Kenneth C. C. Yang, The University of Texas At El Paso; Yowei Kang, National Taiwan Ocean University • The rise of over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services (such as Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix) have enabled broadcasters to distribute their programming all over the world in a cost-effective manner. However, factors affecting the consumption of foreign broadcasting programming are yet to be investigated. This study employs the country animosity dimensions to study Taiwanese audience’s consumption of broadcast programming from Japan. This study uses a survey to collect data from Taiwanese participants. Linear regression analyses find that both contemporary/economic and historical/social animosity against Japan could predict Taiwanese viewers’ judgment of Japanese television dramas. As expected, a favorable judgment also generates a higher intention to watch Japanese television dramas. However, long-term social, but not temporary economic, animosity dimension predicts viewers’ intention to watch Japanese television dramas. The predictive power of social animosity against Japanese people is robust and stable, after taking into consideration viewers’ demographics, in the hierarchical regression model. This study concludes with theoretical implications and managerial recommendations to promote cultural products to foreign audiences.
Working Together in Global Media Markets: The Sustainability of Western-China International Joint Ventures • Qian Yu; Peter Gade • This study explores economic, resource and cultural factors that executives of Chinese-Western media joint ventures consider essential to the ventures’ sustainability. In-depth interviews with Chinese and Western executives from two magazine joint ventures (Harvard Business Review China and GRAZIA China) found managing cultural factors, including ideological and media policy differences, essential to the ventures. Differing economic and resource commitments to the ventures were largely attributed to products in different niche markets with different market conditions.
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