The development of new technology has changed the media industry in recent years. Photo: FILE

---

 

The media industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and great achievements have been made in the economic study of media. Scholars suggested that studies of media economics should be attentive to real circumstances and contemporary trends.

Media economics applies basic analytical methods from economics to the studies of economic issues in the media industry. Ding Hegen, a professor of communication from Nanjing University, said that media economics is a typical interdiscipline. In the narrow sense, it is the product of the combination of communication and economics. In the broad sense, it also contains knowledge of management, marketing and advertisement. Media economics is not a simple combination of the aforementioned two or multiple disciplines, but rather the result of the mutual permeation and a mutual fusion of these disciplines. Media economics has its own specific research field and objects of research. Basic media economics studies include the production and consumption of the products of media content, the structure of media markets, the operational model of media and the economic performance of media organizations. Scholars of media economics may analyze and solve problems by paying more attention to the attributes and rules of the media industry, Ding suggested.

Bu Yanfang, director of the Institute of Media Economics at the Communication University of China, suggested that media economics shows its characteristics as an interdiscipline through its research paradigm. Some scholars have applied the research paradigm of microeconomics and industrial economics to study media products and the media industry. Some scholars have studied media and media products by focusing on the relationship between macroscopic communication and society. By paying attention to studies of audience and of information production and consumption, they have established a school of political economy of communication. Other scholars have adopted a combined research paradigm of communication and political economy, Bu said.

The rise and application of new technology has changed the media industry in recent years. Against this background, how have the main topics of media economics changed? Bu suggested as new internet technology continues to upgrade, media organizations face new social, industrial and public opinions, which poses significant challenges to the production and dissemination of media content along with the business patterns and management and operation systems of media organizations. Furthermore, technological convergence is gradually blurring the boundaries of the media industry. The media industry is overlapping and converging with other industries in a more profound way, and new business models continue to emerge. Hence, scholars of media economics have shown their realism by following social trends. They put the issues of media integration and transformation along with emerging media business models at the top of their research agenda, Bu said.

For Ding, these new changes can be seen in the following aspects. The variety and number of media forms have significantly increased, and more media is accessible to the audience. The interaction between creators and audiences has become a normal phenomenon. The production of media products used to be monopolized by media organizations. Now it has transformed into a content production model that is multiple and symbiotic. Traditional media’s integration with new media is a general trend. On the one hand, communication is becoming more of a globalized phenomenon. On the other hand, communication is becoming more circled, layered and individual. All these undoubtedly will change the research topics of media economics, Ding suggested.

Hang Min, deputy director of the Research Center of Media Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, pointed out three major changes in the research topics of media economics. First, data and technological development have become a hotspot issue. Second, audiences have become a core issue of media economics studies. Third, media innovation and entrepreneurship have also become new dominant topics.

Ding suggested future media economics studies should focus on problems including the position and role of the media industry in the national economy, the marginal effect of the application of new media technology, the regulation of new media, the boundaries of media products as public products and as commercial goods, the media products’ externalities, and the protection of media products’ intellectual property. 

 

(edited by YANG LANLAN)