Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter Outlines
Chapter 3: The Economics of the Media Industry
Purpose and Goals of the Chapter
In Chapter 3, we look at the economic forces that shape the industry and the
consequences for media content. The emphasis is on the broad structural constraints on
media production; how these economic, political, and organizational forces shape
decision-making and influence media content; and how actors within the media industry
interpret and respond to these constraints. This “production perspective” has been the
principal lens through which much contemporary sociology has looked at media. As we
will see, it has a great deal to offer for understanding processes of media ownership,
production, distribution, promotion, and integration. This analysis of the economics of
media is an essential part of a broader approach that focuses on how the economic goals
and financial relationships help to define the terrain of the media industry and how, in
various ways, economic factors influence decision-making about the content of media
products.
Outline of Key Chapter Themes
• Recognizing the distinction between products, platforms, and pipes which offers a
production perspective–one should see media products as the result of a social process of
production that occurs within an institutional framework.
• How media ownership is becoming increasingly concentrated thus both strategically
deployed, created, and used.
• The relationship between concentrated media ownership and diversity in media content is
industry- and historically specific.
• Media conglomeration and integration—media companies become part of larger
corporations.
• The for-profit nature of most mass media shapes decision-making.
• Advertising has an impact on the nature of news.
• Advertising can be a significant influence on new media developments.
Chapter Outline
• Media Companies in the Internet Era
o Products
o Platforms
o Pipes
• Changing Patterns of Ownership
o Concentration of Ownership
▪ Products
▪ Platforms
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
▪ Pipes
o Conglomeration and Integration
o Strategy in a New Media Economy
o The Power of Platforms: Facebook and Google as New Media Giants
▪ Users
▪ Media Content
▪ Advertising
▪ Telecommunications
• Consequences of Conglomeration and Integration
o Integration and Self-Promotion
o The Impact of Conglomeration
• The Effects of Concentration
o Media Control and Political Power
o Media Ownership and Content Diversity
• Mass Media for Profit
o Prime-Time Profits
o Cheaper Programs for Smaller Audiences
o Controlling Content and Distribution
o Profit and the News Media
• The Impact of Advertising
o The Advertising-Content Connection
o Advertising and the Press in the 19th Century
▪ The British Press
▪ The U.S. Press
o Advertising and the Contemporary News Media
• Conclusion