MAC 143 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Artificial Scarcity, Public Good, Vertical Integration
112 views2 pages
27 Nov 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Media Economics: Creating Buzz
I. Media as a Culture Industry
A. Media as “Our” Culture
1. Culture Industry
a) Culture
(1) Moral beliefs
(2) Tradition
(3) (national) Identity
(4) Social uplift
(5) Democratic values
b) Industry
(1) Private
(2) For-profit
(3) Oligopolistic
(4) Trans-national forces
II. Common Dynamics within Culture Industries
A. Defining Features
1. High risk/unpredictable
a) Fickleness of audience’s taste
b) Satisfying audience’s taste is risky
2. High production costs/low reproduction costs
3. Public good
a) Value of the product doesn’t get used up by purchaser
B. Consequences
1. Formatting
a) Prepackaged form of product is aimed to control audiences
(1) Ex: genres
b) Offset unpredictability
2. Hit/Miss Ratio
a) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
b) Create a wide variety of films
3. Copyright control
4. Artificial scarcity as business strategy
a) Make people think that the product is a need-to-have item
b) Ex: Create a frenzy over the new Harry Potter books so people
want their own copy rather than borrowing one
III. Trends in Recent U.S. Media Industries
A. Conglomeration
1. Definition