Value is seldom discussed in its own right, though it is of utmost importance to our relations with media texts and cultural objects, as we constantly make judgements of various kinds with respect to them. Bolin focuses on how value is produced in contemporary media and cultural production, particularly through social relations. Discussing changes over the past two decades, Bolin emphasizes the rise of digital media and the opportunities that these afford for media's production and consumption.

"Spreadable Media" maps fundamental changes taking place in the contemporary media environment, a space where corporations no longer tightly control media distribution. This book challenges some of the prevailing frameworks used to describe contemporary media.

Brands are now a dominant feature of everyday life. Drawing on rich empirical material, this book builds up a critical theory, arguing that brands have become an important tool for transforming everyday life into economic value.

Social media is ubiquitous. From Facebook and Twitter to YouTube, the blogosphere, and Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games, people have plugged into numerous online venues for social, intellectual, and leisure activities. The pervasiveness of social media calls for ethical reflection, and one of the most pertinent values at stake is that of truth. Current figures estimate there are more than 1 billion social media users worldwide with the ability to connect with people who share similar interests, to present themselves as experts on anything and everything no matter their qualifications, and to contribute the types of factual information formerly limited to professional communication outlets such as news agencies. It’s this wide-ranging definition of truth that demands evaluation of the myriad ways social media affect society. This volume does just that by collecting insights from leading experts in the communication and philosophy disciplines as they examine a variety of issues related to the value of truth in the realm of social media.

Value is seldom discussed in its own right, though it is of utmost importance to our relations with media texts and cultural objects, as we constantly make judgements of various kinds with respect to them. This book focuses on how value - aesthetic, political and social and economic value - is produced in contemporary media and cultural production. Contending that value is not constituted by the essence of a thing, but is rather produced in social relations, through negotiations and justifications, Value and the Media discusses changes in the cultural industries over the past two decades, emphasising the rise of new, digital media, and the opportunities that these afford for the production and consumption of media texts and objects. Richly illustrated with examples from the UK, USA and Europe, this volume explores a range of media: both old mass media and new personal media, with a constant focus on the importance of both for our understanding of the changes that have occurred on the media landscape and their implications for the production of value. As such, this book will be of interest to social scientists and theorists working in the fields of cultural and media studies, popular culture, and consumption.

The worth of public service media is under increasing scrutiny in the 21st century as governments consider whether the institution is a good investment and a fair player in media markets. Mandated to provide universally accessible services and to cater for groups that are not commercially attractive, the institution often confronts conflicting demands. It must evidence its economic value, a concept defined by commercial logic, while delivering social value in fulfilling its largely not-for-profit public service mission and functions. Dual expectations create significant complexity for measuring PSM's overall ?public value?, a controversial policy concept that provided the theme for the RIPE@2012 conference, which took place in Sydney, Australia. This book, the sixth in the series of RIPE Readers on PSM published by NORDICOM, is the culmination of robust discourse during that event and the distillation of its scholarly outcomes. Chapters are based on top tier contributions that have been revised, expanded and subject to peer review (double-blind). The collection investigates diverse conceptions of public service value in media, keyed to distinctions in the values and ideals that legitimate the public service enterprise in media in many countries.

Societies today are in a period of dynamic change, highly fluid and contested in moving from traditional to liberal and from local to global, as well as varying from highly developed to emerging market economies. Alongside and facilitating this is a rapidly and exponentially changing digital media industry, including new technologies, multi-platform distributions and advertising models. This monograph highlights, identifies, evaluates and provides rich insight into the complex nature and meaning of different digital value migration in media corporations and ICT companies. It illustrates how such values affect both the internal and the external environments of media companies and industries, as well as prosumers' consumption. Including chapters from expert scholars and industry practitioners representing cutting-edge research in the U.S. and Europe in the fields of digital convergence, broadband, media and information communication technology (ICT) business and technology, the book helps academics, researchers, media policymakers and corporate executives better understand today’s undulating media and ICT markets. Specifically, it illuminates where they have come from, what is at stake and what forces drive and constrain them in global hypercompetitive markets. Ultimately, it aims relatedly to facilitate high academic, business and professional standards. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and business and industry practitioners in digital media, media management, international business, media economics and media policy and, more broadly, to those in the cultural industries, strategic management, business studies and marketing.

Digitization and Web 2.0 have brought about continuous change from traditional media management to new strategic, operative and normative management options. Social media management is on the agenda of every media company, and requires a new set of specialized expertise on digital products and communication. At the same time, social media has become a vibrant field of research for media economists and media management researchers. In this handbook, international experts present a comprehensive account of the latest developments in social media research and management, consistently linking classical media management with social media. The articles discuss new theoretical approaches as well as empirical findings and applications, yielding an interesting overview of interdisciplinary and international approaches. The book’s main sections address forms and content of social media; impact and users; management with social media; and a new value chain with social media. The book will serve as a valuable reference work for researchers, students and professionals working in media and public relations.

In the early part of the 20th century, state and corporate propagandists used the mass media to promote the valor and rightness of ascending U.S. hegemony on the global stage. Critics who challenged these practices of mass persuasion were quickly discredited by the emergent field of communication research - a field explicitly attempting to measure and thereby improve the efficacy of media messages. Three strains of critical cultural and media theory were especially engaged with the continued critique of the role of commodified, industrially produced, mass distributed culture- the Cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School, the Cultural Materialism and active audiences of Cultural Studies, and Critical Political Economy of Communication. This book examines these three paradigms, illustrating the major tensions and points of agreement between them, particularly in relation to the dominant paradigms of administrative social science research and media ecology within communication and media studies more broadly. From the perspective of the emergent cultural environment, Hegemony, American Mass Media and Cultural Studies argues that the original points of disagreement between these paradigms appear less contradictory than before. In doing so it offers a new theoretical toolkit for those seeking to understand the current struggles for a more just, more democratic media, culture, and society.

Publisher Description