Media and Entertainment Management

The title 'Soca mind' suggests two main elements that this dissertation evolves around. 'Soca' represents soca music and soca music industry of Trinidad and Tobago, while 'mind' represents human behaviors, values, attitudes in other words, the culture.

The history of Hollywood runs in tandem with the history of technological develop- ment. The inclusion of sound, followed by that of color, along with the need to adapt to new audiovisual media (first television and then video), are milestones in the history of the largest entertainment factory in the world. Each of these forms of technological development in turn marked a growing pain or turning point at the time of its invention, by which the Hollywood industry was ultimately strengthened. However, the changes over the last decade have been both more fast-paced and more far-reaching than anything that came before. The digital revolution and globalization have transformed the film and TV industry in ways that could never have been foreseen. The big Hollywood studios have been forced to respond to the uncertainty—and potential for profit—prompted by the popularity of the Internet and the success of new digital platforms, especially among young people.
This chapter is an attempt to trace the recent evolution of the present and future challenges the Hollywood industry is facing up in this paradigm shift—from analogical to digital. In order to respond to the complex nature of this phenomenon, I will try to cover, in an exploratory way, a different set of topics, going from the change in consumption habits and the emergence of new virtual markets to the clash of management mentalities, the search for the right business model and a summary of some of the key transformations the entertainment industry is experiencing.

Perceptions of media characters are important determinants of the enjoyment of media content, especially with regard to narrative media forms. Affective disposition theory (ADT) states that "enjoyment of media content is a function of a viewer's affective disposition toward characters and the story line outcomes associated with those characters" (Raney, 2004, p.349).
Currently, there is an evolution of characters in narrative media forms whereby formerly morally clear protagonists are increasingly becoming morally ambiguous characters. This evolution is particularly evident in television shows. Indeed, more and more morally ambiguous characters, whom viewers cannot identify as either purely good or purely bad (Krakowiak & Tsay Vogel, 2013), are becoming the central character in popular television shows, such as 24, Dexter, Breaking Bad, and American Horror Story. This new type of fictional characters is captivating the attention of scholars and media researchers. However, nearly all these previous research arrives at a similar conclusion that ambiguous characters are either “good guys” who behave badly or “bad guys” that behave well (Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013). These definitions thus presume that these characters are good or bad at their heart, but that they provide mixed signals to the audience.
For that reason, this paper's agenda attempts to provide a new definition of morally ambiguous characters. In doing so, the paper will point out shortcomings of previous work that focuses on categorizing morally ambiguous characters in terms of prototypical character roles. In addition, this paper discusses how enjoyment relates to ambiguous characters through an inseparable relation with narrative complexity, especially in television shows and feature films. Through those two goals, this paper attempts to explain why viewers may enjoy morally ambiguous characters more than clearly defined characters, and why viewers may enjoy narrative complexity more than narrative simplicity.

From its very inception, the history of the movie industry has been closely linked to the history of technological development. However, the changes caused by the digital revolution are transforming the film industry in a more fast-paced and more far-reaching scale than anything that came before. Producers, distributors and exhibitors are being forced to respond to the popularity of the Internet and the success of the digital platforms. As a consequence the ways of consuming movies are dramatically changing and the film industry is desperately trying to readapt itself to this new scenario.

This chapter is focused on the profound transformations the film industry is undergoing at every level due to the disruptive power of digitisation. In particular, I will address here the main changes affecting distribution, exhibition and consumption of movies. The first section can be considered a framework to contextualise this change of paradigm, from analog to digital. In there, I will approach two key issues, closely linked to each other, in regard to this new matrix: the emergence of a new type of consumer and the consolidation of the online markets. The core of the chapter is devoted to identify and explain the main changes in distributing, exhibiting and consuming movies. In the case of distribution, the disruptive power of digitisation is demanding new forms of disintermediation, whereas conventional windows need to be reformulated. In addition, exhibitors need to readapt themselves to the new digital scenario, upgrading cinemas’ technological standards and diversifying their business model. Regarding consumption, audience demands a customized way of enjoying entertainment, with freedom of choice, unlimited access and a high grade of flexibility and portability. Finally, I will draw some conclusions and remarks, although they will be necessarily open

Along the first century of cinema, the history of the relationship between Europe and Hollywood has been one of ‘love’ and ‘hate’. Nowadays, thanks to the effects of globalization on the film production process —internationalization of capital, talent and infrastructures—, it has become a ‘marriage of convenience’. In fact, this peculiar romance is sustained by paradoxical strategies of cooperation and competition —especially in the case of Europe.
This book identifies these two series of cooperative and competitive strategies developed by Hollywood and the European film industries during the last decade, and attempts to figure out whether it could be considered a case of ‘coopetition’, as it is understood by the business management theory. Distribution partnerships, financial co-productions, runaway productions, European ‘blockbusters’, European public and private financial initiatives and the promotion of national or local cinema are just some of the tactics explored in these pages.
Far from being balanced, these relationships between Europe and Hollywood are asymmetrically evolving on a global scenario, adopting new forms under the cooperation-competition dynamic. The quid of the question, of course, is to determine up to what point this ‘marriage of convenience’ is really based on mutual reciprocity or if it could be described more like a kind of ‘sleeping with the enemy’ situation.
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This chapter points to the need to augment the broadly humanities based perspective on transmedia with the business and management studies perspectives on transmedia for tackling the growing complexity of the transmedia phenomenon. The chapter introduces the most important notions, aspects and dimensions of managing transmedia storytelling/worldbuilding efforts. It distinguishes different levels of analysis: product level, firm level, as well as industry and society level.

Written by leading industry executives from various areas of the audiovisual business, The Audiovisual Management Handbook is an impressive compilation of information explaining the rules of the game in the European audiovisual industry. This publication offers a unique managerial insight to both the experienced audiovisual professional as well as those entrepreneurs just getting started in the business, providing a complete manual which has been considered the ‘bible’ of the audiovisual business. It outlines in detail all management issues involved in audiovisual production: from acquiring scripts, developing a business plan and pre-production; to purchasing insurances, financing, designing advance marketing strategies and maximising revenues from all windows, in the film, television and new media markets in Europe today.

Media economics in India has been triggered from three quarters: debates in the political economy of media culture; reflections on sectors of media businesses; and, over the last decade, by the flashpoints in media policy. This undulating scholarly corpus has nevertheless drawn sustenance from a wide variety of theoretical and methodological quarters. These varied influences reflect, to a large extent, conscious desires to grasp the ‘economic’ phenomenon constituting the media in their deeper, often peculiarly Indian, social and historical contexts. This is also perhaps why we find scholarship on India largely remaining aloof of intellectual orthodoxies marking the field media economics elsewhere in the world.

This book is intended for writers of feature motion pictures, and specifically for writers of original screenplays rather than adaptations from existing literary material.  The goal is for the writer to

• Sell his or her screenplay;
• Make the best deal for that screenplay;
• Get the film made; and
• Get his or her project back if the film does not go into production

This is not a “how to” book, since there is no one route to achieving these objectives.  Rather it is an introduction to important terms and concepts which the writer needs to know not only to meet his or her goals, but also to communicate and function in the motion picture industry.  Some of the terms and concepts are specific to the deal-making process.  Included are simple explanations of a few fundamental legal concepts.  Other terms extend into broader entertainment industry interests and concerns.

Although this book is aimed primarily at writers of original screenplays intended for production as feature motion pictures for initial release in theaters or on video-on-demand platforms, it also contains much information applicable to writers in general who have an interest in the entertainment industry, including novelists and authors of non-fiction books.  It should also prove useful to writers whose career goal is not to write original scripts, but rather to be employed doing adaptations of existing material such as novels, or doing rewrites of other writers’ screenplays.

The past decade has seen a transformation in the way television broadcasters have managed their businesses. This paper examines the theory of ‘dynamic capability’ in two UK television broadcasters, BskyB and ITV, and their attempts to transform themselves into multi-product, multi-platform media companies. Using Comparative Financial Analysis and Content Analysis in a time series, this paper illustrates how the strategic management of media firms can be significantly different for two companies operating in the same sector. This research demonstrates an original contribution to knowledge by providing evidence of the dynamic capability performance effects of significant players in UK television broadcasting.

De Nederlandse muziekindustrie bevindt zich op dit moment op een cruciaal punt in de geschiedenis. Door vele eeuwen heen is het vakgebied rondom de publicatie van muzikale werken met veel zorgvuldigheid gestructureerd in de vorm van een verdienmodel. In de laatste jaren is er  sprake van een merkbare spectaculaire toename van innovaties op deze markt. Dit is met name op digitaal vlak te merken met de opkomst van platformen op het internet zoals Youtube, Spotify en iTunes. Hierdoor is de gehandhaafde structuur van het huidige verdienmodel in het afgelopen decennium flink aan de tand gevoeld.

De innovaties in de markt blijken dusdanig revolutionair te zijn, dat in de vakliteratuur in de Verenigde Staten vanaf 2013 regelmatig sceptische artikelen verschijnen over de vanzelfsprekendheid van de rollen van bepaalde partijen in het huidige verdienmodel. Met name de noodzaak van auteursrechtenorganisaties worden hierbij openlijk in twijfel getrokken. De grootste muziekuitgevers dreigen zelfs hun muziek niet meer bij de auteursrechtenorganisaties te registreren, omdat zij deze taak intern willen afhandelen.

Op dit moment wordt er in de markt gesproken over de onvrede aangaande de effectiviteit van het huidige verdienmodel ten opzichte van deze revolutionaire ontwikkelingen. Men heeft echter nog niet uitgezocht hoe deze innovaties een concrete uitwerking zullen hebben op het huidige verdienmodel. Het achterliggende probleem van dit onderzoek is dus dat er op dit moment nog geen concrete beschrijving van de uitwerkingen op het huidige verdienmodel bestaat van deze digitale innovaties binnen de Nederlandse muziekindustrie.

Dit probleem brengt dus het vraagstuk “Wat zijn de uitwerkingen van relevante disruptieve innovaties op het verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie?” met zich mee.

Om deze vraag duidelijk te kunnen beantwoorden moet er eerst een helder en duidelijk afgebakend inzicht zijn verworven op het verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie. Dit wordt door middel van deskresearch uiteengezet. Na het winnen van dit inzicht wordt er een groep van vijf experts uit de Nederlandse muziekindustrie gevraagd twee vragenlijsten, elk bestaande uit vijf vragen verdeeld over twee ronden, te beantwoorden op basis van hun mening, die gebaseerd is op hun jarenlange vakkennis en werkervaring in de Nederlandse muziekindustrie. De focus van deze vragenlijsten ligt dus op het stellen van vragen met betrekking tot mogelijke wijzigingen in het huidige verdienmodel. Deze rondes brengen voornamelijk twee extreme invalshoeken aan het licht. 

Een van de twee invalshoeken die hierbij duidelijk naar voren komen is een conservatieve benadering van het huidige verdienmodel waarbij de nieuwe (digitale) partijen enkel toegevoegd zullen worden in het huidige verdienmodel. De tegenpool van deze invalshoek valt dan ook een zeer revolutionair of progressief te noemen. Bij deze tegenovergestelde extreme benadering zal het hele verdienmodel draaien om een enkele tussenpartij die als bemiddelaar dient tussen maker en luisteraar.

De twee extreme invalshoeken vanuit het expertpanel vormen dus de eerste twee scenario’s. Voortbouwend op de eerste twee scenario’s is er nog een derde scenario mogelijk die een combinatie is van de twee extreme scenario’s. Ook deze laatste mogelijkheid is uitgewerkt in een eigen situatieschets. Met het opstellen deze drie scenario’s is dus de centrale vraag van dit onderzoek beantwoord.
Een extra maar toch belangrijke toevoeging die voortvloeit uit de gewonnen kennis en inzichten die de scenario’s bieden in deze scriptie zijn dan ook mogelijke invalshoeken en bijbehorende onderwerpen voor vervolgonderzoek. Omdat binnen dit onderzoek de mogelijke wijzigingen binnen het toekomstig verdienmodel van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie concreet in kaart zijn gebracht, is het dus mogelijk geworden om met nieuwe invalshoeken naar onderwerpen voor toekomstig onderzoek te kijken. De drie nieuwe invalshoeken die het meest opvallen in deze scriptie zijn ten eerste makers van een muzikaal werk die hun werk in eigen beheer uitgeven, ten tweede de verhoudingen tussen meerdere mogelijke stromen van betalingen en vergoedingen richting artiesten en ten derde de machtsverhouding tussen consumenten en openbaarmakers van muzikale werken in de markt.

This study has endeavoured to establish how the creation of a music industry (MI) related baccalaureate could transform higher music education (HME) in South Africa (SA) to better prepare graduates for jobs in the MI. The project set out to meet its objectives through a six- phase process, as follows:
(I) In the first phase, a background study was conducted to determine the prevalence of MI qualifications. The size of the creative industry and its employment trends, opportunities and capacity were determined. Finally, trends in creative education and education, in general, were established.
(II) In the second phase, the curriculum was defined, various curriculum development and design methodologies were scrutinised, prominent educational reforms were interrogated, the South African educational structures were reviewed and higher music educational pathways, structures and trends were investigated.
(III) In the third phase, different music industry degrees, hosted at universities internationally, were inspected and reviewed to establish the content, assessment, outcomes, aims, rules of engagement, module distribution, articulation and generally to determine how these qualifications are constructed.
(IV) In the fourth phase, a needs assessment was conducted, in which I assembled and interviewed a group of 10 leading South African music industry stakeholders. In the interview process, I undertook to determine if a need exists for a music industry degree for the South African context, the needs of the South African music industry and the transformative value of such a qualification for students, the business and music education (ME).
(V) Following from the findings of phases I-IV, I designed a curriculum framework based on research conducted and suggestions offered by the stakeholder group.
(VI) In the sixth phase, an additional group of South African music industry insiders was interviewed to gain further comments on the form and structure of the framework, and to establish if, in their expert opinions, the curriculum designed would have a transformative effect on ME, graduates and the music industry in South Africa. Finally, based on the research conducted and stakeholder groups consulted, conclusions and recommendations were made.
The designed framework was created to inspire discussion regarding the introduction of MI education in SA and may result in the creation of an MI related qualification.
Various elements of the framework aimed specifically to encourage transformation, open up HME to a broader audience and better prepare graduates for non-performing careers in music. These may be summarised as follows:
(a) As the qualification is not strictly a music qualification, the lowering of the barrier to entry is justifiable, as students do not require prior access to a formal ME which will make the programme more accessible than typical degrees in music, to a more significant and diverse number of students, ensuring the future sustainability of music departments.
(b) The practical application of work taught in class, through interventions such as internships, will give students access to interactions with music students and the music profession, allowing them to gain a greater understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of the industry. This practical application will instil in them the ability to be adaptable and flexible in this continually evolving industry and will improve their chances of finding gainful employment which will also result in a dynamic and flexible curriculum that will remain in tune with current developments, because of its consistent interaction with the MI.
(c) By having access to entrepreneurial and humanities training, students will be able to better lead the industry, by identifying gaps in the market, establishing structures to deal with these gaps, generating more significant employment opportunities and having access to a more profound depth of knowledge, allowing them to be more creative.
(d) Finally, students will have access to music creation modules, giving them a better understanding of the music creation process, facilitating communication between the industry and creatives, allowing for the creation of more internationally competitive output and individuals who are more invested in promoting musicians’ creative output.
Based on the above and through a process of consultation with the two sample groups, it was concluded that the introduction of an MI related baccalaureate at SA universities might have a transformative effect on HME, the MI and graduates seeking employment.

Attraverso le figure dei Super Eroi il percorso dei ragazzi può aprirsi a collegamenti con grandi brani di Storia e Geografia del continente Americano e degli Stati Uniti in particolare, guardando dentro al contrasto (ancora in corso) con l’ex Unione Sovietica, al rapporto tra l’Europa del pre e post Muro di Berlino; comprendendo meglio l’attualità geografica, la minaccia del terrorismo (nuovo “nemico esterno” da combattere e perseguitare in tutto il mondo)... fino al tema dell’innovazione tecnologica con Bruce Wayne/Batman (all’avanguardia nella invenzione di congegni di controllo e azione degni della NSA), la “corsa allo spazio” storica e la fantascienza, i viaggi spaziali alla ricerca della vita al di fuori della Terra (Krypton)... In ognuna di queste storie si ritrovano tematiche sociali-culturali-politiche che possono essere meglio comprese dai proprio attraverso qualcosa che non si sospettava inerente allo studio scolastico.

1. Background. Though there is a prevailed discourse in the problem of government media and private media, both media sectors remain constitute a similar model in their administration as well as the conduction. While government media have been severely accused for their work for the interests of the existing government, private media is also administered for their commercial and financial objectives, neglecting the premier contribution of informing people. When these two bipolar disparity takes two different paths, the final judgment says they work for the equivalent propaganda for market purposes of the owners of the media. In an objective analysis, both political and commercial contribution of the media measure the identical value in the balance regardless of the two different paths. 2. Objectives. Objective of this study is to find out whether local media work in terms of their professional standards and ethics. In this, the significant aspects of local media management and their hidden agendas are studied in the perspective of political economy. Specific objectives; 1. To study the pragmatic objectives of media industry 2. To investigate the conduction of media ethics in the reporting.

Purpose: This article asserts that new, extremely popular modes of media services have arisen during the past 25 years that need to be critically categorized as different from the Mass Media we have known from the Industrial Era. These aggregational, extremely customized, new genus of media services, which I term collectively Individuated Media, arise solely from computer-mediated technologies, and are unprecedented before this century. All take marked advantage of a largely overlooked inherent limitation that Industrial Era technologies have but that Informational Era technologies don't. Method: Among four approaches toward a conceptual paper, this article uses model approach to explain this new concept and to suggest new connections to understand the phenomenon of individuated media. Findings: Among forms Individuated Media take are search engines, social media, and extant forms of individually customizable topical or genre services produced solely via computer-mediated technologies. The fulminant rise of these extremely popular Individuated Media is already causing them to supersede Mass Media products and services as the predominant means by which a significant portion of the world's population now obtains news, entertainment, and other information. This topological paper proposes a conceptual framework for defining this new genus and raises research questions for further study.

The Power of Media Algorithms – between Reification and the Market The aim of the article is to identify the power of algorithms interpreted as mythologized and reified culture machines which establish relations in the new media cyberspace of the algorithm culture. From the humanistic point of view, algorithms are understood as a relation between a code, project assumptions, the institutional and cultural context, and a user. In digital media ecosystems, we consider the presence of algorithms to be indispensable, and we attribute them with the redemptive potential of compensating for human limitations – they are supposed to restrict the bias of media, to perform browsing tasks, to recognise patterns, and to provide data compression and automatic correction. All of this is done better, faster, and more accurately than if performed by people. The analysis of the significance of media algorithms, and of the digital media technologies in general, scarcely goes beyond the simple schemes according to which they come across as ultra-modern, neutral (although not easy to be recognised) elements of IT infrastructure and management in the ecosystems of new media. Usually, the role of algorithms in media is perceived in the way the management of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other organisations would like to perceive it. Such organisations call themselves technological companies (not media organisations) without any influence on social attitudes and hence without any responsibility for them. When viewed in the context of the discussion about responsibility of new media (technological) organisations in the post-truth environment, the interpretation of algorithmic solutions in the category of power becomes not only legitimized but also indispensable.