4,999 research outputs found
Resistance of channels: television distribution in the multiplatform era
This article focuses on distribution of television and, using BBC Three as a case study, provides an in-depth examination of how broadcastersâ strategies for packaging and distributing content are being re-considered in response to newly emerging patterns of audience behaviour and demand. It considers the extent to which the role of the broadcast channel â traditionally the main vector via which audiences have enjoyed television content - may now be threatened by the rise of online rivals and accompanying pressures to adjust to a digital multiplatform environment. Drawing on the experience of BBC Three, the research question it asks is: to what extent is there an economic justification for switching from âthe channelâ as the distribution format to an online-only service? The original findings presented are based on analysis of the finances of BBC Three, on evidence gathered through a series of in-depth interviews carried out with senior executives at the BBC, and on analysis of secondary source data and public policy statements and performance reviews. They provide an empirically based contribution to knowledge about how growth of the internet is prompting public service suppliers of media to reconsider and adjust their strategies for distribution of television content and, more generally, to understanding of contemporary strategies for re-invention and survival in the television industry
Co-opetition of TV broadcasters in online video markets : a winning strategy?
This article focuses on TV broadcasters adopting co-opetition strategies for launching online video services. It is claimed that the emergence of online video platforms like YouTube and Netflix is driving TV broadcasters to collaborate with their closest competitors to reduce costs and reach the necessary scale in the global marketplace. The article sheds light on online video platforms that were developed following a co-opetition strategy (Hulu and YouView). The establishment of joint ventures in online video, however, has been scrutinised by competition authorities which fear that collaboration between close competitors lessens rivalry and reduces consumer choice. Therefore, several co-opetition projects (among others BBCâs Kangaroo and Germanyâs Gold) have been prohibited by competition authorities
Smart radio and audio apps: the politics and paradoxes of listening to (anti-) social media
The recent crop of vocal social media applications tends to appeal to users in terms of getting their voices heard loud and clear. Indeed, it is striking how often verbs like âshoutâ and âboastâ and âbragâ are associated with microcasting platforms with such noisy names as Shoutcast, Audioboom, Hubbub, Yappie, Boast and ShoutOmatic. In other words, these audio social media are often promoted in rather unsociable terms, appealing less to the promise of a new communicative exchange than to the fantasy that we will each can be at the centre of attention of an infinite audience.
Meanwhile, many of the new forms of online radio sell their services to listeners as offering âbespokeâ or âresponsiveâ programming (or âaudiofeedsâ), building up a personal listening experience that meets their individual needs and predilictions. The role of listening in this new media ecology is characterised, then, by similarly contradictory trends. Listening is increasingly personalised, privatised, masterable and measurable, but also newly shareable, networked and, potentially, public.
The promotional framing of these new media suggests a key contradiction at play in these new forms of radio and audio, speaking to a neo-liberal desire for a decentralization of broadcasting to the point where every individual has a voice, but where the idea of the audience is invoked as a mass network of anonymous and yet thoroughly privatised listeners.
Focusing on the promotion and affordances of these various new radio- and radio-like applications for sharing speech online, this article seeks to interrogate what is at stake in these contradictions in terms of the ongoing politics, experience and ethics of listening in a mediated world
Online Radio: A Social Media Business?
Digitisation and the internet have enabled the emergence of free digital music streaming services, like Last.fm, Spotify and We-7, and online-only radio services like Mixcloud, which disintermediate the traditional broadcast radio stationâs role as a gatekeeper between the music industry and the listener (Weichmann, 2009). UK radio broadcasters have responded to these challengers with their own webcasting and with a platform â Radioplayer â created by a unique collaboration between BBC and commercial radio stations. Although online listening is still small compared to broadcast audiences, the potential exists for social media to transform the way audiences listen to music online and on mobile devices (Ofcom, 2011).
This chapter proposes a new analytical framework to analyse the different services offered by traditional and digital radio and music services and to evaluate their performance,from an audience perspective. Having differentiated the various services within a competitive field, the chapter gives a more detailed examination to two innovative companies â Radioplayer and Mixcloud - which are attempting to redefine radio services online, on mobile and on social media. The particular focus of the final part of the chapter is in applying the analytical framework to analyse and evaluate the performance of the social media applications implemented by these companies, in comparison with a key competitor, Spotify
THE ACCUSED IS ENTERING THE COURTROOM: THE LIVE-TWEETING OF A MURDER TRIAL.
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThe use of social media is now widely accepted within journalism as an outlet for news information. Live tweeting of unfolding events is standard practice. In March 2014, Oscar Pistorius went on trial in the Gauteng High Court for murder. Hundreds of journalists present began live-tweeting coverage, an unprecedented combination of international interest, permission to use technology and access which resulted in massive streams of consciousness reports of events as they unfolded. Based on a corpus of Twitter feeds of twenty-four journalists covering the trial, this study analyses the content and strategies of these feeds in order to present an understanding of how microblogging is used as a live reporting tool. This study shows the development of standardised language and strategies in reporting on Twitter, concluding that journalists adopt a narrow range of approaches, with no significant variation in terms of gender, location, or medium. This is in contrast to earlier studies in the field (Awad, 2006, Hedman, 2015; Kothari, 2010; Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, & Howes, 2009 Lasorsa, 2012; Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton, 2011; Sigal, 1999, Vis, 2013).Peer reviewe
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Outsourcing in the UK television industry: A global value chain analysis
The aim of this study is twofold. First, it identifies outsourcing as a growing trend in the media industries: as leading media corporations integrate vertically and invest in segments that increase their asset specificity, they are also withdrawing from other segments and delegating a growing number of tasks to suppliers. This article uses the United Kingdom as a case study to demonstrate that while broadcasters are investing in TV content production, they are also stepping away from technology investments and media delivery tasks. It is a significant phenomenon that contributes to redefine the scope of companies whose engineering know-how was part of their core activity. Then, this article analyses the consequences of outsourcing as it contributes to vertical disintegration and the formation of global value chains in the media industries. It is also creating power asymmetries between lead firms and suppliers that have an impact on the type of M&A activities these companies pursue . The second contribution is theoretical in scope, as this article aims to state a case for GVC analysis in media and communication studies, showing the benefits of placing the evolution of the media industries in the context of long-term trends in the world economy
Live Blogging and Social Media Curation: Challenges and Opportunities for Journalism
Blogging and social mediaâs contribution to a realignment of the relationship between journalists and their audiences is discussed by Einar Thorsen in Live Blogging and Social Media Curation. Journalists are facing challenges to preserve traditional standards, such as verification of information and sources, whilst also capitalising on the opportunities afforded by the immediacy, transparency and interactive nature of online communication. Thorsen analyses these issues through two case studies: one focuses on âliveâ blogging and elections, and a second looks at the role of social media in the Arab Spring. He demonstrates how journalists face new challenges in relation to social media curation, whilst the emergent forms and practices also present a wealth of opportunities
Digital libraries and the future of the library profession
To argue that unique contemporary cultural shifts are leading to a new form of librarianship that can be characterised as "postmodern" in nature, and that this form of professional specialism will be increasingly influential in the decades to come
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