Youth Media's Impact on Audience and Channels of Distribution

In partnership with the Open Society Institute, the Surdna Foundation supported a research and capacity building initiative focused on youth media's impact on audience. Social Policy Research Associates (http://www.spra.com), based out of the Bay Area, was hired to conduct a literature review of existing media evaluation models, develop a theory of youth media impact on audience, and create a toolkit, which was used to build the evaluation capacity of a regional group of youth media organizations

From television to multi-platform: less from more or more for less?

This article examines economic aspects of convergence and of multi-platform expansion in the media sector. Focusing on television broadcasters in the UK, it analyses the recent migration of conventional media towards multi-platform strategies and asks whether digitization is making content delivery more resource–intensive than before or whether it is facilitating greater efficiency. Findings suggest that adaptation to a multi-platform outlook on the part of conventional media requires investment in staffing and re-versioning of content. Funding this, especially in a period of economic downturn, has encouraged a more selective approach towards content, with concomitant implications for diversity. Notwithstanding generally low commercial returns from online activities so far, the potential economic advantages to be had from multi-platform are significant. The experience of UK broadcasters suggests a well-executed ‘360-degree’ approach to commissioning and distribution will increase the value that can be realized from any given universe of content, partly because of extended opportunities for consumption of that content, but also because modes of engagement in a digital multi-platform context allow for an improved audience experience and for better signalling of audience preferences back to suppliers

Faulty Metrics and the Future of Digital Journalism

This report explores the industry of Internet measurement and its impact on news organizations working online. It investigates this landscape through a combination of documentary research and interviews with measurement companies, trade groups, advertising agencies, media scholars, and journalists from national newspapers, regional papers, and online-only news ventures

Philanthropy and Social Media

We define social media as online or digital technologies that serve to connect people, information and organisations through networks. The term evolved as a way to -distinguish the emerging online -information platforms from traditional "broadcast media" -- TV, radio, film, newspapers -- by highlighting that these new tools -were "socialised" and allowed the audiences to contribute to their content. Social media have therefore become defined in relation to these existing media channels, but in fact they have their ancestry in existing social technologies, like the telephone and the letter. If traditional media connect people to information, social media connect people to people

Getting Local: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability

Examines eight nonprofit news ventures' mission, audience, reach, and social impact; revenue generation and diversification; and organizational adaptability, innovation, and resource allocation as critical elements of long-term sustainability

Like, Link, Share: How Cultural Institutions Are Embracing Digital Technology

This report shows how forty cultural innovators are investing in technology and media capacity to connect with new audiences in new ways, create new programs, and strengthen their operations. Established cultural insitutions face challenges as they grapple with rapidly changing technology. Taking full advantage of digital opportunities requires organizations to change their internal systems, work processes, and staff structures, and to tailor the development of digital capabilities to their individual programming, operational, and revenue strategies. However disrutive this process may be, digital strategy is no longer optional but essential. The public expects to engage with culture digitally, to sample and share, to connect and participate

The Business and Culture of Social Media: In Search of the People Formerly Known As the Audience

This presentation addresses three transformations: the transformation of the audience; of advertising models; and of media businesses. The talk describes how they were transformed first by digital technology, and how they are now being transformed by social media. It goes on to describe what we call the "three economies" which govern the era of social media and proposes some research needed in order to understand and to monetize the audiences of this era

Inefficiencies in Digital Advertising Markets

Digital advertising markets are growing and attracting increased scrutiny. This article explores four market inefficiencies that remain poorly understood: ad effect measurement, frictions between and within advertising channel members, ad blocking, and ad fraud. Although these topics are not unique to digital advertising, each manifests in unique ways in markets for digital ads. The authors identify relevant findings in the academic literature, recent developments in practice, and promising topics for future research