Audiências, consumidores e cidadãos: implicações das mudanças nas relações dos operadores de serviço público

Os media encontram-se perante um cenário muito diferente daquele que existia aquando da fundação da RTP, há 50 anos, o qual se caracterizava pela complexidade e pela turbulência do mercado. O primeiro aspecto resulta das dificuldades com as quais se debatem as empresas de comunicação, enquanto o segundo decorre da instabilidade e da falta de orientação clara nos mercados, factores que originam incerteza e riscos estratégicos. As pressões sobre os media são provocadas por cinco factores decisivos subjacentes ao desenvolvimento contemporâneo do sector: abundância de meios de comunicação; fragmentação e polarização das audiências; desenvolvimento de carteiras de produtos; erosão da força das empresas de media; e alterações de poder no processo comunicacional. O primeiro factor torna-se visível através do acréscimo dramático de tipos e unidades de media, bem como do crescimento da oferta, que excede largamente o aumento de procura em termos monetários e temporais. Dispararam a quantidade de páginas dos jornais e o número de horas diárias de emissão (tanto de rádio como de televisão) e de revistas e livros publicados. Nesta altura, as condições técnicas e económicas e as políticas públicas fomentam o aparecimento de novos fornecedores de conteúdos, aumentando, dramaticamente, a oferta de empresas

How Europe talks about itself: Lessons from the Euro Crisis

Although the continuing Euro Crisis is currently being overshadowed by the refugee crisis in Europe, its economic and political effects continue to shake the foundation of Europe and dampen national economies

Picard: We must keep the focus on why plurality is important

Robert G. Picard is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, a research fellow at Green Templeton College (Oxford), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Here he argues that digital intermediaries should not be ignored in the debates over media pluralism, particularly when they perform editorial functions. This post is part of our series on the role of digital intermediaries in media plurality

Book review: What Society needs from Media in the Age of digital communication, by Robert G. Picard

Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impact on the abilities of individuals to communicate and how society communicates within itself. Such changes are important because media convey ideas, opinions, information, social values, experiences, and entertainment and those are influenced by social, economic, and political forces in society. The changing nature of communication is especially important because media and communication platforms are increasingly the primary location in which contemporary identity, culture, and values and norms are manifested and contested

Book review: What Society needs from Media in the Age of digital communication, by Robert G. Picard

Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impact on the abilities of individuals to communicate and how society communicates within itself. Such changes are important because media convey ideas, opinions, information, social values, experiences, and entertainment and those are influenced by social, economic, and political forces in society. The changing nature of communication is especially important because media and communication platforms are increasingly the primary location in which contemporary identity, culture, and values and norms are manifested and contested

The Rise and Expansion of Research in Media Economics

Media economics is the study of choices, what incentives and disincentives influence them, and how to make better choices to inform company decisions, public understanding, and policymaking. The present paper reviews the development of the field since the beginning in the 1970s with scholars such as Alfonso Nieto at the University of Navarra, Nadine Toussaint Desmoulins at the University of Paris 2, and Karl Erik Gustafsson at the University of Gothenburg to the emerging of the field with more scholars from different countries. Nowadays the field of media economics research has matured and become multifaceted, encompassing a wide variety of theories and approaches necessary to explore multiple developments and issues in media structures and operations. It is particularly relevant because media and communications are amid a massive transformation created by technology, social changes, and changes in demand. Expansion of commercial media and personal communications, new means of production and distribution, and new economic arrangements are altering well established relationship and interactions in media. This situation requires clear mindedness and knowledge to comprehend the developments and to develop the best individual, firm, and social responses to the challenges arising from the changes

When Reporters get Hands-on with Robo-writing: Professionals Consider Automated Journalism’s Capabilities and Consequences

The availability of data feeds, the demand for news on digital devices, and advances in algorithms are helping to make automated journalism more prevalent. This article extends the literature on the subject by analysing professional journalists’ experiences with, and opinions about, the technology. Uniquely, the participants were drawn from a range of news organizations—including the BBC, CNN, and Thomson Reuters—and had first-hand experience working with robo-writing software provided by one of the leading technology suppliers. The results reveal journalists’ judgements on the limitations of automation, including the nature of its sources and the sensitivity of its “nose for news”. Nonetheless, journalists believe that automated journalism will become more common, increasing the depth, breadth, specificity, and immediacy of information available. While some news organizations and consumers may benefit, such changes raise ethical and societal issues and, counter-intuitively perhaps, may increase the need for skills—news judgement, curiosity, and scepticism—that human journalists embody