Industry Perspectives
Media Management and Leadership
Media Economics
Information Technologies
Competitive Strategies
Corporate Responsibility

Industry Perspectives:
The media industry today embraces the most varied, dynamic, and powerful of businesses, which pervade virtually every aspect of human endeavor and thought. What are the forces and aspirations that shape these multi-faceted businesses, and what are management visions, strategies, and practices that lead to the creation of valuable media "properties". With some historical perspective this course mainly peers forward into the infrastructure of major contemporary media entities. What are key similarities and differences in the transactional models, financial characteristics, and practices of content origination among film, television, radio, music, publishing, and online enterprises of varying scale and scope. An analytical survey is advanced through practical exercises in interpreting and creating agreements, promotional materials, business proposals, and strategy statements, the workings of which illuminate the real blueprints of these businesses. Finally, the course assesses how media companies mutate, grow, and sometimes die in the face of accelerating changes in communication technology.

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Media Management and Leadership:
Dramatic changes in technology and in the media's role in converging technologies require new management and leadership techniques and paradigms. The ability to manage and value content, along with the more traditional work of planning and organizing processes and directing employees, is crucial for contemporary media managers.

What are the distinctive challenges involved in managing technological change and its impact on media content, distribution, and presentation? What are the most effective ways to manage creative people who generate intriguing, arresting content? How can managers facilitate the production of strategies that position media organizations competitively against other entertainment and information providers?

This course uses case-study discussion and analysis to examine the latest theory and practice in these areas and emphasizes broadcast media.

Topics Covered:

• Company values
• Working with the wrong person
• New managers
• Management tools that work
• Mission statements
• How to manage creative people
• Dealing with the problem boss
• Game theory
• Managing technological change
• Hiring
• Developing winning strategies
• Programming strategy in television
• The executive as coach

Media Economics:
An understanding of the economics of today's media industry is essential to investors, owners, and managers. The emerging information economy offers a unique range of challenges to traditional business models as well as unparalleled opportunities. In order to address this situation, Media Economics introduces students to key revenue and expense components of all media segments— newspapers, radio, television, cable, and "new media"—as well as evaluating each medium from the perspective of an owner, consumer/user, customer/advertiser, and employee.

Topics Covered:

• The business of media
• Defining media economics
• Media without content (directories, etc.)
• Newspapers, the first modern medium
• Magazines from "mass" to "niche"
• Radio, the first electronic medium
• Network television
• Cable TV and a new distribution model
• New media, a business or a dream?

Information Technologies:
With the advent of inexpensive streaming video and audio over the Internet, arbitrary publishing by anyone, and effortless, undetectable copying of intellectual property, it's not clear exactly what "media" is anymore. To manage it, you have to have an idea of what it is and where it is going. Even as it is being "managed," the information and communication environment seems to have a mind of its own. More precisely, it is co-evolving with people's needs, uses, and expectations. Media has enormous social influence; the confluence of media that we are witnessing will provoke dramatic changes in the way we work and play.

In such an environment, what should media managers focus on? How can they help their companies survive change and end up better prepared for whatever new configuration of power, access and revenues we see in ten years? Students use the medium to investigate the medium, building collective resources to serve them at work. Without becoming a graduate seminar in electrical engineering, this course explores the dynamics of media industries and the people who depend on them, so media managers can approach decisions with informed, skeptical optimism.

Topics Covered:

• How the infrastructure works
• The social dimension: community and communication
• Trust and identity
• Traditional media - with a twist
• Changes in world view
• Revenue models
• The role of language and metaphor
• The future of publishing, broadcasting, and the telephone

Competitive Strategies:
How can media companies achieve and maintain an entrepreneurial edge? Differentiation from competitors' positions is a primary concept in creating corporate value. This course applies the analytical tools developed in other courses to address strategic issues and planning challenges. Opportunities to increase revenues, streamline costs and realize appreciation of assets are the focus.

Students are exposed to the strategic considerations in evaluating opportunities to secure a sustainable competitive advantage through new channels, closer customer relationships, partnerships and strategic alliances, and tailoring corporate activities.

Topics Covered:

• Leadership and strategy
• Competitive convergence
• The productivity frontier
• Operational effectiveness
• Strategic positioning
• Generic strategies
• Tailoring corporate activities
• Fit and sustainability

Corporate Responsibility:
Media companies play a unique and powerful role in both the creation and growth of today's global information economy. The information industries are a part of a broader political and environment context. What are the ethical and legal dimensions of corporate responsibility for today's media businesses? What must media managers know about intellectual property, privacy rights, government regulation, community participation, and the politics of the information economy in order to manage effectively for growth and change?

This course provides an overview of the legal, ethical, and political role and responsibility of media companies in global culture.

Topics Covered:

• Ethics and society
• The politics of information
• Information, equality and access
• Privacy and the media
• Corporate liability
• The first amendment
• Censorship, obscenity and violence
• Intellectual property
• Corporate and government speech
• Telecommunications law
• Entertainment law
• Economic imperatives and social responsibility
• Global, corporate and individual interest
• Corporate philanthropy
• Media companies and political action
• Information industries and the environment