Media Economics and Management

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of key concepts and terms in media economics and management and explains their applications using relevant data. Beginning with a conceptual study of media markets, industry structures, firm behaviour, public policy, production, pricing and consumption choices in media industries, the book uses the framework to present an in-depth examination of the management of four major media industry sectors in India: newspaper publishing, television broadcasting, film and digital media industries. It also deals with two topics relevant across media business sectors: creative industries approaches and copyright issues. The book discusses the economic forces and factors that shape the workings of media industries and institutions in India to highlight trends in a business that is rapidly evolving, highly profitable and marked by regional, linguistic, economic and cultural diversity. This volume is a step towards formalising the emerging field of media economics and management within the discipline of mass communication and journalism as an area of research and education in India.

An accessible guide to the basic principles and concepts of media economics and management, with illustrations from Indian and global media industries, this will be an essential resource for students, researchers and teachers of media and communication studies, media economics and management, political economy and sociology as well as for professionals in media industries.

1. Understanding media products, firms and markets

2. Media firms: revenues, costs, demand, supply and pricing

3. Audiences and advertising markets

4. Media economics and public policy

5. Economics and management of newspaper publishing

6. Economics and management of television broadcasting

7. Economics and management of the film industry

8. Economics and management of digital media

9. Media as creative industries

10. Copyrights and media business

Sathya Prakash Elavarthi is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad, India. He teaches media management, documentary theory and film theory and criticism. His research interests include political economy of media, media histories, film studies and digital cultures. His recent works include book chapters in Handbooks in Communication Science: Management and Economics of Communication (2020), and Indian Media Economy Vol. II – Market Dynamics and Social Transactions (2017).

Sunitha Chitrapu is an independent researcher based in Mumbai, India. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She was formerly Head of the Social Communications Media Department, Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai, where she is currently visiting faculty for Communications Research, Media and Society. Her research interests include the political economy of media, media trade and modernities. Her work has been published in Culture Unbound, Journal of Creative Communications,Social Movement Studies Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, Handbooks in Communication Science: Management and Economics of Communication (2020), and in Indian Media Economy Vol. II – Market Dynamics and Social Transactions (2017).