Media Economics: Theory and Practice

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Alison Alexander
Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004 - Business & Economics - 301 pages
Media Economics: Theory and Practice focuses on the basic principles of economics in the business sector and applies them to contemporary media industries. This text examines the process of media economics decision making through an exploration of key topics, such as industrial restructuring, regulatory constraints upon media operations, and changing economic value, providing key insights into media business activities. With the structure and value of media industries changing rapidly and sometimes dramatically, this text moves beyond a basic documentation of historical patterns to help readers understand the mechanics of change, offering insight into the processes reproducing contemporary trends in media economics.


Thoroughly updated in this third edition, Media Economics focuses on the primary concerns of media economics, the techniques of economic and business analysis, and the overall characteristics of the media environment; and explores contemporary business practices within specific media industries, including newspaper, magazine, television, cable, movie, radio advertising, music, and online industries. New for this edition are chapters on the advertising, book publishing, and magazine publishing industries. Chapters contributed by expert scholars and researchers provide substantial discussions of the crucial topics and issues in the media industry sectors, and emphasize both domestic and international businesses.


Offering a thorough examination of the economic factors and forces concerning the media industries, Media Economics is appropriate for use as a course text for advanced media management and economics students. It also serves as an indispensable reference for scholars and researchers in media business arenas.

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About the author (2004)

Dr Alison Alexander is a seventh-generation Australian, with convict ancestors in the first, second and third fleet. She has worked as a freelance historian and as a lecturer and tutor in history at the University of Tasmania. Alison is editor of the "Companion to Tasmanian History" and has written seventeen commissioned histories of Tasmanian institutions. She has also written biographies of authors Mary Grant Bruce and Marie Bjelke-Petersen, and a combined biography of governors' wives and mistresses in early Van Diemen's Land.

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