This document discusses an approach called "J-Ethinomics" that combines journalism, ethics and economics to help improve society and sustain the media business. It aims to use ethical practices to build public trust and attract audiences and advertisers. Media industries currently face problems like lack of trust, corporate influence and economic difficulties. J-Ethinomics proposes focusing on public interest and serving audiences to make media more profitable. Reporting ethically while respecting editorial control can help construct a sustainable business model for digital media.

1. Media Ethinomics
Shahab Ali
IIUI
Mass Communication
MS-3rd

2. J-Ethinomics is an innovative
approach that combines
 Journalism, ethics and economics to guide
towards use of media ethics to help improve
the society and, more importantly, sustain the
media business in an age where media is fast
losing public trust and advertising

3. J-Ethinomics Goal
 Use media ethics to survive
 We can use ethics as a way to improve
the trust that creates demand among
audiences and advertisers.

4. Problems of Media Industry
 Lack of Public Trust
◦ Unethical Practices
◦ Corporatization
◦ Irrelevancy
 Economic Difficulties
◦ Shrinking Business Prospect
◦ Threat from Internet-based Media

5. J-Ethinomics Methods
 Seize the opportunity
 Ethics is a great opportunity to make news org
economically sustainable; build public trust in the
media to make audiences more inclined to pay
for news & attract advertisers.
 Public interest is the key factor
 If we serve the public interest, audiences will
demand enough news to make media profitable.

6. Social Responsibility
 A set of duties that journalists have.
 Responsibility implies trust - an unofficial
pact between the journalist and audience.
 Some examples of topics in the public interest:
the actions of public figures (i.e. politicians
and business
 leaders), an electoral process, or changes in
the economy that impact people.

7. But Ethics Depends on My Boss
 Media content is influenced by ownership,
advertisements and government control. Our
ethics as a journalist often highly depend on
whether our superiors are allowing us to be
ethical.
 Meet, talk & express if you have ethical concerns
in respectful manner and be diplomatic

8. New Business Model
 Reporting with this new approach to
teaching and thinking about media
ethics.
 Moving beyond a traditional approach
to ethics, by introducing an innovative
strategy for journalism ethics.
 Serve the public interest through the
use of ethical practices, to construct a
solid business model for digital age
media.

9. Rupert
Murdoch
•
•
•
• Australian
• 1953 RM inherited 2 newspapers.
• 1970s RM bought San Antonio Express-News & The New York
Post.Founded the Star (gossip tabloid).
1981 purchases the London Times.
1980s Buys 20th Century Fox film studios & multiple U.S.
television stations.
• Launches Fox network.
• Buys TV Guide to promote his network.
• Fox: The Simpsons, X-Files American Idol, House.
• 1990s Fox News, FX, Fox Business Channel.
• 2005 News Corp purchases Shine Group (distributor $580
million).
• 2008 MySpaceTV partnered with British ShineReveille
International (DVD distributor) for content. (Elisabeth Murdoch is
CEO of Shine Group).
2006 Dow Jones & Wall Street Journal purchased by News
Corp for $5.6 billion.
• 2011 hacking scandal, closes News of The World (UK paper).
• 2012 ethics scandal.

10. Structure of the Media
Industry
Three common economic structures of
the media industry
 Monopoly
 Oligopoly
 Limited competition

11. Monopoly
• Single firm dominates production &
distribution or a particular industry.
• AT&T has a government approved monopoly for over 100 years, until
the 1980s.
•
• 2002 Microsoft accused of monopolistic practices for controlling more
than 80% of operating systems. Computers coming pre-loaded with
Microsoft OS & products.
LOCAL or worldwide monopolies can occur.

12. Oligopoly
• Few firms dominate an industry.
• Book publishing & feature film industry
are oligopolies.
• 5 or 6 major companies that control the
production & distribution of the
majority of content.
• MUSIC: Warner Music, Sony, Universal, EMI

13. How does the media make
money?
• Direct payments (consumer buys
media product).
• Indirect payments (media product is
free to consumer, paid for by
advertising).

14. Economies of Scale
Principle
• Increasing production should lead to
reduction of cost of product.

15. How Media Companies are
assessed
• Profit
• Production costs
• Price setting
• Market strategies
• Introduction of new technologies
• New products & services

16. Regulation & Deregulation
• Monopolists of the 1800s:
John D. Rockefeller (oil), Cornelius Vanderbilt (shipping &
railroads), & Andrew Carnegie (steel).
1890 US congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. Outlawing
monopolies that made it impossible for new businesses to enter
the market.
1914 Clayton Antitrust Act: prohibited manufacturers from selling
only to dealers & contractors who agreed to reject competitor’s
products.

17. Regulation & Deregulation
• 1950 Celler-Kefauver Act, limited
corporate mergers that affected
competition.
• FTC enforces regulation today.

18. Deregulation
• Until 2008 financial crises, government
regulation was seen to encumber
business & the economy.
• Business owners celebrate “FREE”
market practices (anything goes
economics).

19. Deregulation
• President Jimmy Carter (1977-81)
initiated deregulation.
• Ronald Reagan (1981-89) deregulated
quite severely.
• Consequences of deregulaiton: 2009
Enron, 2005 fraud WorldCom &
Adelphia, 2008 financial crisis.
• BUT BIG PROFITS WERE MADE

20. Deregulation
•
•
•
•
•
1996 Telecommunications Act (Pres. Clinton) lifted most
restrictions on how many radio & TV stations one corporation
could own.
CONSOLIDATION of radio & TV ownership.
7 powerful regional telephone companies allowed into TV &
radio.
Cable operators gained the right to freely raise their rates &
compete in local telephone market.
Result: price of expanded basic cable service jumped 122%
from 1995 to 2008 (three times the rate of inflation).
• Cost of monthly telephone landline increased by 20%.
Introduction of mobile phone offset landlines.
Comcast & AT&T try to corner all communications through
“bundling”. Internet, phone, mobile, satellite.

21. Deregulation Today
• 1995 FCC allowed Murdoch (Australian)
many US media outlets.
• WWI government feared foreign
ownership of media outlets to be
dangerous to national security. Only
20% of market could be owned by
foreign investment. Murdoch changed
citizenship in 2004 to avoid problems.

22. Deregulation Today
2007 FCC rules relaxed allowing cross-
ownership of newspaper & TV.
• Previously a company could not own a
newspaper & a broadcast outlet in the
same market.

23. Media Powerhouses
• 1980s: GE purchased RCA/NBC
• 1996 Microsoft partnered with NBC: MSNBC.
• 2005 NBC Universal partnered with
MSNBC.com
• 1995 Disney acquired ABC ($19 billion).
• Time Warner & AOL merged ($106 billion).
• 2001 AT&T unites with Comcast
• 2009 Comcast purchased NBC Universal
from GE.

28. Trends in Media Business
Practices
• “Flexibility” new, fleeting rather than
traditional.
• Individual consumer preferences
• Cheap labor
• Quick, high-volume sales
• Niche markets

29. Trends in Media Business
Practices
• 80-90% of new ventures fail.
• Dozens of films made 1 or 2 hits.
• Merchandising
• DVD
• Oversea sales
• Downloading digital product

30. Trends in Media Business
Practices
• “Globalized” workforce.
• Outsourcing
• US Labor Unions:
• 1955- 35% of workforce
• 1983- 20%
• 2008- 12% (Canada 30%)

31. Trends in Media Business
Practices
• Downsizing- less workers, more
efficient, profitable companies.
• Wage Gap- 2004, 45% of
Americans $26K per year.
• 1970 to 1999 workers had a 10%
increase in pay. CEO salaries went
from 39-times a worker’s salary to
1,000-times a worker’s salary
(1970-1999).

32. Hegemony
• The acceptance of the dominant values
in a culture by those who are
subordinate to those who hold power.
Antonio Gramsci
The engineering of
consent

33. Hegemony
• “If companies or politicians convinced
consumers and citizens that the
interests of the powerful were common
sense and therefore normal or natural,
they also created an atmosphere and
context in which there was less chance
of challenge of criticism.” Media & Culture, 2011.

34. The Narrative
• Common sense, “just the way things
are,” “down home,”storytelling, myths.
• Symbolically transferred.

35. Hegemony
Television, film, music, magazines,
newspapers, & books reinforce
narratives.

36. Globalization
• 1947 GATT General Agreement on
Tariffs & Trade
• 1995 WTO World Trade Organization
NAFTA (1994) North American Free
Trade Agreement
• Low-wage jobs in countries with little or
no worker’s regulations.

37. Specialization
• Specialized, niche market media.
• BET
• Seventeen
• AARP
• A&E
• Cartoon Network

38. Synergy
• Promotion & sale of different versions of
a media product across the various
subsidiaries of a conglomerate.
• Time Warner HBO “making of” a
Warner Brothers movie, reviewed in
Time magazine.

39. Conglomerate
• PBS:

40. Equating free market or capitalism
with democracy

41. Consumer choice
&
Consumer control
Media literacy
Consumer literacy

42. Cultural Imperialism

43. Thank you