1. DR.
POEPSEL’S
RESEARCH
TECHNOLOGY, COMMUNICATIONS, AND
MANAGEMENT

2. BACKGROUND
1. Worked in television news for five years
2. Laid off and had already begun graduate
school
3. Master’s in Latin American Studies –
Marxist critical theory
4. Ph.D. in Journalism – dissertation: “The
Mutual Shaping of Technology in a News
Establishment: Social journalism and
organizational change”

3. TWO TOPICS
1. Clash between developments in
Information and Communication
Technologies & Media companies and
how the technologies and media
companies might influence one another.
2. Managing technological changes –
developing strategies to deal with all
sorts of technological changes.

4. MUTUAL SHAPING OF TECHNOLOGY
• Two schools of thought
“smooshed” together.
• DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS
• SOCIAL SHAPING OF
TECHNOLOGY

5. MUTUAL SHAPING
Innovations are developed ITERATIVELY.
Product development
and release -->
 Social use and
MEANING

6. MUTUAL SHAPING IN MEDIA
Information and Communication Technologies are developed
ITERATIVELY AND RAPIDLY; e.g., Facebook, Apple, etc. make changes
every few months.
Information
technology
development 
 Practical use
and demands

7. MUTUAL
SHAPING IS A
CONSTANT
PROCESS

8. MANAGEMENT
Three key elements:
1. The institution
2. The organization
3. The individual

9. INSTITUTIONS
• Made up of “rules,” norms and
common practices
• Ultimately they are myths, almost
belief systems
• Built for strength and longevity
more so than flexibility

10. ORGANIZATIONS
• Must balance the expectations of the
institution with the practices of real
people
• Difficult to form and maintain, i.e.
there’s a cost associated with simply
maintaining an organization (even one
that doesn’t play salaries).
• Where management happens
• When technology is a factor, they must
be more flexible

11. INDIVIDUAL
• Always the most flexible of these
levels
• Caught between myths of the
institution and the expectations of the
organization versus their personal
goals, beliefs, morals, and ethics
• Important as “managers” in a system
in flux

12. SO WHAT?!!
THE VALUES OF THE NEW DIGITAL ECONOMY
• LIKELY TO GROW IN IMPORTANCE:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Creativity
Entrepreneurialism
Flexibility
Individualism
Self-motivation
Ability to deal with failure and keep innovating
• LIKELY TO DECREASE IN IMPORTANCE:
• Ability to store knowledge
• Ability to master a single task and do it for 20 years
• Loyalty

13. WUH- WAIT A MINUTE
BEFORE YOU QUIT SCHOOL AND START A BLOG
(OR, PERHAPS, A CUPCAKE SHOP) PLEASE NOTE:
• Money for content is hard to come by.
• There are very few truly new ideas in media.
• BASELINE SKILLS SHOULD BE BROAD AND WELLDEVELOPED.
• Specialization will come, as it always has, over the course
of your first 5-10 year in the industry.
• The most successful are going to have technical
skills, writing skills, and people skills.
• LEARN THE PROCESS NOT THE (SOFTWARE)
PROGRAM.