Media Management: A Casebook Approach (Routledge Communication Series)

Media Management: A Casebook Approach provides a contemporary perspective on a wide range of media management issues. With changes reflecting new research and ideas, as well as developments throughout the media industry, this volume presents media management from a practical standpoint, utilizing case studies to simulate decision-making scenarios.

This second edition incorporates material on developing media technologies while continuing to emphasize the process of decision making as the central skill of managers. It covers such critical management issues as leadership, planning, and regulation, with application examples ranging from the radio and television arenas to public relations and advertising agencies. This volume provides all students of media management with practical knowledge, excellent insights, and invaluable opportunity for building their management skills as they prepare for careers in the media industry.

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Bringing back all of the previous authors to write and revise its chapters, this second edition is an improved version of the 1993 volume. This new edition includes original primary data that provides a cultural grounding for readers. It also provides grounding for the next decade--which will feature demographic workforce changes and emerging technologies--by paying close attention to diversity and technology. A decision-making chapter leads the text with its outline of how media companies operate and how managers function within a complex corporate world. Students are provided with a foundation for structural considerations that provides a fine introduction to the cases and content that follow. The end cases illustrate and provide practice for students in simple analysis as well as complex synthesis. These provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their grasp of all the chapters with particular emphasis on creativity, choice, and management responsibility.

Case study has become more common within the field of journalism and mass communication in the past four years, and most students and instructors are comfortable with the method of learning. It is ideal for students of management because it takes into account flexibility, individuality, and creativity as students face realistic problems and opportunities mirrored in the professional world. Valuable intellectual and professional exercises are provided, including practice in role playing, leadership, communication, and decision making with consequences. Students are encouraged to distinguish between arts, activities, actors, meanings, relationships, and settings of importance. By recognizing the components individually and collectively, students can see the options and choices more clearly. Discussion and debate are hard to avoid when examining cases, and as students recognize themselves and their peers they will become more adept at finding their own place within the media workforce.

George Sylvie received his PhD from the University of Texas, Austin where he is now Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism.

Jan LeBlanc Wicks received her PhD from Michigan State University and is now a professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Arkansas.

C. Ann Hollifield received her PhD from Ohio State and is now Associate Professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Stephen Lacy received his PhD from the University of Texas, Austin and is now teaches Professor of Journalism at Michigan State University.

Ardyth Broadrick Sohn received her PhD from Sourthern Illinois University and is a now Director of the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.