Media Organisation and Media Industry

The multidisciplinary work of the Hans Bredow Institute includes observing economic connections, mechanisms and organisational structures.

Media organisation and media business are one of the emphases in the lexicon „Media from A to Z”, with which the transfer of research insights to a wider public is to be accomplished and which is distributed by the federal and state offices for political education in addition to booksellers. The lexicon also contains subject areas which belong to other areas of our work; accordingly, a wide circle of the Institute’s staff and cooperative partners have had a hand in it.

Developments in the system of the media affect individual branches and sites in different ways.

Changes in its structure can show up through the development of new providers and offerings, as in the case of screen-based games, or through a comprehensive change in structure, as in the case of the music branch. In many cases, the attempt is made to gain a positive result from the process by changing the general framework – or at least to avoid particularly negative effects. This general framework includes, for example, sponsoring particular branches, as with television production in Austria. The Institute is concerned to provide various agencies with bases for possible changes in the general framework.

Alongside the development of traditional media offerings, new, or rather, young media offerings, like screen-based games or offerings from the area of mobile communication and the Internet, are investigated in their role as adjunct to or competition for the traditional media. The market for computer and video games is a particular emphasis here. The development of this relatively new media offering is running very dynamically; since 2000 the branch’s turnover has outstripped that of the major studios at the box office. The rapid distribution of hard-and software has led to digital games meanwhile becoming a permanent component in the media ensemble of children and minors.

In the light of their growing importance, screen-based games will in future become the subject of a new Research and Transfer Centre in the Hans Bredow Institute. Here it will be a matter not solely of the economic importance, but also of content, the use and the regulation of the screen-based games. In preparation for this, a general lecture series has already taken place in the summer semester 2007 at the University of Hamburg.

Researchers: Hardy Dreier, Stephan Dreyer, Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink, Jutta Popp, Hermann-Dieter Schröder (contact person)

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Overview on all projects in this area