Making Media uncovers what it means and what it takes to make media, focusing on the lived experience of media professionals within the global media, including rich case studies of the main media industries and professions: television, journalism, social media entertainment, advertising and public relations, digital games, and music. This carefully edited volume features 35 authoritative essays by 53 researchers from 14 countries across 6 continents, all of whom are at the cutting edge of media production studies.
The book is particularly designed for use in coursework on media production, media work, media management, and media industries.
Specific topics highlighted: the history of media industries and production studies; production studies as a field and a research method; changing business models, economics, and management; global concentration and convergence of media industries and professions; the rise and role of startups and entrepreneurship; freelancing in the digital age; the role of creativity and innovation; the emotional quality of media work; diversity and inequality in the media industries.
Open Uva Course: the University of Amsterdam has a open course around the book. The course offers a review of the key readings and debates in media production studies.
Course slides 2020 Take a look at the Making Media Facebook page here. Take a look at the Table of Contents and Introduction here. 1. Both leading and pioneering authors in the field 2. Authorscoming from 15 countries across three continents (Europe, North America, Australia) that are also the key markets for media production research and teaching. 3. Covering media industries and production holistically, rather than just any discipline (such as journalism, advertising) or theme (like media concentration of or media policy). With introducing an concluding chapters students are guided across the themes and industries. 4. Tone of voice is geared toward the student's perspective and experience. 5. Specific attention to emerging and significant themes in media production, such as the emotional quality of the work (and why people choose to work in these industries). issues of access and inequality (and how to deal with it), ownership and financing, entrepreneurship and startup culture.
Industry Reviews
"In a media world that - by its nature - revolves around fast-paced change, this book supplies perspectives to those seeking breadth and depth of occupational opportunities. Simultaneously, it also shows the volatility and complexity of an industry in constant flux."
Martin J. Riedl, University of Texas at Austin, in International Journal on Media Management, 2019
"An excellent collection with stellar cast of expert contributors. Three things make this a stand-out: its accessibility, its comprehensiveness, and the fact that it is bang up to date. It will be going straight on my reading list for media and creative industries students."
Rosalind Gill, co-author of Gender and Creative Labour (2015) and co-editor of Theorizing Cultural Work (2013), Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at City University of London, UK
"The media industry is changing profoundly, and scholarship needs to evolve in step. This book provides reflective and comprehensive analysis of how social, economic and above all technological forces are transforming the media industry, what this means for the professionals working in it. An invaluable injection of critical analysis in an era where the pace of change is leaving many familiar concepts and constructs outdated."
Lucy Kueng, author of Going Digital (2017) and Strategic Management in the Media (2016), Google Digital News Senior Research Fellow, Reuters Institute, Oxford University and Professor of Media Innovation at the University of Oslo
"This deftly edited collection provides a comprehensive look at how production, practices, and professions in the media have changed under the sway of the powerful information and communication technology sector. The lively and engaging essays will appeal to folks working in the biz as well as to students thinking about a career in the media. This is an exemplary collection of new and original work on the state of the media industries, what it takes to become a media maker, and what it takes out of you."
Richard Maxwell, editor of The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media (2015), Professor and Chair of Media Studies at Queens College, City University of New York
"The explosion of production studies in the last decade are finally wrangled into a coherent course of study. Making Media enables students to see media industries from a variety of scales, allowing both comparative analysis and roads for in-depth case study research. Looking for a career in the media industries cannot escape critical reflection if students have this well-organized collection at hand."
Vicki Mayer, author of Below the Line (2011) and Almost Hollywood, Nearly New Orleans (2017), Louise Riggio and Carnegie Professor of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tulane University
"The media environment is complex and ever-changing, giving rise to new forms and industries, and reconfiguring older ones. It is more important than ever for scholars and students of media to keep pace with how, where and by whom media gets made; and how what counts as both 'media' and 'production' are changing. Richly populated with insights from a high quality, international group of established experts and rising stars, this book is an excellent field guide to contemporary and emerging media production studies."
Jean Burgess, co-author of YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (2018), Professor of Digital Media Studies and Director of the Digital Media Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia
