Frank Michael Russell

From Diminishing to Increasing Returns in the Technology and News Industries

In a networked economy driven by technology and the value of knowledge workers, the idea of diminishing returns has been replaced by a new concept—increasing returns.  This change has ramifications for technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard—and for news organizations as they shift from “old” media such as print to “new” media such as websites and editions for mobile devices.

Framing Technology Coverage | Risk, Progress, and ‘Exuberance About Gadgets’

Introduction

This paper examines the framing of news coverage of the technology industry.  According to a recent content analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (2010), in “the mainstream media, particularly on front pages and general interest programs, the press reflects exuberance about gadgets and a wonder about the corporations behind them, but wariness about effects on our lives, our behavior and the sociology of the digital age” (p. 3).

Apple, the Silicon Valley maker of Macintosh computers and mobile devices including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, was the most-covered technology company by U.S. news outlets, the Pew study found.  This paper examines Apple’s success in influencing media coverage of its products.  This paper also examines the challenges journalists face in covering complex corporate and financial news, as well as competing frames involving risk and progress in coverage of scientific and technological developments.

Who Framed Hollywood and Silicon Valley | Thesis Proposal

Introduction

This study will examine news coverage of The Walt Disney Co., Apple Inc., and six other major entertainment and technology employers in California.  This is a worthy topic of study because these large corporations—especially Disney and Apple—are economic and cultural forces, globally and within California’s two largest population centers.  These companies, particularly Disney and Apple, have strong business connections and operate in a media and business environment that has been changed by new technologies such as the Internet.

In 2006, Disney purchased Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion (Barnes, 2008b).  The acquisition combined two pioneering forces in the film animation industry.  It also made Apple Chief Executive Officer and Pixar Chairman Steve Jobs—who had purchased Pixar in 1986 from Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas—a member of Disney’s board of directors and the Southern California media conglomerate’s largest individual shareholder (Barnes, 2008b; Catmull, 2008; Telotte, 2008).

The entertainment industry is the largest employer in Southern California, and the technology industry is the largest employer in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, which stretches from San Jose, the largest city in the region, north to San Francisco.  Economists and geographers suggest such regional industrial agglomerations, also known as business clusters, are a powerful form of organization for the deployment of capital and labor.  This study will examine the framing of news coverage of  large corporations in the Hollywood and Silicon Valley business clusters, both by large newspapers within those regions and by national publications.

'Free Culture' or Fee Culture? | Should Publishers Charge for Online News?

Introduction

Newspaper publishers, as they struggle with a loss of revenue, are considering charging consumers for access to online news content—even though, as Rainie and Purcell (2010) noted in a report based on Pew Research Center data, the public “seems strongly resistant to any such model” (p. 5).  This paper considers whether charging for online news would be beneficial for publishers, individual readers, and society.  It examines Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig’s discussion of the tension between new technologies such as the Internet and intellectual property law.  It also examines Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson’s views on how technology has changed business models.  Finally, it puts those views into the context of two Pew Research Center reports on how consumers in 2010 find news online.  

Book Critique: The New Media Monopoly, Ben H. Bagdikian

Note: This was written just before Comcast's agreement with General Electric to take a majority stake in NBC Universal.

The New Media Monopoly: A Completely Revised and Updated Edition, published in 2004, updates Ben H. Bagdikian’s 1983 The Media Monopoly for the Internet age. In a strongly worded argument, Bagdikian contends concentrated media ownership has had a devastating effect on society.  Five corporate giants control the majority of U.S. media. The Big Five, he argues, don’t compete; instead, they are interconnected with numerous partnerships. This concentration of corporate power, he charges, favors conservative policies and has swung the nation’s political discourse sharply to the right.

Book Critique: Living in the Information Age, A New Media Reader, 2nd Edition, Edited by Erik P. Bucy

Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader, Second Edition is a collection of readings examining the new media revolution, the rapidly changing technology behind it, and its effect on our culture. Editor Erik P. Bucy begins with selections that survey the growing number of communications channels made possible by advances in telephone, television and networked computer technology. We’re introduced to the idea of “mediamorphosis,” in which existing media adapt to a changing communications environment, and Paul Saffo’s “30-year rule” for the acceptance of new ideas in a culture.

Does Place Matter?

Will Silicon Valley survive the "Great Recession"? Absolutely, says a long article by Richard Florida in the Atlantic. L.A., Seattle, Chicago, New York will be OK, too. (For New York, even despite the loss of high-paying financial jobs. In fact, Florida suggests, New York might be better off without them.) Why? Educated, productive, creative people live in these places, so other educated, productive, creative people will want to live there, too.