Digital Disruption and Media Transformation

The pace of drastic technological changes that can disrupt economic entities has increased sharply since the beginning of the decade. Media companies that permit routine in their daily operations and reject agility in structures and processes are inadequately equipped to deal with sudden threats and competition. This paper examines media companies that have attracted attention through disruptive actions or extraordinary innovations, to gain insights into how to adequately address such problems in practice. These examples are subsequently used to discuss the type of investments pursued in this context and the customers’ needs to be satisfied in the process. To further clarify the central points of the observations, this paper also discusses to what extent collaborations give rise to new approaches for developing and reaching previously inaccessible target groups and which media-relevant trends can be identified.

There is no doubt that digital technologies have disrupted and changed many aspects of media production, distribution, and consumption. These new technologies have also created a collaborative and participatory media environment which has transformed many media brand management practices, particularly how media brands are created and developed. We discuss the influence of new digital technologies on media brand practice and explore the idea of creative control versus creative co-creation. As such, this chapter examines the emergence of co-creation as a theoretical paradigm and contributes to existing knowledge by developing the central arguments for and against the entailed activities in the development and management of media brands.

“Techlash” is a term used to describe exaggerated public concerns about deleterious effects of social media on Western societies, such as “fake news,” filter bubbles, addiction, or radicalization. In this contribution, the Techlash will be analyzed as a recent iteration of a moral panic triggered by media innovation. Both the emergence and core claims of the Techlash narrative will be examined, followed by a discussion of its socio-political incentives and dynamics. The chapter further highlights the role of journalistic media in facilitating moral panics, and critically examines the seemingly paradox way these media contribute to moral panics and impeding media innovation.

The global proliferation and escalating threat posed by major tech corporations, notably Facebook and Google, have engendered considerable scholarly debate. Notably, these corporations have recently made substantial investments in journalistic endeavors to cultivate healthier relationships with news media. On a global scale, Google has channeled substantial sums of money into pioneering technological initiatives, delineating the trajectories of technological advancement through initiatives like the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge and other forms of fiscal and institutional backing extended to news organizations. Grounded in the realms of Innovation Management and Responsible Innovation theories, this chapter scrutinizes the 224 recipients of the inaugural three iterations of the GNI Innovation Challenges across regions including Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, as well as North America. The findings unveil a substantial portion of the awarded projects centering on innovative news products. Nevertheless, only a scant representation of Responsible Innovation attributes, such as foresight, introspection, and adaptability, is discernible within these projects. In summation, this study advocates for an augmented partnering model characterized by greater transparency and sustainability concerning the allocation of financial and technological resources in collaboration with big tech companies.

As development of immersive media has shown, new technological innovations and an increased importance of emotion and empathy in immersive media products lead to new display formats and narrative possibilities. Consequently, also due to its unprecedented format, immersive media challenges existing media formats and their established functions for journalism. Using Riepl’s law (Das Nachrichtenwesen des Altertums. Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die Römer, 1913) as a theoretical and analytical basis, this chapter discusses potential connecting factors between already existing media formats and the technological innovations brought on by immersive technologies. Additionally, the law is used to clarify competitive aspects of the advent of this new media format, which have not been researched extensively yet.

Firms in emerging media technology markets need to invest in explorative innovation activities to keep up with the extent of market- and technology-driven change. Networking is a prime factor facilitating these radical innovations, by establishing links to different actors. A PLS-SEM analysis based on a survey of 132 German XR firms confirms that networking ties to suppliers, buyers, competitors, and marketing firms have a significant, positive influence on the explorative innovation orientation (EIO) of XR firms, as well as firms’ organizational learning and absorptive capacities. More importantly, the study also shows that networking with firms in the same digital business ecosystem (DBE) has a negative influence on EIO. This may be explained by possible path dependencies, but also governance decisions by focal platform firms, indicating the need for multi-homing strategies for complementors in a DBE.

In the last decade, the development and expansion of different virtual reality technologies has contributed to the emergence and consolidation of immersive journalism, a new format that offers a different way of experiencing and bringing the information closer to the viewer. The irruption of the metaverse opens a door to the continuity of this type of journalism, which had begun to decline, especially since the crisis of COVID-19. To understand what are the best practices to make possible this transition, we conducted two focus groups with a total of 15 international leaders in the field, including both professional and academic points of view. Their advice includes reconsidering the traditional concept of framing and giving greater priority to the point of view of the user.

Mobile augmented reality (MAR) emerged as an innovation caused by smartphone technology’s rapid development and performance improvements. User experience (UX) is essential for user acceptance and further dissemination of this technology. This paper approaches the identification of UX factors for MAR apps by analyzing user feedback in Google Play Store reviews of popular MAR apps. Topic modeling as a machine learning technique was applied. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used as a relatively new data science approach to examine the reviews and identify topics. These topics were then interpreted and matched with existing UX factors. Based on the study results, a good rating appears to be achieved when the app’s promised value proposition and the additional benefits associated with the integration of AR are perceivably delivered by the app for users. In the case of the apps examined, these user expectations were met and generated feedback about positive experiences if the AR-related utility values in terms of productivity, enjoyment, and entertainment were perceived to be satisfied. On the other hand, negative ratings where users articulated dissatisfaction and thus poor UX has mainly been associated with technical difficulties and hence a failure of the apps to deliver the promised user value. Furthermore, it can be shown that the topics extracted from the user feedback correspond to the influencing factors of existing UX models.

As digital networked technology is ubiquitous, digital data increasingly plays a growing role in organizational decision-making and media management. Against this background, this chapter examines datafication as a useful framework for understanding current media transformations, arguing that datafication is not one homogeneous process but rather a body of different but connected and interdependent processes. It identifies five “spaces” in media industries where datafication plays an important role: content production, content distribution, sales and marketing, management, and the space between industries. Finally, the chapter discusses implications and ambiguities.

Based on artificial intelligence (AI), deepfake technology enables its users to alter and manipulate audiovisual content in a way that has never been done before. With the help of the technology, users can portray a person in any situation imaginable, saying anything and everything. As a result, audiences’ perceptions of truth and falsity are being challenged. This development poses various risks for democratic discourse but simultaneously harbors possibilities for beneficial use, such as deepfake applications for media or the entertainment industry. Focusing on the impacts of deepfakes on a micro, meso, and macro level, this article discusses current examples, future potentials, and theoretical considerations of deepfake applications to assess their innovative potentials.

The journalism industry has experienced a gradual increase in reader revenue strategies for news media, including memberships and paywalls. On the upside, these strategies allow journalism to generate income in other ways than through advertising revenues, and user demands can be directly met with high-quality content, as readers only pay for content they really want or need. To achieve this product-market fit, many companies have started using artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that allows paywalls to adjust to individual consumption habits and patterns. While big data techniques allow media outlets to analyze large amounts of data from each user very quickly, AI―including deep learning and natural language processing―builds upon this capacity to improve subscriber conversion and retention by personalizing their offerings and asking them to pay at just the right moment or using the best pricing strategy. Moreover, AI is useful in predicting cancellations, improving user experiences with editorial products, and other features. Its potentials have caused extant research to recommend further analysis about this phenomenon through more theoretical and practical studies. To do so, this chapter provides an overview of AI-optimized paywall initiatives, both built in-house by news outlets and from technological platforms that provide AI services to media companies (163 initiatives between 2015 and 2022).

The media industry is fundamentally transforming, driven by changing customer usage behavior. Users have a growing range of entertainment [5G Virtuosa (Virtuosa: Exploring 5G and virtualization in broadcast production. 5G Virtuosa, n.d.)]. Media producers must adapt to consumer needs in this fierce competition by pushing live formats and implementing live audience feedback. This is challenging because the infrastructure is mainly based on 30-year-old SDI technology [5G Virtuosa (Virtuosa: Exploring 5G and virtualization in broadcast production. 5G Virtuosa, n.d.)]. One solution is fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications, which “forms the basis for the development towards a networked society” [Deutsche Messe 5G smart venue (from idea to reality. 5G smart venue, n.d.)]. This paper examines which use cases suit private 5G campus networks, focusing on media productions in the German market. In Germany, companies and institutions can apply for licenses to operate private 5G private networks that are referred to as 5G campus networks (“Campus-Netze”). These networks offer a range of benefits to the media industry, from more flexible production to higher-quality transmission formats, guaranteed bandwidths, and low latency. In the German market, 5G technology deployment around media productions already exists but is not widespread. Only 4% of campus licenses primarily relate to media production [according to Bundesnetzagentur (Übersicht der Zuteilungsinhaber für Frequenzzuteilungen für lokale Frequenznutzungen im Frequenzbereich 3700–3800 MHz/Overview of frequency assignment in the frequency range 3700–3800 MHz. Bundesnetzagentur, 2022, February 16)]. This paper aims to investigate the status quo and potential of 5G media production in Germany in more depth. We present the findings of a case study analysis and interviews with various stakeholders in the German media industry. Finally, we give practical insights on the technical readiness for live streaming from a 5G media production hackathon at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.

This chapter takes on the less researched subject of social media innovation as a leadership and strategic issue. The study adopted a longitudinal approach based on surveys among chief executives in Norway, conducted in 2015 (n = 152) and 2020 (n = 164). From a managerial perspective, we asked what role social media plays in the news media organization. And how do news media executives perceive the role of user-generated content (UGC) in terms of future strategic priorities? We map current and near-time strategies based on leaders’ impressions, changes in their social media strategies, as well as the characteristics of the news organizations.

News outlets are increasingly challenged by platforms as the dominant infrastructures of a digitalized society. While striving for economic and editorial autonomy, news outlets deeply rely on infrastructural services provided by platforms and have entered far-reaching cooperations over the last years. In this chapter, we argue that journalistic outlets must balance their interactions with platforms trying to find a valid strategy that is rooted in both journalistic proficiencies and profound knowledge of multisided market mechanisms. To describe this type of knowledge, we draw on literacy studies as well as platform studies and present interviews with digital experts from ten German news outlets.

Instagram has become one of the most important channels for journalism to reach younger target groups. Because of this increasing importance, Instagram has since spurred a transformation of journalism on various levels. This chapter discusses the application’s impact on three of those levels. Firstly, looking at the organizational level, we highlight the changes that Instagram and other social media platforms have brought to individual journalists, newsrooms, and entire media organizations. Secondly, the content has experienced a change: It no longer has to be created entirely according to familiar journalistic criteria, but according to the logic of the platform. Finally, direct interaction with audiences has caused a permanent change, which can be described in three logical steps. A central result of these considerations: Journalism remains dependent on the technical offerings provided by the platform. However, it has found a promising way to drive its own innovations through format development.

Podcasts are currently experiencing a second heyday across all possible genres and topics, including productions created and aired by journalistic media outlets. This submission argues that podcasts’ distinct characteristics have profound and transformational impacts on media organizations. These include, for example, a young main target group with a comparatively high advertising acceptance and the format’s apparent boundlessness when it comes to possible topics, structure, deadlines, and space. Podcasts are considered a subjective, reflexive genre that raises questions about journalistic objectivity norms and simultaneously increases potentials for parasocial interaction and transmedia storytelling. Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these aspects, this submission aims at deriving recommendations for both podcast producers and listeners, as well as potential future directions for the medium.

Enormous concentration tendencies and the almost omnipresent risk of abusive exploitation of powerful market positions have been focal points of discussions within the digital platform economy for many years now. Because of this discussion, digitization-related adjustments were made in the German Competition Act in 2021. This chapter presents and evaluates some of the key components of this reform from an economical point of view. Following a comprehensive narrative literature review, the discussed regulatory recommendations and proposed actions are analyzed and summarized. The examination shows that the suitability of the newly introduced instruments can only be assessed with growing experience in application practice. In particular, the latest amendment once again fails to address the so-called killer acquisitions, features inaccuracies regarding the tipping of markets, and fundamentally neglects merger control.

For much of the video game industry’s history, its structure has been relatively stable, with a small number of companies maintaining oligopoly control over the remainder. The increasing reliance on digital distributed products, however, served as a mechanism to disrupt that structure. This chapter uses a critical political economic examination of how the rise of digital distribution resulted in a restructuring of the global video game industry and its power relations. It argues that digital distribution alone was insufficient to result in changes to the industry structure, but rather changes owed considerably to the power of media companies, such as Google and Apple, leveraging their particular distribution advantages in other media industries to force their way into video games.