Welcome to media industries

Media industry studies has grown substantially since the 1980s as scholars have sought to understand the significance of dramatic transformations in the media landscape. In a historical sense, it was not so long ago that media industries largely comprised tightly regulated institutions in service of a national imaginary. To the extent that their operations crossed borders, their activities were kept under the watchful eye of national guardians. In only a short time we have witnessed the growth and consolidation of huge transnational conglomerates and media infrastructures in virtually every corner of the globe. Relentless pressure from corporate enterprises and financial markets sparked waves of innovation that have profoundly transformed the ways in which media are produced, regulated, distributed, marketed, and consumed. These developments extended the reach of dominant players while simultaneously ushering in a period of unruly innovation that has fostered niche production, DIY creativity, and novel networks of cultural flows. Such interconnected trends have afforded unprecedented circulation for products springing from the margins and opened doors to new modes of exchange that were unimaginable even ten years ago.