What is a media company today? Rethinking theoretical and empirical definitions

Abstract

Between all these challenges, questions on what a media company is today, how it might be defined and the kinds of features characterizing it often remain unanswered. These questions are rarely addressed by authors and scholars working in both business economics, journalism, media, and communication science, maybe because there is the existing assumption of a self-evident and generally accepted definition of the term "media company" (as argued by Sjurts, 2004, p. 390) which actually does not exist. The aim of this paper is therefore to offer an overview of the existing theoretical approaches used to define "media companies," to identify possible shortcomings of each definitional approach and, deduced from there, to suggest a theoretically sound and empirically applicable approach, which takes into account the challenges and needs of the actual media landscape.

Restarting virtual reality in journalism? A quantitative analysis of problems and potentials of selected immersive apps as perceived by their users

“…Journalistic media outlets were understood here, following Voci et al (2019, p. 45), as "media companies in a narrow sense" that include the three core elements "(1) content sourcing, (2) content aggregation, and (3) content dissemination". The term "content" here means journalistic information, entertainment, and their hybrid forms (Voci et al, 2019). The outlined definition of media organizations also includes digital-only media organizations, which today compete with traditional journalistic media organizations.…”

Corporate Digital Responsibility. Zur Verantwortung von Medienunternehmen in digitalen Zeiten

“…Ebenso wird reflektiert, wie sich Medienunternehmen in und mit der Digitalisierung entwickeln und verändern (vgl. Voci et al 2019). Wir hegen die Hoffnung, dass wir mit der Corporate Digital Responsibility der medienethischen Forschung sowie unserer Publikations-, Bildungs-und Beratungstätigkeit ein richtungsweisendes und systematisches Leitkonzept geben können.…”