What Is the Media Industry?

The new media industry is based on emerging technologies such as digital technology, computer network technology and mobile communication technology, with online media, mobile phone media, interactive TV media, mobile TV, building TV and other emerging media and new media as the main carriers. The type of industry that is produced and reproduced by industrialized standards is an important part of the cultural and creative industry. In terms of extension, the scope of the new media industry is extremely broad. The extension of the new media industry is sorted out from the horizontal and vertical perspectives. ^[1]

New media industry

Horizontally, the new media industry can be divided into two camps according to the differences in media forms. The first camp is a new media industry represented by the online media industry, the mobile media industry and the interactive TV media industry; the second camp is a new media industry represented by the building TV industry and the mobile TV industry. Of course, the network media industry, mobile media industry and interactive TV media industry can all be segmented. The online media industry includes the portal industry, search engine industry, online community industry, blog industry, podcast (online video) industry, online game industry, instant messaging industry, online publishing industry (including online newspapers and online magazines), online broadcasting industry, RSS industry, wiki industry and other sub-sectors; mobile media industry is subdivided into short message industry, multimedia messaging industry, color ring tone industry, mobile publishing industry, mobile broadcast industry, mobile TV industry, etc .; interactive television media industry includes digital television industry IPTV industry. ^[1]

As an important part of the cultural and creative industry, the new media industry is an important branch of the tertiary industry and an integral part of the national economic development. Like all "industries", the new media industry has various industrialization characteristics and industrial economic attributes. According to the interpretation of industrial economics, the concept of "industry" belongs to the category of mesoeconomics, which refers to a combination of enterprises, organizations, systems or industries that have certain same characteristics or common attributes or produce the same type of products. The new media industry has economic attributes common to all industries. ^[1]

First, the new media industry is clustered. A single enterprise cannot constitute an industry. Only a series of interconnected enterprises, organizations, systems or industries can be called an industry if they are grouped together according to a certain law. The new media industry is a combination of new media hardware manufacturers, content providers, service providers, and operators. Each link has a competitive relationship with the previous and subsequent links. Clustering can make the new media industry reduce costs, form economies of scale, and promote economies of scale and scope.

Second, the value chain of the new media industry is value-added and cyclical. The various components that make up the new media industry value chain are an organic and unified whole. Each value chain link is composed of a large number of similar enterprises. The upstream industry chain link, which focuses on content production and service integration, is also based on platform operations and products The marketing-oriented downstream industry chain links are closely related, mutually constrained, and interdependent. Each link exchanges materials, information, and funds to jointly promote the increasing value of the new media industry.

Third, the new media industry is productive. The product of the new media industry is intangible content. Through the integration, processing, and reconstruction of ideas, culture, and ideology, it continuously produces intangible content products, creating value for society and becoming an important part of the national economy.

Of course, as an important branch of the cultural and creative industry, the new media industry has its special characteristics in addition to the common attributes of all industries; it is these special characteristics that distinguish the new media industry from the material production sector and traditional media industries Come.

(1) The new media industry has ideological and cultural attributes

The new media industry is different from the primary and secondary industries that focus on material production. It belongs to the broad cultural industry and has ideological and cultural attributes. As we all know, the media has dual attributes, namely, business attributes and economic attributes. The media is both a social public service unit and an economic unit: it serves both the ruling class and the social public, as well as maximizes its own interests in competition and survival in a market economy. The industrialization of media is an extension of the attributes of the media economy, but at the same time it is not possible to get rid of the infiltration and restriction of the business attributes. The ideological and cultural attributes of the media industry are just the characteristics of its business attributes.

Any media industry is in a specific social environment and is inevitably injected into the society's ideology and cultural spirit, and the new media industry is no exception. Stuart Hall, the leader of the cultural studies school, pointed out in the article "The Rediscovery of Ideology" that the field of modern culture is an "ideological battlefield, where different cultural forms compete for supremacy and dominate. "Ideology" was created in the event of various discourse struggles. "The new media's interactivity, grassroots, and personalization provide sufficient platforms and operating space for ideological interaction, which is objective. The infiltration of various ideologies into new media content products has made the new media industry more emphasis on the interaction of ideology than the traditional media industry, rather than the absolute control of the dominant ideology.

As an important branch of the cultural creative industry, the new media industry is a new type of resource industry. New resources such as culture, information, and education are the industry's leading, and it gives the new media industry a distinct cultural attribute. The content product produced by the new media industry is essentially a cultural product with the basic characteristics of a cultural product. From this perspective, the products of the new media industry must not only include the basic social values and ideological and cultural spirit, but also meet the functional needs of consumers for the "use value" of new media products. It must also be satisfied through the ideological and cultural spirit.

(II) Industrial convergence is the characteristics and development mode of the new media industry

In a sense, the new media industry most typically carries and reflects the era of media convergence.

First, the new media industry itself is the product of "media convergence." For example, in the segmented industry of online media, online newspapers are the result of the integration of the Internet and traditional newspapers, and Internet radio and television are the product of the integration of the Internet and traditional broadcast television. It is the fusion of mobile media and traditional newspapers, and mobile radio and television is the fusion of mobile phones and radio and television. New media technology is the leading force for the rise of the new media industry. However, technology alone cannot promote the development of the new media industry. "Content" is the key factor in this process. Since the new media itself does not have sufficient content accumulation, it can only use the power of "media fusion" to obtain content resources from traditional media and other new media. In addition, the innovation of new media forms also needs to be promoted by "media convergence". Whether it is hardware integration such as digital TV, IPTV, or software integration such as online magazines and mobile newspapers, it is born and developed under the guidance of media convergence of.

Secondly, industrial integration is the survival and development mode of the new media industry, and it is an indispensable basic condition for the existence and development of the new media industry. "Fusion" is an inherent characteristic of the new media industry, and it is also the backbone of the new media industry. New media technologies, forms, and content continue to merge, promoting the organic integration of the new media industry chain and value chain, and bringing new business models and profit models to the new media industry. The integrated development of the new media industry "not only promotes the formation of emerging information communication industry forms, but also promotes the formation of a new information communication industry ecological environment and a new industrial structure."

(3) New media industry is a new force to enhance the country's soft and hard power

Fundamentally speaking, the development and growth of a country lies in the improvement of its overall national strength. This not only requires the enhancement of "hard power" such as science, technology, economy, and military, but also the strengthening of the ideological and cultural spirit and the influence and control of ideology, that is, Soft power. "

On the one hand, the new media industry uses a brand-new, interactive, and civilian communication carrier as its operating platform, and uses a "decentralized" communication method to closely connect users or consumers, improving the sentiment of soft power. United Power has enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of cultural dissemination and ideological penetration. To improve the country's soft power, it is necessary to use the media to spread the ideological and cultural spirit and ideology. The rise and industrialization of new media has greatly changed the traditional media ecological environment, and also changed the communication environment and communication means to build and enhance the national soft power. The rise and rapid development of the new media industry has provided a key platform and brand-new channels for improving the country's soft power, and has become a new force to enhance the country's soft power.

On the other hand, the new media industry itself is an important part of the national economy, and even a pillar or driving force of the national economy. It can directly contribute to the national economy like the material production sector, thereby enhancing the country's "hard power" by improving the economic level. ". In addition, the new media industry, as an important branch and latest development of the information industry, can provide a network platform for the country's informatization strategy, promote military informatization and national defense informatization, and enhance the country's "hard power" from the side.

(IV) New media industry model has inherent instability

Compared with the traditional media industry, the new media industry has shown obvious convergence, competitiveness and variability from the beginning. Convergence is determined by the "media convergence" era of the new media industry. The development and growth of the new media industry in turn confirms and reconstructs the connotation of "media convergence"; competitiveness is the basic of each industry form One of the characteristics, but it is particularly prominent in the new media industry. One of the reasons is that the integrated development of the new media industry has continuously infiltrated and integrated the upstream and downstream industry chain links, which has increased the competition and reorganization of various links in the industry chain. ; Convergence and competition are irritating each other, shaping the variability of the new media industry to keep up with the times. Most of this variability in the new media industry is manifested as a benign and positive change, which is a rapidly increasing development.

The integration, competitiveness and variability of the new media industry have made the new media industry model inherently unstable. Only by continuously adjusting and perfecting the industrial model can we meet the requirements of the constantly developing and changing new media industry structure, the requirements of the integrated industrial chain and value chain, and the requirements of internal and external market competition in the new media industry. The inherent instability of the new media industry model is actually a reasonable response for the new media industry chain to seek its own stability. Because the new media industry is convergent, competitive, and volatile, the new media industry chain has also been continuously integrated and changed, which has caused the instability of the new media industry chain, and the industry chain itself has inherent requirements and essential attributes that tend to be stable. It must find an effective mechanism that can make all links of the industrial chain tend to be balanced. The only way out is to continuously adjust the industrial model as needed.