Does Media Management Matter? Establishing the Scope, Rationale, and Future Research Agenda for the Discipline

Abstract

The field of media management has grown frenetically. Over the past ten years a rash of courses have sprung up all over the world, two journals have been established, as well as two professional associations for academics working in the field. Yet despite—or perhaps because of—this fast growth it remains a confused field, particularly concerning its scope, purpose and methods. This paper addresses these issues in three ways. First, it analyses the current state of play in the field, with specific reference to the theoretical orientations of key players in the field and the implications these have had for scholarship output to date. Second, it adopts the perspective of the media organization and identifies which aspects characterise, or even differentiate, the management task in this context. Finally, by synthesising these contextual insights with research emphases to date, it makes recommendations for future work in the field, both in terms of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations.

Key Words:

• management
• scholarship
• philosophy