After 18 months of rethinking everything, the media industry has sharpened its pencils, covered its notebooks in wallpaper and is ready to go back to school.
Give or take improper leftovers in the backyard, this year’s oversized class of news editors, streamers, broadcasters, podcasters and various content providers will soon be getting down to an intense period of lessons – some useful , others tough – with surprise tests launched to avoid lingering complacency among those who have scored high to date.
So what subjects are part of the media business curriculum this quarter?
A breakthrough technology
This compulsory double-point module teaches the latest innovations in artificial intelligence and is particularly aimed at students who wish to develop their content recommendation engines. It’s about having conversations with users – literally, in the case of media companies that want to master voice search and claim to master Alexa.
Broadcasters and news publishers are urged to rethink their current approach to creating transparent user interfaces, using global tech giants as a benchmark against which to stand. Media companies will also be asked to consider the immediate versus long-term effects of placing advertising where it slows consumers’ access to their product, tracking its impact on their business along a “curve.” of frustration ”.
From Gutenberg onwards, media history is technological history: the dominant media players of the future will be those who fully understand the capabilities of a still emerging technology.
As such, special training will be provided for those who find it difficult not to equate ‘disruptors’ with ‘spoofers’, while a series of guest lectures will begin with Facebook’s chief avatar, Mark Zuckerberg, virtually appearing from Menlo Park to explain his take on the Metaverse and why we should all be there.
Public affairs 101
This intensive refresher course is designed for Irish media organizations wishing to get up to speed on current government thinking on public funding, media tax policy and the status of the wider cultural sector before a troika of fun developments: Budget 2022, the expected publication of the report of the Commission on the Future of the Media and the entirely separate creation of a Media Commission under the provisions of the Bill on Online Safety and Media Regulation.
All of the ways in which the government has responded in a meaningful way to the rapidly changing global media industry and its impact on the viability of Irish media since the days of dial-up will be discussed, taking around 10 minutes.
Bonus points, meanwhile, will be awarded to students who a) devise strategies to turn a funding crisis triggered by Covid to their advantage and b) gain public support for their cause by having fun on social media.
Pay attention to the economy
The (ironically) competing theories of the attention economy will take center stage in this module on the art of persuading consumers to allocate a portion of their finished hours to your product instead of someone else’s. other inferior – and ideally to pay for the fun.
Attendees in media companies will learn how to better ‘super serve’ target audiences or just do the bare minimum to cost-effectively increase audience dwell times in a world of endless distractions. clean up your timeline ”to long, heartbreaking reads on the profound fragility of life.
In light of Netflix’s “We Compete With Sleep” School of Attention Economics, students will be asked to discuss how they could better target the pace of their users’ daily routines and measure how these routines have changed due to staggered work. and leisure habits before and since the pandemic – instead of just doing what they always did, with a few extra emojis in their email subject lines.
Has the audience for early morning commuters and “driving time” ever diminished? Is staying in bed the new rising? What time of the weekend do everyone’s brains melt and stay melted until Tuesday? And is there something to say for another push notification?
Advanced finance
For participants who have already passed their Introduction to Managing Decline, this module will examine the relationship between media and high finance and the often blurred line between investment and greed.
The US case studies will include historic subway publications that were turned into “ghost newspapers” by private investors who quickly drained their workforce but retained the headlines as a shadow of themselves.
They will also focus on leading media companies, from BuzzFeed to Forbes, seeking to trade publicly in the stock market through the magic of fundraising Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles (Spacs), and consider whether this trend is a set of cautionary tales in the making.
Closer to home, students will assess the pros and cons of being the small Irish unit of a large multinational that can change the direction of your business or sell its shop at any time.
Finally, with the brilliant sparks of Westminster seemingly eager to sell part of Channel 4 to private and public capital to the highest bidder sometime in 2022, another research question arises: why don’t governments recognize a good thing when they see one?
Optional modules
Lifelong learning is vital to the success of any media business, which is why optional modules range from editorial priorities (how to cover climate change in a way that infuriates the fewest people) to marketing skills (how to fake news). brand authenticity) to people management (how to avoid generalized burnout).
After a number of inquiries, strategic metering (how to convince advertisers that you’re worth the premium rates, while ignoring plummeting metrics) and data analysis (how to make it seem like you know what you do) will also be offered again. this fall term, as the air cools with opportunities for some media and brings bad wind to those who fail to keep up.
