Abstract
Fifty years ago, communication theorist and professor Everett Rogers introduced the concept of the diffusions of innovations. For Rogers (1962), innovations were made up of ideas, practices, and objects that were to spread throughout society. The diffusion of innovations pertains to how individuals as receptors of new forms of information either adopt or reject the same. With the inundation of new technology parallel and consequent to Rogers’ work, media innovations (MI) include concepts of adoption, integration, and dissemination of new ideas in media. MI as a field of study has expanded in scope to accommodate changes and novel implementations. Academic disciplines including communications and sociology have come together in the last few decades in articulating emergent meanings and implications of new forms of MI. These discursive ventures have typically addressed topics including mergers of computer and television, the gradual progress of state control media to accommodate more private/transnational avenues, marketing initiatives, impact of information on audiences, advent of digital media, social/political/economic aftermaths from MI, and its integration among younger audiences.
Media Innovations, edited by Tanja Storsul and Arne H Krumsvik, is a compilation of separate scholarly insights on the nature, characteristics, and possible impact of MI from a multidisciplinary perspective. To an extent, the book addresses and summarizes the manifold issues relevant to MI. Storsul is Head of the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo. Krumsvik is an Associate Professor in Journalism at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.
In articulating the concept of innovation, Storsul and Krumsvik acknowledge Schumpeter’s (1934) original distinctions between invention and innovation (outside the domain of media functions), the former being a novel enterprise, whereas the latter is a modified application of the former into an existing domain of ideas. The editors also refer to Schumpeter’s classification of innovation impact from the sociocultural, economic, and constructivist perspectives. The editors propose that in moving beyond existing realms of economic and cultural frameworks, and in visiting with the chapters findings on MI from a multidisciplinary perspective, a larger scholastic landscape is investigated. The strength and the inadequacies of the book are embedded in this approach. The multidisciplinary explorations of the chapters in the text provide a fair account of evolving aspects of MI and have been grouped under (1) discussion of concepts, (2) structure and management of organizations employing MI, and (3) services and users of MI. However, the social impact of these changes or a central thesis/underlying statement that binds the principal arguments is not very clear. The result is a loosely organized collage of academic introspections on MI rather than a linear progression of ideas originally proposed by editors.
Lucy King, explaining MI in the foreword (‘Innovation technology and organizational change: Legacy media’s big challenges’), provides an interesting prelude. The author discusses that until recently technology has traditionally played a secondary role to media content. Innovation in this context facilitates a decisive marriage of content and technology. She introduces the objective of the text, which includes discussing innovations in the context of range, processes, and impact. The introduction is clear, well organized, and stimulates curiosity. However, as observed in the flow of chapters there seems to be discontinuity between the introduction and the outline proposed by the editors and King, and subsequent emphases in some of the chapters.
In exploring the concept of MI, in Chapter 3 (‘Balancing the bias: The need for counter discursive perspectives in media innovation research’), Steen Steensen introduces Giddens’s (1984) concept of structuration to MI. The author, elaborating on the duality of structure and agency, notes that schemas (e.g., standards, routines, and norms that apply to journalism) can be located within the social structure, whereas resources are external to it (e.g., material repository, staffing). Thus, the dynamism and transformative characteristics of MI in this regard are limited – by and large these will be constrained by the availability of resources. The application of these ideas can be found in subsequent chapters of the book (for instance, Chapter 8 discusses the small Flemish broadcasting sector with a limited infrastructure to adapt MI successfully). This is one of the fewer instances where intellectual continuity can be deciphered between arguments of former and subsequent chapters located in two different parts of the book (in addition to incoherent organization of chapters within each segment).
The second part of the book includes five chapters that address the organizational needs/changes in the media industry that employ MI. In Chapter 5, Sabine Baumann (‘Adapting to the brave new world’) discusses four organizational models in terms of complexity and market dynamism that can be modified to meet the needs of MI, whereas Krumsvik, Eli Skogerbo, and Tanja Storsul, in Chapter 6 (‘Size ownership and innovations in newspapers’), discuss the importance of the size and ownership of a media organization (in this instance, a newspaper) in its ability to diversify from the existing platforms of production and meet the needs of the tablet market (iPad). A third chapter on managing audience flow through digital divergence (Chapter 7, ‘Innovation in the use of digital infrastructures’ by Gillian Doyle), examines innovations that provide multi-platform usage of the same product, keeping a younger audience in mind. This encourages an active audience who could engage in discussing the media product in yet another media outlet (for instance, a TV serial that can be conversed upon through an online blog). A clearer articulation of the flow of chapters in this segment should have included discussing the need for multi-platform technology first and then initiating the dialogue on size/ownership constraints (which might/might not be able to accommodate newer facets of MI). The next two chapters (Chapter 8, ‘Innovating in small regions’ by Sven Lindmark, Heritiana Ranaivoson, Karen Donders, and Pieter Ballon, and Chapter 9, ‘Privacy in practice’ by Stine Lomborg and Rasmus Helles) take on two very different topics. Chapter 8 discusses needs and trends in small-sector public broadcasting sectors, whereas Chapter 9 highlights the current lack of privacy regulations, based on the findings of the Danish Data Protection Agency (an independent monitoring authority working under Danish Ministry of Justice). The discussion from Chapters 8 and 9 on the need for privacy, as well as the recalcitrance of the public sector towards incorporating wider application of MI is not substantively built into the ongoing conversation on structural/organizational needs in this segment. Instead Chapters 5–7, which examine business models, size/ownership in the context of MI, and provide insight on multiple application of the same product across media types (discussion of a television program on Facebook), seem a more cohesive fit in this section of the text.
The final part of the book looks at the services and users of MI in its current context through an interesting variety of discussions. Chapter 10 (‘Measuring innovation’ by Piet Bakker) extends previous discussion of limitations of MI. The failed effects of MI can be observed for example in the instance of Dutch newspapers that had to end their Sunday editions for lack of business viability. Next, an intriguing application of MI can be found in the discussion of transmedia (Chapter 11, ‘Audience value and transmedia products’ by Charles H Davis). This chapter explores a novel storytelling tradition (e.g., The Lord of the Rings) that tries to involve the audience through the introduction of a variety of platforms for the same media product. These would include movies, TV series, comics, and video games. However, such interesting ventures also have limited success because they are connected with a particular audience ‘type’/engaged fan base who will make use of these multiple platforms (i.e., watch the movie and buy the video game rather than watch the movie alone). Likewise, Chapter 13 (‘Between reactivity and reactivism’ by Jerreme Nicey) explores France’s ‘Citizenside’ news photo agency, which empowers normal citizens to upload pictures from their community onto the web for redistribution. This qualifies as a classic example of a contemporary application of MI. The discussion of minority language users of social media from perspectives of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Chapter 14, ‘Small pieces in a social innovation puzzle’ by Niamh Ni Bhroin) shows a less predictable aspect of innovation usage. Whether minorities are motivated by the intent to enhance their language skills online or facilitate communication between other individuals with similar life experience, Chapter 14 provides a unique case study of emerging social impact and usage of MI among special interest groups.
The book successfully brings in important elements that relate to MI in its current form. The organization of the text in terms of conceptualization, organization, and usage provide an intellectual framework that facilitates understanding these concepts. The case studies (from a myriad of media industries) are fascinating, albeit limited to a single geographic space. Important parallels among other sectors that have implemented – or are in the process of implementing – these changes would have made the argument more compelling. In addition, there are few chapters that employ quantitative analysis to substantiate their main argument. Each discipline has its own rhetoric and method – from the analysis of sale trends to theoretical underpinnings to complex modeling. Juxtaposing different methods of communicating the main thesis, although fascinating, situates individual works as idiosyncratic pieces rather than as a part of an overall argument. Given the confluence of expert scholarly perspectives from a transdisciplinary perspective and an elaborate examination of several types of media conduits, an analytical bridge (beyond that provided in the introduction) would have been useful (for instance, brief author commentaries at the beginning of each chapter explaining how the piece contributes to the discussion). Media Innovations, irrespective of its wide scope, does not qualify as a ‘user-friendly’ comprehensive commentary on the subject. However, it is a convenient resource of up-to-date information on the applications, usages, and nuances of the concept in a contemporary context.