Rethinking Strategic Management in Creative Media Industries

Catalog description

This course critically examines the business management of cultural industries, particularly through the lens of strategy and competitive advantage in filmed entertainment. Students will consider: What does it mean to manage something as elusive as culture? What are the idiosyncrasies of media that require distinctive management strategies? What does a critical cultural approach to media management look like? This course is not about how to be a manager; rather, it is about what management is as an ideological and political force and how it establishes and maintains social power relations. Amid constant industrial disruption and co-optation by corporate interests, is there a way forward to a more equitable, democratic, and sustainable media future? To answer these questions, students will engage with foundational strategic management theorists, media industry scholars, and critical management theorists. They will also engage with industry texts that include 10Ks, analyst reports, legal filings, management consulting blogs, industry trade press articles, etc. We will explore case studies ranging from Netflix’s “glocalization” of television to generative AI media business models to analyze media industry strategy as both a material practice and a social construction.