What Are Media? A Hedonic Model for the Second Digital Convergence

Abstract

Key questions for media scholarship hinge on defining its object: What are media today? What are media industries and companies? Traditionally, media activities were viewed as binary—either media or not. However, in a second wave of digital convergence, media-related activities permeate many economic activities, raising delineation questions. To address this, we propose a model and empirical approach to measure the degrees of involvement in various media activities on a continuous scale of mediality. Rather than strictly defining media, we deconstruct activities into attributes and assign weights and values. The model uses two interlinked formulas to calculate the media intensity for industries and companies. By surveying more than 150 media experts and using the model, we generate scores for 48 industries and 50 companies and demonstrate the usefulness of this tool for policymaking, industry strategy, and media scholarship.