Introduction

In March 2008 – roughly ten years prior to the writing of this chapter – we composed the introduction to our twenty-article edited volume, Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method. The process of drafting the book's introduction marked the final step in a roughly three-year editorial process, driven by our desire to initiate a dynamic conversation amongst scholars working in such fields as film and media studies, sociology, anthropology, journalism, communication, economics, and more.

Two key forces motivated us to publish Media Industries. First, we believed the dramatic industrial transformations of the time merited heightened attention from qualitatively oriented, critically minded scholars working in humanistic traditions. Notable developments circa 2007-2008 included the continued diffusion of broadband and mobile devices; the ever-increasing dominance of cable and satellite television accompanied by the growing commercial viability of nicheoriented content; the heightened market power and cultural influence of regional media corporations in countries including Brazil, India, and China; the accelerated privatization and deregulation of media across the globe; the ongoing ascent of a new wave of search engines including Yahoo! and Google; the rapid growth of brand-new social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook plus the expansion of just-launched online video services including YouTube and Hulu; the progressive reorientation of the screen industries in the wake of the boom-and-bust cycle of DVD as well as growing competition posed by then-largely-DVD-by-mail service, Netflix; and the political and economic turmoil accompanying the final years of the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Second, we sought to use our collection as a means of uniting what we perceived to be existent, but frequently disconnected conversations about the media industries. We were inspired by the rich body of existing scholarship – in fact, many of our contributors had played a part in generating that work. But we also felt the frustration of operating within disciplinary silos, and the lack of precise terminology within which to engage with the industrial developments then taking place.