EC5055 - Economics of Digital Media (2016/17)
Module specification | Module approved to run in 2016/17 | ||||||||||||||||
Module title | Economics of Digital Media | ||||||||||||||||
Module level | Intermediate (05) | ||||||||||||||||
Credit rating for module | 15 | ||||||||||||||||
School | Guildhall School of Business and Law | ||||||||||||||||
Total study hours | 150 | ||||||||||||||||
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Assessment components |
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Running in 2016/17(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) | No instances running in the year |
Module summary
This module aims to provide understanding and knowledge of the economics of digital media. Focus is put on the economic concepts and theories required to understand the radical changes brought about by digitalisation in the media, information and cultural industries and how to apply these concepts in the digital world.
Prior learning requirements
EC4006 Principles of Economics or EC4003 Global Business Environment or equivalent
Module aims
The aim of this module is to provide knowledge of key concepts of economic theory to understand the changes and challenges brought about by digital technology in the media industries. This module develops an economic approach to applied industrial organisation issues related to media and aims to:
- provide an overview of key economic concepts, their rationale and their application, and raise awareness of ethical issues in the use of evidence and construction of economic analysis;
- provide an understanding of the current challenges in the media industries;
- develop and encourage confidence in the use of appropriate learning, analytical, discursive an communication skills.
The module also aims to develop students' skills, in particular: academic study skills; subject research;
data analysis; applied analysis; literacy; communication, including oral presentation;
critical thinking; problem solving; IT and inter-personal and team-working.
Syllabus
Efficiency in economics
Imperfect information, moral hazard and adverse selection
Externalities, market failures and solutions
Public goods, global public goods, information and digital content as public goods
Experience goods, sampling and advertising
Durability and loss of market power
Price discrimination, versionning
Network externalities
Switching costs
Intellectual Property Rights and piracy
Business models for the digital economy.
Learning and teaching
Students’ learning is organised around direct contact time with the teaching team, and refective independent learning. The direct contact time takes place through lectures, seminars and group workshops. Students are expected to complement this 'formal' learning activity with further reading of the material suggested in the teaching sessions, solving realistic business problems using economic analysis, research, writing, planning and preparation for group presentations, class tests, and the final exam.
Student contact time will normally be 3 hours per week. Lectures will typically be around 1 hour duration and will deliver core subject knowledge in industrial and regulation economics. As this module emphasises the development of theory, policy and application a whole-group workshop of around 1 hour will provide examples of how to use economics to understand and analyse issues related to industrial organisation. In the 1 hour seminar the emphasis is on student learning through participation, formative feedback and active learning.
The contact time with teaching teams will be organised around a range of learning activities including active learning to acquire knowledge and understanding, problem solving, problem based learning, presentations, analysis of case studies, group reading and analysis of research papers, discussion of policy issues and debate. Many activities require students to carry out independent work prior to meetings with lecturers. Increasingly through the module students are required to engage with research published in high level academic journals and research institutes.
Professional and transferable skills are developed in lectures and seminars, and through independent directed learning and assessment. Skills development is enhanced through problem solving and problem based learning practiced in seminars, working co-operatively in groups for assessments and group presentations. These presentations will review and discuss: imperfect market and industry related issues and problems faced by firms and governments, government policy interventions, and distributional and ethical issues. Inititative and independance is developed progressively through the module such that students are required to take greater responsibility of their work.
The module makes extensive use of blended learning through use of virtual learning environment platforms (WebLearn, Publisher E-resources) in which module lecture material, course handbooks, test questions, previous assessment with feedback, and other material is placed. Other ICT resources include links to key web resources such as Government departments, and research institutes.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will:
- demonstrate an understanding of the economic rationale and challenges of the media industries ;
- be able to conduct economic analysis to understand challenges and opportunities in various contexts ;
- have acquired increased awareness of, and more confidence in, using learning, academic and communication skills.
Assessment strategy
The assessment strategy is based on two distinct elements:
A group presentation with artefacts (1,500 words) will require students to study and analyse current issues related to the media and creative industries. This will enable students to further develop their ability to work effectively in groups, undertake team activity, plan and allocate functions, seek to resolve any conflict, communicate effectively, work under binding time constraints, and undertake a presentation. Marks for the group presentation may be attributed individually to reflect the possible differences of output. Students will be required to produce a contribution statement which summarises the individual contributions of students in the group.
A two-hour final exam which aims to assess the knowledge and understanding, as well as the ability to apply the concepts and theories studied in class. Students will be required to write answers to questions addressing the underlying principles or issues of the subject matter or provide solutions to technical questions.
Bibliography
Shapiro, C. and Varian, H. R. (1999). Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA
Rayna, T. (2008). Understanding the challenges of the digital economy: The nature of digital goods. Communications & Strategies, 71:13–26.
Rayna, T. and Striukova, L. (2010). Web 2.0 is cheap: Supply exceeds demand. Prometheus, 28(3):267–285.
Arrow, K. J. (1962). Economic welfare and the allocation of resources for inventions. In Nelson, R. R., editor, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, pages 609–625. Princeton University Press.
Nelson, P. (1970). Information and consumer behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 78(2):311–329.
Coase, R. H. (1972). Durability and monopoly. Journal of Law and Economics, 15(1):143–149.
Stiglitz, J. E. (1999). Knowledge as a global public good. In Kaul, I., Grunberg, I., and Stern, M. A., editors, Global public goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century, pages 308–325. Oxford University Press.
Varian, H. R. (2003). Economics of information technology. Technical report, University of California, Berkeley.
Klein, L. R. (1998). Evaluating the potential of interactive media through a new lens: Search versus experience goods. Journal of Business Research, 41(3):195–203.
Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The market for lemons: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3):488–500.
Varian, H. R. (1998). Markets for information goods. Mimeo, University of California, Berkeley.