Media and the digital continuum

Abstract

<p>Media have been the poster child for all the major effects of digitisation: new consumer experiences as well as new ways of manufacturing, product distribution and monetisation. Media businesses have also been a focus for understanding the potential disruption that markets and companies can experience through the increased use of digital technology. This paper argues that media have a special relationship with digital technology, and the commercial disruption that media companies experience arises from the historical organisation of pre-digital media businesses into product creation and distribution arms, rather than seeing products and distribution as two indivisible aspects of the ‘media experience’. For media companies to thrive in the digital age and avoid the major effects of disruption, a tighter integration of media production and distribution is required, based on an organisation that brings creative and technological expertise together in a process of continual reinvention of total media experience.</p>