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00 2012 IEEE
The Symbiotic Media and Wireless Global
Communications Industries: From Media
Gatekeeping Model to Wireless Media
Business Models

Vassiliki Cossiavelou, Philemon Bantimaroudis
Dept. of Cultural Technology and Communication
University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
{v.cossiavelou, pbantima}@ct.aegean.gr



Abstract This paper explores the influence of
wireless communications technologies on the
global media industry infrastructure, and how
the updated media gatekeeping model
contributes to decision-making processes to
produce media content. The authors argue that
the telecommunications industries, especially the
wireless sector, play a decisive role in media
communications worldwide. Both qualitative
and quantitative data were gathered to
investigate media gatekeeping processes. The
results show the role of an updated media
gatekeeping model, while outlining decision-
making processes among emerging symbiotic
global industries.

Keywords-media gatekeeping model, wireless
communications, decision-making, intra-media
influences, extra-media influences, media content,
media applications, Olympic Games, media
coverage, New Economy

I. INTRODUCTION
For over sixty years, researchers have
argued about the complexity of the media
gatekeeping process. In the light of two
decades of digital media technologies, we
reconsider the media gatekeeping model in
terms of content management, as it relates to
the five traditional pillars or dimensions
(individual, practices, intra-organization, extra-
media, culture and ideology) [1], [2], as well as
emerging interactions among them in the
context of a progressively globalized New
Economy.

The key players of media content
(international media networks) and of media
infrastructure (mainly global wireless
telecommunications operators) are increasingly
at the centre of market competition. The
current visibility of global events is the test bed
of their competence to face the challenges and
to make the best decisions for their businesses,
in the framework of the New Economy.

The third and fourth pillars of the media
gatekeeping model - intra-media and extra-
media level effects - are indicative of the
fusion of borders between the two industries,
and demonstrate their emerging symbiotic
relationship in content production and
infrastructure.

Media markets are in a state of rapid
deregulation worldwide. Additionally, passive
audiences have been transformed into active
users and customers of on-demand media
services [3], [4], [5]. Netizens enjoy
broadcasting status [6], [7] in the context of
virtual communities of social and other
networks [8]. They intervene as they produce
media content while utilizing raw material,
while their demographics and mobility among
media products challenges third parties such as
advertising companies.

Market hierarchies are shifting, giving
prominence to postmodern network users,
producers and consumers, while rendering the
media gatekeeping model not entirely
obsolete, but in need of reconsideration both in
terms of hierarchical influences as well as in
light of interdependence and interactivity [9].
Moreover, the new rare sources of digital
dividends and the challenges of their
exploitation by media industries [10] in a
variety of national and supranational
regulations show that decision-making in
media corporations is a much more complex
procedure than it was under the traditional
hierarchy.
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The emerging media markets of the Asia-
Pacific region, even with the delay caused by
their consideration of issues of ownership,
freedom of speech, security, competition,
deregulation, etc [11], [12], [13], [14] could
bring new dimensions to the developing e/m
commerce business model.

Finally, todays real-time news casting
makes world mega-events ever more visible,
and makes real-time news coverage a
necessity [15], while the increase in
broadcasting rights brings ever more
competition to an already tough media global
ecology. Media networks are preparing their
most long-term strategies ever [16] in which
the omnipresence of content, user mobility and
infrastructure convergence is the greatest
challenge for the media world of the 21
st

century.

II. METHODOLOGY

A. The research questions
How is the media industrys
administration changing as a result of the
global wireless infrastructure?

In order to explore the administrative
influences of wireless technology, we studied
responses to the following statements:

S1: Wireless technology significantly
affects power management in news
organizations through ownership patterns,
collaboration with research centres and
telecommunications companies, collaboration
with sponsors or advertising agencies or the
demographic data of the target audience.

S2: Wireless technologies stimulate
collaborations in research, development and
innovation (R & D/I) in media industries.


B. The methodology of quantitative
research
In order to explore this aspect of the media
business model today, we will study the data
from quantitative online research as it appears
at www.cossiavelou.gr and the data from
qualitative field research using in-depth
interviews with high-ranking officials in global
media industries.

The quantitative research was built up in
www.cossiavelou.gr and the data collected in a
database on the site [2]. A convenience sample
of 230 participants from an array of ICT
backgrounds, representing 214 organizations,
participated in the survey. A generalization of
the findings to a larger population is not
intended. Nevertheless, the respondents
included 49 global and local media
organizations, 46 ICT operators and/or
providers, 41 law and regulation experts and
78 academics who consult or do research on
media and new media, from 26 countries in 5
continents. We note that the sample included
professionals that in the research period were
high ranking (49%, 113 respondents).12%
were managers (28) and 36% middle ranking
(83). 18% (40) held a Ph.D. and another 44%
(100) a masters degree, while their
professional expertise was in the media
industry (26%), business development (10%),
management (18%), law (5%), ICT (23%),
telecommunications (18%). The age groups
were: 17% 20-30 years, 43% 31-40 years, 23%
41-50 years, 12% 51-60 years, 5% 60+ years.
These research demographics indicate that the
sample comprised mostly decision-makers in
global creative industries.

C. The methodology of qualitative
research
In order to cross-check the findings of the
quantitative research, we also conducted
qualitative research and triangulated the results
of the quantitative data.

We chose the method of in-depth
interviews, as a unique scientific tool to
analyze the modern development of media
industries. The quantitative analysis allows us
to interpret the qualitative data with greater
flexibility, avoiding the limitations of
interpreting quantitative data alone.

Initially, we phoned 69 prominent media
gatekeepers and decision-makers over a period
of about a month (29 September 7
November 2008, Beijing, China), about one or
more pillars or their interactions. Nine of them
responded (see Annex I), all of them
executives of major international media
organizations, and agreed to be interviewed.
Each interview lasted 2-3 hours.

Our goal was to talk with this broad range
of media industry professionals, including
those characterized by the special idiom of
Chinese political conservatism, independent
industry observers, representatives of western
media, news agencies and international
networks, in order to cover all aspects of print
and electronic news outlets, including new
media and social media. By considering every
type of media outlet, we aimed to form a more
complete picture of contemporary
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developments in the field of media
gatekeeping worldwide. We aimed to consider
particularly the seminal stage, as the cradle of
these developments is the pre- and post-
Olympic China, characterized by the rapid
penetration of wireless telecommunications,
and significant infrastructure displacement in
both the Asia-Pacific and US ICT markets.

Some interviews were feasible only with
the presence of an interpreter, a native
Mandarin speaker, whose knowledge of the
media industry is proved by masters level
studies in the UK and professional experience
with News Corporation Asia and later as a
CCTV employee. After each interview we
transcribed, translated and proof read the
interviews and then each response was coded
and matched to quantitative research
questions.

The codification of the qualitative data
also includes a column for each interviewees
statement on our specific research question,
and the range of agreement/disagreement with
it.

This new uncharted global media
landscape redesigned by wireless
communications, combined with some
interesting earlier results from the quantitative
research [1], [17], was the impetus for trying to
triangulate the results, adding qualitative data
from in-depth interviews [18], [19], [20]. We
used mostly open-ended questions [20] to
facilitate dialogue in an environment with
specific cultural and political idioms.

The reliability of these additional data can
be inferred from the professional qualities of
the participants. They represented a wide range
of nationalities and/or citizenships and
international professional experience, and at
the time of the interviews were active in a
country with many transition characteristics in
the regulatory media framework. They offered
their views just after the broadcast of the
largest cultural and sporting mega-event on the
planet [21], [22], [23], which always attracts
the most ambitious proposals for the most
secure and broad geographical media coverage.

Following the standard methodology of
the field, we had two groups of questions:

Group A covered the soft level (i.e.
individual and professional practices, cultural /
ideological, and even the theme of sports
coverage) and appealed to reporters, foreign
correspondents and international television
networks, producers and technicians.

Group B covered the core level (i.e. the
organizational, extra-media and symbiotic
relationship between the Olympics and media
content) and was addressed to the directors of
international media organizations, executives,
managers and developers of business models.
In this paper we present the data of Group B,
as we consider only pillars 3 and 4, which bear
the principal burden of decision-making for the
media industry.

Group B included the following categories
of questions:

L.3 pillar-Core: proprietary format,
competition in staffing, development of
business models, status of the channel in
international correlation with innovation of
transmission, securing rights to broadcast and
monitor the preferences of users.

L.4 pillar-Core: in alliances with
international channels with multinational
bodies, R & I ICT standards, technological
Olympic sponsors to increase the added value
of media content and networking, controlled
transmitting by governments, etc

L.5 sport media coverage-Core: The
symbiotic relationship between the Olympics
and media content.

A total of 119 questions were submitted,
97 of which were answered. Each question
and sub-question generated a piece of
information, corresponding to the quantitative
data. In this project we considered 6 of them,
as they corresponded exactly with the relevant
online questionnaire questions and/or
statements.

III. THE FINDINGS
The findings of the quantitative research
indicate the following descriptive statistical
analysis:

10a item: 88.7% of respondents
considered the impact of ICTs on media
organizations ownership patterns and power
management to be above average, while only
6.1% thought the opposite.

10b item: Regarding the effect of ICTs on
media organizations collaboration with
research centres and telecommunication
companies, and then on power management,
70% of respondents viewed connections
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between content producers and infrastructure
providers as having average, high or very high
influence.

10c item: 75.3% viewed donors and/or
advertising agencies as having the strongest
influence in the power management of a media
organization, while a further 16.1% felt they
had average influence.

10d item: 50.4% of respondents
considered that monitoring audience
demographics had a high or very high impact
on power management in a media
organization.

23 item: The data indicate that an
advanced R&D/I strategy, that includes
wireless communications, is an important
factor in the creation of partnerships in the
news media industry. Wireless technologies
increase the attractiveness of partnerships in
media networks alliances, based on the
strategy of research, development and
innovation. The vast majority of respondents
(65.7%) recognized that wireless transmission
is a component in successful co-operations in
media industry. It is interesting to note the
European and especially American experience
of media convergence of services in wireless
environments is not yet widespread, and the
high percentage of agreement indicates this
emerging trend. The omni -pulled by the
vastest and simultaneously the narrowest
audiences content, from free-to-air to m-
commerce scheduled news products and
services, is the current challenge to be faced,
and the wireless industry could offer it to the
media industry worldwide (See also Table 1:
Descriptive analysis of quantitative data).

Q-
Item
N/E Very
Low
-
Low
Average High-
Very
High
10a 5.2% 6.1% 21.7% 67.0
%
10b 8.7% 21.3
%
42.6% 27.4
%
10c 5.7% 3.0% 16.1% 75.3
%
10d 4.8% 12.6
%

32.2% 50.4
%
23 7.4% 7.4% 23.9% 65.7
%

Table 1: Descriptive analysis of quantitative data
Table Annotation:
Q-Item10a: Ownership patterns affect power
management in a media organization

Q-Item10b: Research centres and
telecommunications companies affect power management
in a media organization

Q-Item10c: Sponsors / advertising agencies affect
power management in a media organization

Q-Item10d: Demographic data of target audience
affects power management in a media organization

Q-Item 23: Wireless technologies R & D/I &
partnership in media industry

A. The results of quantitative research
All the findings on S1 show that decision-
making in the media industry is a multi-
parameter equation. The initial evidence in this
sample shows that advertisers (91.4%) share
power management of a media organization
with its ownership (88.7%), as the public
interaction through the study of demographic
data (82.6%) with the help by the innovation
providers (70%) is dramatically changing the
traditional fixed gatekeeping model via ICTs,
especially dynamic wireless communications
technologies.

More precisely, the data indicates that
70% of respondents believe that research
centres and telecommunications companies
affect power management in a media
organization. Even this percentage is much
lower than the estimation of the role of
ownership patterns, but is still high enough to
imply connections in power management
between content producers and ICT networks,
showing that communication technologies and
the more dynamic wireless communications
are acting as catalyst to media gatekeeping,
interconnecting in a symbiotic way the ecology
of intra and extra level of media gatekeeping
analysis.

Moreover, both ownership and advertisers
are influenced by the demographic data of
their audience, which in an annual business
report of the media industry could influence
the composition of boards of directors. This
delay of one year could be much shorter,
because of ICTs contribution to the online
visibility and transparency of the audiences
demographic data recorded by third parties.

This picture completely changes the fixed
icon of well-established global media
industries, as innovation is leading the way in
monitoring the popularity of media content,
and investment in innovation is now a priority
for decision-makers in media business
development.

Moreover, the fact that more than half of
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respondents think that media-ICT
collaborations affect decision-making
constitutes a clear indication of strong
interaction between the 3
rd
(intra-media) and
4
th
(extra-media) pillars of the traditional
media gatekeeping model; even more so as the
media organizations identity is continually
redefined by these collaborations, with
alliances, investments and strategies scheduled
with or towards research centres and
telecommunications companies.

The accumulated percentages relating to
the impact of advertising or sponsorship and of
the demographic profile of audiences indicate
a transfer of power from the time and space
sales channel to the public. In the online and
wireless world, the user has the ability to avoid
advertisements, and the study of audience
samples dominated decision-making at the top
level of management in media industries
today. Wireless technology is the catalyst to
this paradigm shift, as content is pulled by the
user and follows them wherever they are, and
whenever they ask for it, through on-demand
services. In the case of technological
sponsorship, especially in Olympic Games
coverage and generally in mega-event
coverage, the long-term influence is more
directed to the ownership of the medium than
to its customers.

The findings from the vast majority of
respondents to S2 indicate that they recognize
wireless communication as a component of
success in the media industry and its role is
expanding to all stages of media production. It
is interesting to note that the European and
especially the American experience of
convergence on media services in wireless
environments is not yet widespread in the
media industry. The accumulated rate of
65.7% from around the world reveals this
perceived trend. Media content is "pulled" by
the user, at the place and time of their
choosing, on demand and totally defined by
the user. This is the reality of m-commerce in
the media industry, with the added value of
intellectual property, the intangible value of
the New Economy, which increases the life
cycle of a media product. Only the condition
of content integrity and
communications/transactions security provides
an expanding area for R&I strategies across
the media and wireless communication
sectors, as well as their development and
implementation.

B. The results of qualitative research
Discussing the same question, interviewee
Helen Han thought that the distribution of
power at the organizational level would always
come from ownership. However, it is the
shareholders who determine the composition
of boards of directors. The opinion of the
shareholders is determined by independent
third-party measurements, e.g. AC Nielsen and
CSM Media Research, reporting on business
performance aided by ICTs. The Board should
therefore be establishing alliances with ICT
companies and innovation centres, in order to
increase the chances of good ratings from
independent third parties, which will result in
popular media content and its seamless, on line
and on demand distribution. Thus, the
technology provides both the rules and the
degree of interaction among the media
industry, the global user and the global
research and innovation industry (Helen HAN,
Director of Business Models Development in
China with News Corporation, 11/2008, Q28,
Category: Core).

In some cases, this co-operation could
develop into an incorporation (M&A) between
media and wireless communication industries,
on the strategic basis of a synergy (Dong JUN,
News Director, Producer and commentator in
the Central China Television Network and the
International Broadcasting Station of China
with CCTV / CRI (China Radio International),
Q92, Category: Core and Helen HAN, Q80,
Category: Core). In China, the operator of
mobile TV merged with small content start-ups
to integrate technology and content seamlessly,
showing the technology carrier to be the
aggressive partner in the synergy. Competition
is enhanced both by changing ownership
patterns and by new borders within the
telecommunications industry. These industry
borders do not follow national borders, not
national legal restrictions or competition
models. User mobility demands a new business
model, where information, entertainment and
consumer behaviour enjoy the same
omnipresence and on-demand availability of
content (HAN, Q57, Category: Core). Even for
the special cases of WTO members, like
China, which has not deregulated its media and
telecommunications sector, the long-term
impact of changing ownership patterns in
media industries is expected to result in foreign
investment in mainland China, not only in the
Independent Economic Zones and not only
through M&A by private Chinese funds into or
outside China, even after a decade of delay
(HAN, Q57, Category: Core and JIN Li,
Director of the Centre for the International
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Television Broadcasting Station of China and
CRI-TV Centre, Q113, Category: Core).

The mobility of high-level personnel,
mainly from the ICT industry to the media
industry, demonstrates the symbiotic
relationship of the two industries, which is no
longer that of buyer-provider (FLORCRUZ
Jaime, China Bureau Chief with CNN, Q34,
Category: Core). The CEO of News
Corporation, Dr. Jack Gao, previously
Microsoft China CEO, cited many mutually
beneficial alliances and synergies (CNN-
Nokia, BBC-Siemens, CCTV-China Mobile,
etc).

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Initial evidence from both the qualitative
and qualitative global survey based on a
sample of gatekeepers examined the role of
ICT and especially of wireless technologies in
formulating current media business models;
and provided insights into an updated media
gatekeeping model for media industries,
among others, because of their symbiotic
relationship with the wireless communications
global industries.

The decision making procedures in global
media industries, strongly dominated by
wireless communications, have been following
this updated media gatekeeping model, where
the 3
rd
pillar of intra-organization influences
are exposed to the 4
th
pillar of extra-media
influences, the infrastructure providers of ICT
global industries.

Wireless communications seem to be
influencing corporate policies. The
technological dependence of media networks
on R&D/I corporations constitutes a significant
extra-media influence, in addition to the
previous extra-media pressures, such as
international institutions (ITU, ICANN, WTO,
WIPO, etc), governments, lobbies, public
relations firms and advertisers.

With the current essay, the authors wish to
generate a discussion on the changing nature of
media gatekeeping in the era of wireless
communications, arguing that the traditional
media gatekeeping model needs to be viewed
in the light of the complex globalization of its
main players, of media and of ICT industries.
To achieve these goals, random samples of
gatekeepers drawn from both industries
responded to the research questions of the
project. Furthermore, qualitative evidence,
utilizing in-depth interviews and testimonies
derived from the experience of global leaders
of media industries complement the
quantitative evidence, providing an accurate
picture of processes and practices.

The previously uncontested dominance of
media ownership on decision-making is now
shared with sponsors and advertisers in a very
dynamic way and on a daily basis with
audiences, as the latter are able to
communicate their opinions to user
communities. These opinions are sold on a
daily basis as the depiction of media program
worthiness, to be included in business
development models. Thus, innovation is
invited to facilitate not only access to media
products for the whole of their added value
chain but to their users also, as their opinions
are a fundamental component for the building
of successful business development models.

CEOs of media boards of directors and of
regional telecommunications operators are
collaborating more and more closely, while
their CFOs are suggesting M&As inspired by
this new symbiotic relationship.

Technological sponsorship not only
advertises media production, but is itself
becoming a core element in decision-making
in media corporations. The Olympic Games,
because their coverage epitomizes demanding
business models in a specific time frame,
periodically, of both global attention and local
impact, is the ideal test bed to observe the
application of this approach.

Pricing policies for every product, for
every period of its life cycle, are related to the
overall performance of the product. The new
economy framework demands an extension of
the life circle of media products, bringing in
the concept of digital rights management.
Wireless communications could offer a
dynamically updated picture of the market on
a real-time basis, in the real business world.

Thus, the need for an updated media
gatekeeping model has not only great
theoretical importance but is a key point for
decision-making in the creative industries. The
emerging role of a revisited media gatekeeping
model is not only to map a previously
uncharted area, but could be extended to
predict profitable co-operation among the
media and wireless communications industries
worldwide.

Future research utilizing a variety of data
should shed more light, complementing the
current proposal. Additional empirical
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evidence is needed to assess not simply the
role of wireless communications on business
model development in media industries at the
global level, but also to define the way in
which wireless technology acts on the weight
of every parameter of decision-making in
media corporations, from administration to
operation and marketing policies.

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