Abstract
A Discussion on the ChBnges in BroBdcBsting Production
- Broadcasting in the Increasing Returns World -
By Hyung-Chul Kang
Liberal economics'point of view in mass communication studies has documented that broadcasting has to be deregulated because it Is not a social institute, but a commodity. It has elaborated rather new concepts such as "public goods" and "Impure public goods". This essay adopts another economic concept "Increasing returns" In explaining the recent changes in the process of broadcasting production. The concept of public goods has contributed to shape policies on broadcasting in macro/social level, whereas the concept of "increasing returns" is useful to explain the broadcasting In micro/production level. Brsodcasting is a typical commodity of high-tech industry where mechanism of increasing returns exits. As Brian Arthur explains, modern economies have undergone a transformation from bulk- material manufacturing to use of technology - from processing of resources or application of raw energy to processing of information or application of ideas. This new world has rules of increasing returns, which are the tendency for those who are ahead will get farther ahead, and for those who lose advantage will keep loosing further advantage. Broadcasting has characteristics of "up-front costs", "network externality", and "consumer groove-in" as other knowledge- based commodities have. Recent changes in broadcasting production - "compression of production space" and "personalization of production system" - are due to the mechanism of increasing returns. This characteristics call for different understandings of broadcasting. This essay suggests, as a conclusion, that producers of broadcasting product adopt the new rules of increasing returns world, i.e., to invest in R&D, to understand the ecologies their companies' products belong, and so on.
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