The issue of costing and pricing in the telecommunications industry has been hotly debated for the last twenty years and we are still wrestling over the cost of the local exchange for access by interexchange and competitive local exchange carriers, as well as for universal service funding. With the advent of competition, the historical costing schemes had to change. Federal regulators wanted to ensure that monopoly rates did not subsidize competitive offerings. As a result, various costing methodologies were devised to allocate costs among the dominant carriers' services. The issue of costs can be summarized as two-fold: the quantitative determination of the level of costs and the proper attribution of those costs. Both are fraught with questions. The amount of costs, for instance, can vary from book costs to marginal costs. The attribution of costs can vary from those that are directly attributable to those that are joint and common. Hence, the need for costing theories and models. The industry is constantly in search of theories and models that more accurately reflect the underlying costs of service. It is in this light that the papers have been compiled for The New Investment Theory of Real Options in Telecommunications. Real options theory attempts to consider management's flexibility in valuation analysis and corrects the deficiencies of the traditional discounted present-value and decision tree analyses. This book sets forth an introduction and overview of the subject, and then provides the reader with a primer on real options. The volume highlights the controversies that surround the application of real options in the telecommunications industry; however, the editors haveeffectively separated the issues of application from those of interpretation.

While considerable attention has been focused on how information technologies (IT) are affecting particular industrialized nations, the broader implications of the Information Revolution have begun to be appreciated only in the past few years. This volume represents an important first step in understanding and coming to terms with the global impact of these technological advances. Based on a series of recent conferences, it distills the collective wisdom of an international group of some forty specialists in communications, trade, finance, development, and diplomacy. The authors identify the potential repercussions arising from the worldwide dissemination of IT and explore the adjustments and collective responses that may help to maximize benefits and reduce harmful effects. The introductory essays make it clear that while information technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for growth, they are drastically altering economic relations and promoting forms of economic interdependence that may have very serious consequences for individual nations and the world economy as a whole. Among the economic issues addressed in this volume are regulatory policy; barriers against information trade; the effects of IT on financial markets and international financial flows; the unequal distribution costs and benefits between developed and developing nations; the supranational power of multinational conglomerates; and economically harmful competition. The authors examine institutional changes that are affecting banking, finance, and trade, as well as legal questions relating to data flow privachy and intellectual property rights. They discuss the need for international cooperation and revised trade agreements to handle these complex new problems. Social and political issues, including education, employment, and democratic participation are also considered. Several chapters are devoted to recent innovations and anticipated developments in technology that will further effect global interdependence. The most authoritative, up-to-date source of information on the subject, this volume is recommended for practitioners and scholars concerned with public policy, international trade relations, finance, communications, information technology, and a variety of related fields.

Many IT projects fail to deliver the benefits to the business that were promised. Yet IT managers and staff work hard to meet the needs of the business: Systems are put in place; network operations are reliable and stable. The cause is usually a misalignment of IT with the business. In this book, Bennet Lientz and Lee Larssen present over 200 specific, practical guidelines and steps that show how to: align IT and the business, develop methods that make IT more proactive in helping the business, more effectively manage vendors, avoid negative surprises, ensure that more projects are completed on time and within budget, among other things. The techniques in this book have been implemented in over 60 organizations around the world and in over 20 different industries, and the authors include several examples in each chapter to illustrate their points. Follow these proven recommendations to manage IT as a business that adds value to the company.

Sega Arcade: Pop-Up History presents six of the most iconic Sega Taiken 'body sensation' videogame cabinets - Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run, After Burner, Thunder Blade and Power Drift - in an innovative form: as dazzling pop-up paper sculptures. Sega Arcade: Pop-Up History is a unique book object, a delight for Sega fans and a love letter to the once-vibrant arcade game scene of the 1980s. Accompanying the 3D model showcase is a written history from Guardian games writer and best-selling novelist, Keith Stuart, punctuated by specially restored production artwork and beautifully reproduced in-game screens. The book features contributions from arcade game innovator Yu Suzuki, who offers first-hand insight into the development of these ground-breaking games and the birth of the Taiken cabinet phenomenon.

Communications and personal information that are posted online are usually accessible to a vast number of people. Yet when personal data exist online, they may be searched, reproduced and mined by advertisers, merchants, service providers or even stalkers. Many users know what may happen to their information, while at the same time they act as though their data are private or intimate. They expect their privacy will not be infringed while they willingly share personal information with the world via social network sites, blogs, and in online communities.

The chapters collected by Trepte and Reinecke address questions arising from this disparity that has often been referred to as the privacy paradox. Works by renowned researchers from various disciplines including psychology, communication, sociology, and information science, offer new theoretical models on the functioning of online intimacy and public accessibility, and propose novel ideas on the how and why of online privacy.

The contributing authors offer intriguing solutions for some of the most pressing issues and problems in the field of online privacy. They investigate how users abandon privacy to enhance social capital and to generate different kinds of benefits. They argue that trust and authenticity characterize the uses of social network sites. They explore how privacy needs affect users' virtual identities. Ethical issues of privacy online are discussed as well as its gratifications and users' concerns. The contributors of this volume focus on the privacy needs and behaviors of a variety of different groups of social media users such as young adults, older users, and genders. They also examine privacy in the context of particular online services such as social network sites, mobile internet access, online journalism, blogs, and micro-blogs.

In sum, this book offers researchers and students working on issues related to internet communication not only a thorough and up-to-date treatment of online privacy and the social web. It also presents a glimpse of the future by exploring emergent issues concerning new technological applications and by suggesting theory-based research agendas that can guide inquiry beyond the current forms of social technologies.

In the past 65 years, the United States Supreme Court has outlined, through its decisions, its conceptions of the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. media. Analyzing every Supreme Court media case from 1931 to 1996, this book explores the changes in how the Court has conceived of the media's freedom. Hindman focuses on the educational and political functions of the media, the ethical principles of truth telling, and the conflict between collectivist and individualist interpretations of the First Amendment. The author challenges accepted views in the field, arguing that despite the justices' rhetoric, the Court has treated media freedom as a social goal rather than a right.

Taking an inside look at the underlying processes behind telecommunications service development, this text shows the reader how to build a successful service within an organization, and better organize and manage the service delivery effort. Written by a seasoned telecommunications expert with 20 years of professional experience, this text identifies and describes the two critical phases of telecommunications product development - the product and service delivery levels - and shows how they work together to form a communications service.

This volume provides rich insight into the nature and practice of media management. Contributions assess the degree to which management of media firms requires a unique set of skills, highlighting similarities and differences of media firms compared with other industries in terms of management practices, HR development and operational aspects. Success and limitations of research on media management theory is evaluated, both drawing on management theory and examining insights from other disciplines. Dimensions for future research are considered along with practical implications for media managers and corporate structures. The book serves as a valuable reference for researchers, advanced students and practitioners in media industries.

Documentary is fast changing: with the digital revolution and the enormous increase in Internet usage, the range of information and outlets for distribution continues to become more diverse. In this context, are the traditional themes and frequently irreconcilable critical positions of study still valid -- or are they changing, and if so, how? In short, what are the issues for documentary studies now? The starting point of Issues in Contemporary Documentary is that although documentary history cannot be ignored, the genre needs to be understood as complex, multi-faceted, and influenced by a range of different contexts. Jane Chapman brings to life the challenges of contemporary documentary in an accessible way by balancing theoretical discussion with use of cutting edge material from Europe and North America and the developing world. Whilst the need for critical appraisal of documentary is greater than ever before, Chapman believes that future discourses are likely to be shared between academics and specialist online communities as viewers become makers, and both categories may also become activists. Maintaining all parties can benefit from an awareness of continuity and change, she predicts that activist documentary will increasingly become a category to follow in the future. Each chapter contains recent international case studies, and the content evolves thematically with definitions, representation, objectivity, subjectivity, censorship, authorial voice, reflexivity, and ethics as headings. This free standing, innovative study can also be used in conjunction with Documentary in Practice (Polity 2007) by the same author. The two books provide an essential 2 volume introduction for all students and scholars of film and media, plus those practitioners seeking insight into their craft.

Television has never been exclusive to the home. In Television at Work, Kit Hughes explores the forgotten history of how U.S. workplaces used television to secure industrial efficiency, support corporate expansion, and manage the hearts, minds, and bodies of twentieth century workers. Challenging our longest-held understandings of the medium, Hughes positions television at the heart of a post-Fordist reconfiguration of the American workplace revolving around dehumanized technological systems. Among other things, business and industry built private television networks to distribute programming, created complex CCTV data retrieval systems, encouraged the use of videotape for worker self-evaluation, used video cassettes for training distributed workforces, and wired cantinas for employee entertainment. In uncovering industrial television as a prolific sphere of media practice, Television at Work reveals how labor arrangements and information architectures shaped by these uses of television were foundational to the rise of the digitally mediated corporation and to a globalizing economy.

A "revolution" is taking place in the development of global information and communications technologies. In slightly more than a decade, the World Wide Web has gone from the idea of an obscure English scientist to a consumer-oriented technology system with an expected one billion users by 2005. The technologies that enable this to happen are advancing rapidly, which is leading to both an unprecedented number of start-up companies and a host of innovative new alliances between companies. The growth has been so rapid and unexpected that little research and analysis has yet been done on what impact this transformation has had or will have on the ability of companies to meet the global sustainability challenge. As environmental strategy has traditionally been portrayed in terms of risk cutting and resource efficiency, there is a danger that critical business issues such as information technology, R&D and e-commerce development are examined in isolation from the wider sustainable business perspective. An important objective of the book is to explore, document and raise awareness of sustainability concerns arising from the emerging global information economy. The information economy is defined in the broadest sense possible, including software, hardware, telecommunication - traditional and wireless - and advanced communication technologies. Some of the key issues and questions that are examined include:Case studies on how and to what degree sustainability concerns are being integrated into the business model of electronic, telecommunication and dot.com firms. The relationship between the diffusion of information and communication technologies and the energy and resource intensity of companies. The role of information and communication technologies in the shaping of policies for sustainability, its impacts on sustainable or unsustainable lifestyles and its implications for the interaction between companies and other actors. Corporations and the global digital divide. The Ecology of the New Economy will be of interest to academics, governments, businesses, and non-governmental groups who are trying to understand the linkages and relationship between the two of our greatest global challenges: the information revolution and environmental sustainability.

Risk, anxiety and moral panic are endemic to contemporary societies and media forms. How do these phenomena manifest in a place like South Africa, which features heightened insecurity, deep inequality and accelerated social change? What happens when cultures of fear intersect with pervasive systems of gender, race and class? Worrier state investigates four case studies in which fear and anxiety appear in radically different ways: the far right myth of 'white genocide'; so-called 'Satanist' murders of young women; an urban legend about township crime; and social theories about safety and goodness in the suburbs. Falkof foregrounds the significance of emotion as a socio-political force, emphasising South Africa's imbrication within globalised conditions of anxiety and thus its fundamental and often-ignored hypermodernity. The book offers a bold and creative perspective on the social roles of fear and emotion in South Africa and thus on everyday life in this complex place. -- .

"Media Firms" presents studies applying the company level approach to media and communication firms. It explores differences among missions, strategies, organizational choices, and other business decisions. Reviewing economic factors and pressures on media and communications companies, this book seeks to improve understanding of how these elements affect market and company structures, operations, and performance of firms.
The chapters, written by leading scholars worldwide, were selected from papers on the theme of media firms presented at the 5th World Media Economics Conference hosted by the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration and "The Journal of Media Economics."
The collected studies provide:
*an overview of economic and related managerial issues affecting the structures of markets in which firms compete;
*the operations of media and communications firms; and
*their financial performance.
As a result, it expands the discussion of economic issues traditionally associated with the field due to narrowed focus of initial books in media economics. It is hoped that this book will induce additional avenues of inquiry regarding such issues.

In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organising and disseminating knowledge.
As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including:
* the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity
*the effect of multimedia, orality and memory on education
*the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203463307

In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organising and disseminating knowledge.
As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including:
* the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity * the effect of multimedia, orality and memory on education * the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.

This set collects together for the first time rare and scattered material on the history of pre-cinema. It includes articles on stereoscopic photography; the use of kaleidoscopes; optical illusions; theatre design; magic lanterns and mirrors; shadow theatre, and much more. The articles are taken from sources such as The Magazine of Science, The Art Journal, The British Journal of Photography, Scientific American, American Journal of Science and Arts, and The Mirror.

This book details the exploratory stages of a research study that produced a framework for entrepreneurial endeavour and enterprise. It presents an unfolding discussion, throughout its chapters, regarding the entrepreneurial nature potential within us all, and the modes by which those involved in such activity, and associated innovative discoveries, can be informed by the skills and experience already in their possession. The book also provides, through its structure, a tool by which the entrepreneur, innovator, educator, student or those yet-to-be involved in the entrepreneurial arena can plan for the yet-to-be known eventualities of such endeavour. The parabolic scramble framework is backgrounded across the discussion of entrepreneurship and the necessity to deal with the tangible and intangibility of any venture, as well as other considered aspects that the entrepreneurial journey engenders.

After thirty years of broadcasting in Britain under a public monopoly, the Television Act of 1954 introduced a controversial new force called Independent Television (ITV) which was a plural structure combining private enterprise and public control. Its income came from advertising. This volume, the first of three recording the history of Independent Television, describes the campaign to end the BBC's monopoly in television and tells of the vicissitudes of the early years of ITV, how it survived to become an accepted part of the fabric of British life. The book draws on much previously unpublished information to reveal the inside story of the problems which were encountered and the people principally involved in them. It tells how ITV's programmes captured a major share of the television audience and also how its rapid growth and the way the network was conducted led to a divergence from some of the ideals of its founding fathers. Whilst enjoying great popularity with the audience in general, ITV encountered criticism among people concerned about both 'excessive' profits and the social impact of the medium. The book sets the record straight on a number of questions on which judgements have been based more often on legend than on fact. The story ends on the eve of the Pilkington Report of 1962, which was to advocate 'organic change' in the whole system of Independent Television. The second volume will contain a detailed review of this report, describe the passage of the second Television Act of 1963 and go on to tell what happened to ITV after the arrival of Lord Hill of Luton, the former radio doctor and Postmaster-General, as Chairman of the ITA in the summer of 1963.

What is 'cultural work'? How are we to understand the 'art-commerce relation'? "The Politics of Cultural Work" answers these questions through a wide-ranging study of labour in the cultural industries. It critically evaluates how various sociological traditions - including critical theory, governmentality and liberal-democratic approaches - have sought to theorize the creative cultural worker, in art, music, media and design-based occupations. It evaluates whether the cultural worker should be seen as a creative, autonomous subject - or as a mere victim of the 'culture industry'

The first of January 1998 was the deadline for market liberalisation within the European Union, which together with the passing of the USA Telecommunications Act, has served to open up major markets in the Telecommunications Industry. This book examines the changes that have been occuring in the industry in recent years, seeking to impose a coherent structure upon a rapidly changing environment. It includes case studies of the UK, Germany and the USA.

In its more than seventy years of existence, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has emerged as one of the most important and controversial agencies in the United States government. As an independent regulatory commission, the FCC possesses an expansive legislative mandate to formulate a national communications policy. Using its authority, the FCC has done such far-reaching things as setting rates for long distance telephone service, creating rules and standards for broadcast programming, writing regulations for providers of cable television and information services, and, in recent decades, introducing competition in virtually every sector of the communications industry. As the FCC has gone about implementing its statutory mandate, it has frequently been the target of criticism by interest groups and members of Congress. Even these critics, however, would have a hard time imagining how a task as complicated as the formulation of a national telecommunications policy could be accomplished without the expertise and full time attention of an agency such as the FCC. The first work to integrate detailed information on the FCC as an organization--its politics, key policy initiatives, and legal issues--offers students, researchers, and general readers alike easy access to an array of topics related to the FCC. Chapters discuss the agency's origins, organization, programs, controversies, notable people, and significant court cases. Topics include the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Michael Powell, Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC, the Fairness Doctrine, telephone-cable competition, and indecency. A comprehensive annotated bibliography lists sources for further research.

This unique publication deals exclusively with current media management issues. It fills a void in the current literature and provides an outlet for a growing number of media scholars and practitioners interested in the ever-changing and ever-more-complex field of media management. The "Media Management Review" was designed to appeal to working professionals who deal directly with managing the media: radio, television, cable, newspapers, magazines, new media, and advertising agencies. Written in a style that is both understandable and applicable, this annual volume is an indispensable resource filled with information on the latest media management theories and practices.

The international business environment has undergone major turbulence in 2020 following the onset of lockdowns, travel restrictions and social distancing all prompted by Covid-19. These restrictions have limited the revenue generation capacity of both countries and businesses - large and small. While the winners have been mostly those sectors with a digital footprint such as streaming services and video-conferencing giants, the creative industries have felt a much harder blow. Against this backdrop, The Creative Industries and International Business Development in Africa takes an unorthodox approach to showcasing the trends and challenges of the contemporary creative economy with a view to positioning the sector for a global audience. Drawing upon the categorisations of the Creative Industries Federation, the book interrogates, and highlights, the challenges, and opportunities of the creative industries in Africa. This is with a view to aggregating how the sector has coped with a myriad of challenges even before the pandemic. Discussions across the chapters document the changing landscape of the sector, capturing insights from the global value chain to everything digital - from arts to publishing, fashion, film and music production and distribution. Further insights are discussed around recent events such as the take-off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the exit of Britain from the EU - with the latter event reinvigorating the Commonwealth Agenda and renewed interest in Africa's creative industries.