ABSTRACT
Building on the previous chapters regarding economic theories and concepts used in understanding the media economy, this chapter focuses on the market itself and how markets are evolving across the media economy in the 21st century. The classical de nition of a “market” in economic terms refers to the location where suppliers and buyers meet to determine the price of goods. Picture this type of activity held centuries ago, when merchants and farmers would bring their goods for sale to a town market and would engage in negotiations with potential buyers wanting their goods. Today this type of market activity still exists through venues like the stock, commodity, and nancial exchanges on Wall Street and other economic centers around the globe, but there are also countless market activities occurring in many different locations, at many different times and places across business and industry. The market in the media economy is the aggregate of many supply and demand situations involving advertising, content, technology, and other media-related rms. In the media economy, market activity takes place business to business, between consumers and business, and even from consumers to
consumers (see Table 4.1). Transactions and market acquisitions can occur in physical settings or via cyberspace with Internet-based transactions (e-commerce).
