Abundance Is the Reality of Media Marketplace

This new column, "Media Metrics," aims to paint the most thorough and objective portrait of the true state of America's modern media marketplace ever constructed.

It is my belief that for far too long in this country--especially in recent years--debates about the media, and public policies governing the media marketplace, have been based almost entirely on emotion, not evidence.

I will use solid evidence to assess where America stands today relative to the past in terms of media choice, competition, and diversity at every step in the media value chain. - Adam Thierer

Many people--including a large number of regulators and public-policy makers--argue America's media marketplace is in a miserable state.

Some claim Americans lack choice in media outlets, and that options are just as scarce as ever. Others believe "localism" in media is dead, or that many groups or niches go underserved because of a lack of true "diversity" in media.

Others argue the market is hopelessly over-concentrated in the hands of a few evil media barons hell-bent on force-feeding us corporate propaganda. Still others say the quality of news and entertainment in our society has deteriorated because of a combination of all of these factors.

Better than Ever

As a student of journalism and media history, I believe an objective evaluation of the evidence creates an unmistakable conclusion very different from what most modern media critics suggest. From the perspective of the individual American, things are getting better all the time.

Generally speaking, the simplest barometer of the health of our media marketplace is to ask Ronald Reagan's political question, "Are you better off today than you (or your parents) were XX years ago?" I believe a number of objective metrics prove we as a society are better off in almost every way possible.

In fact, the numbers show we are blessed to live in a golden age of media. We have access to more inputs and outlets, more and better news options, more diverse information and entertainment sources, more local fare, more media gadgets, more ways to interact with our fellow Americans, and so on, and so on.

Four Components

Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School developed several analytical tools to evaluate the state of industry and markets. In addition to his "5-Factor Competitive Forces" model, Porter also devised what is known as "value chain" (firm-level) and "value system" (industry-wide) forms of market analysis.

Those tools can help us think about how firms or industry sectors compete, innovate, and create value. They allow us to unpack the individual elements that make up a company or an industry and then determine the current status of those individual elements.

I believe the "4-Layer Media Model" offers a useful way to evaluate the state of the media marketplace from one era to the next. This model can help us get a feel for just how much the media marketplace has changed over the past few decades by breaking down media into four major components or layers:

Layer 1: Product or content options: Who creates media? What is it that Americans are consuming?

Layer 2: Distribution mechanisms: Who delivers media? How is it distributed to the viewing and listening public?

Layer 3: Receiving or display devices: How is media received (seen and heard) by consumers?

Layer 4: Personal storage options: How do Americans retain media and information?

Burgeoning Media Market

Using these layers, we can analyze what the media marketplace looked like in a sample year, say 1970, compared to today. Table 1 is my attempt to do so for 1970, and Table 2 shows the environment in 2008.

In every single layer, we have more and better options at our disposal.

In the first layer (product or content), we have more forms of media content being produced than ever before. The old analog world (print, TV, and radio) of media scarcity has given way to a media cornucopia of unprecedented abundance--computers, Internet, blogs, video games, mobile devices, satellite radio, iPods, and much more, including even more of the old print, TV, and radio sources.

In the second layer of the value chain, the number of distribution paths or delivery mechanisms to the home has likewise expanded considerably. And in the third layer, the number of receiving and display devices used by consumers has risen dramatically since the days of black-and-white TVs, transistor radios, and black, rotary dial telephones.

Finally, a look at the fourth layer illustrates how many more personal storage options we have today. In the past, it was virtually impossible to store our media for extended periods of time, except for personal book and record album collections. Today, by contrast, every type of media content can be stored and then consumed at our leisure wherever we find ourselves in this world.

Adam Thierer (athierer@pff.org) is senior fellow and director of the Progress & Freedom Foundation's Center for Digital Media Freedom His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Forbes, The Economist, Newsweek, and many other publications.