In other words, media and particular the Internet and its increasing sophistication, with streaming video and its inherent interactivity, made it essential for anyone with a message to understand fully how messages could be delivered and how they might be received. The line between advertising and public relations became blurred, or possibly more accurately, subsumed into the major discipline of communications.
Public relations, according to Miller and Rose (1994) is called upon to "devise programs that support marketing and advertising strategies precisely and cost effectively. Public relations can play a strategic role in achieving marketing objectives."(Miller and Rose, 1994, p. 13+). Advertising is also called upon to do this, with the added objective of creating sales.
It is clear that communications influences modern marketing theory in an essential way; it might even be said that modern marketing is communications. However, a new player in the game is media economics research, a field that "complements the larger body of mass communication research and theory" (Albarran, 1998, p. 125). Although this research comes close to suggesting that all behavior is economic behavior, nonetheless media economics research helps in understanding the activities and functions of media companies, which in turn links directly to advertising/public relations/communications. Albarran wrote:
Only by understanding individual media companies' roles as business entities can one fully appreciate their conduct within society. In this sense, our understanding of media economics strengthens our understanding of the role and function of mass media in society...
125).
While Albarran was also interested in media economics to explain globalization, at a more fundamental level, he suggested that media economics complements mass communications theory by providing insights into the structure, conduct and performance of media entities, and further by providing tools to assess the interplay of policy, economic and regulation, all of this vis-a-vis audience behaviors and preferences.
Marshall McLuhan, often called the father of media criticism, pronounced that "The medium is the message." That might be more accurate now than ever before, especially if one takes media economics into account, and reduces communication to its most elementary level, that of causing an exchange of value. Albarran proposes that understanding some of the basics of several 'communications' theories -- uses and gratifications, media dependency and cultivation analysis -- is enhanced by "an awareness of media economics" -- an awareness that fosters a "perspective on the interdependent relations among political systems, media systems, and society" (Albarran, 1998, p. 125).
References
Albarran, A.B. (1998) Media economics: Research paradigms, issues, and contributions to communication theory. Mass Communication & Society, 1(3/4), p. 125.
Miller, D.A. And P.B. Rose. Integrated communications: A look at reality instead of theory. Public Relations Quarterly, 39(1), 13+.
New Coke -- A lesson in brand loyalty. (2005) The Vault Web site. Retrieved Oct. 6, 2005 from The Vault database, http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=265&article_id=18828&cat_id=1021
