Media Economics

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the economic behaviour of the media and the ability to analyze the economic dimension of a specific communication product. The mass media are an important industry and the main infrastructure for the dissemination of information, essential for the functioning of the economic and the political system. But at the same time they constitute markets and industries with specific competitive dynamics.
In the first part of the course some basic tools of economic analysis will be acquired, which will be used to analyze the specific dynamics of the communication industries.
The general objective is to provide students with the ability to analyze the specificities of information markets using relatively standard economic tools and then to integrate this economic dimension into the more general communication competences

At the end of this course, students should have developed knowledge of the main economic dynamics in mass media industries; they should have developed the ability to identify the main economic dimensions of an information product, such as, for example, supply demand and type of competition .
At the end of the course the student will be able to recognize the main media markets, the most current costs, the mechanisms of consumer behavior, and the main regulation issues.
Critical and judgment skills will be refined through policy discussions and the analysis of specific cases. The ability to communicate what has been learned will be developed with the continuous alternation of different points of view and through practical exercises on the selection of relevant information.