Changing the Rules of the Game: Strategic Institutionalization and Legacy Companies’ Resistance to New Media

Authors

  • Heidi J. S. Tworek History Department, University of British Columbia
  • Christopher Buschow Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media

Keywords:

copyright, disruption, Germany, Google, legacy media, legislation, new media, old media, radio

Abstract

Drawing from communication research, history, and organizational studies, this article uses a new, interdisciplinary approach to study how legacy media companies—understood as established players in a specific media sphere—respond to the emergence of new media. The article examines the example of copyright legislation in news, using two case studies from Germany on radio in the 1920s and online news aggregators today. The article combines historical archival research with other qualitative research methods to explore when and why contemporary transitions follow similar patterns to the past. Our results show that legacy media companies frequently engage in what we term “reactive resistance” to reconstitute their media environment. Rather than just fighting new media companies on their own turf, legacy media pursue what we call “strategic institutionalization” to consolidate their business models.

Author Biographies

Heidi J. S. Tworek, History Department, University of British Columbia

Heidi Tworek is Assistant Professor of International History at the University of British Columbia. She received her PhD from Harvard University. Her dissertation on news agencies received the Herman E. Krooss Prize for best dissertation in business history.

Christopher Buschow, Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media

Christopher Buschow is a Research Assistant and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media in Germany.

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Published

2016-04-15

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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