Mandates in Media Career - Paper Example

Think about a media-related career that you could imagine being in five years from now, where you would be, who you would be working for, and what you would be doing.

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The media-related career that I imagine myself being in the next five years from now is online/internet marketing. In internet marketing, I am more likely to be in the advertising industry working for a reputable internet-based advertising firm. As information technology and digital media continue to blossom rapidly, more business and organizations are increasingly realizing the value and power of online advertising. On a day-to-day basis, my general task would be sold online advertising space and marketing opportunities to a wide range of clients like businesses, government, NGOs, and individual customers.

What would be the mandate(s) of your work?

A media mandate refers to the primary purpose a given industry organization exists to fulfill; its reason for operating. Examples include commercial (profit-seeking), public service, government, DIY, and community, or a blend of two or more of these areas. The mandate of my work would be commercial. In this mandate, marketing and advertising budgets are derived from consumers who pay inflated prices to cover the costs incurred on advertising. They operate in a dual product market whereby media organizations not only sell content to the target audience but also sell the audiences themselves to advertisers. The mandate determines or influences significantly on how the media industry is likely to behave and what manner of content it is likely to produce. The fundamental difference that exists between commercial and non-commercial mandates is that the primary commodity of a commercial advertising firm, for example, is not the programming rather the production and sale of audiences. In this regard, the main mandate of my work as an advertiser would be the pursuit of profits. The commercial media place greater value on the realization of profits, and therefore their decisions are primarily informed by the perceived consequence of the profitability of the content they create, whether such outcome is sold directly to target consumers or as supported by online advertisers.

How did the mandates of your work develop?

Just like mainstream media, the commercial media has changed over history. In fact, the traditional media (press) of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example in America are very different from what it is today. Initially, cultural activities, particularly the kinds of domestic amusements that feature in most of the contemporary media consumption were non-professional, spontaneous, and more importantly free of charge. In the past, most media industries depended on the promotion of goods and services that attracted large and broad audiences. On the contrary, a great deal of the media focused on advertising and marketing is uniquely designed and target to meet the needs of a specific demographic. Such particular demographics can be defined by age (like youth or millennial), education achievement (e.g. college education), household income (e.g. $75,000), geographical location (like New York City) and gender (male or female), among other factors. Furthermore, the commercial media has developed to the point whereby its success, unlike in traditional media, is determined by profits.

How would these mandates influence or determine how you did your job?

The mandate to make a profit would influence how I did my work because it determines the purpose, conditions, and practices involved in this work. They define the general behavior of the advertising media domain the various technologies, regulations, and economies that affect how online and mainstream advertising media operate. Similarly, the commercial mandate dictates the advertising appropriate practices the diverse professional roles and activities that would constitute my day-to-day work as an Internet marketer. In addition to several social trends, consumer tastes and preferences, and advertising traditions that I would draw on as an online marketer when creating advertising content, this mandate account to how an online marketer and internet advertising, as a media industry, brings a promotional campaign into being. As an employee in a commercial media organization, I would have a little degree of individual autonomy as far doing my work is concerned, as Havens and Lotz term it circumscribed agency. The scuffle for payment by my employer would undoubtedly influence the type of content I would create, hence influencing me to create quality and unique content. Additionally, most commercial media tend to be less democratic as they favor or focus on some audiences than others. Given this idea, my work as an online advertiser is more likely to consider certain audiences as more valuable or profitable compared to others.

Moreover, conditions especially regulations in commercial media would affect the way I did my work. These encompass the laws, guidelines, and policies that govern the way advertisers and marketers produce, distribute and exhibit their products. In the United States, the First Amendment laid the foundation for regulation of the commercial media, which prohibits the violation of the freedom of speech and the press. After that, the radio Act of 1927 was enacted, which developed the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) with the power to provide and renew broadcasting licenses. This Act was transformed into the Communication Act of 1934 changing FRC to Federal Communication Commission (FCC) with the powers to assign frequencies and establish rates and fees. In addition to FCC, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created through an Act to regulate the content, operations and access to advertising and marketing media in the U.S. besides national laws, there also exist international regulations and associations that are multilateral in nature. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), for example, work in harmony with national regulation systems to regulate telecommunication infrastructure industries to integrate technical systems.

These regulations require Internet marketer to ensure the safety and security of their content as well as the privacy of my clients. All advertisers are expected to comply with general advertising standards, such as providing an accurate description of the product or service offered, be legal, decent, truthful, honest, and socially responsible to business consumers. For example, the FTC Act outlaws unfair competition, misleading or harassment of consumers, with violations of this provision encompassing false/deceptive messages, concealing critical information, airing age-inappropriate content, and adopting aggressive marketing approaches, among others. A good example of the media effects that such regulations seek to address is social panics, obscenity, and decency. Social panics are widespread, often hysterical outcries associated with feats regarding the media content and their social and psychological consequences like perceived appropriate body shape among young girls and women.

How would your work be different if it were guided by different mandates?

My work would be definitely different it was guided by different mandates. With the commercial mandate, I would attempt to tailor the content and marketing campaign specifically to a profitable audience to achieve the goal of profits. In a non-commercial mandate like public service, government, community or DIY, however, my work would not feature such narrow focus. The content and presentations I make to the media would not need to excite the audience, instead, I would focus on the public. Also, I would take a concerned initiative to improve and enhance the representation of the disenfranchised without the thought of profit. Furthermore, I would probably work with fewer strings because media organizations in non-commercial mandates often operate and create content and show with relatively small budgets. Besides that, I would also consider educational programs to inform and entertain the audience; a pitch would die quickly in the commercial mandate.