What is Media Monitoring and Why Does it Matter?

Media monitoring is paying attention to who's saying something about your company, your competition, your market, and any other subject that's important to you and your operations. In today's environment, media monitoring must encompass more than just print, expanding to the internet, television, and social media.

Functions of Mass Media

Almost everyone gets his or her information about world, national, and local affairs from the mass media. This fact gives both print and electronic media important functions that include influencing public opinion, determining the political agenda, providing a link between the government and the people, acting as a government watchdog, and affecting socialization.

Centralization and Decentralization

Centralization refers to the union and consolidation of departments into one center. Within the center, standardization may occur on operations ranging from computer systems to networked resources, from employee policy and conduct to furniture layout and space allocation. Disadvantages are that organizational flexibility is often compromised and necessary changes in structure become difficult and slow to implement.

Establishing a Media Organization

Establishing an organization requires a full understanding of the key characteristics. They include a vital vision, clear accountability lines, adequate facilities, reliable and diverse revenue streams, and high quality programmes and services.

Media Organization

“Media Organization” is a deceptively simple term encompassing a countless array of institutions and individuals who differ in purpose, scope, method, and cultural context. Mass media include all forms of information communicated to large groups of people, form a handmade sign to an international news network.
There is no standard for how large the audience needs to be before communication becomes “mass” communication. There are also no constraints on the type of information being presented.

Broadcast Vs. Print Media

Historical Differences:-
The main historical difference between broadcast and print media is their development. Print media, and thereby print journalism, evolved from a process. Anthony Smith (1980; in Herbert 2001) states: "Printing evolved from a series of divisions of labor that had been introduced in an effort to speed up the task of manuscript copying." In short, print journalism developed from a process already in place for centuries, namely the manual transcription of manuscripts. In contrast, broadcast media (and broadcast journalism) were born of technology. The telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and Internet were not built specifically for journalism nor did they evolve from some existing process related to journalism; instead, people adapted these inventions to serve the media. In this sense, broadcast is a relatively young medium especially when compared to print.