The Place of Convergent Audiences in the Small Industry Market

Abstract

In this day and age, it is increasingly important to ask how the cultural industries adapt to the evolution of communication technology. Recent technological changes influencing our understanding of media communication processes are discussed in various fields, with western traditions often predominating. However, the particular impact on industry dynamics is hardly universal. Specifically, the way such changes influence the dynamics of small, distinct peripheral markets remains largely underexamined. To this end, this manuscript focuses on such questions as they relate to the specificities of Central and Eastern Europe and the Czech Republic, a particularly small industry with distinct cultural proclivities. In ascertaining how media representatives/workers comprehend and engage their audiences, this paper presents a fuller understanding of the microsocial processes by which Czech media audiences are framed and conceptualized within Czech media industries and offers insights into the rationales directing the Czech media industry itself, particularly in relation to mediating the dialectic of local dynamics, international competition, and the evolution of digitalization.