COURSE NUMBER: MBA277.1A
This course is cross-listed with the
School of Information.
COURSE TITLE: Media: New and Otherwise
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 Unit
INSTRUCTOR: Roy Bahat
E-MAIL ADDRESS: roybahat@gmail.com
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Mondays, 4:00 – 6:00 PM (January 28 - March 18)
PREREQUISITE(S):None
CLASS FORMAT: Students will present strategies for media companies, hear from
guest speakers, and discuss the transformations happening in media. Students
should expect to have significant input into the companies and topics we
discuss. This course will be cross-listed with the School of Information.
Note: We will make every attempt to avoid predictions about the future; we
might occasionally succeed.
REQUIRED READINGS: Textbook and some industry overview books,
as well as a course reader. No cases.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Project and class participation, no exams.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: News, online, movies, advertising,
television, mobile, videogames, music, books, social media -- all part of the
industry of informing and entertaining, and all being revolutionized. In this
course we will do a quick overview of the media business -- from startups to
global conglomerates.
We will address a wide range of topics: the economics of media organizations
(and industries), their organizational structures, cultures, brands, and
approaches.
Some of the questions we’ll discuss:
How do traditional media address changing technologies?
How is the media business driven by metrics and data? How is it driven by
artistic creativity?
Are media companies too big? Are they too small?
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Roy Bahat was
president of IGN Entertainment, which he ran for five years. IGN, a division of
News Corporation, is a leader in videogames media. Roy is also involved in
startups, and was on the board of
Revision3 (an online video company sold to
Discovery), Flixster (a movie media service sold to
Warner Bros., where he was a board observer), and is now chairman of OUYA (an
Android game console).
Before joining News Corp., Roy worked on
various startups and was in the public sector, both in the office of New York
City mayor Michael Bloomberg and at New York's 2012 Olympic bid. He previously
worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Roy graduated from
Harvard College. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he was
also a lecturer in undergraduate math and economics.