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 27 - March 17)

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 is the head of Bloomberg Beta, an early stage venture fund backed by Bloomberg LP. He is also the chairman of OUYA, an Android-based game console.

He 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 on the board of CodeNow, a nonprofit that teaches underpriviliged kids computer programming, and was on the board of Revision3 (an online video company sold to Discovery) and Flixster (a movie media service sold to Warner Bros., where he was a board observer).

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.