The Conceptualization of the Performance Elements of Media Organizations and the Factors that Influence their Performance

This study aims to examine the concept of media organizations’ performance and the factors that influence their level of performance. Media organizations are often private profit-seeking enterprises but at the same time also have a public side that realizes freedom of speech, which is a core value of democracy. Therefore, a theory of media organizations’ organizational performance needs to reflect this duality. We divide media organizations’ organizational performance into two categories: economic-industrial and sociocultural. Economic-industrial performance can be defined as how media organizations perform in the market. A typical indicator is how much sales revenue they bring in. In addition, because their revenue heavily depends on advertisements, newspaper subscriptions or television viewer ratings, which are directly connected to advertisement revenue, can be used as performance indicators.

Sociocultural performance refers to how media organizations perform with respect to their content. A media organization’s sociocultural performance primarily depends on whether it has accomplished the goals indicated by relevant laws. In addition, sociocultural performance depends on how the contents of a media organization are received by its readers or viewers, which can be identified by media credibility measures that are conducted by many organizations. Factors that influence media organization’s performance include independence, diversity and openness. The present study is a preliminary attempt to provide a conceptual analysis as groundwork for empirical research. We hope this preliminary examination builds a foundation for comparative studies of diverse public organizations such as public hospitals, universities, and public enterprises and can contribute to further theoretical and conceptual discussions about organizational performance.