As mobile media have grown more advanced, and mobile Internet access has increased to a near-ubiquitous state, media use is often described as occurring “anytime, anywhere.” Consequently, measuring media use and understanding competition and coexistence within such an environment is a constant challenge for researchers. To help address this issue the present study explicates a method for measuring media use and competition, the time–space diary, and reports a methodological study testing the robustness of this method across 3 diary instruments. Following a summary of concepts central to mobile media use and measurement, this study reports findings from data collected using 3 types of time–space diaries. Results indicate no significant difference between diary methods (paper and pencil, audio recorder, mobile device) on the likelihood of reported media use, and minimal differences in patterns of competitive superiority, supporting the reliability of the method. Paper-and-pencil diaries are argued to offer the greatest use flexibility relative to audio recorders and mobile devices, and received higher ease of use scores relative to mobile devices. The article concludes with a discussion of the utility of the time–space diary method for emerging mobile media research which must account for media use in novel times and places, as well as multichannel media consumption.

According to the theory of the niche, media must differentiate themselves along resource dimensions that allow for their survival to compete and coexist within a resource space. Within this study, contacts with personal relationships are framed as a key resource domain over which channels of interpersonal communication (interpersonal media) compete to occupy niches within the resource spaces of social networks. One hundred and forty-two college undergraduates completed a time/space diary for a randomly assigned weekday in which they recorded their contacts or ‘bundles’ with members of their personal social network. Analysis of the data shows that interpersonal media coexist because they are differentiated from each other in the contacts they allow with different relationships at different times and locations. Although evidence is found regarding heavy competition among the media under analysis, each is used in different time/space/network relationship contexts.

The recent growth of mobile channels has provided steadily increasing opportunities for individuals to access news and other mass-mediated content. Media ecological perspectives argue that the introduction of such new technologies can shift the existing biases in prevailing social systems. According to one ecological perspective, the theory of the niche, when new media technologies are successfully introduced into a domain, displacement may occur unless some alteration is made to the resource base. Interstices are conceptualized as the gaps in the routines of media users between scheduled activities. Through the use of a diary method, participants logged access to news using a variety of communication technologies, including mobile channels. Results indicated that traditional media occupied traditional niches with little evidence of displacement, while mobile channels occupied a new niche: access in the interstices.

This article briefly reviews research on the principle of relative constancy and concludes that further research using aggregate consumer and advertiser spending data should be suspended because the principle does not represent a theoretically based hypothesis but is simply am unexplained empirical generalization. Instead, I propose that further theory building and research is necessary to explain consumer and advertiser spending on the media and offer suggestions on the conduct of such research. I employ the theory of the niche and elements of the theory to explain the anomaly of the "video revolution" that stands as a major exception to constancy.

Over the last decade, the Internet has become one of the most popular vehicles facilitating a variety of communication and information-sharing tasks worldwide. Its growing popularity as a new medium of communication has resulted in changes in use of traditional media. The purpose of this study was to better understand the uses of online news compared with news use via traditional media. In light of the niche theory and the theory of uses and gratifications, a new medium survives, grows, competes, and prospers by providing utility or gratification to consumers. In doing so, it may have effects on existing media by providing new solutions to old needs or to more contemporary needs. Data were collected in a telephone survey with 211 respondents in the Columbus, Ohio (Franklin County), metropolitan area. The results clearly indicate that the Internet has a competitive displacement effect on traditional media in the daily news domain with the largest displacements occurring for television and newspapers. The findings also show that there is a moderately high degree of overlap or similarity between the niches of the Internet and the traditional media on the gratification-opportunities dimension. In addition, the results suggest that the Internet has the broadest niche on the gratification opportunities dimension, providing users satisfaction with more needs than any of the traditional media on this dimension.

The theory of niche proposes that a new medium competes with older, more established media to fulfill users' needs. This study uses niche theory, a macrolevel theory, as well as social information processing theory and the theory of electronic propinquity, both microlevel theories, to examine the niche of instant messaging (IM) in providing general gratifications. Results indicate that IM is characterized by a broad niche, surpassed only by that of the cell phone. IM had substantial niche overlap with e-mail and the cell phone, indicating a degree of substitutability between them; the least overlap was with the landline telephone (LLP). The hierarchy that emerged indicated that the cell phone was superior to IM, which was superior to e-mail, followed by the LLP for providing general gratifications. Finally, displacement tests indicated that IM use displaced e-mail and LLP but not cell phone use. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study examined the relationship among personal network characteristics, gratification-utilities and the frequency of use of three interactive communication technologies (landline telephone, email and instant messaging). A conceptual framework is presented, providing a rationale for three hypotheses predicting positive relationships between personal network characteristics (size, intimacy and physical proximity), gratification-utilities and frequency of use.The participants were 286 college students, whom research shows are primary users of interactive media. Hypotheses 1 and 2, proposing a link between network characteristics and gratification-utilities with frequency of use, were supported, while Hypothesis 3, predicting a link between the prior two variables, was only partially supported. Frequency of use was associated more strongly with network characteristics than with gratification-utilities across the three technologies. Of the network characteristics, network size was significantly associated with gratification-utilities. Directions for future research are discussed.

This study examines transnational media corporations' (TNMCs') strategies in the Chinese media market after its WTO entry, employing a theoretical model that involves the interactions of a company's risk in terms of environmental uncertainties and control in terms of equity ownership. Interviews were used as the primary research method, with 15 informants from three global media giants-Disney, News Corporation and Sony. Findings suggested that in response to the risk they perceive, TNMCs have plans for increasing control through engaging in higher forms of ownership, developing connections with governments and distributors, localizing their products, and differentiating the products vis-a-vis their competitors. These plans comprise a roadmap for TNMCs' long-term development in China.This study examines transnational media corporations' (TNMCs') strategies in the Chinese media market after its WTO entry, employing a theoretical model that involves the interactions of a company's risk in terms of environmental uncertainties and control in terms of equity ownership. Interviews were used as the primary research method, with 15 informants from three global media giants-Disney, News Corporation and Sony. Findings suggested that in response to the risk they perceive, TNMCs have plans for increasing control through engaging in higher forms of ownership, developing connections with governments and distributors, localizing their products, and differentiating the products vis-a-vis their competitors. These plans comprise a roadmap for TNMCs' long-term development in China.

The article reports an effort to map the personal telephone networks of samples of respondents and to use characteristics of networks to partially explain phone usage patterns. A typology which consisted of four network types was formulated by dichotomizing and cross‐tabulating respondents according to their position of two variables which were termed affective relations and proximate relations. Expectations based on the typology were assessed in both a city‐wide sample of Columbus, Ohio, and in a state‐wide survey. Many of the expectations associated with the typology were supported.

The article reports three studies of gratifications obtained from the household telephone by samples of respondents in Columbus (Franklin County), Ohio, and a statewide sample of Ohio. The first study consisted of open-ended qualitative interviews to ascertain reasons for using the household telephone. In the second study, gratifications questions were administered to a sample of 569 respondents from the Columbus area. A factor analysis clearly demonstrated the presence of two factors. sociability and instrumentality. Evidence suggestive of a third factor was obtained as well. In the third study, gratification questions were administered to a sample of 525 residents of the state of Ohio. A factor analysis clearly demonstrated the presence of a third factor: reassurance. Whereas the reassurance factor is a psychological-level variable, the sociability factor is linked to the process of social integration and the instrumentality factor is tied to a social process called coordination.

The authors examine the satisfactions obtained by audiences from different video media (broadcast television, cable television, videocassette recorders, premium cable television, and pay‐per‐view cable services) and examine the extent to which the different media compete in meeting those satisfactions. The study illustrates how merging niche theory with gratifications research can be used to effectively study competitive relationships.

The authors show that although there is increasing competition between cable television, broadcast television, and radio, broadcast television remains a strong competitor and has not yet been displaced by cable television in the advertising market. Radio still remains competitive, but not to the degree of broadcast television. The authors suggest that cable television will not rapidly overwhelm and push broadcast industries out of the market.

Journal Article The Theory of the Niche: Quantifying Competition Among Media Industries Get access John Dimmick, John Dimmick 1John Dimmick is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and School of Journalism, Ohio State University, Eric Rothenbuhler is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Eric Rothenbuhler Eric Rothenbuhler 1John Dimmick is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and School of Journalism, Ohio State University, Eric Rothenbuhler is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 34, Issue 1, March 1984, Pages 103–119, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1984.tb02988.x Published: 07 February 2006

Journal Article Popular Music: Concentration and Diversity in the Industry, 1974–1980 Get access Eric W. Rothenbuhler, Eric W. Rothenbuhler 1Eric W. Rothenbuhler is a graduate student, Department of Communication, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John W. Dimmick John W. Dimmick 2John W. Dimmick is Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 32, Issue 1, March 1982, Pages 143–149, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1982.tb00485.x Published: 07 February 2006

Extant evidence from media organizations is reviewed which is relevant to a theory of organizations as political coalitions. The behavior of organizations in such diverse fields as daily newspapers, network television, and the radio/recording industry fits the political coalition pattern with one important exception: mass media organizations are unable to arrange a negotiated environment especially at their output boundaries and hence, must find ways to cope with the uncertainty.