Why Does Emerging Media Matter?

The IT sector lost both workers and output following the dot-com crash of 2000. Despite this loss of employment and earnings, information technology has become a more ubiquitous part of commerce and daily activities. This division between observed use of IT and industry growth is due both to the changing nature of IT investment towards emerging media and the changes in the structure of occupational deployment within firms. This paper describes the type and growth of emerging media with particular emphasis on growth of interactivity applications. This is followed by a description of occupational and skill shifts within traditional firms and the IT sector. We conclude that growth in emerging media occupations and skills represent a significant change in the labor force composition of both IT and traditional firms. The IT sector may be stagnant, but workers who deploy and employ IT related (primarily emerging media) applications is rising. Finally, we trace the value chain of emerging media and outline how it may affect the geography of new firm development.