Some epistemological considerations about the theories of film and cultural consumption in the Internet age: revisiting superstardom models, long tail phenomenon and quality appraisal

New technologies, including management information systems, the Internet and mobile communication technologies, have transformed many aspects of modern business and marketing. It seems only natural that recent studies have begun to address the role of communication in the particular context of new technologies. With the advent of new mobile infrastructure providing higher bandwidth and constant connection to the network from virtually everywhere, the way people use communication media is predicted to radically transform. A new breed of information systems, referred to as Internet systems as well as mobile information systems have appeared to address the emerging situation.The purpose of the initiative "Internet Communication Management" has been the publication of the discussions initiated during the First International Week Internet Communication Management' organized by the Promotion and New Media Bureau in cooperation with Faculty of Informatics and Communication at University of Economics in Katowice in February 2011. The book covers papers written by university professors from different countries i.e., Germany, Italy, Taiwan, France, Turkey, Holland, UK, Belgium, Czech Republic and Romania."Internet Communication Management" book aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of communication management. It is written by and for professionals who want to improve the general understanding of the strategic role of communication value in the distributed business environment and the necessity to protect and properly utilize the communication media at different levels of organizations as well as in society. The general mission of this book is as follows:Assuming that business organizations as well as individuals are entirely linked together in Internet, a new approach to communication management must be developed that covers the estimation of synergy effects, the compatibility and interoperability problems, business and social value creation, and the overload reduction and information protection.International audienceIf the uncertainty phenomena are not the latest in economics, the combination of the ADSL Internet accessibility and opportunities to share/download//watch in streaming film in a whimsical chronology has substantially amended the work of the researcher in the last fifteen years. Film economics can be considered as the cultural economics subarea interested in economics of the film industry, movies economics or cinema marketing. Film economics is no longerlimited to statistically record the phenomena of trade in the cinema exhibition market (i/e domestic box office results), but to analyze the hazards of an individual consumption of cultural goods via downloading or streaming practices during an age where only management studies or sociology of cultural practices prevailed. The traditional models of film marketing, largely influenced by the behaviorist tradition (for example questioning the effects of criticism on general entries or the trailers effectiveness on audiences), yet effective ten years ago, are no longer enough to interpret today the disconcerting versatility of the cultural consumeron Internet, washed up there where the new media leaders and cultural influencers such as social networks take over. The economist of culture has mutatedby obligation into a socio-economist. The significant evolution of the Internet technical skills (networks, free or legal downloading platforms, independent consumer labels raising funds for online artists…) encourages the economists to revisiting the traditional economics models of cultural goods.From our point of view, the technological challenges that experienced the audiovisual sphere with the digital switchover of the whole chain of production, distributionand dissemination of images engendered three epistemological questions that have profoundly influenced the economic thinking on the media consumption during the past fifteen years