Big Data Myth

Organizations are expected to act rationally; however, mythical thinking is often present among their members. It refers also to myths related to technology. New inventions and technologies are often mythologized in organizations. People do not understand how new technologies work and usually overestimate their possibilities. Also, myths are useful in dealing with ambivalent feelings, such as fears and hopes. The text focuses on the so-called “big data myth” and its impact on the decision-making process in modern marketing management. Mythical thinking related to big data in organizations has been observed both by scholars and practitioners. The aim of the chapter is to discuss the foundation of the myth, its components, and its impact on the decision-making process. Among others, a presence of a “big data myth” may be manifested by over-reliance on data, neglecting biases in the process of data analysis, and undermining the role of other factors, including intuition and individual experience of marketing professionals or qualitative data.

Aporeticity of Privacy in New Media Environment

New media organizations provide their users with tools to manage access to the content and functionalities that are published in the digital space. However, such protection is only of apparent nature. For their users, corporations that operate in the new media environment create their own images as passive non-participants who hold some mythologized, auto-created competences to bring people together in the world without barriers. At the same time, focusing on the analysis of users' behavior, corporations are able to predict certain activities of their users. Considering such a context, a research question has been posed: who is more interested in new media users' privacy – users or new media organizations? In order to answer such a question and in accordance to the interpretative paradigm, an analysis of the economic policy of two new media organizations (Facebook social network, and Google corporation) is provided, including some tools they provide to their users. The study also presents the results of some previous research.

Mythologization of New Media Organizations Illustrated With the Example of Google

Google is a corporation whose main objective, from the point of view of the critical theory, is to generate profit and maximize its shareholders' wealth. As an organization and as a browser, Google is accompanied by some myths. One of the myths related to Google is about the possibility of finding answers to all questions free of charge. The myths about the organization may be strengthened as a result of providing and sharing tools that satisfy all needs of the users. The organization is able to sustain the myth of being indispensable and omnipotent. In accordance with the interpretation under the critical theory, there is only an appearance of gratuitousness. This publication is to conduct a critical analysis of the Google myths that are sustained by the organization's strategy and to present them in line with the effort to maximize the profitability of the new media corporation being analyzed. The author thinks that the analysis of the myth in the context of the strategy constitutes an uncommunicated pattern that is, however, copied by numerous new media organizations.

A Myth and Media Management

Considering various perspectives and interpretations, a myth has been present in the operation of numerous organizations. Management and entrepreneurship undergo the process of mythologization as well as organizations, with their foundation myths and mythological heroes. Myths refer to the results of the operations run by organizations and their capabilities – such questions have been considered in expert literature on management. The problem of myths has been scarcely researched in the studies on operations performed by media organizations. In media environment, the myth has been following traditional media in their capabilities which refer to their functioning as the Fourth Estate. In the time of digital media, convergence of media, IT, and telecommunication sectors, all the “new media” have been mythologized. Myths have been accompanying the activities of particular organizations and their heroes – leaders; the potential of media organizations has also been mythologized in the context of solving social problems as well as in the context of achieving business objectives.

Mediatization of Solidarity Myth at the Permanent Exhibition of the European Solidarity Centre

This chapter attempts to define the concepts of myth and of mediatization in the context of building great historical narratives. Modern historical museums and narrative exhibitions are treated in the publication as new media whose main task is to communicate narratives about the past to mass audiences, using digital methods of recording, saving, storing data, as well as of creating and transmitting messages. The chapter describes a short history of the creation of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk and the permanent exhibition. In the main part, the text also describes how the ECS (and the permanent exhibition located within) attempt to both present the myth of solidarity and to mediatize it.

Three Dimensions of Myth in Post Advertising

This chapter addresses the issue of the myth in contemporary advertising. An example here is the campaign called “#polishboy” made by the Polish clothing company Reserved. The authors examine the various elements of the ad: “Help! Help! Polish boy wanted!:)” (here considered as a post ad), which appeared in social media in 2017, and caused a lot of emotional reactions among the internet users. Trying to analyze and explicate what influenced the fact that this controversial advertisement gained such popularity, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis pointing the different dimensions of the myth in the ad.

The User With a Thousand Faces

The aim of this chapter is to interpret the relations of a modern media user with the latest technology through the structures described in the “Monomyth” of Hero's Journey depicted by Joseph Campbell. Individual user behaviors are adjusted to phases of mythical hero's path. The author does not judge whether the source of this myth are the expectations and behaviors of users or the ways in which the media function. These considerations are based on the Jan Kreft's concept of the algorithm as an allegory of Demiurge – representing perfection of creativity, organizing and maintaining digital world. The myth of the heroic user, whether it is conscious or not, may play a significant role in modern media management.

The Important Role of the Blogosphere as a Communication Tool in Social Media Among Polish Young Millennials

This chapter proposes and discusses the hypothesis that the blogosphere is a relatively well-developed and independent social media communication tool used by millennials. The first part of the study concentrates on the theoretical aspects of social media communication as presented in the literature, and the way blogs and the whole blogosphere function. The communicational and social profile of Generation Y is presented as it is this cohort that constitutes the major portion of the Polish blogging community. The prevailing trends in the Polish blogosphere are discussed, following a desk research into reports and professional studies. Moreover, some comments and findings are presented regarding an experiment conducted by the authors in which some representatives of younger millennials ran personal, non-profit blogs on a subject of their choice.

Decline of Traditional Marketing Communication Forms in Generation Y

This chapter presents and discusses the validity of the hypothesis of the decline of the traditional marketing forms among millennials. Based on the literature analysis, the introduction deals with the theoretical aspects of marketing communication, both in its traditional and contemporary forms. The specific character of the Gen Y communication patterns is also presented, following some analyses of the literature and desk research. The empirical section presents the findings from a series of individual in-depth interviews conducted exclusively for this publication with Polish and Turkish millennials, as well as with some managers of an FMCG company. In conclusion, it can be said that the new media are definitely the most important communication channel for the aforementioned group of consumers, and similar tendencies (with some local differences) can be seen in both Turkish and Polish markets. However, it has been shown that not all the traditional media analyzed have lost relevance.

Myth and Storytelling

Myth and mythologization have been accompanying organizations, their leaders, and even their products. Considering management, the history of an organization, its models, and underlying values undergo the process of mythologization. Myths are conveyed via storytelling. Considering the case of the Walt Disney Company, which has become a “narrative company,” the myth used to accompany its founder, who carefully developed it. Applied by the company and always present, storytelling has contributed to the corporate hegemony, strengthening a new marketing paradigm – “mythocracy,” a belief that an organization that has something to sell cannot do so without storytelling. At the same time, while the cultural heritage of Disney is fully commodified, storytelling becomes closer to propaganda. In the environment of digital media, a lot of our knowledge about an organization comes as a result of storytelling marketing, and the marketing-ization of an organization identity takes place. It usually occurs when the boundary between an organization and its receivers (producers) becomes blurred.