Media Entrepreneurship at IJK

Develop a business model

In teams of five, engaged students at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media create their own media product and a viable business model in a complex and changing environment.

Social & Economic Impact

Media products developed and promoted in the program aim to achieve a social or environmental impact while also representing self-sustaining business models.

Lessons

Face-to-face and online-based lessons grounded in cutting-edge research empower students to develop a clear understanding of media industries’ challenges, identify business opportunities and learn to build a successful start-up.

Coaching

During the entire program, every student team is intensively coached by an experienced entrepreneur from media industry to guide their paths and provide crucial hands-on knowledge.

Field trip

Aiming at a unique combination of theory and practice, student teams head to international start-up hotspots (Berlin, New York) and connect with entrepreneurs as well as financiers from whom they receive real-world feedback on their business models.

Final pitch

After developing and implementing their business model, all teams hold a pitch to a jury of leading media industry experts and investors who will give valuable feedback and decide whom they would invest in under real conditions.

Disruptive and Social challenges

The Media Entrepreneurship Program addresses two major challenges of our time. First, disruptive innovations open up tremendous possibilities for entrepreneurs in the realm of digital media. With the old economic structures partially destroyed, new ventures are supposed to fulfill the media’s role not only in economy but also in society. Second, social challenges such as fighting poverty and hunger, achieving equality, improving health and education, and achieving environmental sustainability are becoming increasingly important. Social entrepreneurs can contribute to these societal aspirations with innovative approaches and bring about social change.

At the Department of Journalism and Communication Research (IJK), Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, we address these developments in our undergraduate Bachelor’s and graduate Master’s programs with the Media Entrepreneurship curriculum which addresses both media and social entrepreneurship.

Combining theory and practice

Bringing together comprehensive theoretical knowledge and practical insights, we aim to encourage students’ social entrepreneurial mindsets as well as behavior and empower them to successfully cope with changing media markets – in new ventures as well as corporate media (Intrapreneurship).

Applying state of the art tools

Teaching is based on entrepreneurial concepts and tools such as the (Social) Business Model Canvas, the Lean Start-up approach, Business Modelling and Design Thinking. Lessons not only focus on agile product development, iterative business model generation but also on opportunity recognition and exploitation, customer-driven ideation, growth and scalability. All of this happens in a period of four months that reflect the entrepreneurial process itself.

Well-proven concept

The media entrepreneurship program is well-proven and has sparked enthusiasm with our students, coaches and jurors since 2013. A scientific evaluation (see Buschow, Possler, & Scheper, 2021) based on data from our participants between 2013 and 2017 confirms this: It was found, that the program fosters a motivating learning experience by bridging professional practice and university teaching, provides real-world insights, creates a more informed and realistic perspective of entrepreneurship and increases long-term motivation and career planning.

Learn more about the study

Embedded in Research on Media Entrepreneurship

Our media entrepreneurship education strongly benefits from accompanying research in the field of media management and new venture creation in media industries conducted at IJK. Both employees and students investigate a variety of pressing questions in the field of social and media entrepreneurship.

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