by
Lee McGuigan
(editor)
214
The audience commodity is not a material thing, but an abstraction that gains a reality in the commercial organization of media systems. It is an abstraction produced by the logic of acceleration inherent in capitalism's sphere of circulation. Following economic historian Karl Polanyi (2001), the audience commodity might be considered an "essential element of industry" and a central "organizing principle" of communication media (76). Just as land, labor and money are "obviously not commodities" in an "empirical sense" (76), the audience commodity is a fictitious commodity that serves a logistical and acceleratory function in reproducing capital both generally and specifically. [...] Mirroring the sale of labor as "labor power" in the sphere of production, the abstraction of the audience commodity allows the sale of "audience power" in the sphere of circulation.
the "acceleratory function" bit is fascinating. need to think more about what that means and how that concept could be translated into other domains
The audience commodity is not a material thing, but an abstraction that gains a reality in the commercial organization of media systems. It is an abstraction produced by the logic of acceleration inherent in capitalism's sphere of circulation. Following economic historian Karl Polanyi (2001), the audience commodity might be considered an "essential element of industry" and a central "organizing principle" of communication media (76). Just as land, labor and money are "obviously not commodities" in an "empirical sense" (76), the audience commodity is a fictitious commodity that serves a logistical and acceleratory function in reproducing capital both generally and specifically. [...] Mirroring the sale of labor as "labor power" in the sphere of production, the abstraction of the audience commodity allows the sale of "audience power" in the sphere of circulation.
the "acceleratory function" bit is fascinating. need to think more about what that means and how that concept could be translated into other domains
220
In the cut-throat competition for the scarcest of scarce resources--the attention of would-be consumers--the suppliers of would-be consumer goods, including purveyors of information, desperately search for the scrap of the consumers' time still lying fallow, for the tiniest gaps between moments of consumption which could still be stuffed with more information
great quote. p40 of Consuming Life
In the cut-throat competition for the scarcest of scarce resources--the attention of would-be consumers--the suppliers of would-be consumer goods, including purveyors of information, desperately search for the scrap of the consumers' time still lying fallow, for the tiniest gaps between moments of consumption which could still be stuffed with more information
great quote. p40 of Consuming Life
243
[...] By promising people that it is possible to buy their way out of trouble with purchasable solutions to personal and social problems, the animating ideology of consumerism cancels the collective responsibilities traditionally embedded in the identities of the worker and the citizen. Understanding how this commercial enclosure of everyday activity and imagination operates through the promotion of commodities is an essential starting point for any effort to retrieve a conception of citizenship that speaks to the internal complexities of contemporary societies and the shared challenges that transcend national borders.
not at all relevant to diss but quite nice on individual vs collective responsibility
[...] By promising people that it is possible to buy their way out of trouble with purchasable solutions to personal and social problems, the animating ideology of consumerism cancels the collective responsibilities traditionally embedded in the identities of the worker and the citizen. Understanding how this commercial enclosure of everyday activity and imagination operates through the promotion of commodities is an essential starting point for any effort to retrieve a conception of citizenship that speaks to the internal complexities of contemporary societies and the shared challenges that transcend national borders.
not at all relevant to diss but quite nice on individual vs collective responsibility
245
[...] More generally, post-Fordist capitalism and the neoliberal policies shaping it reflect and have generated a more competitive world economy in which various fractions of organized labor have been gutted. [...]
just good phrasing
[...] More generally, post-Fordist capitalism and the neoliberal policies shaping it reflect and have generated a more competitive world economy in which various fractions of organized labor have been gutted. [...]
just good phrasing