Bachelor of Journalism & Mass communication, Media Evolution & Trend, Media as a commodity

1. Media as a commodity
The idea that electronic networks are inherently democratic
without the specifics of the hard work that must be done to
harvest that democratising power, can become lead to what has
been called commodification of the media.
Social scientists at times make a distinction between the critical
functions of communicative processes and functions that aim
to influence the decision of consumers, voters and clients.
The critical functions are self-regulated and inclusive, while those
aiming to influence are implemented by organisations that aim
to promote purchasing power, loyalty or conformist behaviour.
These two functions compete with each other.
Public Sphere Sold to Consumers
Many scholars of communication see the public sphere as a
commodity that is sold to consumers, using manipulative
techniques and imagery to seduce them. Television in particular
has introduced flashy, phoney, often violent imagery to replace
reading, writing, and rational discourse.
Increasingly, aspects of advertising and public relations have
undermined the public sphere by pushing out “genuine
discourse with fake discourse”, leading to a radical deterioration
of the public sphere
Politicians are now sold as commodities, citizens are viewed as
consumers, and issues are decided with staged events and
quotes pre-worded by publicity specialists.
Politicians routinely spend large sums to improve their
appearance for television and advertising appearances,through
techniques such as image consultants, expensive wardrobes and
haircuts, facelifts, exercise regimes and the like, in much the
same way as actors and models do. They package themselves
more attractively for the electorate’s metaphorical supermarket
shelf.
Advertising Promotes Consumer Identity
Advertising in the public sphere encourage consumption and
promote “a consumerist subject position, which certainly
manifests itself in a general way in social subjectivity. ...The
commodification of everyday practices and social relations is
beyond dispute”
The consumer identity has become the accepted model for
political decision making. Discourse has degenerated into
publicity, which harnesses the power of electronic media’s
seductive imagery to affect society’s ideas and beliefs.
Internet Duplicates and Subverts
The Internet has the potential to both duplicate and subvert
this effect. It duplicates it in that the same advertising and
public relations are engaged with the Internet; and yet the
Internet still has room for many other dissenting voices, which
do not originate from commercial interests.
Many thousands of individual, non-commercial web sites,
weblogs, newsgroups and so on operate independent of
commercial considerations. While they flourish, there can be a
vital exchange of ideas that is outside the realm of
commodification.

2. Media Concentration
Women and servants often took a primary role in the literary
public sphere of the 17th and 18th centuries, but not in the
political public sphere.
Property owners:In the educated classes,men viewed the
political and literary spheres as identical with one another.
The critical issue is how the meaning of the term ‘public sphere’
is understood. When the public sphere is held to be that
dominated by public opinion of educated men of the political
public sphere, the public appeared as one and indivisible. There
is another view in which it is held that people held two roles:
privatised individuals who came together to form a public. The
role of property owners and the role of human beings are
separated.
This blurring of the category “human being” and “property
owner” was easier to make because most of the members of
the public sphere were both property owners and educated.
This was because a person’s education was a consequence of
social status - which was determined by the extent of his
property holdings.This allowed the freedom of the individual
to converge with the interests of property owners.
Today’s Media
This bears significant resemblance to today’s media, due to the
concentration of media ownership and the pressures of
providing editorial content suited to the higher socio-economic
groups advertisers favour.
Public Sphere no Longer Protected
Scholars argue that under the liberal model of the public sphere,
institutions of public rational-critical debate were protected
from interference by public authorities because they were in the
hands of private people.
During the last century, they have become commercialised and
concentrated economically, technologically and organisationally -
gradually becoming sites of power.
So although public institutions remain in private hands, their
critical functions are threatened
A public sphere dominated by the commercial media does not
allow access by everyone, nor does it allow rational-critical
debate. Instead,it acts as a focus for competing claims to power
over market share,political loyalty, votes. Internet in Many Hands
While the Internet remains in a large number of private hands,
its effects on democracy are more likely to remain positive than
if it were concentrated within fewer organisations.
Powerful, rich organisations may be able to control access to
virtual communities as they have been able to control other
media in the past.
The need for common technical and other standards also gives
large companies an advantage perhaps making it more likely that
concentration will increase.
These organisations are likely to operate in order to earn
revenue. And commercial journalism that dominates general
public discourse seeks a market, not a community changing the
nature of any debate significantly.
Internet as Profit Centre

3. The Internet can be seen as bringing people together in
alienation rather than solidarity. Individual users do not usually
see that people in a political and economic structure produce the
Internet.
In the rush to commercialise, the Internet created an investor
frenzy, that has abated since the “dot com” stock market crash
of 2000.
With the current explosion of numbers using Internet, pay-peruse
has already begun to be introduced to generate capital for
services - for example:
Salon ezine, which has introduced subscription fees
the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper online, which has
introduced fees for archival material numerous other sites which
have introduced various revenue models,
Their business models include:
Paid advertising
-per-use
The Internet also provides an ideal forum for public relations.
Many thousands of companies have already provided web sites
that are not intended to generate profit, but are intended to
generate brand loyalty, positive image and to collect demographic
and other information about the customer.
Information about Customers
As the user gathers information about the product, the
company can gather data about its customers, greatly enhancing
its ability to create public acceptance and to influence buying
behaviour.
Co-operation as a Profit Generator
The co-operative ideology of the Internet’s originators is
clashing with capitalism. Copyright violation is a serious issue.
Another obvious example is the clash between Napster and the
recording industry.
Napster
The Napster story is well documented elsewhere. In brief, the
story is as follows. The company’s purpose was to enable
individuals to swap music files with each other over the
Internet.
Set up in 1999, by February 2001, 60 million users were using
the service to do just that. The Recording Industry Association
of America took it to court, and won on copyright grounds.
Napster was forced to close its free service, and was eventually
bought out by Bertelsman, a major force in the music recording
world.
While Napster as a company has not prospered, the concept
behind it has burgeoned. Free file-sharing applications like
KaZaA and Gnutella have millions of users.
Threat or Boostfor Profits?
The main question for businesses who deal primarily in data,is
whether the culture of sharing on the Internet is a threat to
their profits or whether it can be harnessed as a highly lucrative

4. profit making concern:
The MP3 movement may have already had its day, but fileswapping
still continues in a quieter way. Will the record labels
eventually catch up to reality and offer a reasonable product that
customers won’t resist?
Or will the rogue file-swapping programs figure out some way
to license music and reimburse the artists that are still losing in
this equation?
Guidance as a Profit Generator
The Internet is complex and large, so users are keen to find
guidance (such as search engines, fast, reliable connections and
research tools). Large companies have the opportunity to fill
this need and the potential for profits.
Google
Google is an example of a company currently fulfilling this need
to its financial advantage,and also to the advantage of many
Internet users.
Such services also have the potential to influence public debate
through their immense reach.
Google, currently the most popular search engine, serves 150
million searches a day and Global unique users per month: 36.5
million (Google, 2002).
The sites it promotes to the top of its results are highly visible.
The potential for profits and an influence on discussion in the
public sphere are enormous.
References-
1. Baran and Davis; Mass Communication Theory; (2000); Thomas-Wadsworth
2. Fiske; Introduction to Communication Studies; (1982)
3. Infante, Rance and Womack; Building Communication Theory, 2nd edition; (1993);
4. Berger; Media Analysis Techniques