6. 7 Putting the Logic of the Market Together with Communication

Micro Outcomes:

The audience as product.

• ratings
• micro-marketing to refine the product
• getting attention comes first
• harvesting new product: TV seven hours a day and rising.

Selling desire/escape/excitement

• need to give people what they want, kind of.

Messages are transformed into fashion statements

Managing risk by reproducing the the same thing over and over

Innovation is rewarded if it can be tamed for the market (rap/punk)

Economics of content:

• news is cheap
• formula productions are cheap, creativity is expensive
• the most expensive production costs, moment by moment are for ads

Voices without economic power, or whose message cannot be turned into a product are excluded.

Job mechanization, job specialization, job deskilling