BLOG POST: WEEK 5

Both production and consumption are inevitable parts of the physical and digital world that we live in. Since production and consumption are important aspects of audience studies, researchers must develop methods that will uncover aspects of their audiences. This will help media creators produce relevant media that will maintain positive viewer ratings and high audience numbers. All audience members are personally affected by such methods, both consciously and subconsciously. As a female audience member, I do believe that I was aware of the various research methods associated with media consumption. I experience such methods daily and will elaborate on such experiences within the blog by relating them to various facts from the three academic readings by Sullivan, Buzzard, and Andreva.

In terms of defining political economy, renowned scholar Vincent Mosco has defined it as “the study of the social relations, particularly the power relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources” (emphasis in original; Mosco, 1996, p. 25; Sullivan). It is said that the political economy is a “rich theoretical tradition that explores many key aspects of our social and economic lives in modern, industrialized economies” (Sullivan). Political economic analysis “places particular emphasis on the social and economic transformations that have occurred as a result of industrialization and rise of corporations within a capitalist system” (Sullivan). As you can imagine, the study of such social and economic transformations can be extremely helpful within audience studies. Such studies are also useful for media producers that wish to keep high viewer ratings and positive reviews.

As with anything that gains consumers' attention, people have found a way to capitalize on such attention and ratings. Within the “Blindspot” Debate, Dallas W. Smythe explains that “the core business of profit-driven mass media is to produce communication products (such as television programs, radio shows, motion pictures, etc.) and market those products to consumers” (Sullivan).

Many of us believe that as an audience member we choose what we want to watch and when, but Smythe claims otherwise with his 'Blindspot' debate. It is said that “the price that consumers pay for “free,” over-the-air TV programming is the advertising that they are forced to endure during each show” (Sullivan). As audience members, this is a concept that we are extremely familiar with. We can all relate to the situation in which we are watching a television program, or listening to the radio when suddenly commercials start playing back to back. Although the Ads are playing, we usually choose to stay on the channel to wait for the main program or content to resume. I participate in this act daily, as I watch Youtube videos before bed and only skip through commercials if I am truly interested in the video I’m watching. Sometimes I will let the ads run so that the content creator gets more money through AdSense.

The earliest memory I have as an audience member concerning commercialization took place in my grandparents' house while watching television. I was watching television with my grandparents as I usually did while visiting them when a commercial came on and my grandpa muted the television. At the moment this confused me because even at such a young age I was used to watching the commercials all the way through. I asked my grandfather why he had muted the commercials and he responded by saying that he did not like listening to people trying to sell him stuff all of the time. At the same time this was rather hypocritical at the moment because although he did not listen to the commercials, he still watched them regularly.

This ties into Smythe’s 'Blindspot' debate because ultimately, “the transaction between producer and consumer is not the only one happening when you turn on your television” (Sullivan). While watching television, “the television program is being “sold” to the audience, the attention of the audience is being “sold” to advertisers” (Sullivan).

When it came to the actual content, Smythe “considered the content of the media to be rather less important, calling it instead “an inducement (gift, bribe, or ‘free lunch’) to recruit potential members of the audience and to maintain their loyal attention” (1977, p. 5; Sullivan). Instead, it was said that “the real value of audiences to media producers was their viewership. Viewers essentially became a new product that media corporations could sell to advertisers: the audience commodity” (Sullivan).

Viewers are more important than one may think. As an audience member, I would say that I knew the value that I had but was not aware of the extent of how important audience members and viewers truly are. Just recently I have come to truly understand that the true value of an audience to media producers is their viewership (Sullivan). This is because as audience members, we “perform labour for advertisers by learning about brands for consumer goods featured in the commercials” (Sullivan).

In my experience with being an audience member, I view media consumption as a leisure-based activity. My ‘me time’ at the end of the day usually consists of laying in bed and watching a few Youtube videos before going to bed. Although I am aware that commercials and video sponsors (etc) try to sell us things such as products and services, I was not aware that while watching such videos and TV programs, I was participating in a form of active labour. By active labour, I am referring to Smythe’s findings, as he suggested that “audiences continue to generate economic value to the system of commercial broadcasting by internalizing advertising messages and turning them into demand for consumer goods and services” (Smythe; Sullivan). He “described the phenomenon of audience labour as the “blindspot” in Western Marxist thinking” (Sullivan). It was also said that “the sale of the audiences’ attention to advertisers then becomes part of the integral functioning of the commercial broadcasting system” (Sullivan).

This concept took me by surprise as I was not aware that I was participating in active labour while I was indulging in leisure time. As I mentioned before, consuming media content is usually my go-to ‘me time’ before heading to bed, usually after a long day of work. The last time I did this was yesterday night, and after reading Chapter 4 of Media Audiences by Sullivan, I was able to properly dissect the specific experience.

Within this specific experience as an audience member, I was watching Youtube videos by some of my favourite creators. YouTubers often create videos in partnership with sponsors, so they will advertise the sponsors' products and services throughout the video. As Sullivan suggested, it became clear to me that the Youtubers were getting paid to advertise such products so that the audience members would internalize such advertising messages, causing them to purchase such goods and services within the future.

I am amazed that as audience members within our free time, we are still participating in forms of active labour that encourage us to surrender to the never-ending circle of production and consumption. I am thankful that I am now aware of this. I will be making a conscious effort within my future experiences as an audience member to spend time supporting smaller Youtubers so that my views/support will help more people succeed in their careers. I am glad that I am aware of how important my input and support is as an audience member so I can continue to make better choices within the future to help support smaller Canadian media producers.