User:Dahlsydney/sandbox

Probably one of his most influential ideas was that of the 'audience-commodity'. In "Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism", Smythe writes about monopoly capitalism's dissolution of the boundary between an individual's role as worker and buyer. Smythe believed that all non-sleeping time is work time. Work time is devoted to the production of commodities, producing and reproducing labour power. Time away from work, but not asleep is sold as a commodity to advertisers. This is the audience commodity, which perform marketing functions and work at the production and reproduction of labour power.

Smythe cites that media produces audiences and then they sold to advertisers. After that, advertisers have to create media content which can attract audiences' attention and when audiences actually focus or pay attention to something, they are selling their time and consciousness to advertisers. This time and consciousness can be referred to as "watching power". Besides, Smythe also mentions about "consumption as problem-solving", "customers don't buy things. They buy tools to solve problems". From this definition, we can understand the general idea is that if people want to be a part of community, they must purchase for the stuffs which symbolize that community.

A contemporary mention of Smythes concept of "audience commodity" is to find in a 2012 event and discussion between Jacob Appelbaum and Dmytri Kleiner about “Resisting the Surveillance State and its network effects” at the 2012 re-publica in Berlin. Kleiner introduces Smythes ideas in order to re-contextualize the controversies about Social Media and privacy. To regain an understanding of the ways media is funded by ways of commoditizing their audience means to build a better understanding how the economic fundamentals of the media business conflicts with privacy concerns. "Audience commodity" is here a key concept, translated into the contemporary debate about Social Media, post-privacy and surveillance.

Article review for age of surveillance capital.:

In a capitalist society, information, such as a users likes and dislikes, observed from accessing a platform like facebook is information that can be freely used by that platform to better the experience of a user by feeding them information that data obtained from their previous activity would have shown them to be interested in. This in many ways can be done through the use of an algorithm that automatically filters out information. The danger of surveillance capitalism is that platforms and tech companies are entitled to this information because it is free for them to access. There is very little supervision by governments and users themselves. Because of this, there has been backlash on how these companies have used the information gathered. For example, Google, which is said to be “the pioneer of surveillance capitalism”, Zuboff (2019) introduced a feature that used “commercial models…discovered by people in a time and place”, Zuboff (2019). This means that not only are commercials being specifically targeted to you through your phone, but now work hand in hand with your environment and habits such as being shown an advertisement of a local bar when walking around downtown in the evening. Advertising attempts this technical and specific can easily have an impact on the one's decision-making process in the activities they choose and in political decisions. Thus the idea that these companies seemingly go unchecked whilst having the power to observe and control thinking is one of the many reasons tech companies such as Google themselves are under so much scrutiny.

Furthermore, the freedom allotted to tech companies comes from the idea that “surveillance capitalism does not abandon established capitalist ‘laws’ such as competitive production, profit maximization, productivity and growth”, Zuboff (2019), as they are principles any business in a capitalistic society should aim to excel in in order to be competitive. Zuboff (2019) claims in an article that “new logic accumulation…introduces its own laws of motion”. In other words, this is a new phenomenon in capitalistic operations that should be treated as such and be instilled with its own specific restrictions and limitations. Lastly, as invasive as platforms have been in terms of accumulating information, they have also led to what is now called a “sharing economy”, Van Dijck (2018) in which digital information can be obtained by individuals carrying out their own surveillance capitalism through the aid of platforms themselves. Thus “individuals can greatly benefit from this transformation because it empowers them to set up business”, Van Dijck (2018). Small businesses will also benefit in potentially growing faster than they would have without knowing consumer demands and wants. This leaves surveillance capitalism as an exceptionally useful tool for businesses, but also an invasion of privacy to users.

Because journalism/news media is the core to a functioning democratic society, PEC works towards the goal of healthy journalism. Healthy journalism can be defined through four characteristics, outlined by Robert W. McChesney. The first characteristic is ensuring that journalists are thorough and exhaustive in reports of the elite. The second is ensuring that the news being produced keeps the needs of the larger public in mind, as their power resides in knowledge and not property, such as the elite. Thirdly, it must remain truthful, and have systems in place to guarantee this truth. Lastly, a range of opinions on a wide array of topics is required as to provide insight and depth on what is happening, what is to happen and what to do about it. Unfortunately for democracy, the current state of news media around the world and especially that of the United States, falls short of the general consensus among media scholars and democratic theory on what is considered to be healthy journalism. This is due in part to the overwhelming amount of public relations material being posed as news.

Capitalism: There are two main tenets that define a capitalist economy; Wage Labour and Production for Profit. Wage labour is when a person is hired to work for a company or business in exchange for a wage, or annual salary. Privately owned companies that manufacture and sell their own services or goods, and expect a profit in return are engaging in Production for Profit. Political economists are interested in capitalism as it is shapes production and distribution, and reveals power relations embedded in society.


 * History and Social Change: It is necessary to analyze the history of an issue or technology and compare it to the present day in order to find out who or what is responsible for the social change. Through this, one is able to attain a deeper understanding and identify patterns that will provide guidance and clarity for future transformations and social change.
 * Social Totality: This characteristic discusses the "big picture". It is necessary to look at a circumstance through various point of views and approaches such as economic, social and cultural.
 * Moral Philosophy: This characteristic serves to articulate morals that reside within economic and political economic perspectives. When employing this characteristic in analysis, it is necessary to assess the moral implications of a situation, and how it impacts society as a whole.
 * Praxis: This characteristic discusses the importance of action and intervention. By combining the knowledge attained from the three previous characteristics, there is enough power to apply this knowledge to reality and take action where change is necessary for the betterment of society, and human civilization.