In Progress

The Culture Industry

Thomas Adorno and Max Horkheimer proposed the concept of “The Culture Industry” in 1944, an idea inspired by Marxist ideologies that has colored our understanding of companies and brands like Disney, Target, and Paramount. The authors described a a direct relationship between entertainment and business, which functions as a tool of social organization and control, leading to the commodification and commercialization of culture. Today, the entertainment sector is one of the most profitable industries in the world, and the commodification of culture seems complete. But a new cultural engine has emerged to challenge the supremacy of Adorno’s culture industry of media companies.

The Marketplace of Participation

Just as the marketplace of ideas holds that that the truth emerges out of free and public discourse, the marketplace of participation produces culture out of a base of user-created content, collaborative tools, and networked communities, creating a new culture industry. Web 2.0 sites like YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, Digg and Flickr all contribute to this new marketplace, as do major Internet retailers such as eBay and Amazon, which use the marketplace of participation as the engine for their commercial activities.

Not that this is new — these collaborative tools and networked communities have shaped the landscape of the Internet for several years now. But communications activities are being drawn into every other arena, shaping culture production into a groundswell model that is in collusion and conversation with the traditional top-down model.

Tribal Culture and Special Interests

Tribal culture has had a rebirth online, and networking sites organized around special interests cater to small audiences with intense relationships to these interests. Networks that are strongly targeted to a niche demographic, offer users more sophisticated ways to seek out compatible friends, and are built around a specific hobby or interest reach highly targeted audiences and build faithful user communities.The users in these communities hold remarkable power to shape the future of their special interests through a dialogue with companies who develop products for these special interests.

Case Study

GPSmagazine.com bills itself as “the Internet’s most recognized and trusted source of GPS reviews, news, and product recommendations.” And readers agree. There are over a thousand active users in the forums, who go passionately back and forth about the relative merits of specific GPS devices, with subforums dedicated to GPS in cars versus in cell phones, etc. Product reviews and a comprehensive buyer’s guide round out the site, offering valuable real estate for advertisers. GPSmagazine.com is a perfect place for GPS device makers to offer special previews and other freebies to get their products in the hands of the influential early adopter community. And GPS device makers who read the forums get valuable feedback on what is and isn’t working in their products, as well as ideas for future improvements. This is no passive audience.

User-Generated Content and Capsule Communications

User-created sites are a highly trusted sources of information on favorite topics and users regularly spread this information to their networks of friends and family. And the information is often sent in “capsulate communications,” which continues the trend toward bold but simple ways of expression. Succinct, easy-to-digest capsules of information are the most popular way to send information, such as posts to Facebook or MySpace, or through text messaging, IM and chat. Even audio and video that is sent comes with a short text description that can be digested at-a-glance, offering some information even if the media should go unaccessed. Provocative or emotional pitches are priveleged in this environment.

Media Companies

For better and worse, traditional broadcast media formats that depend on passive receptivity are continuing to decline in popularity. Media companies are re-envisioning their content from the ground up, incorporating elements that leverage the indefinite lifespan of content online and integrate the concept of multiple-authorship. The challenge is to maintain a consistent voice and audience while allowing content to be dynamic and drawn from a myriad of sources. The role of editor has never been as important.

Market Revolution

I’m happy to see that “web 2.0″ has finally made the leap from meaningless marketing buzzword to out-and-out revolution in how users interact with the Internet to produce their own culture. Websites have reinvented themselves into more targeted roles, including aggregators, content specialists, and retailers. Digital communication has transcended the one-to-one or one-to-many paradigms in communication, creating a network of tribal conversations that are the lifeblood of the marketplace of participation.

Posted on November 9th, 2008 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Media, Participatory Culture, Uncategorized