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Audience Commodity Theory

The theory of the audience commodity was first proposed by Dallas Walker Smythe, claiming that the principle product of the commercial mass media in monopoly capitalism was audience power. This audience power is used to accomplish the economic and political tasks which are the reason for the existence of the commercial mass media.

Smythe argues that audience power is produced, sold, purchased and consumed, which ultimately defines it as a commodity as it is valuable to the mass media and boasts a price. Furthermore, like any other labor power, audience power involves work, which under capitalism is defined as an action for which one receives payment. The difference in this instance is that the payment the audience receives is not in the monetary form, but in entertainment form through the program that they consume by watching as an audience.

Under this theory the audience works to create the demand for advertised goods which is the intention of capitalist advertisers; the advertisers expectations are achieved through these outcomes that gratify the demand management system. This degrades the audience into a submissive form of value for the mass media.

Karl Marx
Karl Marx: Marxist Capitalism & Labor Founding Theorist of Economic and Social Marxism
Born	(1818-05-05)May 5, 1818
Died	(1883-03-14)March 14, 1883
Nationality	German, Stateless
Occupation(s)	Philosopher, Economist, Sociologist, Journalist
Notable work	Labor Theory of Value, Surplus Value, Alienation in Labor

Relationship with Traditional Marxism

Smythe's approach to to communication studies and the audience as a commodity is considered to be a study of Karl Marx and Marxist , which merges theoretical, ethical, and empirical media/communication analysis.

Smythe incorporates eight core categories of the Marxist political economy of communications. These categories include materiality, monopoly capitalism, audience commodification in advertising, media communication as part of capitalism, labour power, technological determinism, consciousness, arts, and learning.

Based on a Liberal outlook, Smythe and Marx's theories share relationships with exchange value of the audience/laborer, as well as capital markets and class struggle between capitalism and the audience/consumer.

Where Marx focuses on exploitation of the physical laborer within a capitalist society, Smythe references the same concepts within a traditional context and applies them to media audiences as exploitation of their leisure time and viewership. Both arguments rely on the fundamental act of capitalism generating surplus value from taking advantage of the work, paid or unpaid, that is controlled by capitalism.

Arguments Against the Audience Commodity

There are many scholars and theorists that disagree with Smythe's arguments and theories regarding the audience as a submissive commodity.

One of the leading critics of Smythe's work, Brett Caraway, points out the limitations of Smythe's interpretations and argues that Smythe's theory represents a 'one-sided class analysis' which minimalizes working-class subjectivity; the surplus value generated by advertisers for the media owners disputes the notion that audiences are working for the advertisers. Capitalism does not directly control audience activities and the use value produced by the audience labor is not alienated from them.

Caraway argues that these qualities are required under the Marxist mode of capitalist labor and are lacking within the audience commodity model, which means that the audience is not under the submissive control of capitalists in the form that the audience commodity places them under.

Many other criticisms supporting Caraway argue based upon similar guidelines. Some suggest that network executives and advertisers discuss the buying and selling of audiences, which means that what is being sold is 'time', which prom this perspective the audience does not exist as a commodity because no one can 'own' them. Also, in terms of advertising, critics argue that television audiences are not obliged to watch; they are formally free not to watch at all. Furthering this, critics state that, as individuals, we don't feel commodification as we consume media as an audience, and therefore we are not acting towards its production.