Response #2

Schiller’s ideas of the commodification of culture really struck a nerve with me.  This is something that I’ve noticed on my own and have often been disgusted with.  We’ve all heard the complaint that television has been going downhill for years.  This is largely because of how television is now a commodity.  Every year there are shows that are incredibly written and performed but they are cancelled too soon because there aren’t enough viewers or because advertisers don’t want to be associated with the content.  It’s a shame because talented actors get sent to the soup line and consumers miss out on something that is entertaining.  A similar effect has happened in music.  How often have we heard a band and thought, “they should make it big,”?  I’m sure its more times than you have ever wanted to buy a Hannah Montana cd.  The emergence of the internet might be making over the music industry at the moment but what happens when that stops?

In a similar vien, I could also relate very well to Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model.  So often as consumers of media, we forget that the companies that produce this media are out to make a profit.  So much of what could be in the media isn’t because of the five filters Herman and Chomsky wrote about.  One example that really sticks out to me because of when it occurred was the recent Dr. Laura incident.  Although she technically resigned, Dr. Laura wasn’t being taking off the air because of the specific words she said but because the networks were worried about the economics behind it.  They feared that no advertiser would want to take the risk of being associated with her — such an association could cause profits to drop from certain segments of the population.