A Seeping Commodification: The Long Revolution in the Proliferation of Communication Commodities

Abstract

Abstract:The main goal of this paper is to conceptualize a seeping commodification. The author of the paper claims we are in the midst of a considerable qualitative transformation in the processes of commodification that is, in large part, owed to an overwhelming capitalist enclosure of the wider communicative field. The key reason for what seems to be an important qualitative transformation in the commodification process lies in the fact that communication and information flows today run through most social relations and spheres -which non-critical approaches often explain with the concept of the 'mediatization of society'. A materialist approach, distinctive of (critical) political economy of communication, enables an apt critique of these processes. In an epoch, in which capital has enclosed the wider field of communication, mediatization is in fact nothing else than a continuing commodification of our everyday lives. The author of the paper claims that commodification of communication and informational resources must be seen as a long-term process, which has accompanied the rise of capitalism. A considerable proliferation of the economic importance of communication, information, and culture has -to be precise -been enhanced in a large part by political interventions occurring in the last decades (which were a response to the economic tendencies and crises of the time). While the immediate results are observable especially in the proliferation of the new information and communication technologies and the global role of intellectual property rights, the wider social consequences of these developments have been much broader and more influential. This study proceeds from the perspective of historical materialism and adopts dialectics in an attempt to grasp contradictory social changes. The analysis is done through different methods of historicizing: firstly, by observing long-term changes in communication, information, and culture, as they have been slowly transformed into commodities produced for market exchange since the emergence of capitalism; and, secondly, by defining fundamental political and economic processes occurring in recent decades that help with an explanation of the rise in the influence of communication and information (as peculiar types of commodities) in the current epoch.

Blurring the Lines: Market-Driven and Democracy-Driven Freedom of Expression

“…In a more critical tradition these changes are on the contrary described as driven by political decisions, locally as well as globally, and thus linked to a larger process of neoliberalisation of society. Political decisions are therefore also part of the increasing commercial organisation of information and communication that we have seen during recent decades (Carlsson 1998;Prodnik 2014).…”

“…According to Marxist theory, one of the basic elements of the commodity is that it is produced in a capitalistic production process (Prodnik 2014), but many argue that we today see commodification processes in many different spheres of life outside manufacturing. These tendencies are especially visible when observing the field of information and communication, where also public service media today think and act as commercial agents, children are addressed as target groups, media users are tracked in order to expose them to the right kind of commercials, etc.…”

“…Others have also raised warnings that expansion of the commodity will transform social relations and culture (Schiller 1984:xiv;Thompson, 1991:ch 4;Harvey, 2009:55-56, 62-64;Wittel, 2013:314). Prodnik (2014) claims that these new enclosures of information and communication will change how we think, understand, reflect, explore, create, question and critically relate to society, its political and economic order and to our lives. Against this background we will analyse how the Swedish public relates to different aspects of commodification in their everyday lives with digital media.…”

“…The first question concerned the commodification of social relations in social media, and was posed as follows: It is wrong to disseminate advertising to friends or followers in social media. Social relations are not normally defined as commercial relations (Thompson 1991;Prodnik 2014). People can, of course, make friends to enhance their careers or receive other advantages, but most people have friends for other reasons.…”

Nation in Market Times: Connecting the National and the Commercial. A Research Overview

“…This in turn often results in blurring of the boundaries between their own objectives and the state's interests. This situation provides the background for the process of “seeping commodification”, a qualitatively novel form of communication, “where the commodity form is able to trickle down to all the niches, activities of society and human life” (Prodnik :161). This process of intensified integration into commodity culture pertains also to articulations of nationhood.…”