The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society
ISBN: 9780203873076
Platform/Publisher: Taylor & Francis / Routledge
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Humanities; Media & Film Studies; Broadcast Media; Media & Communications;

This book examines the commercial speech of advertising as a cultural phenomenon whose social significance far exceeds its economic influence. Jhally argues that by selling viewing time to advertisers, television converts audiences into laborers who "work" for the media in the same way that workers do in a factory. By watching commercial messages on TV, viewers actively create symbolic meaning, but also generate profit for the media in return for the wage of entertainment.

Sut Jhally teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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