Author(s): Peter S. Menell
Year: 2013
Abstract:
As the
Cold War commenced, George Orwell famously warned of a dystopian future
in which government authorities pervasively surveil their citizens as
part of an insidious system of public mind control. While leaks of the
National Security Administration’s clandestine PRISM mass electronic
data mining program have reignited fears of Big Brother, a more gradual,
but possibly comparably significant, shift in information control has
unfolded without much fanfare: the growing integration of advertising
into news, media, expressive creativity, and social activity. This
article explores the real and present threat to expressive freedom, free
will, and public well-being posed by the growing integration of
advertising into mass media and Internet services. What began as a
largely innocuous means of cross-subsidizing print media and a solution
to funding broadcast media has increasingly distorted the integrity of
news reporting and creative expression as broadcasters have adapted to
digital video recorders and Internet companies have built massive
netizen dossiers in order to better target advertising. Part I explores
the development of the advertising industry as a branch of applied
psychological research. Part II traces the relationship between
advertising and the funding and dissemination of expressive creativity.
Part III explores the policy challenges posed by the growing integration
of advertising into mass media and the larger Internet-driven cultural
landscape.
Keywords: Advertising, DVR, Brands, Marketing, Big Data, Mass Media, Big Brother, Orwell, Psychology, Obesity, Creative Independence, Journalism
Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2318492