Watching as Working: the Valorization of Audience Consciousness

Abstract

Does the audience “work” at watching television? Is the notion a real economic process, or does it serve as a metaphor? Our short answer is: It is both. It is a metaphor because it is a real economic process, specific to the commercial media, that produces value. How this process occurs is the argument of our article. The metaphorical power of “watching as working” arises from the particular relationship of the media and the economy as a whole. In the media, the whole economy exists as an image, an object of watchingmore precisely, an object ofthe actizjity of watching. At the same time, the media exist as a reflection of the whole economy of which they are a