Musings

[areckahn]

If you made advertisement illegal in broadcast and print (but not billboards etc), what would be the overall effect on freedom of speech?

(Bearing in mind that mainstream printed material and broadcasting exist to sell customers to advertising agencies, rather than necessarily to sell material to customers)

Comments

[danny144]

[areckahn]

Since that's where their money comes from.
To make money, they sell an audiance to an advert. To get an audience, they show them what they want to see, but they also can't go too far to offend the organisations which actually give them the money.

[danny144]

[areckahn]

Think the point is being missed.
A TV company like ITV gets it's money by selling advertising time, thus their main interest is in making that advertising time more valuable, by having lots of people likely to see it (hence, selling an audience to an advert).

If thier money came mainly from the people who watched the stuff directly, how would what they are likely to show change?

[danny144]

[shell_e]

I still have no idea what this is even asking I'm afraid.

[areckahn]

"The LJ thing was sparked by Chomsky's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky) views on the media (mainly in America), that use of advertising in the media exerts an economic influence on culture, pushing it into a marketable mainstream.

My musings are on what would happen if the principle that advertisement in the media harms society were accepted as true, and legislation brought in to combat this menace, what would the world look like?"

[shell_e]

Oh my god you're combining my least favourite module at uni with one of my favourite internet pastimes. Argh. Get it away get it away!