Quote:
Originally Posted by Sigaba
FWIW, It has been a while since my days working for a software R&D lab in the digital cable industry and I am constrained by a dozen or so NDAs. I can say that since the 1990s, questions about who is showing what and when are they showing it are increasingly irrelevant.
In the age of "on demand," what matters most is the question "Who is watching?". This is to say it is all about the ratings.
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My family was part of a pilot program back in the 80s.
The cable box had a modem and would make its calls about 0200 to upload what we had watched.
We also had a card which gave discounts while shopping (related to the cable box agreement).
The pilot program was to see the effectiveness of advertising/viewing patterns/etc.
In this day and age, collecting such data is trivial and multi-sourced (credit cards, discount cards, internet surfing, dvd rentals, television viewing patterns).
Many of the advertisments people now receive in the mail, email, pop-ups, etc., are specifically targeted to the individual.
They know all of the psychological buttons to push.
Ian Ayres wrote a pretty good book called
Super Crunchers which addresses the power of such data collection.
Some other easy reads which address how we can all be easily manipulated for others' profit:
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Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
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Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
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Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
I don't worry too much about my kids exposure to mass media.
-Don't have cable/sattelite.
-Don't have internet at home.
-Don't have sattelite radio.
-There is no TV reception in this area of the nation.
-There are only a few radio stations that can get a signal into here.
-Those few stations either suck and/or broadcasts are in Navajo.
(actually heard rap music in Navajo on one of the stations...)
-Kids don't go to public school.
At the level of the individual family, problems with the effects of media upon children are voluntarily accepted.