Post 3

   In Gloria Steinem’s piece Sex, Lies and Advertising, she exposes the world of marketing and advertising and how powerful their influence of money truly can be. She exposes the fact that many magazines, especially women themed magazines write their material to accommodate advertisers.  Steinem calls these pieces “ supportive editorial atmosphere” and “ complementary copy”, and states that for her magazine “Ms” that was the biggest issue - funding. Ms is one of the only women’s magazines that don't supply these complimentary copies, hence funding was a big issue. This relationship shows us the dynamic that exists within advertisers and the media. Money is a powerful factor in the creation of media. Many of our media outlets operate symbiotically with advertisements. Our news segments are followed by commercials, our social media feed will be saturated with ads, our newspapers and magazines have ads, even our modes of transportation will have ads - bus, subway, car radio, etc. Because such relationships exists within our world, we are studied and observed. The advertising companies study us, and show us what we want to see when we want to see it. Our search history will be tracked, and we will receive ads to mirror that. Such relationship also highlights how toxic the over saturation of advertisement can be. Because these companies have so much power over what we consume, our media begins to filtered and molded to them. There are various instances where certain news outlets won’t report certain events due to the fear of losing their advertisers. Consequently, we become attached to such relationships due to the fact that there are no sufficient outlets we can turn to that don't rely on this relationship.

           The purpose of these ads is to sell, and they will do so at any expense. Their targets are us, the general public. They operate through us, by exploiting our needs, wants, and desires. In Commodity Lesbianism  by Danae Clark, she exposes the influences the general public can have when money is involved. When the large advertising companies realized there is a potential market to tap into, the “... white, single, well-educated, well-paid man who happens to be homosexual” , the advertisers begin to pay attention. They study and learn the structures of this realities in order to exploit them. For example queerbaiting. This method is popular for advertisers because they’re able to tap into multiple demographics of race, sex, and preference without losing any customer along the way. This is prevalent in many fashion ads, films, and television. These actions marry the importance of a community with how much money they’re willing to spend. 

                                               

Tylenol, Gay driven ad

These driving forces for advertisers is also present in other demographics. In the women sector, self-care and self-love have become a selling mechanism. When these advertisers where the pillars and creators of insecurity, and whitewashing among women, they’re shift to “empowerment and girl power” only became relevant when the general public collectively deemed it so. With the rise of popularization in modern feminism among younger crowds, the advertising agencies who once marketed the thin white model who was overly sexual, are the same agencies marketing people of color who, to them, are the new consumer.

         In my day to day life, I am an avid consumer of media. One of my main outlets of consumption is social media. Tumblr is a blogging social media platform that has over 30 million users. While using the platform, ads will be displayed in the format of a post. So in a way it seems almost like the ad was disguised for the user to interact with it, without knowing it was an ad. Many of the ads I see are tailored to me by my age, education, sex, and preference. Tumblr explains how ads are picked for us - “ The specific ads you see may be informed by various factors such as the content you are seeing, information you provide, your search history, your friend’s recommendations, the apps you use, or based on your other interests. It may sound like a lot, but this information is the same stuff every website or app uses to serve ads.” Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube are the video streaming platforms I use the most. Each platform runs their ads differently. Hulu has an option for the user to use the service ad free for a certain price. I personally have ads in my account because I got the service for free through my subscription with Spotify student. Hulu ads give you the choice of how you interact with the ads, and sometimes what ads you get to see. My Netflix account does not have ads, and that is due to the fact that not only do I use my friends, stepfather's Netflix account, but the fact that he pays for this package. As for YouTube, there ads in the ads. YouTube is the treasure trove of video, but the price you pay is being smacked in the face with an advertisement. Democracy Now is how I try to consume my news. They are an  is an hour-long American TV, radio and internet news program that has zero advertisers. I tend to trust them with their broadcasting, because they are not filtered or influenced by who might market with them. Because of their radical approach to journalism they tend to be a bit unknown, and lack funds for certain distribution methods.

How ownership and advertising affects the content is through who gets to have access to the content itself. The majority of these platforms are paid for, meaning only certain groups will have access. Next, the quality of experience will reflect the interaction with the content when certain users can choose to have ads or not. Even for platforms where access is free, ads are almost certain to be involved. As for whether we can change this structure, I think tumbler says it best in their ad guidelines - 

" Unfortunately, until we live in a post-consumerist society built on an economy of surplus instead of scarcity that would enable us to procure both labor and materials at zero marginal cost, there is no way to remove ads from your Tumblr experience. Just something to think about." - Tumblr