重读受众商品论:新媒介环境下的“变”与“不变”

Rereading Audience Commodity Theory:the Changes and Constants in the New Media Environment

受众商品论因传播环境的变化而被重新激起讨论,本文通过剖析受众商品论中的"媒介"和"受众",认识到斯麦兹所秉持的整体性视角和剥削实质。对照现今媒介环境,发现变化的是媒介与受众的关系,进而用户出现分化,用户数据成为媒介平台从用户身上攫取的资源,平台对用户的剥削更加隐蔽。但不变的是资本对用户的控制和剥削,用户仍然在经济运行机制中处于底端。受众商品论走到今天进入了数字资本范畴的讨论,这是受众商品论在现代媒介化社会的延展。当用户无法脱离媒介平台而存在时需要注意的是数据资源对人的反作用力。

The audience commodity theory has been re-invigorated due to changes of media environment.This paper analyzes the“media”and“audience”in Sm ythe’s audience commodity theory and recognizes the holistic perspective and the essence of exploitation that Smythe holds.In contrast to the current media environm ent,it is found that the relationship between media and audience has changed,users appear to differentiate,the user data becomes the resource that the media platform draws from users,and the exploitation of users by the platform is more concealed.But what remains unchanged is the control and exploitation of users by capital,and users are still at the bottom of the economic operating mechanism.Audience commodity theory has entered into the discussion about digital capital today,which is the extension of itself in mediatization society.When users can't get out of the media platform,what should be paid attention to is the reaction of data resources to people.