communications industry structure, including mass media, advertising, and telephone companies
On the street outside the metro, a man offered to sell me a poem for a dollar. Before I started haggling about the price, I asked to read the poem. It’s the middle of the day. My Drive to be Successful Is in Full Gear. You have Been on My Mind, All Day Long. That’s … Continue reading the poetry business of a homeless man on the street
The rise of television in the U.S. in the 1950s did not greatly affect library book circulation. The share of households in the U.S. with television rose from 9% in 1950 to 87% in 1960. Over that same period, public library book circulation per person in libraries’ service areas rose about 40%. While television looms … Continue reading television's effect on public library use
Most television watching is best modeled as a two-stage decision process. First, a person decides to watch television. That means the person sits on a couch and stares vacantly at a large screen a few yards away. Then the person decides what to watch. That means choosing among current, salient video programming offerings. These two … Continue reading television serves couch potatoes
From 1985 to 2004, video rentals from U.S. public libraries grew 340%. Over the same period, video rentals from U.S. commercial rental businesses grew 140%. Public libraries’ video rental activity did grow from a smaller base: 70 million videos loaned in 1985 (6% of the number of videos commercial outfits turned in that year), to … Continue reading public libraries outperformed video rental businesses
The decline of mass media doesn’t necessarily imply the decline of mass culture. Social networking services can create mass circulation without mass media. iLike, a music sharing application, acquired one million users on Facebook within a week of its introduction there. Observing that Paris Hilton was mentioned more often than Facebook, iPhone, and Google at … Continue reading the future of mass culture