This edited collection comprises foundational texts and new contributions that revisit the theory of the «audience commodity» as first articulated by Dallas Smythe. Contributors focus on the historical and theoretical importance of this theory to critical studies of media/communication, culture, society, economics, and technology.

Contents: Lee McGuigan: After Broadcast, What? An Introduction to the Legacy of Dallas Smythe – William H. Melody: Audiences, Commodities and Market Relations: An Introduction to the Audience Commodity Thesis – Dallas W. Smythe: Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism – Graham Murdock: Introduction to The Blindspot Revisited – Graham Murdock: Blindspots About Western Marxism: A Reply to Dallas Smythe – Eileen R. Meehan: Introduction to «Ratings and the Institutional Approach» – Eileen R. Meehan: Ratings and the Institutional Approach: A Third Answer to the Commodity Question – Sut Jhally: Introduction to «Watching as Working» – Sut Jhally/Bill Livant: Watching as Working: The Valorization of Audience Consciousness – Philip M. Napoli: The Institutionally Effective Audience in Flux: Social Media and the Reassessment of the Audience Commodity – Jason Pridmore/Daniel Trottier: Extending the Audience: Social Media Marketing, Technologies and the Construction of Markets – Detlev Zwick/Alan Bradshaw: Capital’s New Commons: Consumer Communities, Marketing and the Work of the Audience in Communicative Capitalism – Micky Lee: From Googol to Guge: The Political Economy of a Search Engine – Mark Andrejevic: «Free Lunch» in the Digital Era: Organization Is the New Content – Vincent Manzerolle: Technologies of Immediacy / Economies of Attention: Notes on the Commercial Development of Mobile Media and Wireless Connectivity – Graham Murdock: Commodities and Commons – Edward Comor: Value, the Audience Commodity, and Digital Prosumption: A Plea for Precision – Christian Fuchs: Dallas Smythe Reloaded: Critical Media and Communication Studies Today.

«A timely and comprehensive collection that supplies readers with a thought-provoking juxtaposition of seminal works and cutting-edge communications research. This book confirms the continued relevance of Dallas Smythe’s theories and the need for ongoing debate, discussion, and scholarly work on the shifting roles of the audience-user in our increasingly global, increasingly digitized information society.» (Sara M. Grimes, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto) «Lee McGuigan and Vincent Manzerolle have assembled an invaluable collection of essays that reaffirm the lasting importance of Dallas Smythe’s foundational work on the complex relationships between commercial interests and the audiences they seek to exploit. Ranging from retrospectives to forward-looking analyses, this timely volume is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how power operates in our digital age.» (Victor Pickard, Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)