COMPASS| Critical Communication Policy Research and the Attention Economy: From Digital Labor Theory to Digital Class Struggle

Authors

  • Brice Nixon Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Keywords:

communication policy, political economy of communication, attention economy, communicative power, digital labor, audience labor, attention, consumption, signification, exploitation

Abstract

In this essay, I use a critical political economy of the attention economy to develop an understanding of the ways in which communication policies distribute communicative power. The policy issues I consider are Internet regulation, copyright, paracopyright, and advertising. Communication policies are analyzed in terms of their role in determining the conditions of audience practices and distributing power in the attention economy. I use Google’s efforts to capitalize on attention to illustrate the communicative power struggle in each area, within a U.S. context.

Author Biography

Brice Nixon, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Brice Nixon is a Visiting Scholar in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Media Studies and Production at Temple University. He was a 2011 Consortium on Media Policy Studies (COMPASS) Communication Policy Fellow.

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Published

2017-11-08

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Special Sections

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