Notes From Inside the Factory: The Production and Consumption of Signs and Sign Value in Media Industries

Abstract

This article aims at giving some theoretical reflections and possible clarifications to theories on production and consumption of symbolic goods and commodities. It is argued that the production of sign commodities generate various kinds of values, which also differ from those produced in material commodity production. With the example of the television audience this article puts forth the idea of the audience as a pure sign commodity, a commodity solely made up of sign structures, produced by semiotic labour.

Keywords:

• media production
• consumption
• audiences
• television
• use value
• exchange value
• sign value