To understand the internet, one must understand advertising. But what is advertising, exactly? Is it simply a way to inform consumers about products and services? Is it large companies gathering consumer data? Hidden technologies for tracking and profiling? Public policies regulating data markets or leaving them unfettered?
Advertising is all these things and more. In this talk, Matthew Crain will outline a political economic approach to advertising, foregrounding the concepts of social relations and structural power.
About the lecturer
Matthew Crain is an Associate Professor of Media and Communication at Miami University. His research focuses on the political economy of media, advertising, and consumer surveillance. He is the author of Profit Over Privacy: How Surveillance Advertising Conquered the Internet (2021).
The Lecture Series “Media Environments: Between Capture and Surveillance” is a joint Lecture Series from the CRC 1187 “Media of Cooperation”, Siegen and the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) (DIGMEDIA INTER project, INTER/DFG/23/17960744/DIGMEDIA, supported by FNR and DFG).
8 October 2024
14.15-15.45
Online. Please register to join online.
The event is part of the 'Media Environments: Between Capture and Surveillance’ lecture series.