Most people have not been to the Amazon Rainforest yet they were able to explore this famous place through a virtual field trip by Discovery Channel. Kim Kardashian is a very famous American media celebrity and businesswoman, yet “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” allowed common people to keep track of what’s happening in both her personal and professional life. These are mere examples of how the picture we have of the world is actually shaped by the media. We see the world and everything in it through the eyes of the media. In layman’s terms, the media has a huge influence and deep impact on the way we think, behave, talk, listen, eat, and dress and so much more. To McCombs and Shaw (1972), it is even assumed that media sets and shapes the public agenda, i.e. events, topics and issues that are considered the most important in the society. And, this theoretical framework is known as “Agenda Setting.”
This article will attempt to explain how media’s role in delivering potential customers to advertisers relates to the media’s power to influence what’s good, acceptable and fashionable in the society.
Media as Tastemakers
If you take a trip back to the past decades, you’ll find that media always had a correlation with the adoption of certain trends, which indirectly shaped the public’s opinion and enhanced the advertising landscape. The version of this theory is better understood when we take the example of George Eastman (1880s). When the average American didn’t see the need for a Kodak camera, Eastman led all the American viewers to a fascinating new world of photography. As a result, this led to a significant increase in the sales of Kodak cameras. The key to Kodak’s success was not the advertising of the “product” itself (which was the camera), but rather the selling of an “idea/trend” (which was photography). In retrospect, this was one of the earliest examples of media’s role as a tastemaker.
Today, the world consists of around 33, 071 television stations, 44, 000 radio stations and 18, 000 newspapers and media consumers are still receiving indirect advertising benefits from media companies. Media content – whether it’s through a television reality show or a radio program – still exhibits a wide range of unique and interesting features that would swiftly blend and sell “ideas” to audiences and connect them with advertisers. Feature films, novels, television broadcasts are more than just entertaining mediums; by conveying special meanings and messages, they sell cultural goods to the public. For example, from kimchi to bibimbap and jajangmyeon, famous worldwide Korean dramas have been giving many viewers a huge appetite for Korean food. The Korean entertainment media industry has also led to a drastic rise in Korean fashion and skincare.
To put it simply, the interaction between a consumer and an advertiser is being mediated by a media channel. Conventionally, the process of advertisement took place as soon as the consumer was exposed directly to the ad. However, the same “interaction” today has been replaced with the media as that carrier of information. It is important to understand that the media content in itself is neither an advertisement nor is it “consumable” in any sense of purchasing terms. However, this content features the prominent qualities or important messages that are associated with a specific product or service. For instance, a famous actor or a famous television show showcasing the protagonist enjoying a vacation in Dubai would have a different impact on as a media consumer compared to an advertisement from a travel agency about a trip to the same country. Audiences would be much more attracted to a new idea or a thrilling story than to an ad for a new product or service.
However, to maximize profits and deliver more audiences to advertisers, the media would work on consumers’ preferences over media content. The classic research of Steiner (1952) showed that broadcasting media companies would often use viewers’ preferences for television programs to capture the whole audience and obtain a higher surplus. So, to ensure that the maximum audience thresholds are being exposed to the hidden meanings and messages and delivered them to advertisers, media companies always try to schedule their content as per media consumers’ preferences and as per certain preferred times (such as entertainment is favored more in the evening than in the morning). When media companies acknowledge these factors and schedule their content during consumers’ desired times and during their preferred programs, they are making the audiences more visible to advertisers.
