Buying and Selling Culture Through Talk Shows

Commodification is "the process of increasing the realm of what is possible to sell and buy" (Macedo and Steinberg, 354).

In lecture, we were asked to respond to the chapter that touched us most in the week's reading. It was almost unanimous that the section on "Talk Show Commodification" was most intriguing. Talk shows definitely boost consumption and consumer culture:


(1)The production and distribution of the program itself is a marketable commodity.
(2)The host is branded into a celebrity figure (Eg. Oprah and created own magazine)
(3)Intertextual commodification exists through advertisements, product placement, and merchandising.
(4) The topic of the episode often commodifies key information for the viewer to become a better consumer (Eg. Make-up, clothing, best gifts for the holidays).
(5) The guests on shows are often commodifying his or her identity as a celebrity, a book, or knowledge/content.