Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Ideas of surveillance, alienation, and exploitation have birthed with the contemporary shift in digital media from its role in strengthening communities and traditional dissemination of information or information capabilities to the capitalist position of maximizing profitability. Consequentially, audience commodification has been enshrined into the workings of the digital society. However, there has been no established consensus or analysis of the social media systems on how users under the auspices of ‘influencers’, become extensive benefactors in strengthening market monopolies. This work analyses the convergence of production, distribution, and consumption, and audience as commodities in contemporary media, with focus on social media especially at the time of media surge experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.