Question Details

Read the following passage and answer questions from 46 to 50.

Television is a cultural commodity. It works within an economically determined capitalist economy. but when we have said that about it we have said both much and remarkably little. There is a financial economy within wealth circulates, and a economy within which meanings and pleasures circulate, and the relationship between them is not as deterministic as some theorists have proposed. In the financial economy, television symbolises programmes and advertisements, not textuality. A programme i is a commodity produced and then sold to distributors. In distribution, its role changes and it becomes not a commodity, but a producer, and what it produces is a new commodity. the audience which is then, in its turn, sold as a commodity to advertisers. The ramifications of this financial economy are fascinating. Here the role shift undergone by the programme in the financial economy-that from commodity to producer-is now undergone by the audience, who are left as a commodity sold to the advertiser. But in the cultural economy the audience rejects its role as a commodity and becomes a Producer, a Producer of meanings and pleasures, and at this moment stops being an audience and becomes different materialisations of the process that we call "viewing television". While the metaphor of a cultural economy is a productive one, we must not let it blind us to differences between it and the financial. Meanings and pleasures do not circulate in the cultural economy in the same way that wealth in the financial. In the first place there is no exchange of money at the point of sale or consumption. Television appears to be free, however, it may be actually paid for. Payment has no direct relationship to consumption people can consume as much as they wish and what they wish with no thought of what they are to afford.


How viewing television in a cultural economy affects the audience?

Options

A

Audience assumes a new role

B

They become a new commodity

C

They cannot differentiate between the financial economy and cultural economy

D

Audience restricts the circulation of meanings and pleasures

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option A

Audience assumes a new role

Solution :

The correct option is Audience assumes a new role.

Let us break down the passage step-by-step to understand why this is the correct answer:
1. The Audience in the Financial Economy: The passage states that in the financial economy, the audience is produced by the television programmes and is then sold as a commodity to advertisers. In this domain, the audience's role is passive—they are treated simply as a commodity.
2. The Transition to the Cultural Economy: The passage explicitly points out: "But in the cultural economy the audience rejects its role as a commodity and becomes a Producer..."
3. The New Role: By rejecting their passive role as a commodity and transitioning into a "Producer, a Producer of meanings and pleasures," the audience active participates in the cultural economy. At this exact moment, they stop being a mere audience and assume a completely new role as active producers of the television viewing process.
Therefore, viewing television in a cultural economy affects the audience by enabling them to reject their role as a commodity and assume a new role as a producer.

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