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.


What are the ramifications of television as a commodity in financial economy?

Options

A

Making huge profits

B

Importance to distribution channels

C

Audience for advertisers.

D

Enculturisation of audience

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option C

Audience for advertisers.

Solution :

The correct option is Audience for advertisers.

To understand why this is the correct answer, we must trace the step-by-step role of television as a commodity within the financial economy as detailed in the passage:

Step 1: The Initial Commodity
The passage states: "A programme is a commodity produced and then sold to distributors." Here, the television program itself begins its journey as a financial commodity.

Step 2: The Transition to Producer
Next, the passage explains that during distribution, the television program's role changes: "...it becomes not a commodity, but a producer..."

Step 3: The Creation of the Final Commodity
What does the program produce in its role as a producer? The passage explains: "...and what it produces is a new commodity: the audience which is then, in its turn, sold as a commodity to advertisers."

Step 4: Identifying the Ramification
The question asks for the ramifications (or the logical outcomes/consequences) of television acting as a commodity in the financial economy. The passage summarizes this process by stating: "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."

Therefore, the direct outcome and final manifestation of the financial economy of television is the creation and selling of the audience for advertisers, matching the correct option perfectly.

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