Commercial Aspects of Mobile Media
Write a short post (150-300 words, about 1 to 2 paragraphs) addressing the prompt posted below. The questions are written to help guide your thoughts, but you may choose to explore other aspects of one or both readings if there was something else that stood out to you. The readings/lectures from Wednesday and Thursday discussed some commercial aspects of mobile media, Wednesday with advertising and Thursday with the development of the app economy. Both readings refer to negative developments in these economic features. Advertising has morphed from static banner images to incredibly complex networks of data collection and user tracking and profiling. The app economy not only has as its effect the locking away of web content behind less open standalone apps, but it also exists within an economic structure that bears some resemblance to previous forms of feudal-like labor despite the positive discourses of entrepreneurial individualism used to describe it. What effect do you think these economic systems have on the sort of content that is produced for use on mobile media–websites, apps, etc.? With advertising and the paid app store model being so prominent in mobile media, is there incentive for developers to produce content without a strong economic motivation, or to produce content that isn’t reliant on advertising （the answer requires personal experience and examples.）
