Advertising and the Media: Who Supports Whom?

“Are you tired of eating the same old sandwiches?” 

I’m not, but I am a bit disappointed that I can no longer listen to Pandora for more than 15 minutes without hearing an advertising pitch like this one for D’Angelos. 

I used to assign an article to my AP classes from the Atlantic magazine titled “Is Google MakingUs Stupid?”  Starting last year, I decided not to because each year the question seemed less and less relevant.  Google is no longer changing our lives.  Google, and all that it encompasses, is our lives.  At the end of this article, its author, Nicholas Carr, insinuates that Google intentionally steers its searchers through a maze of websites, links, and hyperlinks as a method of exposing them to advertisements: “The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.”  A cynic might conclude, then, that Google is just a forum for linking web-searchers involuntarily with advertisers.  Carr never substantiates this claim.  He simply mentions the idea in passing. 

I would like to explore the idea a bit further - perhaps as a segue into our discussion of Brave New World.  Carr’s article forced me to question whether or not the traditional relationship between the media, of which entertainment is a form, and advertisement has evolved.  I had always thought that advertisements supported our media outlets, in return for time to advertise products.  This was the quid pro quo we all accepted as the price for entertainment and information.  Now, I have started to think that this relationship has reversed.  The proliferation of media sources, all supported by advertisers, currently has me thinking that the entertainment and media I watch is actually supporting the advertising.  In other words, I wonder if the impetus that drives our sources of media is actually the desire to attract advertisers rather than to inform or entertain us.  When E producers craft episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians are they concerned about entertaining us or maintaining advertisers? 

In 350-450 words, please answer this question.  To do this, I would like you to determine a single source of entertainment or information that you enjoy or rely on.  This source has to be in some way supported by advertising.  As evidence, or backing, for your answer, please quantify the amount of advertising that this source presents.  Give a number.  This number can be an amount of time or space, or a number of objects or items, and it need only be part of your argument.