Advertising, consumer culture, youth cultures, and media technologies: A cultural-historical approach to MTV

This project is primarily concerned with making connections. It attempts to bridge the gaps between competing theories within a discipline (for example, theories of texts, audiences, and institutions in television studies) as well as the fissures between disciplines or paradigms (as in cultural studies 'vs' political economy) for a cross-disciplinary study of MTV.; The first two chapters aimed to provide a historical backdrop against which MTV's constitution as a cultural and commercial institution can be conceptualized. Specifically I focused on MTV's evolution as a lifestyle advertising medium for youth. By taking a cultural and social historical approach to advertising, consumer culture, youth cultures, and television technology, I argued that MTV's evolution must be conceived in connection with the historically interwoven forces. I propose that MTV be considered as a cultural and commercial institution where social, cultural, economic, and technological developments particularly since the 1950s converge.; In the last three chapters, I offer a critical reflection on MTV's industrial practices---namely, programming and scheduling practices---that engender a new modus operandi of promotional discourses within the context of television programming. I examined the interconnections between the commercial imperatives and cultural representations of MTV by looking into the ways in which the constitution of MTV's programs is conditioned and inflected by its economic and cultural relations to sponsors, popular music industry, and youth audiences.; In conclusion, I propose that the moments of representation, production, and consumption must be located within the overall conditions and contexts of the 'circuit of culture'. The significance and specificities of each moment must be conceived not as an isolated, autonomous phenomenon but in terms of their interconnections. Stuart Hall's notion of the circuit of culture is offered as a solution to overcome the deep chasm between cultural studies and political economy in theorizing the relations between the cultural and the economic.