Abstract:

American society is engaged in a radical transformation from an era of mass media delivered by air to an era of class media delivered by wire. Mass media are associated with passive audiences, mass production, and mass consumption. Class media are associated with active participants, specialized production and individualized consumption. Mass media are vehicles for exposing advertising. Class media are opportunities for interactive marketing. Mass media consumers are exposed to packaged media information. Class media consumers create personal media experience. Mass marketer's’ success is due in part to their skilled use of mass media, which, consciously or not, also affects their product development Likewise, class marketers' success will turn on their understanding and exploitation of class media. The evolution of communications media is an interplay of technological, economic, political and social forces. This interplay is part of the context in which consumer products are conceived, produced and marketed. With the exemption of media politics, whose effects are larger and more evident domestically than internationally, this document considers these forces in turn. Finally, it discusses the collective influence on the marketing of these forces.