Michael J. Wolf's analysis of the entertainment economy's cultural transformation

Entertainment Economy

Michael J. Wolf's book, The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces are Transforming Our Lives, was published six years ago but nevertheless offers timely insights into how the forces of American corporate entertainment are shaping our culture.

Main Points

The author points to the end of huge military spending at the conclusion of the Cold War, but those military-related industries were replaced by entertainment revenue for those cities. The author also mentions instances where the economy had fallen flat in a given area, and some form of entertainment was introduced which not only bolstered the sagging economy, but provided jobs and spread the power of corporate-created entertainment throughout the land.

Chapter Two: while American's watch their personal savings dip into the red ink zone (2.1% of earnings), they are spending (or were, in 1999 when the book was published) 8.4% on entertainment. Wolf writes that Americans are all about going out to eat, gambling, buying video games and computers; and the new "shared community" is a chat room on AOL or going to a movie with friends.

Chapter Three: Show business has spread its influence into the mainstream American economy, as airlines, restaurants, and malls are more and more combining entertainment (gambling, etc.) with their standard goods and services.

Chapter Four: The mass marketing of the Internet, cable TV, video games, magazines, radio programming and sports has hugely expanded the opportunities for revenue. New and lucrative markets have opened up because of the digital technology revolution.

Chapter Five: Moguls rule the entertainment world; moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner created new networks; Bill Gates launched Windows 95 with an extravagantly huge entertainment campaign; Steve Case build AOL with "vision, tenacity, and high-stakes gambling." (p. 129). And yet all four of these wealthy power brokers in entertainment couldn't have succeeded without bringing in talented executives to carry out key missions.

Chapter Six: Moguls strive to create "hits" -- which provide more than money, including "the cultural context in which people see themselves" (p. 157). Taking a hit to its ultimate impact creates a "phenomenon" (158-159) which "transforms the landscape," and fills a "niche." Examples of phenomena: Viagra, the Web, Star Wars, PalmPilot and cell phone technologies.

Chapter Seven: The power of the Internet -- and the "migration of content" (194) to the Web -- has brought many previously non-entertainment-based corporations into the entertainment field. But, how can a company build reliable revenue from a Web-based presence? This chapter looks at all the ways, including subscriptions to Web sites, advertising, catalogue sales.

Chapter Eight: The advent of adroit, high profile branding has helped ESPN, MTV, Martha Stewart, Mattel (Barbie doll), Starbucks, the NBA and other companies to push the envelope way past previous growth / success stories, and gain a huge market share for their portion of the entertainment pie.

Chapter Nine: How advertisers get the strongest message out to the precise targeted audience has become a fine art. Competition is so keen, that advertisers are more inclined to use creative marketing campaigns than just spend big bucks.

Chapter Ten: Author Wolf offers his crystal ball into the future of Internet and other entertainment forms. He believes global entertainment competition will go as far at the human imagination will take it, which, he implies, will be limitless.

Three Most Important Lessons Learned

One: the American consumer is not saving money these days, but instead, according to Wolf's book, consumers are spending more and more on forms of various entertainment. American is becoming more about entertainment than health care (Wolf 4); the entertainment industry had become (in 1999) a $480 billion industry, and is still growing rapidly.

Two: Stories with a carnal twist -- lined to the Internet -- can actually stop "Wall Street pretty much in its tracks" (Wolf 49). That is not shocking, but it is revealing in terms of what titillates Americans in their fascination with media and entertainment.

Three: The way music and books are sold today is a far cry from how they used to be sold; you went to a record store to buy your favorite album, and to a neighborhood book store to buy cookbooks. Today, "Best Buy," a consumer electronics chain, has a bigger selection than "Musicland," and (Wolf 83) the number of food titles at "Barnes & Noble" ... is greater than the total number of titles in all categories" at most neighborhood book stores.

Work Cited

Wolf, Michael J. The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming Our

Lives. New York: Times Books / Random House, 1999.