Technologies of Immediacy / Economies of Attention

This chapter contextualizes and expands upon Smythe’s contributions to the critique of capitalist media within an environment increasinglydefined by the rapid global development and adoption of mobile de-vices and ubiquitous wireless connectivity (UC). Specifically it theorizes theevolutionary trajectory of mobile media and wireless connectivity within thecontext of Smythe’s analytic focus on the audience commodity as: a) the organizing principle of commercial media; and b) a central component in the development of “consumption relations” including those “that motivate the population to buy consumer goods” (Smythe 1994, 239–240) necessary toinformational capitalism