Links to consumer and trade publication articles on captive-audience media
Critics of captive-audience media consider out-of-home audio and video media intrusive because content is pushed out indiscriminately, forcing whoever is in the media environment to consume the content without regard to whether they want to or not. The links compiled here can help you learn more about the growth of captive-audience media, why media executives are making it a prominent part of their business strategy, and why critics consider captive-audience media intrusive.
The compilation also includes articles that aren’t about captive-audience media per se but touch on the differences between video and audio media and print media. These articles help elucidate why some media are considered more intrusive than others, and thus why some are more objectionable in common or public settings than others.
There are also selections of articles on noise and TV and quality of life. Although the focus of this blog is on captive-audience media, the notion of audience captivity doesn’t just apply to the commercial uses of intrusive media; it also applies to inadvertent captivity. This is the second-hand effect of our increasing use of personal media whose content respects no boundaries: TVs in outdoor rooms, boom cars, and so on. Thus, we include a sampling of articles that touch on this notion of inadvertent or accidental audience captivity.
Captive-audience media from critics’ point of view
What is Captive-Audience Media?, Media by Choice, May 21, 2009
Taxi TV is Ok, If You Don’t Mind a Living Hell, AdFreak.com, Sept. 14, 2007
Elevator Video is Newest Mass Media Monster, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Sept. 15, 2004
TransitTV: A New Metro Torture Device, Here in Van Nuys, Nov. 21, 2006
Me, the Restroom and Orwell, EE Times, Dec. 11, 2006
CNN Everywhere: Do We Need TV in Public Spaces?, MediaShift, march 20, 2006
TVs for Captive Audiences, White Dot
Compulsory Television , History News Network, Dec. 10, 2007
Bus Ride Boredom Buster?, LAist, June 23, 2005
Talking Billboards Installed in Chinatown, The Goodspeed Update, Dec. 13, 2007
Illegal Billboards Imminent In Gallery Place, Penn Quarter Living, Oct. 9, 2007
Advertising Industry To Hitch Ride on Metro, Nov. 14, 2003
A New Reason to Dislike Washington, BadAds, Nov. 2003
Commercial Alert Asks Bush To Defend Reading on the Bus and Train from Noisy TVs, Commrecial Alert, April 16, 2001
The Sound and the Fury, Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2008
Kids, Listen Up–or Maybe Not, Washington Post, Aug. 2, 2006
Whose Line is This TV’s Anyway?, Washington Post, Aug. 9, 2006
Commercial Revolution: Digital Ads Everywhere, Live Science, Nov. 30, 2007
Bus TV For You and Me, Riverwest Currents, Jan. 2004
The Waiting Room: Pharma’s Latest Lair, Bioethics Forum, Oct. 27, 2006
NHS Patients “Forced to Watch TV”, BBC, April 9, 2004
Taxi TV, Brisk as the Traffic You’re Stuck In, New York Times, Dec. 15, 2007
Taxi TV: Turn It Up or Turn It Off?, New York Magazine, April 24, 2008
Some Taxi TV Screens Always, Always On, Gothamist, July 24, 2007
Taxi TV: The Celebrities Weigh In, New York Magazine, April 25, 2008
GMU Sign Gets Wrong Kind Of Attention From Residents, Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2006
Signs Seen in a Harsh Light , L.A. Times, Aug. 20, 2007
TTC Says No to Video Ads in Subway Cars , TPSC, Sept. 1, 2005
How the Toronto Public Space Committee Killed Video Ads In Subway Cars, Illegal Signs, Jan. 21, 2008
Mass of Messages Lands at Heathrow, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 14, 2008
Commercial Alert Letter to Seminole County School Board Regarding Bus Radio, Commercial Alert, Oct. 8, 2007
Children’s Advocates Ask Companies Not to Advertise on BusRadio and Channel One, Obligation, Sept. 14, 2006
Commercials in the Classroom, UNESCO, April, 2000
Coalition Launches Campaign Against Primedia’s Channel One, Commercial Alert, June 11, 2001
Growth of captive-audience media
Television Everywhere, Broadcasting & Cable, July 26, 2006
About Pervasive.TV, Pervasive.TV
Anywhere the Eye Can See, It’s Likely to See an Ad, New York Times, Jan. 15, 2007
Place-Based TV Finds Its Place, Media Daily News, June 29, 2006
Tuning In to “Promo Entertainment”, TV Week, May 18, 2008
Digital Out-of-Home Media Continues Double-Digit Growth Pace, PQ Media, Oct. 27, 2008
Alternative Out-of-Home Media Spending Soars, PQ Media, April 30, 2007
Perfect Storm for Out-of-Home, Jack Myers, Nov. 14, 2005
Electronic Signage Networks: Next ‘Killer App’, Sound & Communications, Sept. 2004
The Ups And Downs Of Office Media: Journal Banks On Elevators, Media Daily News, Juky 23, 2007
Nielsen to Syndicate In-store Marketing Data in 2008, Digital Signage News, Sept. 1, 2007
Wal-Mart TV Lets Advertisers Surprise, Delight and Experiment , Digital Signage News, March 29, 2007
With Consumers Surfing Around TV Commercials at Home, Some Companies Take the Ads on the Road, New York Times, July 14, 1995
Westinghouse and AdTek to Supposedly Deploy PumpTop TV to 75,000 Gas Station Pumps, Digital Signage News, April 23, 2007
Marketers Chase Consumers Into the Bathroom, Ad Age, Sept. 13, 2004
NY Public Toilets Feature TVs, Tuxedoed Attendants, WCBS-TV, Nov. 24, 2008
STARTUP: Going Where Clients Go, St. Louis Star, March 11, 2008
Restroom Advertising Finds Niche Markets, LifeTips.com
ABC News Programming to be Carried on PumpTop TV Network, Reuters, Jan. 7, 2008
Street Furniture Gets Interactive, Ad Age, Oct. 30, 2006
Toning Up While Tuning in to Gym TVs, Denver Post, Dec. 17, 2008
Everything Is Media: The Real World Edition, Publishing 2.0, Sept. 12, 2006
BIG Bets on The Fourth Screen!, Branded Pantry, June 5, 2008
Digital Out-of-Home Is an Advertiser’s Most Powerful Tool, Digital Signage Today, Oct. 24, 2008
NBC Ramps Up Out-of-Home TV Ad Sales, Reuters, Jan. 16, 2008
NBCU Expands Out-of-Home Digital Ad Initiatives, TV Week, Jan. 16, 2008
Out-of-Home TV: Now It’s Everywhere, Broadcasting & Cable, Jan. 20, 2008
Out of Home TV: Not Just Men in Bars, Media Life, April 9, 2007
Life Pattern Marketing, SeeSaw Networks
More to See, Packed Into a 10-Inch Taxi TV, New York Times, June 26, 2008
New York Taxis Will Air NBC, TV.com, Jan. 5, 2007
Noise and quality of life
New Ways to Annoy the Neighbors, Hollywood Reporter, April 15, 2007
Antisocial Noise at Record Level as Neighbours Count Cost to Health, Times of London, Aug. 23, 2007
Noise Pollution Drives Urban Sprawl, Tampa Bay Tribune, July 25, 2008
Across U.S., Locals Rebel Against Noise, Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 2005
Noise of Modern Life Blamed for Thousands of Heart Deaths, The Guardian, Aug. 23, 2007
Calls to Ban Hoodie-Busting Sonic Weapon, The Register, Dec. 2, 2008
A City Where You Can’t Hear Yourself Scream, New York Times, April 14, 2008
Bloomberg Seeks to Toughen Code for Noise, New York Times, June 8, 2004
Boom Cars and Crime, Lower the Boom
Lowering “Boom” of Car Stereos, Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 5, 2008
Having a Party? You Better Have a Permit in Bonita, Naples News, July 4, 2008
TV and quality of life
Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor, Scientific American, Feb. 2002
Jonesing for More ‘24’, New York Times, May 25, 2006
Television and Health, American Public Health Association
Television as a Public Health Issue, Commercial Alert, April 22, 1999
Revenge by Gadget, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 17, 2007
The Television Blaster, New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004
Obama: Compete with China, Turn Off TV
Obama: Turn Off the Video Games!
Obama to parents: Turn Off TV, Put Away Video Games
Groups Praise Bush’s Statement about TV: “The Best Weapon Is the Off-On Button”
