22. The Principle of Relative Constancy

The original proposal was that Americans spend a consitent amount of money on entertainment and information (roughly 3% of income) such that any/all spending on new media has to come out of the amount budgeted for old media.

The available amount is limited by fixed needs/costs (housing/food/education/heathcare, etc.). The total spent on entertainment and information, as a percentage of total money spent, has grown over the past 20 years, perhaps to as much as 5 or 6%. As that percentage grew, some new media aspects were able to take a place at the table with old media, without sacrificing the old.

However, the fixed costs cannot be reduced and redistributed much further. So money which might be spent on new media may well, once again, come out of money now spent on old media unless the new media spending somehow saves money from either the fixed expense budget or old media costs.

Current "technolust" spending percentages

*Online Advert. spending by 2011

*Sometimes money can be shifted without compromising "old" media

*Waiting for the Dough on the Web

Question for Study:

What are the relationships between the principle of relative constancy and recent trends in media consolidation?

Want to learn more?

John Pavlik, New Media Technology: Cultural and Commercial Perspectives. 2nd ed.