Commodification

In Marxist theory, [commodification is] the production of goods or services specifically for sale in a market. Such goods are commodities that possess use values (that is they are useful for human beings to do things with) but more significantly they also possess exchange value as they can be exchanged for other goods or for money. In media studies, some commentators, such as T.W. Adorno, see commodification as producing standardized products which are consumed by passive audiences. Critics of commodification suggest that goods and practices that were originally produced in local communities in response to real needs are now produced by cultural industries to satisfy desires that have been bred by, for example, advertising. In this view, commodification and the marketing of culture is less concerned with real human feelings and experience than with satisfying the need of cultural industries to generate profit. Thus, pornography in the representation of human sexuality in magazines, dvd's and on the internet offers for sale on a market that which is an intimate human experience and, for the critic, devalues it through the commodification process.

Abercrombie, N. & Longhurst, B. (2007). Dictionary of media studies. London: Penguin.