Some epistemological considerations about the theories of film and cultural consumption in the Internet age: revisiting superstardom models, long tail phenomenon and quality appraisal

Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb (1, 2)

1 CNELIAS - Centre Norbert Elias
2 UMR 8562 - Équipe Culture et Communication du Centre Norbert Elias

If the uncertainty phenomena are not the latest in economics, the combination of the ADSL Internet accessibility and opportunities to share/download//watch in streaming film in a whimsical chronology has substantially amended the work of the researcher in the last fifteen years. Film economics can be considered as the cultural economics subarea interested in economics of the film industry, movies economics or cinema marketing. Film economics is no longer limited to statistically record the phenomena of trade in the cinema exhibition market (i/e domestic box office results), but to analyze the hazards of an individual consumption of cultural goods via downloading or streaming practices during an age where only management studies or sociology of cultural practices prevailed. The traditional models of film marketing, largely influenced by the behaviorist tradition (for example questioning the effects of criticism on general entries or the trailers effectiveness on audiences), yet effective ten years ago, are no longer enough to interpret today the disconcerting versatility of the cultural consumer on Internet, washed up there where the new media leaders and cultural influencers such as social networks take over. The economist of culture has mutated by obligation into a socio-economist. The significant evolution of the Internet technical skills (networks, free or legal downloading platforms, independent consumer labels raising funds for online artists…) encourages the economists to revisiting the traditional economics models of cultural goods. From our point of view, the technological challenges that experienced the audiovisual sphere with the digital switchover of the whole chain of production, distribution and dissemination of images engendered three epistemological questions that have profoundly influenced the economic thinking on the media consumption during the past fifteen years.

Mots clés: Quality appraisal; Quality approaches; Cultural economics; Media economics; Internet economics; Media theory; Media consumption; Niche media; Niche market; Long tails; Long tail theory; Long tail phenomenon; Superstardom models; Media consumers

Domaines: Sciences de l'information et de la communication; Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb. Some epistemological considerations about the theories of film and cultural consumption in the Internet age: revisiting superstardom models, long tail phenomenon and quality appraisal. Wojciech Dyduch, Małgorzata Pańkowska (eds.). Internet Communication Management, Publishing House of the University of Economics in Kayowice, pp.105-115, 2012, ISBN : 978-83-7246-776-8. ⟨halshs-01941669⟩