Mark Andrejevic’s iSpy discusses some very practical topics, especially in today’s business sector. Andrejevic opens his piece with the Google, example, and how they have utilized the Internet to target their marketing efforts, more specifically in the San Francisco Bay area. They benefited the city by providing free WiFi, and benefited themselves by receiving crucial market information. They used this information for contextual advertising, “using the information it gathered about users’ locations within the city to bombard them time- and location-specific ads” (P. 1). The Internet has changed the marketing atmosphere in extreme measures.
In Chapter 3, “iManagement,” Andrejevic continues to discuss how marketers have used surveillance and scientific management. The author walks through the “Taylor System,” which was one of the first modern day surveillance systems applied in the workplace. Frederick Winslow Taylor created a system, which he used demographic information about his employees along with specific information gathered by monitoring their work habits. Taylor claimed that his system was beneficial for both parties; because he would create percentage pay increases as a motivation for increased productivity. This system was introduced in the ladder 19th century and applied in the early 20th century. Marketers have used similar systems as a more efficient way to target audiences. Taylor’s system was predominately designed to increase profitability and productivity, with nothing else in mind.
When monitoring audiences, Andrejevic discusses the lack of threat involved, such as unemployment. Monitoring audiences has been turned greatly towards mass media. The use of scientific management has allowed marketers to reach the right audiences with the right information.
-Jeff Colburn
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