Cultural texts are designed to be securitized through their intertextual relationships

Evidence

Financial logic, I argue, is embedded not just within the organization and management of the cultural industries, but within the very form of cultural texts. Derivative media is structured by speculation. It is no longer the case that products and brands are simply incorporated into popular media texts, commodifying the text, a process that has been occurring for over a century. In the era of financialization, the text is now designed to facilitate the speculative process of buying and selling product placements, branding opportunities, cross-promotion, corporate synergy, and other economic relationships. Intertextuality creates supply and demand, which facilitates so many opportunities for exchange and investment that a speculative marketplace is formed. The text is, in effect, securitized through intertextuality, as discussed below. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 321

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s thesis-testing: this is deWaard’s causal claim that financial structure enters the very form of texts, not just their organization — the exact proposition the reader wants to verify.
• SEED: This ‘text is securitized through intertextuality’ claim is worth pressure-testing in an essay: does intertextuality genuinely create supply/demand for placements, or does deWaard’s metaphor mask a well-documented but weaker correlation?