Intertextual references in media function as pooled securitized assets for corporate domination

Evidence

Contemporary films, television shows, and popular songs are designed to be full of references to other media texts and brands within a monetizable catalog; they are, in effect, “securitized”: pooling assets into a new financial instrument. In the short run, they can sell products and cross-promote other texts, but in the long run, the strategic goal of the biggest media companies is to maintain domination over the cultural sector through an interconnected referential economy premised on scale, monopoly, and risk aversion. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 21

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the book’s central metaphor: media texts treated as securitized asset pools built from intertextual references.