Advertising and Media in the Age of the Algorithm

Abstract

This article examines the disruption that the global advertising industry is undergoing as it struggles to adapt to the extraordinary opportunities for marketing over the Internet and still maintain its former hold over legacy media. The fresh global media players, particularly Google, have risen quickly to claim unprecedented influence over the flows of advertising revenue that are the lifeblood of the media, obliging advertising agencies to compete in the new digital space that Internet advertising has opened. However, U.S.-based new media companies are having to deal with strong local competitors in major developing markets, at the same time as they face social criticism and regulatory intervention for their practices in exploiting users for marketing purposes in their more established markets.