Summary: | This is a qualitative study about Art transformation and commodification in the digital age. The study applies a rhetoric analysis with the aim to understand how art sellers, gallery owners and entrepreneurs take part in this transformation process through their websites’ presentation texts ”about us”. The analysis is related to communication theories but it is also inspired by other theories such as Gramsci’s hegemony theory and Bourdieu’s cultural critical theory. The study shows that in an environment of ”Global Communication”, activities that are related to the visual art on the net are strongly influenced by the commodification. Marketers and business managers have a big advantage of this phase of change in Art activities on the net. As senders in a one-way communication process, they use their rhetorical skills in their presentation texts to build identities or to enhance their business, depending on the positions of power they have in the market. They invest in art and artists, in order to expand their businesses and to capture a wider audience of recipients on World Wide Web to get more money and power. The study recommends further research about the Art commodification, preferably from the receiver’s and the artists’ sides to reveal more aspects of the effects of this transformation process in Art and its values.
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