The Exception Proves The Rule - Media Power

I have recently heard the argument that the successful campaign in the UK to promote the Rage Against The Machine single over the one promoted by the British TV programme X Factor demonstrates the possibility of consumer power on the Internet.

Well.

One retailer at the time described this event as a truly remarkable outcome - possibly the greatest chart upset ever. 

Sarah Phillips and Steve Thomson describe another example, in which a musician uses social media to mount a complaint against United Airlines. And Curran, Fenton and Freedman quote a campaign against Nike in the 1990s, drawing on a paper by Lance Bennett.

While the phrase exception proving the rule is widely misused, the correct use of the phrase expresses the idea that a rare and remarkable event draws our attention to the underlying rule that governs most of the time.

In other words, if these examples are supposed to show us what real consumer power looks like, then this power only seems possible in very exceptional circumstances. So what is this really telling us about consumer power on the internet?

Before the Rage Against the Machine campaign, X Factor had taken the Christmas #1 slot for the previous four years running, and X Factor continued to do extremely well in the charts.

Mariann Hardey also notes that Simon Cowell, the impressario behind X Factor, also had a commercial stake in the Rage Against The Machine. Dr Hardey interprets this as proof (in case we needed it) that advertising works ... this is a far cry from consumer power in action.

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BBC News, Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts (20 December 2009)

Lance Bennett, Communicating Global Activism (Information, Communication and Society, 2003)

James Curran, Natalie Fenton and Des Freedman, Misunderstanding the Internet (2nd edition, Routledge 2016) 

Mariann Hardey, The Power of social media to kill in the name of ... (22 December 2009)

Sarah Phillips, United breaks guitars - The Rise of the Prosumer (Ipsos Health, July 2010)

Steve Thomson and Sarah Phillips, United breaks guitars (EphMRA Conference, June 2010)

Wikipedia: Exception that proves the rule, United Breaks Guitars