Cultural references are a way of distinguishing between groups of insiders and outsiders. John Fiske has written about the way slang terms and cultural references operate as a form of cultural capital that separates those who belong from those who do not.44 As seen in the preceding example, mobile devices help bridge these boundaries. Instead of excluding people who may be unfamiliar with a text, web-based content expands inclusivity by providing quick access to information about the references people use. By uniting people in this way, media snacking has proven to be an important tool in the development of fan networks. As Manuel Castells has noted, digital technology allows groups at work with shared interests to gather around the cultural events they find meaningful and not the ones that broadcast networks dictate.45 This community building culminates in such activities as workplace fantasy-sports leagues, group viewing parties, and the circulation of viral videos.
The media snacking observed throughout the offices I visited was notable for the ways it enhanced preexisting procrastination such as coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and snack breaks. Evidence of this media snacking reflected many of the results of larger studies conducted in the field of organization and management studies that show media snacking, in moderation, has restorative capabilities. In addition, this snacking fits within rhythms of the workday. Mobile devices enable on-demand access to digital content, which enables employees to take control of their media snacking and fit preferred types of media snacks to the appropriate types of day. Mobile devices allow employees to customize their snacking and enhance the benefits of restorative break times by providing access to the snacks they enjoy most. The versatility of mobile devices also enables employees to manage their own media snacking in relation to the specific content offerings on the web on a given day. Media companies contribute to the schedule of media snacking, as they target the procrastination economy with a variety of media snacks.
“Lunchtime Is the New Prime Time”: The Procrastination Economy at Work
Media companies are just as strategic creating media snacks as employees are in assigning them to particular parts of the workday. The history of web production reveals that the creation of media snacks is heavily influenced by the established media industries. Aymar Jean Christian explains that the financial realities of web production only allow “testing the medium from its margins.”46 The lack of sizable revenue in the procrastination economy means that the media snacks designed for the workplace are also designed to support and promote established media industries such as film and television productions. Media companies produce and distribute media snacks as appetizers meant to entice the workplace audience to integrate their intellectual property into their everyday routines and conversations. Media snacks provide brand maintenance and labor training through cross-platform flow, programming flow, and labor flow from mobile devices to film and television properties.
Fox Sports’ Lunch with Benefits programming schedule provides an example of this production strategy for the procrastination economy. Lunch with Benefits featured a collection of web series produced for the workplace audience that were designed to engage sports fans on the Monday after a busy sports weekend and encourage them to check in with Fox Sports properties as they prepared for the next weekend’s games. Each day of the week featured a new episode of a web series. Each web series was a different genre and style, covering the spectrum from interview talk shows to scripted workplace comedy to comedy clip show to sports strategy show. Each day at noon, the web series of the day would be featured on the MSN.com landing page and on the various Fox Sports apps. Monday’s The After Party with Jay Glazer and Tuesday’s Coach Speak with Brian Billick were both shows dedicated to providing wrap-up and analysis of the previous weekend’s football games. The College Experiment and Cubed aired on Wednesday and Thursday to provide humorous commentary about the sports world. Friday’s The Inside Call previewed upcoming games and featured the hosts of Fox’s NFL Sunday TV show preparing for the weekend’s broadcast. Each webisode lasted about half an hour and had its own sponsor.
Lunch with Benefits ended production after a three-year run, beginning with heavy promotion in 2009 and ending as a featured section of the Fox Sports app that launched in 2012. Though the series did not last long, the programming logic and labor practices associated with it are often replicated by digital departments across the media industries. The enthusiastic launch of Lunch with Benefits and the effort to connect traditional production practices and digital distribution are emblematic of a pervasive desire that shapes the culture of the procrastination economy.
The Fox Sports press release launching Lunch with Benefits positioned it as the flagship creation of the newly created Fox Sports Digital Entertainment division. The new unit was charged with making “lunchtime the new primetime” by offering the workplace audience a weekday web series programming block.47 The announcement’s use of the term “primetime” is indicative of how Fox Sports understood digital content and the importance of establishing a digital day part. This terminology and strategy connected the procrastination economy with traditional television production. The story of Fox Sports Digital Entertainment is emblematic of many efforts to create content for the procrastination economy. Specifically targeting the workplace audience, the network reused processes and insight gained from years creating television programming in its effort to provide snackable content that could elevate the conglomerate’s brands and franchises.
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