4. Historical. If the economic, legal, and textual foundations of the cultural industries have shifted, then so too has its overall structure. Many of the data presented in this book chart a simple but destructive historical trend: a financial instrument or type of organization is deregulated at some point in the late twentieth century, then escalates in use over the course of the past two decades. While there is no single identifiable year or inflection point in which everything changes, there is the slow accumulation of many trends in finance that each gain power during this period. In other words, the argument here is a periodization claim. Derivative media, in this fourth instance, refers to a new era for the cultural industries, starting around the late 1990s and early 2000s, when their organizational structure became predicated on financial extraction.

DEFINE: Defines 'derivative media' as a periodization concept marking a new era, not just a medium or genre.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 22