What is the Principle of Relative Constancy?
The Principle of Relative Constancy is a model for analyzing how much money is spent on media by both consumers and advertisers. In its simplest form, the Principle of Relative Constancy suggests that a relatively constant proportion of national wealth (usually approximated using Gross Domestic Product) is spent on media every year. The only ways for any particular type of media – be it television, radio, or the Internet – to increase its revenue base are to capture revenue from another type of media or to to capture a proportional share of an expanding economy. To better understand the Principle of Relative Constancy, click here. The History of the Principle of Relative Constancy Since the early 1970s, when Maxwell McCombs released his seminal study, Mass Media in the Marketplace, most macro-level analyses of media expenditures have been conducted within the framework of the Principle of Relative Constancy. Describing his hypothesis, McCombs said “[A] relatively constant proportion of
