Culture Industry In Dialectic Of Enlightenment By Theodor Adorno

Born in 1903, Theodore Adorno is one of the most prominent figures in the Frankfurt school of communications, a school of social theory and philosophy which studied the effects and structure of the media. In 1945, Adorno published one of his most famous articles, “A Social Critique of Radio Music”. In his somehow controversial essay, Adorno claims that the music played on the radio reflects broader social behavior patterns, that benefits the power elite and numbs the masses. Adorno goes on and state four axioms he believed to be true regarding the existing capitalist society, including how we live in a society of commodities. The main problem he dissects in his article, is that now music is being treated as a commodity as well. Further,

Furthermore, Dorothy Smith argues that social theory offers little female perspective, especially seen in large concepts such as media. This application can be seen in Adorno’s argument of culture industry, in which mass media is used as a mechanism to hinder people’s ability to

In the text Adorno and Horkheimer primarily focuses on the issue of art such movies, radio program and etc becoming a commodity and the fusing of the market and art areas. The criticism of the culture industry stems from the fact that for Adorno and Horkheimer culture held the answer for liberation, however the mass produced culture that they found in America was instead enslaving people. Adorno and Horkheimer’s argument regarding mass culture produced products and its effects and commoditization of art remain important to contemporary society because these issues have continued to have a negative effect on contemporary society this can be observed by analyzing contemporary mass culture products such as television, movies and the internet.

“Since socialization occurs throughout the life span and since the mass media in industrial society permeates virtually every aspect of a person’s life, the media’s effect on our concepts of self, although impossible to determine precisely, are probably underestimated” (Saucier 1986, 147). Mass media forms of entertainment have the unique ability to impact large audiences across time and space. The Hollywood thriller Fatal Attraction (1987), with its many references to Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly (1903), proves to be a central film to study when considering how intertextual value may arise from referencing another text through a piece of media as well as what ideology can result from a popular media product. In considering the

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the scientific revolution brought about a slow change in societies’ thinking regarding math, earth science, physics, and astronomy. Early on, new ideas about our universe were not widely accepted, especially from the church. This soon changed due to the hard work and perseverance of several scientists and philosophers who unbeknownst to them brought about an era known as the Enlightenment.

“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is a pivotal article in history that changed the way in which many communications scholars viewed media. Both authors were members of the Frankfurt School, a school of thought which looked further into Karl Marx’s theories about capitalism and the issues of mass production. Published in 1944, Adorno and Horkheimer revealed their beliefs that the media, much like the economy, is becoming mass produced, and is therefore turning people in society into media-consuming robots. Industrialization created work lives for people in which they would work on only one part of a larger machine. As a result, they felt less involved in the completion of the project as a whole, and therefore felt less pride in their jobs and their lives in general. Instead, these people turned to media and pop culture so that they would feel more fulfillment within their lives. Adorno and Horkheimer believed that these people had a reduced capacity for original thought because media is now force feeding them the ideas of what they can think and feel. This essay will prove that although Adorno and Horkeimer’s points were justified through the eyes of authors George Lipsitz, Lev Manovich, and Susan J. Douglas, there are still exceptions to their theories that they do not account for.

This essay will evaluate Adorno’s critical attack on popular music. The essay will briefly provide some context on Adorno. Adorno claims that “listeners are made not born”, thus listening is a cultural practice, in which modernity has transformed into a profit (Adorno, 2002:248). By this, the essay will begin by focusing on the broader idea of the culture industry, in terms of commodities and popular music as not being critical. Following on, particular focus will be given to three main areas which convey Adorno’s criticism of popular music. These being, the musical form under standardisation, pseudo-individualisation and regressive listening in terms of escapism. Standardisation will be evaluated in structural terms, and critiqued by Middleton (1990) and Witkin (2003). Adorno’s critique of popular music can only be understood in relation to his analysis of serious music, therefore, the essay will focus on both types of music. Adorno’s criticisms of popular music and critics of this criticism, will enable for a conclusion to be drawn on whether or not I agree with Adorno’s claims on popular music.

The concept of hegemony is used to capture the many ways in which a society’s culture is organized such that it makes certain practices appear so normal that we freely consent to them. (Dillon, 2014) This concept can be identified as the central issue that Horkheimer addresses. This promotion of a culture of sameness suppresses individuality and variation. Television does not “bring the entire world into our homes” as much as it moves everybody who is watching to the same place and into the same events. (Wexler, 1991) Critical theorists conclude that mass consumer society produces a new form of totalitarianism, a cultural totalitarianism. Cultural totalitarianism is the repression of diversity in the expression of individual needs and opinions that is at odds with those mass marketed. (Dillon, 2014) Even though cultural totalitarianism accurately describes how our society is today, there are still individuals who actively reject mass media and consumer culture. Horkheimer’s critical theory allows us to create an emancipated society that is autonomous from the controlling demands of competitive

The dawn of the Enlightenment brought forth a slew of radical notions that challenged society’s dominant sentiments at the time. With the onslaught of conversations about the nature and purpose of humanity, Enlightenment thinkers conceived novel concepts of anti-authoritarian thinking, empiricism, and the role of reason in humanity. As the Enlightenment led to an upheaval in how intellectuals took the authority of traditional learning, new conversations about the human condition were born. Namely, an emphasis on reason and logic as the primary mechanisms of humanity was developed. Prolific Scottish philosopher David Hume, best known for his radical use of skepticism to examine every possible concept in the vast index of Enlightenment values, emerged as a revolutionary departure from the traditional French and English Enlightenment thinkers. Hume was known for applying a brand of skepticism in his consideration of concepts such as reason, human sympathy, and the authority of traditional ideas. While David Hume’s extreme skepticism challenges preconceived notions of Enlightenment values, his approach is ultimately quite reflective of the core beliefs that represent the pinnacle of Enlightenment thought; thereby reinforcing such values while simultaneously casting them in an increasingly realistic light.

Adorno and Horkheimer's obscure and nihilistic text Dialectic of Enlightenment (DoE) is an attempt to answer the question 'why mankind, instead of entering a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism' (DoE, p.xi). The result is a totalising critique of modernity; a diagnosis of why the Enlightenment project failed with no attempt to prescribe a cure. This is achieved by a historical-philosophical study of the mythic world-view of animism and anthropomorphism and the Enlightenment attempt to dissolve myth through objectification and instrumental reason.

Bourdieu developed an analysis of the literary or artistic field as an important aspect of the modern world. His analysis was based on a restricted market field which he sees this as an opposite of the economic field with its mass markets. Also, he discussed the artistic field in term of the position or a roll it created by provide example artist VS. sellout as well as how works of art can turn out to be great or good and poor works of art. However, Adorno developed an extremely critical modernist analysis of contemporary popular culture, for example the culture industry, as a mass market that can undermined the possibility of good art replacement it will mere in to the entertainment.

In 1944, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, members of the Frankfurt School who fled from the Nazi Germany to the USA, were publishing their seminal essay ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’. Political critique, their thesis about the ideological domination of capitalism on cultural production is one that persists today and is regularly renewed (Mukerji & Schudson, 1991). Yet, since the first half of the twentieth century, evolutions have occurred within the ‘Culture Industry’, and while the theory – focusing primarily on the music and cinema industries – is still applicable to some features of contemporary ‘cultural industries’ (Hesmondhalgh, 2007), these changes require a contemporary reconsideration of it.

Mass media plays an important role in the society by providing entertainment, information and acting as the government’s overseer. Several scholars have developed philosophies that help people understand how mass media fulfills its roles in the society. For example, Horkheimer and Adorno have constructed theories that explain the functions and impacts of mass media in the society across the globe (Mosco, 2008). The central theme in all mass communication models entails the meaning of media contents, which include the images and texts and their influence on the target audience. The perception of the target audience concerning the text and images in the media are what form the basis of these theories. This essay discusses two hypothetical frameworks: the political economy and cultural studies theories, including their similarities and differences, and how they help in understanding the relationship between the media and society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how characteristics of culture maintain capitalist society. I will be using Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s The culture industry: enlightenment as mass deception, as the backbone of my analysis. This will be accomplished by assessing aspects of society such as: monopoly capitalism, the entertainment industry and relevance to modern day society. This paper argues that capitalism transformed culture into an ideological means of domination, and acts as brainwashing tool over the masses.

Mass Culture, all in all, is those profit-driven cultural products that are mass-produced for mass consumed by the mass society through mass media. For the reason that the aim of mass culture is to gain by satisfying the social desire of entertainment instead of expressing the ideas and feelings of the creators, the output is regarded as a “commodity” but not a “composition”. Mass Culture is also charged to be a “pseudo-culture”, it is not culture as a matter of fact.