The Culture Industry : Enlightenment As Mass Deception?

In his work, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Theodor Adorno analyzes the nature of the culture industry. People everywhere are constantly being consumed by the culture industry, which is a term for the mass production of cultural goods such as films, magazines, and music. Adorno is concerned that the government uses the cultural industry as a way to deceive the masses and manipulate them into passivity. This idea remains true in today’s society. Young men and women are more interested in the release of the newest Taylor Swift or Adele song than political issues. People have become less intellectual as they are being consumed by the culture industry. It is much easier for a person to let himself be consumed by mass media and to let the media

1. Netflix’s original marketing strategy offered several flat-rate monthly subscription options; in which, members could stream movies and shows via the Internet or have disks sent to their homes in a pre-paid and pre-addressed envelope. Free from the despair of due dates and late fees, members could keep, up to, eight movies at a time. Upon the return of a disk, Netflix would automatically mail out the next movie from the customer’s video queue. Members were able to change and update their queues as frequently as they liked. The sheer innovation of Netflix’s strategy encouraged several competitors to enter the market to compete directly,

“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.

TVI is “the era of channel scarcity, the mass audience, and the three-network hegemony” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). TVII is “ the era of channel/network expansion, quality television, and network branding strategies” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). TVIII is “the era of proliferating digital distribution platforms, further audience fragmentation, and…a shift from second-order to first-order commodity relations” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). While these distinctions are made, they are not necessarily set in stone. Hence the introduction of TVIV. Netflix “draws into question the previous notions of multi-platform as television, due to its independence from more traditional modes…” (Jenner, 3). Michael Curtin argues that there is an alternative means of understanding the current television trend, that of matrix media. “The matrix era is characterized by interactive exchanges, multiple sites of productivity and diverse modes of interpretation and use” (Curtin [Jenner, 4]). The entrance of Netflix as both a television producing and streaming system has led to the argument for TVIV, which “can be understood as an era of matrix media where viewing patterns, branding strategies, industrial structures, the way different media forms interact with each other or the various ways content is made available shift completely away from the television set” (Jenner, 4). Netflix does fit into TVIII’s guidelines in many ways, but its format is different from the existing

Cineworld is in a very competitive market that consists of various cinema chains who all want to be the best and provide the best service. Cineworld faces harsh competition from: Vue, Odeon, Pathe and Showcase, all big cinema chains with their own unique way of delivering their service, this table illuminates where Cineworld stand in comparison to their competitors in terms of size (see appendix 2). The cinema industry is reliant on customers spending their disposable income on watching the latest movie, however with the arrival of indirect competition in the form of online streaming sites such as ‘Netflix’ and illegal but easily accessible sites such as ‘Putlocker’, films are easier to watch now more than ever, even in the comfort of your

Streaming is a major part of today’s culture. Many individuals and families are cutting the cords and getting rid of traditional television for streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (“Cord Cutting Accelerates,” 2016). More and more each year people are making the switch to use these services because they are more convenient offering the ability to choose not only a program, but which episode or film in a series in full HD. Some even offer this commercial free, but even those which don’t still offer their services with minimal advertising when compared to traditional cable television. All of this is given at extremely low prices when compared with the monthly payments for places like Comcast, AT&T, and DirectTV. People are always

According to Theodor W. Adorno in The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception, the culture industry is the entertainment business. “The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry” (1113). While people are consuming products from the entertainment manufacturers “with alertness even when the customer is distraught,” real life is not becoming indistinguishable from the movies (1113). The majority of consumers are able to distinguish products from the entertainment manufacturers such as movies, TV shows, radio and books from reality.

Mass culture can be defined as the collective culture created by exposure to the same news sources, music, literature, art and consumer advertising. The rise of mass culture is a relatively new phenomenon that has occurred largely because of the rise of a leisure class fueled by technological innovations, the surplus in production brought about by the industrial revolution and the time the average consumer had to dedicate to non-work pursuits brought about by the delineated work schedule favored by mass production and labor laws which defined the limits of the production schedule, and created a new space for workers and their families. Prior to the advent of mass culture, “high culture” was defined by the elite class made up of landed and hereditary wealth which defined the proper forms of cultural expression and used control of the access to this culture to define in-group identification and signal cultural cues which were to be picked up and mimicked by the lower classes. The monopoly on cultural expression changed with the advent of the mass production of goods which were made affordable by the sheer scale of their manufacture and the necessity to create awareness of this production surplus by means of communication on a scale heretofore unseen in human history. The rise of mass culture was also made possible by the urbanization of societies as nations transitioned from

One of the struggles for Netflix has always been getting rights to programming. In an effort to save DVD sales Hollywood studios tried to weaken their streaming services by withholding the rights or by charging more for newer movies. Big studios like Warner Bros., Fox and Universal made deals that allowed Netflix to use old movies but only if it waited twenty-eight days after the release of a new DVD before making it available to the public (Balio, 2013). Film executives believe that Netflix is taking the value out of movies by making them available anywhere, anytime (Kaiser, 2011). The fees do not stop them however. The more subscriptions Netflix receives, the more revenue they bring in and the more willing they are to pay the high fees to get films from the studios and the cycle is brought full circle, the more films, the more subscribers (Roth, 2009).

Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer were two renowned Jewish representatives of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory; they were particularly dominant during the early 20th century, approximately around the time of the 1920’s to 1960s. They took refuge in America after Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany. These to philosophers developed the ‘Culture Industry Theory’ in the 1940s, in light of the disturbed society they had seen during this time. They witnessed how Nazi Fascism used mass media such as films, radio and newspapers to brainwash millions into partaking in this ideology. Similarly they saw the rise of Capitalism in America, which also used mass media such as Hollywood films and advertising to disseminate the masses into the

It’s instantly recognized when the familiar red envelope arrives in the mail. The bright red “N” bookmarked on your favorite web browser. You probably have sunk into old episodes of your favorite TV shows. Netflix serves as the model for delivering legitimate video content to the consumer for a reasonable price. Two men from Silicon Valley had an idea in a time where few people knew the existence of DVDs, and slowly rose to power into today’s multi-billion dollar empire. The road to success was far from perfect, as many business decisions caused controversy. From small beginnings Netflix challenged industry powerhouses like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Now, Netflix contests the control of network television while working in conjunction

Horkheimer and Adorno describe the culture industry as, “ millions participate in it, certain reproduction processes are necessary that inevitably require identical needs in innumerable places to be satisfied with identical goods” (1256). Benjamin argues that as soon as the authenticity is lost, art’s function is transformed. Horkheimer and Adorno describe a new function of art, to produce for mass consumption. Those in control of the modes of production want to replace the ritual value with a exhibition value to increase profit. Thus creating a bigger divide between the working class and the upper class. Art is being given a new value under capitalism.

Adorno and Horkheimer’s essay “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (1944) describes culture industries, such as film, radio, and magazines, as ideological mediums of domination that reduce consumers into passive subjects. As members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory which critiqued post World War II Western modernity, Adorno and Horkheimer viewed the culture industry’s standardization and mass production as mechanisms of control under Capitalism, an economic system meant to maintain power among the wealthy. Similarly, Warren Susman’s essay” The People’s Fair: Cultural Contradictions of a Consumer Society” highlights the 1939 New York World’s Fair as a commodity meant to piece the public into a part of a

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) are noted to be key figures in the studies of the culture industry, with their work still proving to be a large influence even today. In modern studies, the culture industry can be perceived through the views of the pessimist and the optimist. Both theorists hold a very solid pessimistic view on the culture industry, which is expressed through their collaborative works. Specifically, in their 1990 book, which featured essays about the said topic at hand; Adorno states that “culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality” (p. 85). The product will have the same function, but a new value will be applied in order to appeal to the masses. The two theorists then also introduce concepts such as pseudo-individualisation, differentiation and standardization into their works, all holding similar meanings. Whilst, it may be argued by critics that an optimistic approach is beneficial, one cannot look at the industry without Adorno and Horkheimer’s input. Even today, in modern society, we still see examples of the masses being turned into cultural dupes through concepts such as pseudo-individualism and standardisation.

Netflix exhibits dominant economic characteristics in the online movie rental business. They enjoy strong market size and growth rate when compared to rivalry competition. The number of rivalries are increasing, and the market remains dominated by only a few sizeable rivalries like Blockbuster Video, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney Movies and Movielink’s Downloadable Movies. Netflix is determined to offer new and innovative technology to sustain their competitive advantage.