Readings - Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (Week 2)

Horkheimer (left) and Adorno (right)

During the late 20s and 30s, Adorno and Horkheimer were both members of "The Frankfurt School" who were a group of German-American theorists. They produced some of the first accounts within critical social theory surrounding the importance of mass culture and communication in social reproduction. Their studies further went on to 
develop powerful analyses of the changes in Western capitalist societies that occurred since the classical theory of Marx.

Their text, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,' written in 1994, discusses how popular culture causes the production of standardised goods (e.g. films, books) which are used to manipulate mass society. They review the culture industry, saying how popular culture is easier to absorb for mass society and is available to everyone, no matter what their economic situation is. 

The text suggests that all media has become uniformed, and how it is all about money and power; high cultured media is no longer considered to be art. The "high class" elitests are now those that have the most money and as a result, the most power; the people who own industries and chose what we consume. People get absorbed in a standardised culture and lose sight of their own, due“...the technology of the culture industry being no more than achievement of standardisation and mass production..," as we just accept what industries throw at us. 

Adorno and Horkheimer go on to discuss films and their place in our standardised society. They claim that, "Something is provided for all so that none can escape" stating that media is created at aimed at our particular cultural level so this is what we consume. We can't escape from it as we are all catered for. The media has turned in to "art for the masses" as films are predictable and viewers know what will happen at the end of the film before it has happened; we get used to and consume the same sort of media. 

The theorists argue that, “...no scope is left for the imagination. Those who are so absorbed by the world of the movie – by its images, gestures, and words – that they are unable to supply what really makes it a world.” This goes back to Leavis' idea that films are made for enjoyment and we do not need to actively use our minds anymore.