One of the first things I realized when I started
reading this week’s text was how much easier it was to understand it compared
to last week’s readings. It could be because I am slightly more interested in
this subject but I also think that the style of writing by Adorno and
Horkheimer helps a lot. I did not have read any summary of the text as opposed
to last week.
Anyway, yesterday we had our first seminar in this
course. I was not able to attend the lecture so the seminar was extra important
to me. I think the seminar was quite interesting and we had some good
discussions going on. The main point that I expressed during the seminar was
that I think the authors have a very negative view on the culture industry and
new media in general. The way I see it this is kind of a simpleminded view, and
it seems as if Adorno and Horkheimer chose to overlook some of the real
benefits of the culture industry, or any industry in general for that matter.
When field become “industrialized”, money starts flowing in and allows for more complex/better products to be created. Something that is important to notice it that industrialization only makes it possible for higher quality/more immersive products to be created. It is by mo means a guarantee that it will actually happen. Anyway, this is
seen in for instance the film industry, where films such as Titanic or Avatar
would probably not have been able to have been created without an industry supplying
time, money and knowledge. Furthermore, it is not uncommon that the culture
industry (movies, computer games, etc.) generate or drive the development of
products that could also benefit other industries or people in general. Examples
of this could be higher quality cameras, faster computers, new programming
languages, more efficient manufacturing processes, etc. This view was also
supported by some people at the seminar, and when I read the other blogs I see
that some people agree that Adorno and Horkheimer might be unnecessarily
negative towards the culture industry.
However, as seen in the book and pointer out by some
other bloggers, there are some reasons as to why the authors are so negative
towards the culture industry. First, it is important to notice that Adorno and
Horkheimer emigrated from Germany to the U.S. to escape the Nazi party. Being a
part of 1930’s Germany they must have seen how mass media could be used to
manipulate and lie to the people. Also, when I read about the authors on
Wikipedia I see how they were influenced by the socialist philosopher/author Karl
Marx. When you know that it does not come as a surprise that they were hesitant
towards capitalism and mass production.
I like how you looked up the authors on wikipedia. It's important to find out what sort of perspective they were writing from to make sure we do not mistake their opinion for the majority. It seems much clearer why they did not appreciate American society due to their ideological views, while others maybe would have embraced it.
SvaraRaderaThanks for your comment. Yes, reading on Wikipedia gives you a completely different picture of the authors' opinions. I'm not sure but maybe they were quite alone in having such a negative view of the culture industry. I think this is something that should have been discussed during the seminar.
Radera