Reading Response: (Week 3)
Adorno and Max Horkheimer, in this reading, discuss on the term 'Culture industry'. In this he explains how the people are kept under the control of capitalists and how they are not allowed to act with any individuality. They exclaim that in this era of mechanization and industrialization culture stands all same and identical. Films,Radio are no longer considered to be a art. The cultural economies produce products according to the customer demands. The power is not given to the people and that technology acquires more power over the society. They state that development of radio to television clearly portrays the authoritative nature and also subjects this to discussion over the welcoming attitude of public. They also mention that the culture monopolies are weak and are dependent on the economic power which holds them. As they discuss this further deep, they add that there is no room left for the consumer to imagine and if films are taken into consideration all the reactions which should have been spontaneous are also spoon-fed into them.
With the term 'Culture industry' they proposed that 'popular culture' is completely related to standardized cultural goods like film,radio,television,magazine etc. These tend to manipulate the society and also put them to passivity. They add that the products which are produced always undergo a set of standardization and also all films hit a cliche point which are never interchangeable. There is a clear illusion and the public is under the domination of capitalist communities. They call culture as a 'Paradoxical commodity'.
What I feel about the views of Adorno and Horkheimer is that, the people are all kept under the mirage that they are being offered what they want, but then we generally don't quite feel that we are influenced by the power in some or the other way.
{Adorno, Theodor and Horkhemier, Max (1997) The Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso}
No comments:
Post a Comment