SOC 0851 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Theodor W. Adorno, Culture Industry, False Consciousness
10 Jun 2018
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• Media Power Theor: We’re All “heep
o First theory focuses on media power and was developed primarily by Theodor
Adorno – Adorno was deeply affected by witnessing firsthand the ways in which
the Nazis used the media to spread propaganda in Germany
o Media power theory – desries the ulture idustr as a well-oiled machine
produig etertaiet produts i order to ake a profit
o Culture eases to e soethig that is ade the people; rather, it eoes
something that is imposed from above and churned out by industrial entities like
the studio system in Hollywood and TV networks
o Culture can no longer be called art – it becomes another commodity, exactly like
a car, a bar of soap, or a refrigerator; culture becomes something that exists
merely to be bought and sold
o Media produts of the ulture idustr are essetiall eatl the sae i the
sense that they all embody the particular values of the established system
o Any potentially transgressive modes of expression are inevitably absorbed by the
culture industry so that what might have been a rebellious act becomes just
another way of contributing to the status quo
o The wide variety of styles and forms of entertainment that are available in
toda’s osuer soiet a look differet, ut the erely ensure that no one
truly escapes the grip of the culture industry
o TV and cable networks, movie studios, magazine publishers, and websites all
provide us with a set of choices, but the range of those choices is always
controlled by the media organizations themselves
o From the viewpoint of the culture industry, television shows, movies, and
magazine articles consist largely of interchangeable elements that are reused
over and over again
o The main effect of the media on its audience is to cultivate a kind of overall
passivity
o Our participation in media culture teaches us to conform to the status quo
without even questioning what the status quo is or why it exists
o Culture idustr reates a world i whih oforit has replaed
osiousess
o The culture industry produces banal media content that has the effect of turning
its audience into passive, conformist sheep
o False consciousness – a idea that oes fro Karl Mar’s theor of lass
relations but has been used in other contexts to explain gender and race
relations
▪ Some institutions can exert enough power over the way people think to
mislead them about the true state of affairs and usually about relations
of power in a society
▪ Leads you to believe you know things that are not, in fact, actually true
▪ Media convinces us that the media really has no influence on us
whatsoever
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