Media, Information and Technoculture 2153A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno
10 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
School focusing primarily of social theory and philosophy. Walter benjamin, leo lowenthal, max horkheimer, theodore adorno all attended this institution and were concerned with the idea of mass culture. These figures are among the very first to take popular culture seriously and who received scholarly attention for their work with social and cultural contexts. This notion is pretty much brand new at this time; the idea of mass culture emerges with broadcast radio. People in disparate locations can now experience the same text at the same time - brings forth the mass: mass culture and mass audience. Radio was powerful as it made figures seem like mythological gods who were able to spread their message to everyone everywhere (ex: mussolini, hitler) Held a very pessimistic view about the positives of radio as they believed it brought about a sense of brainwashing and power incentive.
