Biography Of Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno And Max Horkheimer

After the Second World War, America experienced an economic boom, which has taken the country a step further towards the ideal capitalistic society. In its early developmental stages, the capitalist mode of production prolonged the Marxist discourse on constant class struggle as it was primarily criticized in terms of social inequalities. During post-war years, the initial focus of the discourse has shifted to Frankfurt School criticism of culture industry, where the standardization and commodification of cultural spheres became one of the major defects of the capitalistic system. The notion of class struggle shifted as well, to the clash of high and low cultural forms. Also known as authentic expression versus standardized product of cultural industry. Most recently, the discourse has gone through another important metamorphosis that has made advertising industry and consumerism the main forces, shaping hegemonic culture of mainstream media. The good old notion of the class struggle is currently regarded as the battle between corporate businesses and rebel oppositional forces.

Benjamin stressed the Marxist democratization of art through digital reproduction, a media which allows for de-emphasizing the original work of art. Throughout the history of arts, particularly visual arts, we have revered the individual paintings created

In his work, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Theodor Adorno analyzes the nature of the culture industry. People everywhere are constantly being consumed by the culture industry, which is a term for the mass production of cultural goods such as films, magazines, and music. Adorno is concerned that the government uses the cultural industry as a way to deceive the masses and manipulate them into passivity. This idea remains true in today’s society. Young men and women are more interested in the release of the newest Taylor Swift or Adele song than political issues. People have become less intellectual as they are being consumed by the culture industry. It is much easier for a person to let himself be consumed by mass media and to let the media

“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is a pivotal article in history that changed the way in which many communications scholars viewed media. Both authors were members of the Frankfurt School, a school of thought which looked further into Karl Marx’s theories about capitalism and the issues of mass production. Published in 1944, Adorno and Horkheimer revealed their beliefs that the media, much like the economy, is becoming mass produced, and is therefore turning people in society into media-consuming robots. Industrialization created work lives for people in which they would work on only one part of a larger machine. As a result, they felt less involved in the completion of the project as a whole, and therefore felt less pride in their jobs and their lives in general. Instead, these people turned to media and pop culture so that they would feel more fulfillment within their lives. Adorno and Horkheimer believed that these people had a reduced capacity for original thought because media is now force feeding them the ideas of what they can think and feel. This essay will prove that although Adorno and Horkeimer’s points were justified through the eyes of authors George Lipsitz, Lev Manovich, and Susan J. Douglas, there are still exceptions to their theories that they do not account for.

I did this to further understand the role of media in the world, as I hope this essay proves to do as well. The duty of portraying correct information, specifically as the client or assignment desires. The consistent utilization of multiple sources and ideas in order to consequently be “true”. As a student and proprietor of personal experience and expertise, I will strive to remain independent and balanced in my opinion. This is superlatively important in a structured debate such as this one. In media and more locally in my class, the promotion and recognition of creativity and freedom of expression is/was an inhibitor and restrictor of content. The relation of the obligation of the media to fulfill the thirst for knowledge inherent in us all is something very complex and necessary to explain. Moreover, it is at the time of this argument, very evocative to think about this in the examples utilized in this essay. This is essentially the argument of the media, supplemented by renowned filmmakers and politicians such as Susan Sontag and others, on the power of

The romantic idea of the auteur is described by film theoretician, André Bazin, observing the film form as an idealistic phenomenon. Through the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard reference, Bazin primarily refers to an essential literary and romantic conception of the artist as central. He considers the relationship between film aesthetics and reality more important than the director itself and places cinema above paintings. He described paintings as a similar ethical creation to film stating a director ‘can be valued according to its measurements and the celebrity of the signature, the objective quality of the work itself was formerly held in much higher esteem.’ (Bazin, 1967: 250). Bazin contemplates the historical and social aspects that indeed hinder a director’s retribution to their own personalised film, thus en-companying their own ideological judgement upon the world ‘more so in cinema where the sociological and historical cross-currents are countless.’ (Bazin, 1967: 256)

With images, words, and sounds been almost endlessly reproduced and distributed, various critics of modern culture suggest that traditional ideas about art and authenticity are no longer applicable. The problem is said to have been noticed back in the 1930s in the popular essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction that was concerned about what would happen to the “aura” of unique works of art when photography and other techniques if anybody could make unlimited copies of images. With the rise of digital technology, copying ability became vast and complex and hence the idea of originality is thrown into

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) was a member of the Frankfurt School at the University of Frankfurt in 1923 (Longhurst, 1995:4). Adorno was notably influenced by Marx’s critique of capitalism, Freud’s psychological repression studies and Weber’s theory of rationalism (Goodwin, 1990). Adorno develops a critique of popular music from a critical theory derived from Marx and adopts this

The term “networked society” describes the many different phenomena related to the social, political, economic and cultural changes caused by the increase in connected digital information. In this essay I aim to assess the value of networked society within the creative disciplines of documentary film, fine art and dance. I intend to convey the positive value of networked society on my chosen creative disciplines by looking at many different sources and view points and assessing both the positive and negative impacts of

Their focus was that “consumers” are tricked into the believing that they have a free will and are capable of choosing for themselves. This comes from the fact that they believe there is little discrepancy between the outputs of any two artists, writers, or studios. Horkheimer and Adorno argued that the culture industry is built on be in style, not truth, and that close examination is generally discouraged. Those who do not integrate their lives with the current culture industry will be subject to “economic impotence…intellectual powerlessness,” and a reputation as “an eccentric loner.” This can be explained as being the one person everyone leaves out of parties because they don’t meet the social or cultural requirements the group has set forth. They elaborate further on this final point, saying that while “formal freedom is guaranteed,” there is still social control exerted by almost every system such as churches, schools, and other organizations. This is seen more often in today’s time where people are given the option to choose what they want to do, but in reality those who don’t conform to the “norm” will be shunned in

Cultural studies are influenced by the “Marxist interpretation of society,” but according to, “Stuart Hall believed that mass media has highlighted those people that are already in positions of power” and the media has exploited the poor keeping them powerless. “Hall says that he describes mass media as the dominance that maintain

Also, consumerism has become a mean of social control, as it was mentioned about the culture. And because culture has become a commodity it is mass produced because the demand for it has increased. Adorno was a part of the thinkers, who found a connection between

According to Adorno, the culture industry presents a huge danger to the people. The culture industry ideally looks at the culture to be based on the things which are already recognized form the past (Adorno 114). Adorno looks at how the culture industry has led to the collapse of reason in the society. It reduces the ability of the society to

Benjamin’s death in 1940 at the age of 48, is rumored to be a suicide when the Naza’s took office, but is still a mystery. His ideas and concepts however, would live on for decades to come. Much of what he wrote about when discussing art came essentially after the development of photography and film. In his work, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin addresses his perception of the changes in art and the aesthetic experience congruent with societal changes. He writes with concern of how the great artworks are viewed after the introduction of photography and film. His idea of mechanical reproduction changed the art world as society knew it, particularly in how the public views artwork and the value of that work as more and more people are able to own, view and discuss it. This paper will specifically look at aspects of Benjamin’s groundbreaking essay and how educators can relate his ideas to the practices in their art classrooms.

Theodor Adorno was an important member of the Frankfurt School, which developed ideas of critical theory and cultural Marxism. Adorno adopted a Marxists approach in his work, especially among his work as a musicologist, seeing propaganda within popular music. He saw music as thought provoking and believed that it prevented its listeners from having real thought, he wanted people to challenge the way they listened to popular music. In his article On Popular Music, which he had written in 1941, Adorno speaks about how he believed there were two spheres of music, popular and serious music. About the standardisation in popular music, in which it followed certain patterns which created pseudo-individualism. Also on how popular music affects its listeners in different ways compared to serious music. As a Marxist philosopher, Adorno was an idealist for the idea of capitalism, also as a Marxist sociologist he had an understanding of society and the idea of there being two different classes in all aspects of culture and society.