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Theories
of Communication MCM 511
VU
LESSON
29
CULTURE
INDUSTRY
On
our previous sessions we
discussed two neo-Marxist
approaches to media studies. One
is
Frankfurt
school and the other in media hegemony theory.
Frankfurt school was engaged in
a
critique
of the enlightenment. The extension of
human freedom had turned into a
nightmare the use
of
science and rationality to stamp
out human freedom. It also
involves a critique of Marxism.
The
school
had been established originally to
examine the apparent failure of
revolutionary social
change
as predicted by Marx , and in explanation
of the failure they looked to the
capacity of the
superstructure
(especially ideas and
ideology represented in the mass
media) to subvert historical
forces
of economic changes.
The
emphasis of critical theory
was on the culture of the mass media as
powerful influence
for
preventing
fundamental change. In general the
consciousness industry (media)
has been an object of
sustained
critical attention because
ideologies of the dominant class had
come to condition the
economic
base, especially by promoting a
`false consciousness' among the working
masses and
helping
to assimilate them to capitalist society.
The affluence and
consumerism generated by the
economies
of capitalist societies, and the
levels of ideological control
possessed by their
culture
industries,
have ensured that the working
class has been thoroughly
incorporated into the system.
Its
members
are more financially secure,
can buy many of the things
they desire, or think they
desire,
and
no longer have any conscious
reasons for wanting to
overthrow capitalism and replace it with
a
classless
and stateless society. It links up
with the critique of the enlightenment in
that rational
domination
is the domination of masses in modern
capitalist societies. Its
debt to the theory of
commodity
fetishism is also evident in
that commodities of all
kinds become more available
and
therefore
more capable of dominating people's
consciousness. The concept of false
needs is
identified
particularly with the work of
Marcuse. It is based upon the assumption
that people have
true
or real needs to be creative,
independent and autonomous, in control of
their own destinies,
fully
participating members of meaningful and
democratic collectivities for themselves.
The false
needs
which are created and
sustained, can in fact be
fulfilled, like the desires
elicited by
consumerism,
but only at the expense of the
true needs which remain
unsatisfied. The cultivation
of
the
false needs is bound up with the
role of culture industry. It is so
effective that the working
class
is
no longer likely to pose a
threat to the stability and continuity of
capitalism.
Culture
Industry
According
to the Frankfurt school, the culture
industry reflects the consolidation of
commodity
fetishism,
the domination of exchange value and the
ascendancy of state monopoly
capitalism. It
shapes
the tastes and preferences of the
masses, thereby molding
their consciousness by
inculcating
the
desire for false
needs.
It
therefore works to exclude
real or true needs
alternative and radical concepts of
theories, and
politically
oppositional way of thinking and
acting. According to Adorno the
commodities produced
by
the culture industry are
governed by the need to realize
their value on the market.
Industrially,
cultural
production is a process of
standardization whereby the products acquire the
form common
to
all commodities. This means
that the more cultural products
are actually standardized the more
they
are appearing to individualize.
Its effects are profound and
far-reaching:
The
power of the culture industry's
ideology is such that
conformity has replaced
consciousness.
The
drive to conformity tolerates no
deviation from, or opposition
to, nor an alternative
vision of,
the
existing social order.
Deviant, oppositional and alternative
ways of thinking and acting
become
increasingly
impossible to envisage as the power of
the culture industry is extended over
people's
minds.
The
culture industry deals with
falsehoods not truths, in false needs and
false solutions, rather than
real
need and real solutions. It
solves problems only in appearance
not as they should be
resolved in
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Theories
of Communication MCM 511
VU
the
real world. These masses in
Adorno's eyes become
completely powerless. Power lies
with the
culture
industry.
Its
products encourage conformity and
consensus, which ensure obedience to
authority and the
stability
of the capitalist society system.
The ability of the culture
industry to replace the
consciousnesses
of the masses with automatic
conformity is more or less complete.
Example: pop
music
produced by the culture industry is
dominated by two
processes:
Standardization
and Pseudo-Individualization
The
theory of `commodification' originated in
which the objects are commodified by
acquiring an
exchange
value instead of having merely an
intrinsic use value.
In
the same way cultural products
(in the form of image, ideas and symbols)
are produced and sold
in
media markets as commodities. These
can be exchanged by consumers for psychic
satisfaction,
amusement
and illusory notion of our place in
world, often resulting in the obscuration
of the real
structure
of society and our subordination in it
(false consciousness).
This
is an ideological process largely
conducted via our dependence on
commercial mass media.
The
theory of commodification applies
especially well to the interpretation
commercial advertising,
but
it a wider reference. In general the more art
and culture are commodified
the more they lose
any
critical
potential, and intrinsic value
distinctions are replaced by or equated
with market criteria
of
cost
and demand.
Gramscianism
on Communications Matters
From
a "Gramscian" perspective, the mass
media have to be
interpreted as an instrument to
spread
and
reinforce the dominant hegemony...
although they could be used
by those who want to
spread
counter-hegemonic
ideas too.
Hegemony
and the Media
This
set of ideas will constitute
the hegemony that will be expressed as
the nucleus of culture.
If
these
assumptions are correct, we can conclude
that the media are the instruments to
express the
dominant
ideology as an integral part of the
cultural environment.
The
works carried out by the
mass media can be seen, then
not merely as carriers of ideology
that
manipulate
and indoctrinate people with
certain views. The media, as
unwitting, instruments of
hegemonic
domination, have a much broader and
deeper influence- they shape
people's very ideas
of
themselves and the world, they
shape peoples
worldviews.
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