"The Culture Industry is one in and of itself that focuses on the media and mass marketing. However due to extensive publicity and advertising, all cultural products, including human beings, have become commodities that share little to no meaning. Communicatively, a problem arises in that any sense of genuine dialogue is also lost. This industry gives reason to believe the individual is an illusion that is manipulated by authority, those who reside in the dominant class" (Kelsey Porter, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2009).
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno define the Culture Industry through its focus on the media and mass marketing. This industry is unique in that it does not reflect economic processes and essentially becomes homogenous; thus, variation is meaningless. This includes the media, art, ideas, meanings, and the individual consciousness. “Films, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part” (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1976). What Horkheimer and Adorno are implying is that all reason has become instrumental rationality and that "we," as human beings, can only think in terms of means and ends. In other words, we are made into commodities we must retail. Once we sell our marketed product, a.k.a. our selves, we will have then become sellouts. In short, the rise of the individual turns into the downfall of the individual.
Industries before they were all about the "need" and now it is more about what we "want". Industry to cultural industry is big shift because people don't consume because they need it, they but it because they want it. It is all about buying a culture, and pitting into those community, and class. Now a days, what car you drive, clothes you were, food you eat, kinds of phone and service you use, they all fall under the fitting into the class and community. It is all about claiming your social status though products we consume.
Imitations and fake copy products are reflecting of desire fitting into those "Class", and "Status".
No comments:
Post a Comment