Theme 2: Critical media studies

1. What is Enlightenment?

The enlightenment is the rise of knowledge and the fall of enchantment and mythology. Enlightenment is everything that is arranged according to reason, like science and ethics. It is the “happy match” between human understanding and the nature of things.

2. What is the meaning and function of “myth” in Adorno and Horkheimer’s argument?

Myth is all sorts of knowledge that existed before enlightenment. Myth emphasizes individual experience over what is proved by scientific observations. Enlightenment is known to demythologize but at the same time Adorno and Horkheimer write that “Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverse to myth”. I believe the meaning of this paradox is that myth is already enlightenment in that they both try to understand and identify with nature in order to control it. Myth is a form of enlightenment even though enlightenment rejects myth (it denies its own sources).

3. What are the “old” and “new” media that are discussed in the Dialectic of Enlightenment?

The authors mean that the new culture system is depicted best in radio, film and magazines. These “new” mass media technologies, that are able to spread opinions all over the world, are the main drivers towards social changes all over the world. These “new” media take up all the space so that there are no room left for “old” media, like for example art (paintings, sculptures etc.). “Old” media focuses on creativity and individualism to a higher degree than “new” media, according to the authors. The “new” media and its capitalist, profit focused purpose, creates some problems as we will see in the answers to the coming questions.

4. What is meant by “culture industry”?

The culture industry is an industry in which millions participate. It is viewed as something open and democratic because everyone can easily be a part of it. The people who are “in charge” of the culture industry decide what counts as culture. Horkheimer and Adorno define culture industry by its focus on media and mass marketing (deception?). They mean that capital decides the outcome of a product today and they break it down to systems, or ideas, of technology, mass production and monopoly. A mass production of technological goods occur because we as customers demand it. Therefore the technology of the culture industry is trying to achieve standardisation and mass production (sometimes monopolistically).  

5. What is the relationship between mass media and “mass deception”, according to Adorno and Horkheimer?

Mass media has the power to mass deceit. The mass media industry produces a range of products to titillate a range of consumers, so that “none may escape”. This of course renders the receivers interaction moot. It leaves the consumer non reflective and/or without critical thought. The authors mean that this is the triumph of capital over culture and that is the “really meaningful content of every (for example) film”.

6. Please identify one or two concepts/terms that you find particularly interesting. Motivate your choice.

I found the concepts of myth and enlightenment to be interesting because of their paradoxical relationship towards one another. Even today I would argue that our (common?) belief  that science will provide us with the answers for a blooming future for example, we cannot know that it will and thus it has some mythical degree to it. Sometimes I feel like we have to believe this in order to be able to carry on, and thus it also serves the same purpose as a myth does, or can do.

In my opinion a difference between myth and enlightenment is that the purpose of myth can be deceitful, whereas enlightenment most of the times aims to explain things based on hard facts. Although, the fact that enlightenment aims to reduce life and nature to the measurable and the controllable (as I wrote about shortly in question 2) makes it myth. Because of this, the contradiction that enlightenment has against myth gets invalid.

References

Adorno, T. and Horkheimer, M. (2002): The Dialectic of Enlightenment, Philosophical Fragments. Standford: Standford University Press.

Alparslan, N. (2008): Concept of Enlightenment – Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer. Cultural Studies and Literature Blog. <http://zenfloyd.blogspot.se/2008/11/concept-of-enlightenment-theodor-adorno.html>. Retrieved at November 14, 2013.