Theme 2: Critical media theory

·      What is Enlightenment?

It’s like thought but a step deeper in to our conscious. To inform but also to get the people to understand and get them to reflect on the content of the information. It is needed for man to achieve enlightenment to become master and it is not easily done. This the writer gives an example on, mentioning the often random process in the invention of new things. The goal for the humans is to control nature with inventing and evolve it, and through that control both nature and humans.

Back in the days, enlightenment suppressed the known “truth” and suppressed it as superstition thus it was proven not correct. The matter was after that not based on or controlled by hidden properties or powers. The auteurs explains it as “for enlightenment, anything which does not conform to the standard of calculability and utility must be viewed with suspicion.“

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

The auteurs discuss the early meaning of myth as a big aspect in society a long time when it comes to “old metaphysics” regarding everything between life and death, those data kept people from accepting the knowledge of probability, the formula and the cause of rules. The authours relates to Bacon, who thinks true fact needs to be based and developed separated from mystery and metaphysics.

The basis of myth was seen as anthropomorphism (projection of subjective properties onto nature) by the enlightenment. The spirits, demons and old tales was only made up by the imagination of humans. But the myths contained more than just the phenomenon that the enlightenment rejected. They told the true story about the history of humans and how they perceived the world. This fact made myth a part of the enlightenment too. This insight gave the myth a new status and they started to collect and retell them as part of the human history.

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

Things that stores knowledge changes, but the knowledge remains and goes forward. As an example, Bacon, referred to in the book takes the radio, the new media that complements the old media, the printing press. The remote control is a new, more reliable media then the old compass.

·      What is meant by “culture industry”?

The chapter is called “The culture Industry – Enlightenment as Mass Deception” and I thought it would be discussing historical events where the masses have been affected and deceived by false knowledge, thinking it was enlightenment. That something takes a static form in peoples minds makes it creative enclosed – “affecting it with sameness”. It forms objects so that they become parts of bigger systems where everything is based on the same prototype/idea and therefore looks or perceives the same. This is the effect of the culture industry that advocates and rewards this type of thinking, a lot based on actions motivated by profit.

But I am not sure that I follow all the arguments in the text, for example the discussion regarding going from telephone to radio. Today the trend is the opposite; going to a more personalized society and in the kingdom of social media everyone has a voice and has the opportunity to emerge from the mass. This question I think is to deeply connected with the political and social beliefs of a person and not something that can be discussed as a general for everyone all around the world.

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

Mass media is the communication that directs it to and reaches the masses. Through mass media we get affected, whether we want or not, how and how much we affects is discussable. “Mass deception” is information people consider as truth, and mass media is a big producer of such information. So the small group of people producing the mass media has the power of mass deception.

      ·    Please identify one or two concepts/terms that you find particularly interesting. 

           Motivate your choice.

I can’t help to think that mass deception is a very interesting term and it is relevant in every historical time. Enlightenment, as proven in the book, changes with time, and mass deception changes with it. Today the discussion regarding social medias and their affect on humans are constantly in the news. Does social medias contribute or counteract mass deception? Does the great mass of different media and communication channels makes us more critical to their content or are we as “easy to fool” as ever.

The culture industry’s affecting of sameness is an interesting argument. What is driving the change forward in the innovation area? Is the only goal really to produce to the maximal profit as possible? And how would a society that still is modern look if not driven as hard by this force as it is according to the authors?