Syed Osama Sarwar BS MS VIII - Advertising

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (Synopsis)

The title of this essay by Max Horkheimer and Thedor W. Adorno says a lot about the subject matter is holds. The author has expressed culture as an industry which does business to thrive and provides the consumer what it wants to experience. Art is now not as it used to be in pre-historic times but has been manipulated commercially so the masses can become a part of the vicious cycle.

Max and Theodor also argue that culture as an industry is not only owned by those involve with the media but other industries become a part of it too as technology requires electricity and other resources to run. Not only that but as this culture industry began flourishing, it created opportunities for other business sectors to put in investments that could potentially reap huge benefits. The content producers are rather dictators who tell people in a distinguishing manner, as to what is good and what is evil. The authors further state that the aesthetic values of died out as everything has become so predictable. Storylines of narratives keep dragging and have slowed down the ability of the viewers to think and question the ideologies articulated.

Pseudo-individuality is a phenomenon discussed in this essay which talks about how the individual of today tends to shift from the idea of a family culture to total independence. The young child has turned into a person with his own thoughts and the exchange mechanism which cultures used to hold, barely exist.