ZeePedia

CULTURE INDUSTRY:Gramscianism on Communications Matters

<< HEGEMONY:What exactly is the meaning of "hegemony"?
POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY I:Internationalization, Vertical Integration >>
img
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
92
img
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.
93
Table of Contents:
  1. COMMUNICATION:Nature of communication, Transactional approach, Communication is symbolic:
  2. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (I):Positivistic Perspective, Critical Perspective
  3. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (II):Empirical problems, Conceptual problems
  4. FROM COMMUNICATION TO MASS COMMUNICATION MODELS:Channel
  5. NORMATIVE THEORIES:Authoritarian Theory, Libertarian Theory, Limitations
  6. HUTCHINS COMMISSION ON FREEDOM, CHICAGO SCHOOL & BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY
  7. CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY
  8. LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESS THEORY:Concentration and monopoly, Commercialism
  9. MCQUAIL’S FOUR KINDS OF THEORIES:Social scientific theory, Critical theory
  10. PROPAGANDA THEORIES:Origin of Propaganda, Engineering of Consent, Behaviorism
  11. PARADIGM SHIFT & TWO STEP FLOW OF INFORMATION
  12. MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES:Background, Functional Analysis Approach, Elite Pluralism
  13. KLAPPER’S PHENOMENSITIC THEORY:Klapper’s Generalizations, Criticism
  14. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY:Innovators, Early adopters
  15. CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM:Catharsis Social learning Social cognitive theory
  16. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEROY:Symbolizing Capacity, MODELLING
  17. MODELING FROM MASS MEDIA:Recent research, Summary, PRIMING EFFECTS
  18. PRIMING EFFECT:Conceptual Roots, Perceived meaning, Percieved justifiability
  19. CULTIVATION OF PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL REALITY:History
  20. SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES:System
  21. EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL & CULTURAL THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION
  22. REVISION:Positivistic perspective, Interpretive Perspective, Inductive approach
  23. CRITICAL THEORIES & ROLE OF MASS COMMUNICATION IN A SOCIETY -THE MEDIATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS
  24. ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY:Positive View
  25. KEY PRINCIPLES USED IN MARXISM:Materialism, Class Struggle, Superstructure
  26. CONSUMER SOCIETY:Role of mass media in alienation, Summary of Marxism
  27. COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE:Neo Marxism, Characteristics of Culture
  28. HEGEMONY:What exactly is the meaning of "hegemony"?
  29. CULTURE INDUSTRY:Gramscianism on Communications Matters
  30. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY I:Internationalization, Vertical Integration
  31. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY II:Diversification, Instrumental
  32. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY III:Criticism, Power of Advertising
  33. AGENDA SETTING THEORY:A change in thinking, First empirical test
  34. FRAMING & SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Spiral of Silence, Assessing public opinion
  35. SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Fear of isolation, Assessing public opinion, Micro-level
  36. MARSHALL MCLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE AND MASSAGE
  37. KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY:Criticism on Marshal McLuhan
  38. MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory
  39. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY:Methods
  40. RECEPTION THEORY
  41. FRAMING AND FRAME ANALYSIS:Information Processing Theory, Summing up
  42. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION I:Communication Science, Direct channels
  43. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION II:Communication Maxims, Emotions
  44. GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA:Mediated Communication, Post Modernism
  45. REVISION:Microscopic Theories, Mediation of Social Relations