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The Culture Industry: The Frankfurt School and their Critics

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The Culture Industry: The Frankfurt School and their Critics

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I chose an image of the characters of TV show Friends which I came across on my Instagram explore page.

The signifier in this image is a photo of 3 men, and 3 women. All of caucasian background, 2/3 women with blonde hair. All 6 people in the photo are dressed upscale and smiling, 2/6 with champagne flutes in their hand. The signified could be friendship, togetherness, or a party/ wedding that they’re all dressed up for. Another could be wealth because of the way that they’re dressed. The signs is 6 friends walking down a street outdoors, happy holding flowers and Champagne.

Most people in the Western world most likely know the popular 90s sitcom Friends, and know immediately that this image is associated with the show. An image of all the actors, possibly at Chandler and Monica’s wedding, because they’re in the middle and Monica is dressed in a different color. This image creates the feeling of happiness and friendship and positivity, maybe even humor because most know that the sitcom is a humorous one. Connotation may be that if you have friends and money, you will be as happy as these six characters are.

Myth: maintaining status quo of white people being high class and happy and beautiful. Making it seem like if you’re not from this type of social group (the white and rich) then you wouldn’t be as happy as the friends characters. Promoting Hollywood in a promotional image that make all actors look good and like they’re always having this much fun and wearing nice clothes. Poor people or POC will not be this happy or have fun times like this, so everyone should try to live up to the white social class.

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Power, Governmentality and Poststructuralism 

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Power, Governmentality and Poststructuralism 

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From this course, I wish to learn about how to think critically in media and communication, and applying it to my daily life while also becoming more educated about the world around me. The topics in this course are intriguing to me because they cover issues and events that are around us all. Many people do not have enough awareness about some of issues we will cover such as feminism, race, and culture. I am most interested in learning about critical theories that affect everyones life without realizing it. Certain theories, particularly theories of the cultural industry and political and social economy theories control how everyone lives today. I believe that the world is controlled by certain aspects that seem normal to us because of how history has operated in the past. Gaining a broader perspective makes me think that we are just a spec of dust in the world and there has been so many events and so many people that truly control us for so long that it leads us to believe it’s just how the world should operate. Just after the first week of this course I am already gaining a broader perspective of how the world operates and how history leads us to the way we are living today, and able to think critically about the influence media has on individuals.

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Ross - The Frankfurt School knew Trump was coming

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Ross - The Frankfurt School knew Trump was coming

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The main argument that Ross made in his New Yorker article, is that media promoted Trump. Although maybe unconsciously, but still done because he was more exciting, and more entertaining than Hillary Clinton. The Frankfurt School argues that mass production feeds peoples thoughts because it’s mindless and entertaining enough to keep people distracted and consumed by what they’re watching on screen. Trump’s humorous words and actions at his speeches or debates keeps people talking long enough to grow fond of him, whether or not they supported his policies or attitudes. He served as a distraction to consumers daily life. The shiny bells and whistles about Trump is what entertained people, not his policies or because of his thought provoking ideas.

Comedians, news reporters, memes on the internet all contributed to the mass production that the Frankfurt School predicted. Rather than being authentic and caring about what is really important and “deep”, most people thrived for the excitement that was bound to come, should Trump become the next President. And they were right. The four year term Trump served was filled with daily news – not only in the US but globally – of Trump and his radical speeches, news reporters and professional analysts interpreting the meaning of those speeches and actions, and mockery made in Trump’s name. Something we did not receive with Obama, and were surely not to be received with Clinton. Trump getting elected meant that people wanted more and more mindless entertainment, the very aspect of the audience that cultural theorists were looking for. What audiences want to watch, what they're interested in, and what will keep them entertained.

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Kelly - More Than Stans: Stop Dismissing the K-Pop's Fandom's Political Power

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Kelly - More Than Stans: Stop Dismissing the K-Pop's Fandom's Political Power

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Cultural studies is invested in the power, ideology, and hegemony of marginalized people, POC, women, and other oppressed groups. As Stuart Hall and cultural studies believe: the audience are not just passive listeners, they have an active voice and a mind of their own. Young girls that idolize K-Pop celebrities may not only be passively listening to the words in the song and interpreting as the music makers want them to be interpreted. The audience may get different associations to the music compared to  another person, who may make connections to valuable social activism issues such as the BLM protests. As the Kelly article stated, young girls have the power to control bigger things than themselves now, through the media.

Their fandom can be used for good, rather than being seen as the cultural dupes that many older generations view them as. The K-Pop fans of the Kelly article clearly demonstrate the fact that teen girls, whether they’re black, white, Korean, American, or any other race, can be more than just what they listen to in their bedrooms after school. There is a power of communication amongst the marginalized groups (in this case, young girls).They have the capability to interpret their own meanings from songs, or from things they learn in everyday life, and because of what they interpret have a great impact on the world and future. So although many people still view the fandom culture as dupes that have no broad horizons, the real people apart of that culture are active in politics, society, culture, and anything else they wish to be involved in because they are active listeners that have the ability to make their own meanings from text.

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Kim Kardashian, who made her name through reality television and social media, has become a major influencer for fitness, beauty (makeup and skincare), fashion and lifestyle. Kim launched her own makeup line that directly feeds consumers her makeup with the implied meaning that if one buys KKW makeup, they will look like Kim Kardashian. People are willingly buying and imitating Kim's lifestyle. It's not directly told to consumers, or forced by anyone, but it's through the consumers own "free will", which is part of what Hays and Oullette try to explain in the article.

People are encouraged to adopt to the beauty standards that the public has set through the help of the reality tv famous kardashian family, such as working out several times a week, keeping up to date with the latest fashion trends as the kardashians do, talking with vocal fry, and wearing flawless makeup. If you participate in buying Kardashian skincare/ makeup, workout like them and try your best to achieve the Kardashian look, you will fit in with society and be happy. They are pushing the ideology that being like them is what’s best for you and you will be happier if you enact on their wishes.

Social media is a form of governmentality in the way that social media platforms are open for anyone, and a place where anyone from almost anywhere in the world to post and express themselves or their thoughts. Although platforms encourage set-regulation as to not break policies, users are able to guide their own conduct, whether for personal self expression or for business use that have specific aims.

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I think the concept of the dark side of representation is very important because a lot of people are unaware of the issue. Most viewers (even myself) thought that more diversity of different races, genders and more women on screen was a step in the right direction and was happening more often in film and TV because of societal pressures such as feminist activism and anti-racism movements, etc. However, learning that even when women or POC are on screen with significant roles, it can lead to backlash such as threats of harm or violence enabled by participatory new media. This concept helps us understand gender in media because even when female roles are placed with significance, it still harms the image of the “female”, but benefits the typical male.

The concept of the male gaze is also a very important and not very talked about phenomenon in media. The fact that so many female characters are only in a film or tv scene for the viewer to look at their body parts is utterly disturbing. Women being represented in this way in media is not a step in the right direction, but just the opposite. The concept of the male gaze is usually not noticeable unless you pay attention and are aware of the intentional camera placements that show women’s body parts specifically for the male viewer. (Week 8 Lecture) It’s important to know these issues so that can change the way women are represented in media culture.

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Unfortunately, before watching this. documentary, I had not done much research or wondering into the lives of transgender people, even though I completely support the LGBTQ+ community. I don’t know any transgender people, and didn’t pay much attention to them when I would see them in the media like news, film, or TV. After watching this documentary, I am much more aware of some of the struggles than trans people face. I figured that the lives of trans men and women were of course difficult, but I didn’t know so much of it was caused by the media.

The most compelling and saddening thing I learnt from Disclosure was the fact that trans men and women get physically harassed and attacked and feel unsafe just to be in public because of what the media has portrayed them to be. As mentally ill, or monsters, or something that should be seen with disgust. It was also compelling to see the transgender side of the story with scenes from famous films about how they were objectified and shown to be.

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Course concepts that I recognized from class in the film was that of trans women are put on screen just for their bodies and the fact that they are trans. Similar to how women are put in shows and movies as an object to be looked at, and solely used for the purpose of their look. Trans women are also seen as hyper-sexual beings that are often shown as sex workers, and only talked about when it comes to their private parts – much like how straight black women are portrayed in media. The representation in media of trans people is very harmful to the trans community, and others these people for no reason, just because they’re from a minority group.

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Hook’s main argument in this chapter is that the plain “white” culture has desires and a sense of longing for the spice of other ethnic cultures/ races. It may be a break from the white supremacist past, but desiring the Other still perpetuates racism because “eating the other” maintains the hegemonic status quo that other cultures/ ethnicities/ races are different from the normal. It shapes the psychology of people that one is normal, the other is not, leading to racist stereotypes, and making people of other ethnic background feel different and unwelcome in western society. Hooks argues about the power and privilege that certain groups have, that minority groups may not have, while ignoring the problematic history of racism.

I believe to “eat the other” is cultural appropriation, mental and sexual desires of other races/ ethnicities and exploiting but also fantasizing about cultures other than whiteness. Whether black culture, Arab culture, or Asian culture, many white people try to appropriate certain parts of the Other for their own benefit. Even when not trying to be appropriative or racist, it becomes problematic. “Desiring” the Other – even with the intention of liking the culture they’re desiring – makes the Other stand out as different, when in reality everyone should be treated equally.

Quote from text: “It is precisely that longing for the pleasure that has led the white west to sustain a romantic fantasy of the “primitive” and the concrete search for a real primitive paradise, whether that location be a country or a body, a dark continent or dark flesh, perceived as the perfect embodiment of that possibility.” This quote stood out to me because it explains the desire that many white people have of other races, because they simply can’t have it themselves. Even if a white person embodies black culture and takes or appropriates elements of that culture, they themselves will never be black. White people can desire all they want, but they can’t truly have, which is what makes the Other even more desirable. Because people often want what they cannot have.

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All of the course content was very interesting and broadened by knowledge to elements of media that I was not previously aware of. It was particularly interesting to learn about the struggles that marginalized groups go through because of how they’re portrayed in the media such as POC, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. We seem to think that now that you see more characters belonging to these groups on screen that the problem has been resolved. [Netflix. (2020). Disclosure.] Many are unaware that even if you see them on screen, its the WAY they’re portrayed that is damaging to the group. I was also unaware of this and didn’t even think to dissect what I would see on screen until after taking this course.

Before, I would just watch movies or TV shows and formulate my own opinions on what I would see. Audiences are not assembled to think through the eyes of the marginalized, they are made to be fragmented, polymorphous and nomadic. [Doty, A. (1993). Chapter One -There's Something Queer Here/ in Perfectly Queer.] It's hard to break from this without being taught the true side of media. After learning about the course concepts taught, I can view media from the eyes of other people and how other groups may feel about what’s on screen. I have far more insight into how different types of readers may interpret text. I have also started to pay attention to who the media producers are in a certain TV show or movie I may watch. It was particularly life changing to learn about the male gaze, and how women are portrayed in media, many times solely for their body parts, or just as characters to support the male lead character. What I learned in this course will help me in my studies for not only communication courses, but every critical thinking course that I will take. It will also help me in my personal life, watching media content.

After taking this course, when I consume, media on my free time (usually on social media or watching shows/ movies) I am going to pay attention to what the underlying messages are. I will ask myself questions like how is this character being portrayed? Will this hurt a specific group by feeding the audience certain ways of thinking? Such as how transgender people are portrayed as dirty and something men throw up too, or how women are seen as objects, etc. I will take on a more intersectional approach by paying attention to how race, class, sexuality, etc. maintain the status quo of privilege and power.