Post-Theme 2: Critical Media Studies

During this week's lecture we got brief background information on some of the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School authors such as Horkheimer, Adorno and Benjamin.

Although not surprising, I found it interesting and important to know and understand that these people did not share the exact same ideas and that sometimes authors adapt their way of writing to co-authors and perhaps suppress what they really want to express.

During the seminar today we discussed a couple of topics around the concept of the media industry presented by Adorno and Horkheimer in their Dialectic of Enlightenment.

The discussion was sometimes off topic but anyway, we talked about awareness, where it was argued by some that we today have a broader field of view and know more about what is going on in the world. And so it is easier for us to act if something like a natural disaster occurs on the other side of the globe. A counter argument to this is that there is way too much information for us to handle. And in fact, I think that we are very occupied and focused on our own local problems anyway.

There was discussion about censorship, some argued that it might be a good thing to censor some content. But let me ask you this, what happens to our freedom when censorship, be it from media producers or of governmental sort, tell us which type of information is allowed to take part of? There is a great danger in letting someone else tell us what to know and what not to know. Censorship can be enforced with messages through media about why censorship is needed. Just imagine what the arguments are in North Korea for not letting people watch South Korean TV-shows without being sentenced to death.

I never thought of myself as a communist, but I agree with Marx: "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes". I think that the same thought can be applied to some types of mass media.

We then briefly discussed advertising, and I brought up the idea of Adorno and Horkheimer, which I agree with in this opinion, that a lot of movies produced in Hollywood are basically advertisements for products. The story can sometimes not even be recalled after watching such a film, but instead one remembers what type of fast car they used during the chase scene. So, selling a product is the main part of the mainstream media industry. We should not forget though, and this was something that A&H failed to foresee, that we today have alternatives and great possibilities to express ourselves, produce our own content and communicate over social media. At least in this part of the world, and for now. There is a great potential of freedom, but also of total control of the masses in what we call the Internet.