1. The Frankfurt School

2. relationship between communication and culture should be evident to you
Studies on the impact of technology
Studies on the effect of media images on behaviour
Studies on the effect of advertising
Studies on the character of modernity and post-modernity
Studies about “mass culture”

3. The Frankfurt School is interested in questions about how popular culture is produced

4. Theodor Adorno
Social systems are put in place to ensure that people will continue to manipulate and dupe people into buying the myth that society is moving forward, while domination continues without resistance.
Coined the term “Cultural Industry”

5. “STANDARDIZATION” Art succumbs to formula, genre
Plotlines follow predictable paths
Time and “look” of artistic works must conform to various standards
All driven by commercial imperatives to maximize profit

6. “PSEUDO-INDIVIDUALIZATION”
Capitalism conveys “myth” of the individual and of the “rebel”
People want to express themselves as being different from the “crowd”
Need to “stick out” creates new market opportunities
For Adorno, all culture is “pre-digested” with individuals in mind

7. “MANIPULATIVE”
With “scientific” knowledge of the audience, cultural creators can manipulate storylines to produce certain effects
Can create content that distracts people from more serious issues facing society at large
NO WAY OUT OF CULTURAL INDUSTRY…VERY PESSIMISTIC

8. Walter Benjamin German-Marxist thinker
The “aura” of art is lost in its reproduction.
Mechanical reproduction brought the work of art into countless different situations but the quality of the artistic presence always depreciated.

9. Reproduction in music
The Mash Up

10. This also applies to film…
There is not truly an actor's “aura” but is merely replaced by the "artificial build-up of the personality” thus “the cult of the movie-star fostered by the money of the film industry”
The aura in the original art work is lost…however, the original artwork is now accessible to the masses (as long as it is not merely a replacement for their own existence).

11. Key points in Benjamin’s work
Art is designed for reproducibility
Film is built on artificial “personality”
“reality” is an artifice
If an art piece is authentic it is valued and represents “true” art…remember, postmodernism does not believe in truth and Marxists don’t believe in private ownership…so this makes sense given Benjamin’s background.

12. Jurgen Habermas Possibly the most important living philosopher
Key idea is “The Public Sphere”
"a network for communicating information and points of view" which eventually transforms them into a public opinion.

13. In theory the public sphere should exist outside of church and state (therefore no subjective opinion)
Communication plays key role in democracy
Both sides must agree to “truth claims”
Sees fellow Frankfurt scholars as pessimistic

14. Modern uses of Habermas
The internet
The Press