Max Horkheimer

The culture industry argument, established by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, is a critique of mass media, which refers to the industrialization of culture, where the masses are not the only source of mass culture; capitalism serves the masses, and treats them like commodities for their own benefit (McAnany & Wilkinson, 1996). Adorno and Horkheimer chose to call it culture industry, rather than mass media, because they believed that in mass media, masses had some influence upon the creation of a culture, but in the culture industry, the public has no influence over the formation of culture; hence, they chose to use the term culture industry, and not mass media (Adorno, 2001). The culture industry thrives on advertising, which is done through mass media platforms in order to reach the masses (Horkheimer, & Adorno, 2009). This essay will outline the…

present. Works Cited Bolter, J. David, and Richard A. Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1999. Print. Craig, Robert T., and Heidi L. Muller. "Theorizing Communication: Reading Across Traditions." Cultural Approach to Communication. By James W. Carey. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 37+. Print. "Crash." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/>. "Expanded Cinema." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Dec. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.…

prediction and anticipation. He defines anticipation as a demand or a requirement and prediction as a suggestion. His idea is that while scientific theories can only predict the use of the theory they present, without having an assurance that it will be used by the individual, critical theories anticipate the use of the theories, mainly because it aims at the self-reflection and self-determination towards change of each individual. At its beginnings, critical theory was aiming at the…

Question 1: In The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as mass deception, Adorno and Horkheimer are observing the culture industry. The culture industry is the entire system of production and circulation that establishes mass, mainstream, and popular culture. In this essay, the authors illustrate more precisely the relationship between culture industry and reality by explaining that “[r]eal life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The sound film, […], leaves no room for imagination or…

Highmore, Ben. “Familiar things.” Ordinary Lives. London and New York: Routledge, 2010: 58-85. In Ben Highmore’s Ordinary Lives, his chapter “Familiar things” is an insight into the argument of the meaningfulness of objects in our everyday lives. Highmore’s claim begins by creating a relatable situation in saying that there are tons of things in our homes or daily lives that we interact with but pay no attention to. Highmore goes on to say “Things act on us and we act on things. There seems to…

reproduce. The film, Max, directed by Menno Meyjes, focuses on characters Max Rothman and Adolf Hitler and portrays the history behind Hitler’s hateful speech aimed directly the Jews. In Max, Rothman (referred to as Max), a Jew and former artist who had lost his right arm during the war, had failed to pull Hitler away from his evil thoughts. When considering whether Hitler was born to be a fascist tyrant or if his surrounding environment and other factors, in reality, led him to such a…

they’re real or fictional. I play numerous of video games, listen to almost every genre of music, and read several different types of books, so I change my mind all the time. As of recently, one of my favorite figures has been Max from a game called Life is Strange. The game itself is beautifully designed graphically and plotline wise, and it really makes you think. To sum it up, the plot is that Max is a senior at an art school, where she’s living in the dorms with her fellow students.The game…

this approach. In phenomenological planning approach, understanding of constituents or communities’ knowledge in its own context and local dynamics by planners is a very crucial prerequisite for achieving any planning action. In other words, social and cultural meanings are prioritized in order to obtain valid reality by planners or observers. Observers are not neutral and far away from the observed and the life, on the contrary, they live in the real world in order to seek knowledge and gain…

Max Weber, a German social historian, is considered to be the founding father of bureaucracy and defines bureaucracy as the ideal and rational method of organisation, hence the most efficient way of conducting business. Weber built his model on four factors: functional specialisation, hierarchy of authority, a system of rules and impersonality (Weber, 1947) and formulated the concept of bureaucracy as a response to the inadequacies found in earlier forms of organisational structure. Weber…

capitalist endeavors with politics, people, places and culture. If one looks at capitalist institution not as profit seeking automatons, but as actual places, with actual people, then the view changes. Nor is agency the only new idea being infused into the study of capitalism, matters of scale and chronology have challenged long held views on the creation and introduction of capitalist ideal into the world as a whole. This paper will present examples of these new historians of capitalism, and…