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Frankfurt School is group of German-American theorists, 1920s-30s -- first neo-Marxiann theorists to examine the effects of mass culture/consumerism on working classes: they consist primarily of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal and Erich Fromm
Devised theory of "culture industry" -- mass communication, media production -- the industrialization and commercialization of culture under capitalist relations of production: Hollywood, basically "Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries ... " (p. 1)
The School noted the social and ideological effects of mass media in the U.S.
Mass-media productions exhibited same features as other mass-produced consumer items: commodification, standardization, massification
Popular media/culture resulted in populace control
Dialectic of Enlightenment (1948) (by Horkheimer and Adorno): film, radio, news -- all controlled by advertising and commercial imperatives, and served to make consumers slaves of consumer capitalism
The School generally makes sharp distinctions between high and low culture
Ideology forms the basis of media culture
Adorno stressed the need to examine television's effects on many layers
Marcuse viewed broadcasting as "part of an apparatus of administration and domination in a one-dimensional society" (p. 10). One-Dimensional Man (1964)
The "culture industry" is ruthlessly unified
"Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies" (p. 3) ... there is no room for imagination/reflection ... sound-film has killed it
The movie industry is as regimented and obsessed-over as any medieval architectural school: "everything down to the last detail is shaped accordingly" (p. 4)
"The unity of style [of every historical era] ... expresses in each case the different structure of social power" (p. 5).
The culture industry is all style, no…
This means that while the business is profitable, it is in a state of constant, intense competition. Firms such as Costco must develop a competitive culture, and constantly benchmark against themselves in order to stay ahead of the myriad of different competitors. The future of this business is only good if competitive advantages and strong brand equity have been established, as is the case for Costco. For them, the industry's
Similarly, women today feel the need to appear beautiful and perfect all the time in order to be a part of a class in society. According to what Kilbourne suggests, women use their bodies as masks or objects that need to be taken care of all the time and kept in perfect shape and condition. The media and the advertisements program their minds to think that their appearance is
Industry Analysis Automobile and Motorcycle Manufacturers A select few companies throughout the history of American capitalism have become iconic figures that are synonymous with the products they sell, and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company has successfully accomplished this rare feat, engraining the moniker "Harley" in the global lexicon as the emblem of premium motorcycles. While today's generation may consider Harley-Davidson to be a monolith without legitimate competition from domestic motorcycle manufacturers, a
Fashion in Relation to Commodity Culture of 1980s Fashion Fashion during 1980s seems to be glitzy and bold. Fashion trends were no longer dictated by teenagers; as the baby boom generation continued to become richer and older, they demanded more glamorous, upmarket fashion. Contrary to what inspired 1970s fashion, fashion of 1980s did not allow these non-materialist "hippie" values. Some of the nations such as Australia during the decade focused more on
Consumption, Society and Culture Cultural Industry There are two social processes which are linked with each other and provide the basis of popular culture in modern capitalist societies. These two processes are related with production and consumption of cultural goods. In the first step, the commodities are produced in the light of customers' desirable features and packaged in culturally acceptable methods. In the second step, the products are used by their respective
U.S. Automotive Industry Chosen industry: automotive industry is the focus of this analysis. More emphasizes are made on the large -- scale automobile manufacturers. This is because of the inherently interesting industry as a result it being competitive and projected to go through a major restructuring due to globalization in the near days to come. The issue of decreasing oil reserves is the other reason that is going to trigger this