Syed Osama Sarwar

BS MS VIII - Advertising

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

(Synopsis)

The title of this essay by Max Horkheimer and Thedor W. Adorno says a lot about

the subject matter is holds. The author has expressed culture as an industry which does

business to thrive and provides the consumer what it wants to experience. Art is now

not as it used to be in pre-historic times but has been manipulated commercially so the

masses can become a part of the vicious cycle.

Max and Theodor also argue that culture as an industry is not only owned by

those involve with the media but other industries become a part of it too as technology

requires electricity and other resources to run. Not only that but as this culture

‘industry’ began flourishing, it created opportunities for other business sectors to put in

investments that could potentially reap huge benefits. The content producers are rather

dictators who tell people in a distinguishing manner, as to what is good and what is evil.

The authors further state that the aesthetic values of died out as everything has become

so predictable. Storylines of narratives keep dragging and have slowed down the ability

of the viewers to think and question the ideologies articulated.

Pseudo-individuality is a phenomenon discussed in this essay which talks about

how the individual of today tends to shift from the idea of a family culture to total

independence. The young child has turned into a person with his own thoughts and the

exchange mechanism which cultures used to hold, barely exist.