Summarise and critically evaluate the view of 'popular culture' taken by Adorno and Fiske.

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Katie Warren        Baims        11/11/02

Media and Popular Culture- LM235.

Diagnostic Essay

Summarise and critically evaluate the view of ‘popular culture’ taken by Adorno and Fiske.

In the 70s and 80s, there was a mass development of Cultural Imperialism around the World as a flow of cultural products emerged from Western, developed countries. This included programmes, films and adverts that focused mainly on targetting consumers with Popular Culture. This was generally designed to be consumed as an entertaining and easy past time that involved nothing but passive intake. Programmes with easily understandable and adaptable story lines began to emerge and characters became recognisable, fitting into certain Genres such as that of a hero or a villain. A new wave engulfed the World as Popular Culture began to sell.

Theodore Adorno and John Fiske argue opposing views of Popular Culture. Adorno argued that Popular Culture administered comfort and illusion and criticised mass culture as a product of a ‘culture industry’. He argued that Capitalism fed people with the products of this industry in an attempt to keep them satisfied and politically apathetic.

“Culture now impresses the same stamp on everything. Film, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part” (Adorno: 10).

Adorno saw that Capitalism was becoming more and more entrenched within society and that there was no sign that it would either breakdown or collapse. He dismissed Marx’ prediction that it would be economics that kept Capitalism afloat, and turned his attention and emphasis to the role of culture. He believed that it was the culture inflicted on society that would encourage Capitalism to thrive. Popular Culture was seen as a huge selling product and Adorno argues that these easily absorbed products would increase and boost the Capitalist market.

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Adorno suggested that society had been steered away from more difficult art forms which may lead us to question our social life and instead had become absorbed into part of a group of unsophisticated products, which industry churned out on a mass basis. He did not feel that the culture industry could offer real pleasure and that “the diner must be satisfied with the menu” (Adorno: 13). It was almost as if there was a battle between Artistic Modernism and the Culture industry, where they could not exist together. His overall view of Popular Culture was that it repressed ...

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