culture indusrtry and blockbuster
Introduction:
It is apparent that media and culture today are of crucial importance to real life. During last half century, due to the rapid development of technology, a number of media tools appeared in the public, including radio, television, popular music, movies and some other forms of mass media. Especially, the rise of films makes the culture industry as an increasingly interesting topic. When we speaking of culture industry, we might think about the influence from mass media and what is the mass-produced culture. This paper will argue that a pretty popular film series, Transformers, fit into the “culture industry” in accordance with some “Frankfurt School” approaches. It will show this by the logical definition of “culture industry”, introduction about “Frankfurt School” and how the film series fit into the “culture industry” by three main different aspects.
Culture industry:
The term "culture industry" originated from the studies to mass culture that based on the development of mass media which directed by the Frankfurt school. In the twentieth century, a group of German-American theorists was known as the “Frankfurt School” who aimed to develop Marxist studies and developed powerful analyses of the changes in Western capitalist societies (Douglas Kellner). The Frankfurt School created a critical cultural study which is a model to analyze some political processes, i.e. cultural production, cultural texts, political economy, audience reception and use of cultural artifacts (Kellner 1989 and 1995). As the key represents of the Frankfurt school, Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno did a lot of research about mass culture and they criticized that mass-produced culture aims to the entertainment whose purpose is appealing vast audience rather than making contribution to high art and it has a political implication as well which means that numerous forms of culture are produced for the business interests. So
It is apparent that media and culture today are of crucial importance to real life. During last half century, due to the rapid development of technology, a number of media tools appeared in the public, including radio, television, popular music, movies and some other forms of mass media. Especially, the rise of films makes the culture industry as an increasingly interesting topic. When we speaking of culture industry, we might think about the influence from mass media and what is the mass-produced culture. This paper will argue that a pretty popular film series, Transformers, fit into the “culture industry” in accordance with some “Frankfurt School” approaches. It will show this by the logical definition of “culture industry”, introduction about “Frankfurt School” and how the film series fit into the “culture industry” by three main different aspects.
Culture industry:
The term "culture industry" originated from the studies to mass culture that based on the development of mass media which directed by the Frankfurt school. In the twentieth century, a group of German-American theorists was known as the “Frankfurt School” who aimed to develop Marxist studies and developed powerful analyses of the changes in Western capitalist societies (Douglas Kellner). The Frankfurt School created a critical cultural study which is a model to analyze some political processes, i.e. cultural production, cultural texts, political economy, audience reception and use of cultural artifacts (Kellner 1989 and 1995). As the key represents of the Frankfurt school, Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno did a lot of research about mass culture and they criticized that mass-produced culture aims to the entertainment whose purpose is appealing vast audience rather than making contribution to high art and it has a political implication as well which means that numerous forms of culture are produced for the business interests. So