Critical Analysis of the “Culture Industry” Alanah Hardy This work was produced by Alanah Hardy for the subject ‘Media and the Society’. It evaluates the currency of Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory of the “culture industry” as an academic media studies approach through the case study of the contemporary commodification of Mickey Mouse. As media’s role in contemporary society becomes highly interdependent, intertwined and yet, invisible, it is critical to re-evaluate the currency of academic approaches to Media Studies. By assessing Adorno and Horkheimer’s concept of the “culture industry”, I argue that the industrialisation of media, with focus on Mickey Mouse as the epitome of culture commercialisation, is exceedingly prevalent in consumer capitalist behaviours today. The culture industry, as a Marxist critique of media, is best interpreted through two lenses. The first highlights capitalism as underpinning everything that is produced within media (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1947). This suggests that media’s commodities are no longer form of self-expression, but rather, are produced from society’s needs in order to acquire economic value. Adorno and Horkheimer argue that this capitalistic shift means that products, like applications on a phone, are based off similar frameworks, so in the end, are “identical” (1947, pp. 32). This not only makes it easier to market, sell and profit as the product is a known commodity, but also, the differentiation between products becomes the amount of “blatant cash investment” that is funded (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1947, pp. 34). This is a key point as it demonstrates how the quality of technology and media is measured on the capital invested, influencing individuals to focus on the economic value over the content or intention. Thus, the culture theory addresses the way in which media and cultural artefacts have become monetised through capitalist domination of society.
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The second lens of the theory underlines a collective ideology which has masked the true nature of society’s media consumption. In this view, Adorno and Horkheimer claim that individual consciousness is rendered useless as its need has already been suppressed by “central control” (1947, pp. 33). Indicating that the consumer does not see the necessity of fighting against the industry as they are naïve to its deception. However, ideology requires continual consumption by the mass in order to work. Adorno and Horkheimer suggest that this is achieved through the illusion of the outside world being an extension of what is presented on screen (1947, pp. 35). Creating consumers who are absorbed into the ease of not having to use their imagination; transitioning from the individual mind to the mind of the mass. Another way mass consumption is maintained is through the “cheating of what [the culture industry] perpetually promises” (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1947, pp. 38). Dissatisfaction, which is heavily played on through the act of offering but depriving, locks the consumer into a power contract where they continue to come back for more as they are not yet satisfied. Consequently, this reinforcement has normalised the media’s control and influence over society, becoming an entity which is never disputed against as it is recognised as an essential part of everyday life. Hence, Adorno and Horkheimer expose ideology as the reason for the lack of consumer enlightenment regarding media’s mass deception.
