In The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception, written by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, discusses how popular culture is standardized. In their opinion different outlets of media contribute to the idea where standardization helps shape society. The culture industry provides a form of entertainment, usually containing what all of the people want. Today we are now being introduced to pop culture, which is enforced by radio, magazines, television and other popular media outlets. Because of this idea of mass media, people are being controlled by the capitalist society.
The radio is discussed as, “turn[ing] all participants into listeners and authoritatively subjects them to broadcast programs which are all exactly the same.” Although this isn’t exactly the case anymore, there is still some form of standardization. There are numerous radio stations today, and some are independent or college radio stations. With these types of stations you can listen to an alternative type of music rather than pop stations. But, you aren’t the only one listening to these stations. You may feel like an individual but there are actually a lot of other people listening to the same radio station as you.
Blogs, forums, and other forms of interactive media are becoming a more popular way to communicate. With this form of communication you are allowed to post comments, perhaps after an article. You are able to talk to people all over the world, some you may not know, and voicing your opinion and any other input you would like to share. Some may think that with this new form of technology, our culture is no longer a form of standardization. On the contrary, I still believe it is. If you think about Facebook (almost everyone has one) and Twitter, we control what we want to say/post. But, we don’t actually control the website. We may think we are unique because we have our own Facebook, but everyone else out there has one too. It is hard to find someone who doesn’t have one. We can also create websites, but so can anyone else.
With this new form of communication, I think it is a step forward to individuality, but I don’t think we will ever be complete individuals on the internet. We can control the way our blogs, Facebook, and Twitter look like, but that is only a small piece where the standardization actually diversifies.
Adorno and Horkheimer state, “any trace of spontaneity from the public in official broadcasting is controlled and absorbed by talent scouts, studio competitions and official programs of every kind selected by professionals.” So basically, when it came to broadcasting, people could not say whatever they wanted to. We still can’t say whatever we’d like to on film, but with blogs and forums, you have the option to say anything you would like, and people can actually read what you have to say. People are allowed to comment and respond to you with this form of interactive media. That was impossible with television and radio, you could try to reach out and state your opinion, but other people usually did not hear it.
So, with this new interactive way of communication on the internet, things have definitely changed since the past. Definitely for the better, in my opinion. Although we still are being looked at as just another person on Twitter, we can now say what we feel. The internet will always be controlling us with its standardized ways, but at least we can express the way we feel about it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Role Aura Plays in Media Today
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin discusses the idea of “aura.” Benjamin defines aura as uniqueness, and refers to the authenticity and originality that pieces of art contain. Even with the introduction of film, photography and the computer, aura still plays an important role in pop culture today.
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” This is something that lacks in art today, it is hard to find aura when almost everything is being duplicated and there is no “original” copy. When talking about a photographic negative, no one asks for the authentic print because numerous prints can be copied and will all contain the original negative. Because lots of new media can be copied without a problem, aura is even harder to find than in the past.
People travel to museums and art galleries all across the world to get a glimpse at original pieces of artwork. Why is that? It is because of the aura. If you were to look at a copy of the Mona Lisa on your computer, it wouldn’t be the same if you were to see it in person. When reproducing art, the time period and space where it was created is lost. Art can have a different meaning if you were to view the original in comparison to a replica.
When watching a performance in person, the stage actor is presented to the public in person, but a screen actor is presented by a camera. The camera can change its position and can use special camera angles and close-ups. If you were to watch an actor in person, on a stage, you would not see the different angles presented by the camera. Once the camera (film), is introduced, the aura is not there. You would see the performance presented in a very different way if you were to compare the film and original performance.
Machinima is the use of three-dimensional graphics usually taken from video games that are used to create storylines and additional videos by fans. When machinima is made it is not the original video game, suggesting that the aura has decayed. But, one would also think that the aura is not lost because the original art is still being used, just in a different way. A new form of media is being created here, which can also suggest that a new aura may be formed.
For example, avid media consumers are creating fan fictions daily. When creating a fan fiction, the original characters and settings are usually used, but the storyline changes. People often create these if something does not go the way they want in the form of media they are watching. If watching a television show, one may want a relationship to happen that doesn’t work out, but instead create a fan fiction where these two characters are together.
Today, art seems to be almost always duplicated. It may be hard to find art in its original state because new forms of media keep emerging. Photography, film and the computer have affected ways that art can be produced and how aura can be created or destroyed.
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” This is something that lacks in art today, it is hard to find aura when almost everything is being duplicated and there is no “original” copy. When talking about a photographic negative, no one asks for the authentic print because numerous prints can be copied and will all contain the original negative. Because lots of new media can be copied without a problem, aura is even harder to find than in the past.
People travel to museums and art galleries all across the world to get a glimpse at original pieces of artwork. Why is that? It is because of the aura. If you were to look at a copy of the Mona Lisa on your computer, it wouldn’t be the same if you were to see it in person. When reproducing art, the time period and space where it was created is lost. Art can have a different meaning if you were to view the original in comparison to a replica.
When watching a performance in person, the stage actor is presented to the public in person, but a screen actor is presented by a camera. The camera can change its position and can use special camera angles and close-ups. If you were to watch an actor in person, on a stage, you would not see the different angles presented by the camera. Once the camera (film), is introduced, the aura is not there. You would see the performance presented in a very different way if you were to compare the film and original performance.
Machinima is the use of three-dimensional graphics usually taken from video games that are used to create storylines and additional videos by fans. When machinima is made it is not the original video game, suggesting that the aura has decayed. But, one would also think that the aura is not lost because the original art is still being used, just in a different way. A new form of media is being created here, which can also suggest that a new aura may be formed.
For example, avid media consumers are creating fan fictions daily. When creating a fan fiction, the original characters and settings are usually used, but the storyline changes. People often create these if something does not go the way they want in the form of media they are watching. If watching a television show, one may want a relationship to happen that doesn’t work out, but instead create a fan fiction where these two characters are together.
Today, art seems to be almost always duplicated. It may be hard to find art in its original state because new forms of media keep emerging. Photography, film and the computer have affected ways that art can be produced and how aura can be created or destroyed.
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