In the second week’s lecture, we studied the theme From Mass Media To Mass Culture, in which we explored the culture industry.
Throughout the class we learnt that culture industry was a concept pioneered by Adorno and Horkheimer. As stated in Paddy Scannell’s book, for Adorno and Horkheimer, the culture industry meant “the commodification of art forms which now succumbed to the production methods and sales techniques of mass-production”(Scannell,2007).This means that the cultural industry, as a special form of culture and economy, affects people’s lives. At the same time, it produces and provides culture products and services as its main activities.
Next, I will give examples from the contemporary culture industry, mainly the film and television industry, to understand the above theories and ideas. I will also link to the impact of the culture industry on society.
“The culture industry remains the entertainment business”(Adorno and Horkheimer,2006).Huayi Brothers Media Corporation is a renowned comprehensive private entertainment group in China and is recognised as a leader in China’s culture industry. Huayi Brothers Media Group owns a wide range of cultural industries, including film, music, talent agency, calligraphy and painting.
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Huayi Brothers Film and Television is the most important part of Huayi Brothers Media Group.This culture industry company is building a complete film industry chain based on its extensive experience. From producing and distributing films, it is now gradually developing its own cinema. This has led to the continuous improvement of China’s cultural industry, providing a wealth of cultural products and services. For the public, the spiritual satisfaction of culture has been greatly enhanced. In promoting the development of the cultural industry, the enhancement of the commodity property of culture and art has become an inevitable choice to meet the market demand. This is the above-mentioned commercialisation.
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So for Huayi Brothers, they may want to pursue a higher box office for their films . This means that while pursuing commercial interests, they may neglect the content of cultural and artistic works. For example, the spiritual value of the content. For example, the film company may choose some subjects with bad influence as the content. Because this will generate discussion and curiosity, attracting people to watch the film, and thus generate higher box office. People can be influenced by the values in the film and it can lead to negative social attitudes. This echoes what we discussed in the lecture, that the culture industry can manipulate society. At the same time, the film, or the culture industry, is the one that exports the content. The public is more of a recipient, which makes them passive.
In conclusion，the rise of the culture industry has indeed had a considerable impact on society, both good and bad. I have also gained a deeper understanding of the culture industry through classroom learning and personal exploration.
Reference list：
1.Max Horkheimer, Theodor W.Adorno,(2006).‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ in Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=I8dPhB88Sx4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA41&dq=info:3-8UxqZe-6kJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=CF4GkDcxgL&sig=5S__dy5w5y_PpgyG02BC-PiaEN4&redir_esc=y
2.Paddy Scannell,(2007)Media and communication,pp.41-72.
https://sk-sagepub-com.uow.idm.oclc.org/books/media-and-communication/n2.xml
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Reading your blog, I learnt that the cultural industry, as a special kind of art commodity, generates economic value that affects our daily lives all the time. At the same time, I also learned that H. BROTHERS, as one of China’s major film industry giants, may choose some controversial topics to attract the public’s attention when making a film, so as to pursue a higher box office. So how to provide the public with rich and wonderful spiritual values while reaping profits is also a problem that all cultural industries need to consider and solve.