The 1944 book “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” was co-authored by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Adorno and Horkheimer, in during, 1999/1944, p. 32, say that ‘Culture now imposes the same mark on everything” The Culture Industry, according to this article, uses a variety of media to promote the same ideas. Critics, customers, and the general public have all learned this lesson throughout media history. This essay will investigate how Nazi Germany used propaganda to promote a ‘perfect’ body image, how encoding and decoding influenced the audience’s views and perspective. More so to why the Culture Industry used this practice while demonstrating that Adorno and Horkheimer were correct about the Culture Industry
The Culture Industry comprises businesses and individuals involved in producing and distributing mass media, such as magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and motion pictures (2014, pp. 21). It was Adorno and Horkheimer’s conviction that the primary goal of the Culture Industry was to produce profit for the industry’s cooperators and stakeholders while also creating a mindless society. Throughout the essay by Adorno and Horkheimer, it is argued that the Culture Industry claims to be in the sector out of passion and it was still essentially a monopoly (Adorno and Horkheimer in During, 1999/1944, pages 31). The Frankfurt School’s most influential academics are Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Following their expulsion from Germany in 1933, the couple relocated to Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Both intellectuals were more conscious of the media’s impact on society during their time as refugees.
A mindless society, argue Adorno and Horkheimer in The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944), is mainly due to the mass media’s manipulation of public opinion. According to Adorno and Horkheimer (Murru, 2016), culture now stamps the same mark on everything. The only thing that differs between all mass media ideas and messages is how they are delivered. Such propaganda was deployed in World War II (McKenna, 2010) and was delivered in the form of ideologies.
As a set of ideas and opinions, ideology may affect and govern behaviour in society via both beliefs and actions (Ivashevskii, 2011, pp 43). There was a school of Marxist thought in Germany known as the Frankfurt School, composed of academics who studied and embraced Marxism. Adorno and Horkheimer, in their book The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944), claim that the media is to blame for society’s views. Adolf Hitler’s beliefs in Communism and Capitalism, which were at odds, serve as an excellent example (McKenna pp 221). Adolf Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as his Minister of Propaganda during WWII (History.com). Goebbels and Hitler would represent the culture business during World War II, according to Adorno and Horkheimer’s idea that “Cultural now imposes the same mark on everything” (Adorno and Horkheimer in During, 1999/1944, pages 32), and whoever assessed the media’s message would determine the audience. The objective assigned to Goebbels was to design a plan that would use a range of media venues to increase public support for Hitler. (+1 216-221) (McKenna, p. 216). Goebbels achieved this by conducting a simple yet effective campaign.
Propaganda successfully promoted a certain purpose due to the notion of collective desire and a self-contained state’ (Kalliss, 2005). Goebbels portrayed Adolf Hitler with images in several media sources. Each media release was ideologically consistent and extolled Hitler as a leader, his achievements in constructing a nationalist state, and communist and capitalist values (McKenna, pp 221). By enforcing these views on everyone, the audience witnessed how he amassed a sizable following among the national and international populace. Another popular concept in Germany during WWII was that Hitler was a charismatic leader; however, McKeen observes that some audience members were passive, while others disagreed with or misread Hitler’s beliefs. These are the audiences who uniquely deciphered and encoded the informat ion.According to Stuart Hall, Decoding and Encryption are how communications are created and transmitted (Hall in During, 1999/1973, pp 507). Even though Hall focused on television in particular, this thesis may be applied to other forms of mass media in the cultural business and their impact on audiences during WWII and throughout history.
Hall says that the audience’s ideas have a role in imprinting a message. On the other hand, decoding is the expected result or response of the cultural sector after disseminating mass media. What Hall further argues, however, is the fact that “decoding does not follow necessarily from encodings.” Hall In some instances, the audience’s decoding response is not necessarily what the cultural business expects from them (Hall in During, 1999/1973, pp 507). In the case of Goebbels’ propaganda, specific local and worldwide audiences did not agree with Hitler’s worldview, such as the Social Democratic Party, the Communist Party, and the industrial workers inside the society (McDonough, 2001). There was a lack of belief among these organizations and people that Hitler was an excellent leader. There was a significant difference between what the cultural industry (Hitler and Goebbels) intended and what the SDP, the Communist Party, and the labour movement did. In this case study, Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory does not holds up, but Hall’s theory explains why both approaches command up in the Hollywood world.
For decades, it has been a common practice in Hollywood to use advertisements, print media (such as magazines and newspapers), and other media types to promote and depict body image. There is a lot of concern about body image in society because of these images. ‘Body perfection’ (Vashevskii, 2011) has been manufactured by the cultural industry known as Hollywood for both men and girls. It is said that Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful woman in history (Bushak, 2015), has the most iconic female appearance. Still, the most iconic male look for men is Channing Tatum, who has an above-average height of 1.87 cm and a big chest, narrow hips, and a high chest-to-waist ratio (Olds, 2016). Both actors have a long history of using their bodies in promotional materials like magazine articles and billboards. With their newfound ‘perfection,’ these two prominent figures have created an ideal that everyone in society should strive to achieve.
Adorno and Horkheimer were correct when they said that the Cultural Industry is all the same, and the media are the ones that depict it differently because Hollywood, as a representative of the Culture Industry, imposes this image on society (Adorno ad Horkheimer in During, 1999/1944, pp 31). When it comes to the influence of the media, Marilyn Monroe and Channing Tatum are only two instances. This has resulted in a society where the public has grown indifferent to all messages and is interested in the cultural industry’s financial gain (Bell, 2011). The public has accepted a culture industry ideology as a way of interpreting one’s values and ideas by the public.
They have learned to respond instinctively because of everything else they’ve seen in the entertainment business.” As a result, the audience is left with little space to think independently, which leads to the cultural industry’s profit from the public (Olds, 2016). According to Adorno and Horkheimer, the Culture Industry uses mass media to promote notions such as “physical perfection” in society. This is considered to be beneficial to the whole community. Adorno and Horkheimer go on to say that “movies and radio should no longer pretend to be art… by obtaining an income from society” and that “when their directors’ earnings are made public, there is no debate regarding the societal usefulness of their completed goods” (Adorno and Horkheimer in During, 1999/1944, p. 31). A dispute between Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer over the use of mass media by the Culture Industry to spread an ideology is taking place right now.
This may be seen in the docile public of Nazi Germany and both past and contemporary Hollywood films. However, although this article asserts that not all organizations, both locally and globally, were victims of Goebbels’ propaganda, a significant number of them indeed were. In the opinion of Adorno and Horkheimer, the Culture Business operates in the media sector for financial advantage, as seen by the body image ideology, and Hollywood has enjoyed the financial rewards as a result of this. Finally, there is no longer any interest in the company among those working in the cultural area (Dorrance Hall, 2016). In general, Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s notion that “culture now stamps everything with the same stamp” can be used to define the Culture Industry within society and criticize its use by the mainstream media can be used to define the Culture Industry within society and to criticize its use by the mainstream media.
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