Sunday, September 11, 2011

Rebecca Black, Real Housewives, and Reality Television


After this week’s reading, the bulk of my questions focused on what Horkheimer and Adorno would think about the current state of the American Culture Industry. In sampling the pop cultural du jour, I believe their critical reception of entrainment in the 30s and 40s would be magnified after watching television and cruising around YouTube for a few hours. 

How often do we consume media and think, “movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce” (Horkheimer, and Adorno, 1944 p.120). Performers no longer need skills or natural ability to sing; digital tracks can be manipulated, and with the marvel of technology, millions can have their 15 minutes of fame. In fact, Auto-Tune is directly responsible for viral video sensation Rebecca Black.

There are few genres that could be defined as “ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce” more than reality television.  For example: Real Housewives - women who tolerate each other, but frequently gather to cause drama; The Amazing Race – teams that race around the world while promoting companies and products of all sorts, and The Food Network, DIY, and Fine Living are devoted to the consumption of food, goods, and materials. Most media choices are carefully crafted to promote a lifestyle or ideology, especially that of consumerism. 

For example, a cooking contest often offers an eco-friendly vehicle as an award, yet the chefs cook Chilean Seabass as the main entrée, a species subjected to overfishing, often caught illegally, and contains high levels of mercury.  While the host proclaims the benefits of driving a hybrid vehicle, no one mentions that the chefs use unsustainable fish.

Even sitcoms provide viewers an ideology to be imitated. Just in a brief examination of nightly program, many sitcom characters live in McMansions, drive the latest model car, and enjoy a lifestyle foreign to most Americans.  While these TV families are portrayed as average, they are far from ordinary Americans. 

While we are far removed from the Golden Age of Hollywood, witnessed by Horkheimer and Adorno, in some ways corporate influence on the media is less veiled and more overt. If placing a Mini Cooper, Reese’s Pieces, or FedEx as a supporting character in a movie can lead individuals to have positive feelings toward, and in many cases buy, a product, we have created the ultimate propaganda machine.


Horkheimer, M, & Adorno, T. (1944). Dialectic of enlightenment. (69 ed., Vol. 98, pp. 120-167). New York: Continuum.

1 comment:

  1. lots of great examples here, adam. i've often thought that _american idol_ would serve as an especially good example to critique with a culture industry lens. i think you're correct, too, to pick up on other types of reality tv like food television and the DIY genre because they cater to the individual by arguing, "you can do this!" while selling them products.

    i think what i'd like to see you do in future posts like this one is to take one, specific example and unpack it, deconstruct it, and explicate it according to the readings. you do a great job of showing how pervasive the culture industry is, but i want so much more of your reading of rebecca black, of reality tv, and of your cooking contest examples!

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