Frankfurt Schools Contribution To Popular Culture Cultural Studies Essay

Frankfurt Schools Contribution To Popular Culture Cultural Studies Essay The idea that culture is mass produced came from two German academics named Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer. These two intellectuals, who would later begin a cultural enquiry, were members of The Frankfurt School. This institute was established in 1923 and consisted of many other German left-winged intellectuals. It was very much interested in the ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud and therefore endeavoured to study the emergence of capitalist societies through the exploration of Marxism and psychoanalysis. This is what The Frankfurt School referred to as critical theory. The Frankfurt School, Adorno and Horkheimer in particular, were interested in studying popular culture and the mass production of cultural artefacts which they later referred to as the culture industry. In order to explore The Frankfurt Schools contribution to our understanding of popular culture, firstly we need to ask; what is culture? The word culture suggests a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group. (Storey, 2006.1) It can also refer to the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activities. (Storey, 2006.1) The word cultivate was used to refer to the cultivation of land but now it can refer to the cultivation of the mind. Culture plays an important part in how human societies communicate with each other and how the new technological developments which contribute to this create a new type of culture known as popular culture. An obvious starting point in any attempt to define popular culture is to say that popular culture is simply culture which is widely favoured or well liked by many people. (Storey, 2006.4) Popular culture is centred on consumerism and is dominated by money; there is no part of popular culture that one doesnt have to pay for. Popular culture produces products known as commodities which have a use value and an exchange value. A commodity is only a commodity if it can be replaced by something else. Commodity fetishism was an idea that came out of popular culture. Capitalist organisations fetishize commodities and invest them with power that they do not really have. They discourage us from asking where the things we consume actually come from. These companies do not want us to think about this process. The idea that capitalist companies are manipulating the thoughts of the masses about what they consume and the great power that they have leads us to the term mass culture. In a mass culture, industrialised society there are no longer the same traditional values. The idea of an organic community no longer exists. The individual is left more and more to his or her own devices, has fewer and fewer communities or institutions in which to find identity or values by which to live, and has less and less idea of the morally appropriate ways to live.(Strinati, 2004.6) The Frankfurt School argue that the culture industry is killing the desire that might let us imagine a better world. They have an ideal notion of what human beings are capable of. The institute believes that we could never create a better world as long as we are part of this commodity culture. Adorno stated that the culture industry does not give the mass any responsibility for the culture that they are consuming, yet the masses are unaware of this which explains their passivity in accepting it. Although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary but secondary. . . The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us believe, not its subject but its object. (Strinati, 2004.55) This point further emphasises the power that the culture industry has on the masses. With living in a culturally industrialised society comes conformity. Conformity replaces the consciousness of the masses according to The Frankfurt School. They believed that the masses are dependent on the culture industry and that the masses themselves are no longer producing culture. Through researching the works of The Frankfurt School, we can understand that the masses are oblivious to the mass controlled culture in which they live due to the face that everything is pseudo-individualised. Products that were being produced by the culture industry were all standardised. This meant that they all had certain characteristics that made them significantly similar. The Frankfurt School, Theodore Adorno in particular, realised that the industry knew that standardised products would sell and therefore they needed to be given a supposed uniqueness to provoke the masses to continue buying them. This was referred to as pseudo-individualism. The Frankfurt School stated that the culture industry created false needs in the pursuit of profit while ignoring the true needs of humans. According to The Frankfurt School the cultural industry and mass culture, . . . shapes the tastes and preferences of the masses, thereby moulding their consciousness by instilling the desire for false needs. (Strinati, 2004.55) They point out that the capitalist industries bring in a lot of profit through what they called waste production. They generated products that, in the opinion of The Frankfurt School, the masses did not need. Masses become so enthralled in the culture industry that their consciousness is overridden. The masses become too interested in the falsehoods that the industry has created and tend to forget about satisfying their true human needs. The school argues that it is due to all of this that the culture industry maintains its stability. With regards to true and false needs, Theodore Adorno once wrote, The indistinguishability of true and false needs is an essential part of the present phase one day it will be readily apparent that men do not need the trash provided them by the culture industry. (Adorno, Theodore W, The Culture Industry revisited at http://books.google.co.uk.p.156 accessed on 27/10/10) Another point that The Frankfurt School has highlighted to us in order to contribute to our understanding of popular culture is that a lot of culture is very homogeneous. They believed that all aspects of popular culture were generic and predictable. They could not fathom the fact that the masses were accepting this constant reproduction of the same thing. They believed that people should want something more; something different and challenging. The culture industry followed a formula. The reason for the formulaic structure of the industry and the way in which its products were produces was because it was successful. This particular formula and method of mass producing standardised products generated profit. When referring to this great power that the culture industry has, Adorno says, Today anyone who is incapable of talking in the prescribed fashion, that is of effortlessly reproducing the formulas, conventions and judgements of mass culture as if they were his own, is threatened in his very existence, suspected of being an idiot or an intellectual. (Adorno, 1991. 79) Critics of The Frankfurt School say that they do not appreciate just how diverse and hybrid popular culture is. They also say that The Frankfurt School invest too much power in the culture industry and that they consider capitalism as being more stable than it actually is. Critics believe that the culture industry has a lot more potential than The Frankfurt School gives it credit for. The term culture has been described by Richard Williams as, One of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. (Storey, 2006.1) Although some agree with this statement, The Frankfurt School has contributed greatly to our understanding of popular culture by highlighting how culture has become commercialised in the pursuit of profit. It points out to us that in a culturally industrialised society, no one thinks for themselves and that they consume this culture because it has been imposed onto them. The authenticity and traditional aspects of culture are no longer present and we can now come to the realisation that we will always live in a culture that is controlled by capitalism and consumerism. Everything that is presented to us, including the false needs that the industry provides is all in the interests of capital and profit. Our ability to understand how the culture industry works is aided greatly by the work of The Frankfurt School. References Storey, John (2006) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction Strinati, Dominic (2004) An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (Second Edition) Adorno, Theodore W (1991) The Culture Industry

Culture Shock in Japan Essay

Culture is a condition of confusion and anxiety affecting a person suddenly exposed to an alien culture or milieu. There are many different ways to experience culture shock. It can be experienced across the world or as near as one’s backyard. Many Americans would venture that they consider themselves very culturally accepting. Often, when these same Americans travel abroad, they experience culture shock. It is not always a negative thing. Often to some American coming to Japan and adjusting to life in Japan can be difficult, since even the most mundane things could be done differently than they would have been done in the U.S, so here are some basic facts of Japan. And remember be patient. Home. When entering a Japanese home you are expected to remove your shoes before stepping up from the entry area into a Japanese home known as the genkan. There in the genkan you must change from outdoor shoes into indoor slippers. When entering the genkan, you have to remember to step out of your shoes, and step into the house proper. Then you must turn around, kneel or bend down, and turn the outdoor shoes around so that they face the door, ready to be slipped into again when they leave. This custom is also required in many traditional Japanese restaurants, all department store dressing rooms, temples, and a few other businesses. On an extra note it is wise to buy clean socks since you will be taking off your shoes when you enter homes or some resteraunts. And you don’t want to embarrass yourself with dirty socks. Food. In the U.S many people carry their lunches in lunchboxes, but in Japan people use Bento boxes which are pre-prepared lunches, sold in every convenience store in Japan or brought from home. Usually a bento box consists of a box divided into several sections, containing perhaps, noodles, rice, pickles,  meat or fish, and maybe a little fruit. If there is a need to heat their lunches almost all stores also have a microwave so that you can heat the bento in the shop. When traveling to Japan one must be aware of the proper way to eat. In the U.S slurping is generally considered rude, so it is useful to know that the Japanese people consider it correct to slurp whenever eating noodles, ramen or soup etc. By making slurping when one eats their soup or noodles is considered to be polite, also by slurping you compliment the person who cooked it. More than that slurping serves a practical purpose, as noodles, ramen etc, are often served very hot, slurping draws air into the mouth which helps to cool the food as well as bring out the flavor. Knowing how to use chopsticks can make life in Japan a bit easier, but you have to remember the certain etiquette that concern using chopsticks. Just as there are good manners when it comes to using a knife and fork in the west, the Japanese have definite rules of thumb when it comes to using chopsticks. Don’t point at people with your chopsticks, move plates with them or wave them or stick them. Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. Only at funerals are chopsticks stuck into the rice that is put onto the altar. Education. Education in Japan is similar to that of the education system in the U.S, since it was adopted based on the U. S education system by the Japanese after World War II. But some things are quite different. If you are a parent sending your child to school in Japan, there are some key facts you must know In Japan competition for entering a good University is fierce, for that reason many student start at a young age go to Juku, which are cram schools, parents send their kids to, so that they have a better chance of doing well on University exams. In Japan if you are able to go to a good University than the chances of a good and stable job is quite high. It quite common for kids to finish school then go at night for 2 to 3 hours to a cram school. Hygiene. When bathing Japanese style, you are supposed to first rinse your body outside the bath tub with some water from the tub, using a washbowl. Afterwards, you enter the tub, which is used for soaking only. The bath water tends to be relatively hot for Western bathing standards. If you can barely enter, try not to move much, since moving around makes the water appear even hotter. After soaking for a while, leave the tub and clean your body with soap. Make sure that no soap gets into the bathing water. Once you finished cleaning yourself and rinsed all the soap off your body, enter the bath tub once more for some more soaking. After leaving the tub, do not drain the water, since all household members will use the same water. There are three types of toilets commonly found in Japan. The oldest type is a simple squat toilet, modern Western-type toilets and urinals and the state of the art is bidet toilets However traditional toilets are usually the most common type in most public places, universities, restaurants etc. The tradition toilet is known as the squat toilet, it essentially looks like a miniature urinal rotated 90 degrees and set into the floor. Most squat toilets in Japan are made of porcelain, though in some cases (like on trains), stainless steel is also used. Instead of sitting, the user squats over the toilet, facing the wall in the back of the. A shallow trough collects the waste, instead of a large water-filled bowl as in a western toilet. In Japan, being clean is very important; the bidet toilet is like the western flush toilet. While the toilet looks like a Western-style toilet at first glance, there are a number of additional features, such as blow dryer, seat heating, massage options, water jet adjustments, automatic lid opening, flushing after use which are included either as part of the toilet or in the seat. These features can be accessed by a control panel that is either  attached to one side of the seat or on a wall nearby, often transmitting the commands wirelessly to the toilet seat. For an American coming to Japan for the first time, the squat toilet or the bidets could be quite a shock and could take some time getting used to. Gambling entertainment. If you want to gamble in Japan you must remember that gambling is illegal so to compensate there is the wildly addicting game known as Pachinko a type of vertical pinball machine. The winnings are in the form of more balls, which the player may use to keep playing or exchange for prizes such as pens or cigarette lighters. Cash cannot be paid out according to Japanese law, but players can then exchange certain prizes for cash at small centers located nearby, but separate from the parlors. In America there are cartoons and comic books in Japan there are manga and anime. Remember when reading manga or any Japanese book, guide for the matter, you must start at the â€Å"last† page and work â€Å"backwards†. The same applies to the panels within the pages. They should be read right to left, not left to right. Transportation. In Japan, cars drive on the left side of the road and have the driver’s seat and steering wheel on the right. And unlike the U.S which has a minimum driving age of 16, the legal minimum age for driving in Japan is 18 years. While you are waiting for the train to arrive, you stand in politely in neat rows, calmly waiting for your train. When the train arrives, the first rule you must bear in mind is that no matter how crowded it looks, there will always be room for one more. If you have any doubt about the above rule, there’s a white gloved attendant ready to shove you in. Then, once you get one the train, you must remember certain rules. Don’t drink coffee in the morning, save drinking anything for the ride back home. The morning rush hours peak on weekdays between 8am and 9am, while the evening rush hours are more spread out and commence around 5pm. Rush hours are most extreme in Tokyo, but also pretty heavy in Japan’s other major cities. So if you plan on riding the train it is best to go before rush hours. As you stay in Japan you as individual can learn to grow towards multicultural perspectives and develop alternative futures for his or her self, thus making his or her self a more culturally accepting person.

Benefits of Playing Team Sports

Thesis OUTLINE Benefits of playing team sports: 1. Traveling 2. Working Together 3. Learning New Techniques 4. School Scholarship THE FIRST THESIS We say that playing team sports are something good for us to keep us the youth of Belize doing the positive things in life. Belize has a population of 333,200 persons and of that amount 232,700 are of under the age of 35 where at the age of 35 you are still call a youth. This represents approximately 70%. Some benefits of playing team sports are by Traveling around the world, working together as one, Learning New Techniques and to be able to get a Scholarship to go to any school of their choice.So do you think that playing team sports is good for the youths of Belize? PARAGRAPHS Paragraph one will be talking about how sports can make you travel around the world and making new friends. Paragraph two is talking about the youths working together as one to be a good sports team. Paragraph three will be telling you about how team sports can mak e you learn new techniques. Paragraph four tells you about getting a school scholarship to go to any school of our choice. REWRITE ThesisBelize has a population of 333,200 persons and of that amount 232,700 are under the age of 35 where at the age of 35 you are still call a youth. This represents approximately 70%. We say that playing team sports are something good for us to keep us the youth of Belize doing the positive things in life. Some benefits of playing team sports are by Traveling around the world, working together as one, Learning New Techniques and to be able to get a Scholarship to go to any school of their choice. So do you think that playing team sports is good for the youths of Belize? OLD THESISWe say that playing team sports are something good for us to keep us the youth of Belize doing the positive things in life. Belize has a population of 333,200 persons and of that amount 232,700 are of under the age of 35 where at the age of 35 you are still call a youth. This represents approximately 70%. Some benefits of playing team sports are by Traveling around the world, working together as one, Learning New Techniques and to be able to get a Scholarship to go to any school of their choice. So do you think that playing team sports is good for the youths of Belize?

Free Essays on Synopsis Of Mythos Of Spring

Northrop Frye’s Formula for Comedy In his essay, "The Mythos of Spring: Comedy," Northrop Frye describes his formula for constructing a comedy. He says that most plot structures in comedies are based on the same specific formula. The storyline usually revolves around a boy-wants-girl scenario where there is some sort of blocking character, like a father or superior figure, that stands in their way. In the end, however, the guy always gets the girl. In the beginning of a comedy the blocking characters have power and are in charge of society. At the end of a comedy, the events that bring the boy and girl together form a new society. In keeping with this formula, many comedies involve a party or wedding. Pairing off of other characters happens as well. A modern example of this occurs at the end of the movie Clueless, when the pairing of Cher and Josh, and Ty and Travis coincides with the marriage of the two teachers. Resolutions at the end of a comedy come from the audience, from their understanding and involvement in finding a happy ending. As the hero overcomes the various obstacles with which he is presented, the audience begins to anticipate a resolution that will fulfill its idea of how things ought to be. A resolution of conflict is symbolized by a coming together at the end. The obstacles the boy overcomes throughout the play form the plot, and his successes bring about comic resolution. You know the ending of a comedy before it starts, but the events are what make it interesting. The blocking characters in the play contribute to the excitement and humor of the plays. Usually parental figures, these blocking characters cause disharmony which arises from the differences of intent between father and son. Because of this, older audiences find something rebellious about comedy. This does in turn contribute to social persecution in drama. Moviemakers find it difficult to appeal to older audiences because in these... Free Essays on Synopsis Of Mythos Of Spring Free Essays on Synopsis Of Mythos Of Spring Northrop Frye’s Formula for Comedy In his essay, "The Mythos of Spring: Comedy," Northrop Frye describes his formula for constructing a comedy. He says that most plot structures in comedies are based on the same specific formula. The storyline usually revolves around a boy-wants-girl scenario where there is some sort of blocking character, like a father or superior figure, that stands in their way. In the end, however, the guy always gets the girl. In the beginning of a comedy the blocking characters have power and are in charge of society. At the end of a comedy, the events that bring the boy and girl together form a new society. In keeping with this formula, many comedies involve a party or wedding. Pairing off of other characters happens as well. A modern example of this occurs at the end of the movie Clueless, when the pairing of Cher and Josh, and Ty and Travis coincides with the marriage of the two teachers. Resolutions at the end of a comedy come from the audience, from their understanding and involvement in finding a happy ending. As the hero overcomes the various obstacles with which he is presented, the audience begins to anticipate a resolution that will fulfill its idea of how things ought to be. A resolution of conflict is symbolized by a coming together at the end. The obstacles the boy overcomes throughout the play form the plot, and his successes bring about comic resolution. You know the ending of a comedy before it starts, but the events are what make it interesting. The blocking characters in the play contribute to the excitement and humor of the plays. Usually parental figures, these blocking characters cause disharmony which arises from the differences of intent between father and son. Because of this, older audiences find something rebellious about comedy. This does in turn contribute to social persecution in drama. Moviemakers find it difficult to appeal to older audiences because in these...

Snows of Mt. Kilamanjaro essays

Snows of Mt. Kilamanjaro essays This story is uniquely Hemingway by its long sentences with many conjunctions. The writing uses many commas, which separates the big chucks/clauses of his sentences. This is a common characteristic of Hemingways writing as well as his simple descriptions of nature, use of colloquial language, writing about things he knows intimately (hunting), and symbols that do not detract form the story. All these styles Hemingway writes with were present in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The insight of the early twentieth-century mind-frame Hemingway gives us is the feelings and love affairs of different people. Hemingways character, Harry, thinks about all the women he has been with and how he has used them for money. Harry goes after rich women because he has no money and he believes there is a major difference between normal people and rich people, in his time. This shows the bias people had. What I liked about this story is the way Harry reflected on his life while he sat, waiting for deat h. Without this insight, the story would have no connection with the reader. The adventures Harry ruminated made an association with the reader giving the story more feeling and emotion to it, making it more enjoyable. It was a good writing strategy. What I did not like was the ending. I did not understand the last part where it said Harry went off in the plane to the Kilimanjaro mountaintop, but then the story went back to Harry dead in his bed, with his girlfriend weeping for him. ...

Compare and contrast two people you know well Essay

Compare and contrast two people you know well - Essay Example One is my friend Mr. Pete and the other is my friend and cousin Prof. Jilmatt. Mr. Pete is an ardent social worker who attributes his generous nature to his family and multicultural society in which he was born and brought up. He spent his childhood with his loving parents, and friends of different ethnic groups. His parents belonged to a middle class White family who were staunch supporters of Catholic faith. In addition to religious insight, they both had good background of college education which added to Pete’s social concern. He is not only little lenient to moral failures but also exceedingly formal; and always maintained the dignity of his family throughout his life. Though people used to criticize him for his obsessional behavior, his sense of responsibility and discipline has had a strong influence on my life. Pete valued friendship and always maintained good social contact. He is well aware of the problems of common people and has clear opinion on social issues. He is an excellent speaker who also takes part in political campaigns. Although he was born to catholic parents, he actively participated in social issues irrespective of their ethnic variance. However, the most unfortunate thing about him is that he is half blind who could never read anything since his childhood. However, people who are only very close to him could identify this deformity; and obviously his will power enabled him to manage this. All his social contacts have helped him to build up a successful business based on agricultural products and equipments. Prof. Jilmatt is an aberrant character who could speak and write more than seven languages fluently. He is famous (notorious?) for his vociferous nature and careless life style. Common people could hardly understand the real versatile. He is little consistent with his career as a professor and is often catapulted from

MARKETING Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

MARKETING - Assignment Example The aim is to catch the customers directly at the Point of Sale and entice them into impulse buying decisions. Kraft foods chose an alternative media of an in-store kiosk at National Retail Federation Convention in New York. Kraft teamed up with Intel, already a global giant and came up with an electronic kiosk which could help the customers to get recipes according to their facial features. Intel’s technology of Anonymous Video Analytics was capable of gauging the person’s gender and age when he/she would step in front of it. The system would then recommend recipes, suggest the shopping, present future promotional coupons accordingly. For the customers’ convenience, the kiosk also supports mobile applications through which, they can download the giving recipes and shopping lists in their iPhones. Works Cited Krafft, Manfred, and Murali K. Mantrala.  Retailing in the 21st Century: Current and Future Trends. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & C o. KG, 2006. Print. Agathou, Amalia. Intel and Kraft take food shopping to the next level. Amalia Agathou 2011. Internet Resource. http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/02/03/intel-and-krafts-take-food-shopping-to-the-next-level/