CMST 3K03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Theodor W. Adorno, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences, Media Consumption

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: CMST 3K03
• Professor: Matthew Tegelberg

Document Summary

1. 4 cultivation and its discontents/ the problem of. Adornos critique of mass culture mass audience: thinks masses are idiotic. For adverts and broadcasters in early days of mass media, exposure of audience to (rather than engagement with) content was sufficient to influence them. Adorno exposure of audience to mass media transformed individuals into undifferentiated herd. Advertisers and adorno exposure to media produces desired/undesirable effect (consumer awareness or persuasion, ideological support) Gunning: notion of mass audiences as naive and susceptible to manipulation traced to cinemas first audiences. But both early and contemporary audiences are not as silly or stupid as this myth supposes. Challenge notion only early audience in wonderment. Notion of mass audience as large, homogeneous unit quantified and known in terms of size alone informs much popular discourse about effects of media. Monday, september 18, 2017: it also underpins some influential academic approaches.