ideology and theories of mass commnuction unit-4.3

critical and cultural theories 

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory

 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno in 1964. Jeremy J. Shapiro/Creative Commons

byNicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. 

Updated January 11, 2019

The Frankfurt School refers to a collection of scholars known for developing critical theory and popularizing the dialectical method of learning by interrogating society's contradictions and is most closely associated with the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse. It was not a school, in the physical sense, but rather a school of thought associated with some scholars at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany.

The Institute was founded by Marxist scholar Carl Grünberg in 1923, and initially financed by another Marxist scholar, Felix Weil. However, the Frankfurt School is known for a particular brand of culturally focused neo-Marxist theory—a rethinking of classical Marxism to update it to their socio-historical period—which proved seminal for the fields of sociology, cultural studies, and media studies.

 Max Horkheimer receiving the chain of office by former Rector Prof. Rajewski. Dr. Horkheimer left Germany in the early days of the Third Reich when his institute for Social Research fell under the Nazi ban. Bettman/Getty Images

In 1930 Max Horkheimer became the director of the Institute and recruited many of those who came to be known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Living, thinking, and writing in the aftermath of Marx's failed prediction of revolution, and dismayed by the rise of Orthodox Party Marxism and a dictatorial form of communism, these scholars turned their attention to the problem of rule through ideology, or rule carried out in the realm of culture. They believed that this form of rule was enabled by technological advancements in communications and the reproduction of ideas.

(Their ideas were similar to Italian scholar-activist Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony.) Other early members of the Frankfurt School included Friedrich Pollock, Otto Kirchheimer, Leo Löwenthal, and Franz Leopold Neumann. Walter Benjamin was also associated with it during its mid-twentieth century heyday.

One of the core concerns of the scholars of the Frankfurt School, especially Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, and Marcuse, was the rise of what Horkheimer and Adorno initially called "mass culture" (in Dialectic of Enlightenment). This phrase refers to the way technological developments had newly allowed for the distribution of cultural products—like music, film, and art—on a mass scale, reaching all who were connected by the technology in society. (Consider that when these scholars began crafting their critiques, radio and cinema were still new phenomena, and television had not yet hit the scene.) Their concern focused on how technology-enabled both a sameness in production, in the sense that technology shapes content and cultural frameworks create styles and genres, and also, a sameness of cultural experience, in which an unprecedented mass of people would sit passively before cultural content, rather than actively engage with one another for entertainment, as they had in the past.

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They theorized that this experience made people intellectually inactive and politically passive, as they allowed mass-produced ideologies and values to wash over them and infiltrate their consciousness. They argued that this process was one of the missing links in Marx's theory of the domination of capitalism, and largely helped to explain why Marx's theory of revolution never came to pass. Marcuse took this framework and applied it to consumer goods and the new consumer lifestyle that had just become the norm in Western countries at mid-twentieth century, and argued that consumerism functioned in much the same way, through a creation of false needs that can only be satisfied by the products of capitalism.

Given the political context of pre-WWII Germany at the time, Horkheimer chose to move the Institute for the safety of its members. They first moved to Geneva in 1933, and then to New York in 1935, where they affiliated with Columbia University. Later, after the war, the Institute was re-established in Frankfurt in 1953. Later theorists affiliated with the School include Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, among others.

 Philosopher Herbert Marcuse in 1968 while he was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego. Bettman/Getty Images

Key works by members of the Frankfurt School include but are not limited to:

• Traditional and Critical Theory, Max Horkheimer
• Dialectic of Enlightenment, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno
• Critique of Instrumental Reason, Max Horkheimer
• The Authoritarian Personality, Theodor W. Adorno
• Aesthetic Theory, Theodor W. Adorno
• Culture Industry Reconsidered, Theodor W. Adorno
• One-Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse
• The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics, Herbert Marcuse
• The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin
• Structural Transformation and the Public Sphere, Jürgen Habermas

• Towards a Rational Society, Jürgen Habermas

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What Is Cultural Hegemony?

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Hoxton/Tom Merton/Getty Images 

byNicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. 

Updated August 08, 2019

Cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions, which allow those in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, worldview, and behavior of the rest of society.

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the worldview of the ruling class, and the social and economic structures that embody it, as just, legitimate, and designed for the benefit of all, even though these structures may only benefit the ruling class. This kind of power is distinct from rule by force, as in a military dictatorship, because it allows the ruling class to exercise authority using the "peaceful" means of ideology and culture.

Cultural Hegemony According to Antonio Gramsci

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The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of cultural hegemony out of Karl Marx’s theory that the dominant ideology of society reflects the beliefs and interests of the ruling class. Gramsci argued that consent to the rule of the dominant group is achieved by the spread of ideologies—beliefs, assumptions, and values—through social institutions such as schools, churches, courts, and the media, among others. These institutions do the work of socializing people into the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant social group.

As such, the group that controls these institutions controls the rest of society.

Cultural hegemony is most strongly manifested when those ruled by the dominant group come to believe that the economic and social conditions of their society are natural and inevitable, rather than created by people with a vested interest in particular social, economic, and political orders.

Gramsci developed the concept of cultural hegemony in an effort to explain why the worker-led revolution that Marx predicted in the previous century had not come to pass. Central to Marx’s theory of capitalism was the belief that the destruction of this economic system was built into the system itself since capitalism is premised on the exploitation of the working class by the ruling class. Marx reasoned that workers could only take so much economic exploitation before they would rise up and overthrow the ruling class.

However, this revolution did not happen on a mass scale.

The Cultural Power of Ideology

Gramsci realized that there was more to the dominance of capitalism than the class structure and its exploitation of workers. Marx had recognized the important role that ideology played in reproducing the economic system and the social structure that supported it, but Gramsci believed that Marx had not given enough credit to the power of ideology. In his essay “The Intellectuals,” written between 1929 and 1935, Gramsci described the power of ideology to reproduce the social structure through institutions such as religion and education.

He argued that society's intellectuals, often viewed as detached observers of social life, are actually embedded in a privileged social class and enjoy great prestige. As such, they function as the “deputies” of the ruling class, teaching and encouraging people to follow the norms and rules established by the ruling class.

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Gramsci elaborated on the role the education system plays in the process of achieving rule by consent, or cultural hegemony, in his essay “On Education.”

The Political Power of Common Sense

In “The Study of Philosophy,” Gramsci discussed the role of “common sense”—dominant ideas about society and about our place in it—in producing cultural hegemony. For example, the idea of “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps,” the idea that one can succeed economically if one just tries hard enough, is a form of "common sense" that has flourished under capitalism, and that serves to justify the system. In other words, if one believes that all it takes to succeed is hard work and dedication, then it follows that the system of capitalism and the social structure that is organized around it is just and valid.

It also follows that those who have succeeded economically have earned their wealth in a just and fair manner and that those who struggle economically, in turn, deserve their impoverished state. This form of "common sense" fosters the belief that success and social mobility are strictly the responsibility of the individual, and in doing so obscures the real class, racial, and gender inequalities that are built into the capitalist system.

In sum, cultural hegemony, or our tacit agreement with the way that things are, is a result of socialization, our experiences with social institutions, and our exposure to cultural narratives and imagery, all of which reflect the beliefs and values of the ruling class.