Page 153 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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138 Now
‘To consume … is to retain as little as possible’ is hard to beat as a
succinct summary of the parallel nature of the critical and populist
accounts of contemporary consumer culture. For critical theorists,
this form of consumption is the basis of mass docility rather than
empowerment.
Lowenthal’s analysis of the overall ideological effect of this com-
bination of the banally shallow and the tautological fits closely with
Adorno’s account of the culture industry – for both writers, culture
was traditionally at least partially insulated from commerce while
now it plays an instrumental role in preparing populations for lives
in industrialized society (as terms such as audience investment would
seem to bear out): ‘the routine and repetition characteristic of
leisure-time activities serve as a kind of justification and glorification
of the working day … the horizon is not extended to the realm of
the unknown, but is instead painted with the figures of the known’
(Lowenthal 1961: 135). Thus Benjamin’s acknowledgement that
media technologies psychologically train people for the shocks of
urban life is reinforced at the further subtle level of the cultural
values promoted by the pervasion of celebrity. However, while
Benjamin hoped that, suitably trained, the masses would be politi-
cally empowered, for Lowenthal and other critical thinkers any such
potential for empowerment is fatally undermined by the fact that the
masses are diverted and distracted in a one-dimensional world of
commodities: ‘The large confusing issues in the political and eco-
nomic realm and the antagonisms and controversies in the social
realm – all these are submerged in the experience of being at one
with the lofty and great in the sphere of consumption’ (1961: 136).
Unlike Benjamin, for critical theorists, distraction produces a
much more negative political outcome. Celebrities ideologically
underpin the capitalist system because the relationship between the
audience and the celebrity is intrinsically surface based. It is
premised upon abstract desire – the venerated celebrity figure is
greatly admired but intrinsically intangible. The audience thus
relates to the celebrity as a human being but one that embodies
abstract value – pre-designed for circulation. The notion of an
embodied abstract quality may appear an oxymoron, but in much
the same way, the relationship that contemporary consumers have
with physical commodities is mediated by such abstract yet valuable
signs as brand logos (once again the Nike swoosh being an
archetypal example). Relating to the increasingly immaterial qualities
of the desire/affection that celebrity helps to produce and maintain,
Rojek points out that there are two basic differences between the
traditional notion of ‘renown’ and the much more recent notion of
‘celebrity’.

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