Page 157 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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142 Now
structures – there is a ‘routinization of charisma’ (Weber 1968:
246–54). Weber describes a growing social condition of disenchant-
ment and loss of traditional cultural symbolism. In this context,
celebrity can be viewed (like Benjamin saw the Hollywood star
system) as a disenchanted reclaiming of art’s ritualistic element – the
fulfilment of the atavistic human need for narrative but in a heavily
commodified and enervated form. It re-appropriates and re-enlists
charisma in order to maintain the appearance of a society in which
individuality is prized but also pre-inscribed with standardized,
rationalized qualities (Kracauer’s Ratio). This is in keeping with
Adorno’s claim that those entering show business already belong
wholeheartedly to it: ‘Talented performers belong to the industry
long before it displays them; otherwise they would not be so eager to
fit in’ (Adorno and Horkheimer 1997: 122). Anyone with individual
talent is already primed to adapt that talent to the requirements of
a system that tolerates such individuality – but only in so far as a
profitable place in the industry can be found for it: ‘Anyone who
resists can only survive by fitting in. Once his particular brand of
deviation from the norm has been noted by the industry, he belongs
to it as does the land-reformer to capitalism. Realistic dissidence is
the trademark of anyone who has a new idea in business ’ (Adorno
2
and Horkheimer 1997: 122). Celebrity is thus appealing to the mass
audience because it acts as a compensatory force for its own
anonymity but it is, nevertheless, a negative and reactionary social
phenomenon: it is constructed as a palliative for the anonymity of
the mass rather than representing any intrinsic, worthwhile qualities
of its own. The celebrity reasserts the importance of the individual –
but merely at a rhetorical level. Individuality only exists in a
sublimated, commodified form in what otherwise stubbornly remains
a homogeneous mass society.
Although their subsequent interpretations may be radically differ-
ent, advocates and detractors of the culture industry thesis agree
about some of its basic processes. Both those who emphasize the
empowerment of audiences and consumers, and those who argue
they are disempowered, tend to agree that their participation is
often active and self-conscious. For advocates of audience empower-
ment this is obvious; the culture industry thesis fails for them
because the act of consumption does not stop alternative interpre-
tations and meanings from being pursued alongside those desired by
the dominant interests of the culture industry. In contrast, one of
the most significant features of Adorno’s analysis is the way in which
consumers within the culture industry do indeed actively engage in
the process of consumption but do so as an act of bad faith. They
connive at their own oppression, by practising the ‘magic’ of
commodities upon themselves: ‘The triumph of advertising in the

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