Final Thoughts...

Though Adorno’s argument in “The Culture Industry,” is clearly at one end of an extreme, I found myself returning to it throughout the quarter as the basis for my understanding of where critical media theory is coming from. Furthermore, I found myself referencing it in other classes, in particular what I feel is Adorno’s explanation of why the mass media’s representation of reality are so powerful. By that same token, the Tomlinson reading was also very helpful and necessary in terms of presenting an alternative theory with regard to how people process media and incorporate it into their worldview. In terms of the case studies that we read, I thought Faye Ginsburg’s piece on embedded aesthetics was the most far reaching and widely applicable. I also really enjoyed Nicholas Mirzoeff’s “Teletubbies: Infant Cyborg Desire and Fear of Global Visual Culture,” because of its particularly compelling subject matter. Jonathan Stern’s Mall of America article had an equally interesting subject matter and thesis. In contrast, I felt like the other two essays that we read about radio, Jo Tacchi’s and Anahid Kassabian’s, while conceptually interesting, were essentially soft and unsubstantiated.