Theme 2: Critical media theory (Reflection)

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the lectures this week. As I read the blog posts, I understand that I missed a good chance to get deeper understanding of the context. After only have been reading in order to get knowledge, I believe it would have been refreshing to stimulate other senses. To compensate for this, I was in contact with a course mate who informed me about the main topics that were brought to light and discussed at the seminar. Also, I was presented to the background of the book and its authors. What struck me above everything, was the situation in which the authors were, while this book was written. In a time frame of the second World War, characterized by propaganda and deception, these two Jewish authors were forced to migrate. With this in mind, it is not hard to understand the authors’ somewhat negative perspective on the mass media and culture industry.

It has been interesting to study the theme of this week. I enjoyed reading some parts of Dialectic of Enlightenment as it brought me to a lot of thinking of how the context is applicable on today’s society. The ubiquitous 'new media' in today’s society is obviously not the same as 'new media' was when the book was written in 1944. Above all, one important characteristic of media today is the interactivity, for example compared to the television in 1944. For that reason, the reasoning on 'new media' carried out by the authors, is not entirely applicable on the media of today.

The 'new' media forms of today (Internet, web and social media) have make room for interaction among the audience and expanded the limit of free thoughts. But concerning the issue of mass deception and mass culture, it is hard to say if these new media platforms have served to prevent these phenomenons since 1944 or not. As the authors claim back in 1944, I suspect humans contributes to the mass culture whether we want it or not. Now as then, there are probably 'forces' that we cannot control over, that map our media habits and put humans in different categories. For example, big companies uses economic strategies to translate information about individuals, in order to make use of these data in the business and earn money. In turn, they can determinate what culture should be. On the other hand, there are probably forces against the mass deception as well, which have received more space due to the 'new' media forms. Even though we can see tendencies of today's media society that is bearing a resemblance with former mass media, I believe there is one big difference; everyone can be heard on Internet, which is not the case through television.

To conclude, I really see the relevance of reading and discussing the raised questions of this theme. As a media technology engineer it is important to understand the media society as a whole and see what role media is playing. In big, the theme 'critical media theory' is about thinking critically and always question the media when it is developing into newer forms.