Theme 2: Critical media studies-reflection

For this week’s theme I need read two reading materials for preparation which are Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity”(1936) and Adorno coh Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) (chapter’s The Concept of Enlightenment” and “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”). I felt that the reading materials was more readable and understandable compare to the reading materials which I read last week, which could be of several reasons. It could be the reading materials are not written a long time ago compare to the reading materials by Kant and Plato, or maybe my increasing experience in reading philosophical texts.

The lecture discussed a part about how the capitalism, fascism and liberalism by using the mass media to restrict the spreading of other arrangements of ideas or spread their own arrangements of ideas to nationals.    

Benjamin argues that technology is changing art, just like our changing perceptions. All art is replicable, which brings into question the worth of the art if it is not “original”. Copies do not duplicate that original aura. This continuous reproduction affects our modes of apperception and causes a decay f not only the aura but our understandings of space and time. For example, photographing the mountains gives us a secondary experience of the aura-the natural “distance” is gone. Film or movies can be mass distributed but the actor’s aura cannot-their aura is false and generated by lighting and headshots, whereas the stage actor has charisma. Dadaism distracts the masses via “shock” and anti-art borne from the elitism of traditional art. Fascism allows for expression; capitalism creates only class structure and dose not value aesthetics in political life. Fascism is capitalism without votes; it tries to organize the proletarian whereas capitalism creates the proletarian.

I was back at last week there is unable to use some websites which like Google, Gmail etc. So I couldn’t upload my text at there. I will upload all text as soon as possible