10/29, Serendipity

One of the quotes by Adorno that we went over in class on Thursday, I felt summarized the “big concept” of the major Critical Media and Cultural studies. This quote was “Amusements always means putting things out of mind, its root is powerlessness”. It made me think of how the media needs to be critically evaluated at every moment, since we otherwise really are just mindless observers. We are simply passive. The quote refers to for when example you laugh at a joke in a sitcom that is racist. You know that it is a bad thing to be racist, but since it is on TV and put in comical context, it is “okay” to laugh and to go along with the norm. But that is exactly what you are doing, going along with the norm and not critically evaluating not only media, but more importantly culture. Media is a reflection of what is going on in culture, and to understand parts of the media is to understand parts of culture too. The other quotes from the rest of the class are also closely related to this concept. The quote “No one has to answer officially what he or she thinks” also portrays this by showing that we do not have to have our own opinions anymore because we are swept into cultural norms simply by immersing ourselves in media culture. If we did not stop to critically think, which many people don’t, especially ones that are not educated by this major, then it would be easy not to have to make up your own opinion and just trust the opinions of those controlling the media. For example, when I used to watch the news I would always get really scared about terrorism and think that it was everywhere. However, since this major, I now see that it is just the culture of fear and that we are endoctrined by the government to be scared so that we will be patriotic and stay in line. This concept is portrayed perfectly by the quote”Mass culture gives tragedy permanent employment as routine”. We are so used to being scared of everything, such as in the news, that it becomes the norm (like everything extreme and avant garde eventually becomes normal). To be scared is to be normal, and we do not stop to think where the information comes from and what kind of frames they are put in in order to make us feel a certain way. When reading these quotes, it really hit me why this is my major and I am very glad that I am not a typical American consumer of information. I realized just then how important it is to really challenge everything, because that is the only way to get to the what is the “truth”.