Ron Burgundy, 10/29

This week in class we discussed the works of Hebdige and Horkheimer and Adorno. When we looked at Horkheimer and Adorno, we discussed the prominence of the culture industry and how it dominates the way our society lives. The piece discussed how "the whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry", so much so that the reality seen on TV and film looks so similar to that of real life that we just accept it as so. In this way we begin to see the culture in films, etc. as our own and therefore try to mimic it. We become consumed with the consumerism that they portray and want to be a part of the action, in a sense, to live up to the Jones'. After reading this article this week, I came across an article written by a journalist in the New York Times, who frequently writes critiques of the media industry and the culture it develops. The article specifically was discussing the "Balloon Boy" phenomenon and how the actions of the parents of little Falcon were just a product of the desire to be a part of the culture industry. The author writes that, "Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking". This idea reminds me of the critique of Horkheimer and Adorno as the author explains that the media industry is profit driven, that fact-checking and deep journalism no longer reign over the spectacle that can grab big numbers and great ratings. Horkheimer and Adorno support this idea as they explain the structures of the programming that fill our television screens today that are no longer concealed and that show a market model media industry. The article in the New York Times also explains the phenomenon of how we accept the reality seen on TV as the truth without asking any questions as no onlookers "questioned how a balloon could waft buoyantly through the skies for hours with a 6-year-old boy hidden within its contours". According to the author the fact "that so few did is an indication of how practiced we are at suspending disbelief when watching anything labeled news, whether the subject is W.M.D.’s in Iraq or celebrity gossip in Hollywood". This not only supports Horkheimer and Adorno's notion of the "illusion that the world outisde is a seamless extension of the one which has been revealed in cinema" but also Zizek's idea that today's audience enjoys the "spectacle" and that these types of dramatic tragedies are exactly what the people want. So in the end, is it really Falcon's father that America spent two hours watching a hoax played out on national television or is our culture and our media to blame?