Theme 2 Reflection
I found this weeks topic pretty interesting since it really touches on how media impacts the world we live in. Art and culture is something that have an massive impact on society even though most of use don’t see it as something important for the world. But as this weeks theme proves, art is all around us in form of media and that brings us to the question if we really could call anything art. This is what Benjamin did during the pre WWII years and he saw the power of art and how media can affect a group of people. I don’t really think the most important issue is whether an artifact is a piece of art or not but rather how it us used and what impact it has on society.
Unfortunately I could not attend to this weeks seminar due to a clash in my schedule. I’ve read some of the reflections and think it’s interesting how Adorno & Horkeimer critique how media can be manipulated and especially something that is believed to show the truth such as film. Film can easily be edited and the story & plot can be controlled by the director to show the audience the truth as the director sees it. This is a major issue with media even in todays society. In Sweden 80% of our media is controlled by one company, one company(Bonnier)! Since most of us get our information from the news this means that the flow of information is pretty much controlled by this company. Thankfully the internet has opened up more channels of information but it is still pretty scary with the ”fourth estate”. Take the Swedish election for example. It would be interesting to se how many of the voters who actually decides after taking the ”valbarometern” on Aftonbladet. The results are very much controlled by Aftonbladet in the way they interpret the answers to their questions and this can probably make a huge impact on the outcome of the voting results.
What I'm trying to say with this is that with technology and reproduction of art we are able to affect millions of people to believe in something that is not necessarily the truth.
Even though you couldn’t attend to the seminar I think you capture the best argument in this theme. I think it’s scary to know how the mass media can control the information that is released to the community. You mention the “valbarometern” which was public by Aftonbladet, the Swedish left side of the politic right-left scale. Perhaps this was the reason the majority of the doubtful voters chosen the right side, just because the Aftonbladet can control the “barometern” tool? Or what do you think? Perhaps not? But it gave me a suspicion of cheating.
SvaraRaderaHi Noa,
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that this week´s theme was very interesting with how media affect the world we live in. I think your example with Swedish Bonnier controlling 80 percent of Sweden´s media production is a great example of how media is affecting us today.