Ohman and Adorno/Horkheimer

After reading both Culture Industry by Adorno and Horkheimer and Selling Culture by Ohman, both authors characterized the culture industry differently. Adorno and Horkheimer Theory doesn’t offer much rationale or plausible examples that this theory is valid, for instances in their theory it states “The culture industry claims to serve the consumers needs for entertainment, but conceals the way that it standardizes these needs, manipulating the consumers to desire what it produces.” This theory is hard to consider when the ruling class or capitalists sole purpose is to attain wealth, the cost associated with controlling subordinates is far to expensive for the ruling class as depicted in Ohman article.

Ohman explanation of the ruling class is much more rationale than Adorno and Horkheimer theory. Ohman realized mass production is needed for capitalist production any affect on ideology is an indirect outcome of capitalism. Ohman stated that”cultural experiences are bought and sold in markets, propaganda becomes an expensive luxury for its producers”. I believe this to be true capitalists main concern is not shaping ideology, but finding a mass for its products to make profit.