File spoon-archives/habermas.archive/habermas_2001/habermas.0109, message 138


Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:17:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gary E Davis <gedavis1-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: HAB: The Very First Casualty (Evgeni)



--- "E.Pavlov" <epavlov-AT-mail.ru> wrote:

> I wonder what is the role of mass media in all of this talk
> of America, I think mostly of Habermas's comments mass media
> in BFN: 
> 
>"... As the mass media become more complex
> and more expensive, the effective channels of communication 
> become more centralized. . . This selection processes become the 
> source of a new sort of power [the power of the media]." (376)

This condition is being quickly undone by global communications:
Internet, satellite communications, cellular communications, etc.
Habermas's point here is a very tired theme that should be
reconceived relative to the speeding evolution of technology. Yes,
the same old themes are important; but they're much less important in
2001 than they were in, say, 1991 (there's no "new sort of power"
latent to his comment, relative to the events of the decade since
BFN).  

> 
> Habermas goes on about the effects of the media, and I wonder
> in light of Antti's comments on "America", if this ideal America
> has been created by mass media? 

No, the mass media has not created this ideal. It's good to
distinguish the cultural creation of meaning *through* media and the
power of media itself to create mean. I fully support Habermas's
theme in _Legitimation Crisis_ that there is no "administrative
creation of meaning". The "mass media" draw on idealized culture for
their commodifications; commodification cannot create ideality. 

> Can we speak of "ideology industry"? 

Most certainly! It seems to me that a central feature of *cultural*
criticism is to sort out ideologies of commodification (ingenuine
ideologization) from ideologies of culture (idealizations of
meaning).

Best regards,


Gary





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