A Comparison Of Popular Culture Theory Of The Frankfurt School And Contemporary Scholars

Frankfurt school's mass culture criticism theory that had been created at 30-50' of20 century has laid the foundation for mass/popular culture study. The critical traditionthat this school established is widely influential. After entering the sixties of the 20thcentury, mass/popular culture has developed at full speed with the economic prosperityand progress of science and technology. Being under the influence of contemporaryphilosophic thoughts, contemporary scholars have launched the research of many anglesto mass/popular culture, having obtained newer academic achievement, their view hasproduced greater difference with that of Frankfurt school. In this thesis, we select"attitude towards mass/popular culture", "ideology of mass/popular culture ","audiences' status " three aspects to compare theory of Frankfurt school and that ofcontemporary scholars. First, at attitude towards mass/popular culture, Frankfurt schoolcriticize commercial, standard and affirmative characteristic and function of thoughtcontrol, then they are rejective to mass/popular culture. The contemporary scholarsquery elitism, academic preciseness and the rationality with era nature of FrankfortSchool's theory, and then vindicate mass/popular culture, liberate it from opposite ofexquisite culture, give the rationality that mass/popular culture exists. Second, theFrankfurt school thinks mass/popular culture has lost the negativity and transcending,become the tool that the ruling class implemented ideology and controlled. Thecontemporary scholars are from the variety of mass/popular cultural issues,independence of mass media and initiative of cultural consumption three aspects toexplain that mass/popular culture can resist the ideological controls. Under the influenceof Antonio Gramsci's hegemony theory, some scholars think mass/popular culture is theplace of controlling and resisting struggle that coexist. Third, on the issue of how tothink about audiences, Frankfurt School thinks audiences have no right to choose, donot grasp media either, they are passive receiver under in the power. And contemporaryscholars pay more attention to study on audiences' initiative. Stuart Hall and DavidMorley have probed into the question that the televiewer decode consciously; JohnFiske regards cultural consumers as the meaning and happy producer; the feminists suchas Ien Ang and Jackie Stacey they see women readers' creativity, and encourage womento carry on the cultural consumption actively and freely. After comparing Frankfurtschool's view and the contemporary scholar's, this thesis proposes studyingmass/popular culture dialectically: Treating rise and prosperity of mass/popular culturedividing into two; Analyzing ideology of mass/popular culture in terms of contradictionstruggle; Exploring audiences' status and function in the dialectical relation of culturalproduction and consumption.