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Leah Kossak w1521701


Professor Jeanette Steemers
Media and Society
11 December, 2014
With reference to academic sources what do you understand by the term consumer society and
why is consumption so important for the creative and media industries?
Theory of media has increased during the last few decades, just as popular culture has
amplified. While this consumer society is developing, it is important to note how its changed
from a society that simply consumes what is put out by the industry to one that has a choice in
what they consume. There is one media theorist whose comments about how society is
consuming media still stands out today. Theodor W. Adorno, a German sociologist and
philosopher, is continually known for his critical theory of society. Throughout his time, he
wrote many books and articles declaring that a modern society opposes the conventional
ordering of experience found in mass media. While people are continuing to cite him decades
later, it is also important to look at how society has changed since he was a theorist, and not all
due to popular culture, or culture industry as he preferred to call it. The social media revolution
gave much more power to people towards what they consume. Society now has the ability to
decide whether or not something will become popular. However, through the proof of
commercialisation, society is still consuming traditional media that is a direct outlet from only a
few companies that dominate the industry. Although Adornos theories about popular culture
still hold some relevance today, social media is changing the way a society consumes pop
culture.

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Where Adornos theories prove to be still relevant the most is in the way society
consumes traditional media. While it may seem like there are many options available to obtain
news coverage, after an examination of the companies controlling all new media outlets, there
really is not all that much choice. While there are no monopolies in place due to laws in various
countries preventing their existence, only a few major companies run the media. The Disney
Corporation in particular is one that runs many news outlets. As is pointed out in the 2006
Disney and Consumer Culture article by C. Quail, they own film production studios, a vast film
library, The Disney Channel, cable systems, ABC, television distribution companies, comic
books, Radio Disney, book publishing, magazines, resorts and conference centers, Celebration
a town in Florida, Disneyland, Disney World, and Disney Stores. And the name Disney is
labeled on it allspecifically where the corporation does not want it to be. The name Disney,
according to Quail, has come to symbolize, for many, the very notion of childhood innocence
and magical fantasy that characterizes youth. Disney is one of the foundations of American
culture, with its characters the icons of generations (2006). So this would explain why the
corporation chooses to leave the name off of ABC Studios for example, as this is a news and
entertainment television channel that does not program child-based programming. Yet they are
able to produce news that only the corporation wantsthe news anchors may gloss over a
Marvel blockbuster movie that premiered the previous weekend, but will highlight the Disney
character balloons during the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade held every year in New York
City. This in particular aligns with Adornos concepts on mass media consumption. In a report
on his theories by Robert Witkin, The products in a cultural industrydid not come from the
people, were not an expression of the life-process of individuals or communities, but were
manufactured and disseminated under conditions that reflected the interests of the producers and

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the exigencies of the market, both of which demanded the domination and manipulation of mass
consciousness (2002 p.2). In a consumer society, people need to become more aware that just
one corporation has control over so much materiel they get on news channels.
To go further into detail on the hold the Disney Corporation has on the consumer society,
a look towards the most recent Disney blockbuster, Frozen, can be done. In a 2014 article
written by Maria Konnikova for The New Yorker, she examines the phenomenon. From its
release in January to June 2014, the filmed raked in over $1.2 billion (76,377,4188 pounds) for
Disney; making it the highest grossing animated film of all time (Konnikova 2014). The name
Elsa (the lead character) jumped two hundred and forty-three slots on the UKs most popular
baby names from the 2013 to the 2014 report, making it into eighty-eighth place. Frozens
popularity may mean more names for children and money for Disney, but what this means to a
media-consuming society is significant. Disney purposely let the word-of-mouth spread about
the movie months before its releasetheir lawyers allowed the music to spread naturally
through social media. The fact that Disney didnt crack down on the millions of YouTube
tributes, the fact that its been played everywhere, feeds back into the phenomenon (2014). The
simple fact that Disney allowed so much hype to happen around its movie shows that they are
adapting their techniques in accordance with the social media generation, something Adorno
would have seen coming. In fact, according to Witkin, he believed that corporations, together
with their complex systems of marketing, advertising, and distribution, are merely instrumental
in connecting a disparate mass of consumers to the cultural producers of free creative
individuals (2002, p. 42). Through Frozen and many more productions, the Disney Corporation
is an excellent example of how Adornos theories can still be applied today.

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On the reverse side of all of these concepts, there exists the independent social media not
overtaken by corporations, and demonstrates more choice in what the consumer society sees.
While corporations may have the power in traditional news, the way society gets their news is
changing and becoming more diversified. In an article Raising World Citizens: News
Programming for Youth in the United States and the Lost Language of Democracy (Bybee
2006), this new way of consuming news is explained. It says that fewer and fewer people,
young and old, are following the mainstream news, whether it is delivered in print or by video,
and they are more likely to be piecing together their own news from traditional sources as well
as a wild array of Internet sites, blogs, late night talk shows, and other entertainment venues. The
traditional model of press practice is in a state of crisis, and the future of democratic journalism
is at risk of being dramatically undermined (Bybee 2006). This means that individuals are in
control of what they see and do not see, that they can decide for themselves who is right, instead
of relying on traditional news (which, as mentioned earlier, can be corrupt in what is
programmed). In fact, young people are not even considered a target audience for the traditional
media, as Bybee explains, There may or may not be a youth news section in your local paper.
There are no youth news magazines, unless you want to count Teen People, on newsstands in
bookstores and on the magazine racks in grocery stores (2006). Younger generations are not
relying on traditional outlets for news, so this means they get even more control over what they
consume since they have to seek it out themselves.
To give a better example about how a younger generation is finding their own media and
news, a look towards the recent popularity of #AlexFromTarget can be made. According to the
New York Times, A teenage girl from Britain said she randomly came across a Tumblr photo of
Alex that was surreptitiously taken a week earlier. She thought Alex was cute and posted the

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picture on her Twitter account, @aucalum, with the caption YOOOOOOOOOOO (Bilton
2014). While the start of the hashtag and presence was unusual, the gain of 730,000 followers
(as of 12 November) Target employee Alex Lee attracted the attention of teenagers globally, and
even their parents as they wondered how a fifteen-year-old could gain so much popularity
seemingly overnight. Alex Lee was invited onto several popular talk shows to talk about the
sudden fame, and interviewed by many popular newspapers, but only after over a week after the
hashtag became a worldwide trending topic. While marketing firms attempted to take credit for
the sudden fame, all of these claims turned out to be false as the truth unfolded: the creation of
the hashtag, meme, and celebrity was only due to teenagers on social media. It is clear from The
New York Times article that Lee had no intention of becoming famous, that the fame even
concerned him and his parents as they hired an advisor to help him deal with it. According to a
Buzzfeed News article, after claims that Lee was fired from the store, target even took up the
hashtag to help him out, showing clearly that he was not fired but instead was a star at the
company. The Internet was in control, traditional media outlets only ran the story after the fact,
the creation and initial popularity of #AlexFromTarget was simply due to social media. This
only serves to prove that a consumer society needs a new identity, as now regular people can be
the ones in charge of the news that is not only consumed, but also put out. With all of his
theories, Adorno had never predicted this type of turnaround in a consumer society.
While the social phenomenons of Frozen and #AlexFromTarget are juxtaposed against
each other, together they serve a purpose of how the media industry is adapting to the new world
gained from social media. While mega corporations like Disney are aware of the changing
culture and are taking advantage of it, it will be impossible for them to know every tend as its
happening. The creative industry will have to become more adaptable to trends that they did not

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start themselves, and understand that not every popular piece of culture will be produced by the
industry. The media industry, on the other hand, will need to adjust its idea of what media really
is. As said by Jay Rosen in The Social Media Reader (2012), the people formally known as the
audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the
platform shift youve all heard about (p. 13). For further explanation of this new term: The
people formally known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media
system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms
competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one
anotherand who today are not in a situation like that at all (Rosen p. 13). It is important that
the media industry take note of all the new media people, as they will be able to rise just as
highif not higherin the industry. Everyone can understand the differences in society with
social media, but the longer anyone in media denies the change the less they are going to be
heard by an audience that is no longer there.
In the world Adorno lived in, the majority of people would take in whatever was put out
by the big companies. Society consumed popular culture more then food, and they were a happy
audience. However, since social media has come about, so much has changed. Adornos
theories towards consumerism may still apply to traditional media, but the media and creative
industries need to adapt in order to survive. With so many new creatorswithout a degree in
journalismthere are many new options available for an individual in society to consume.
While Adorno lived in a time for mass media, now it is more individualized, personalized, and
tailored towards a person. People have to power to create their own media, and the industry will
need to embrace this change. Society no longer exists as consuming drones, if something is not
liked, it does not become popularized. For a film such as Frozen to do as well as it has, the way

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Disney handled the buzz around it must be looked at. In order for the industry to thrive, it must
be able to cater towards individuals in the new consumer society.

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References
Bilton, N. (2014, November 12). Alex From Target: The Other Side of Fame. New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/
Broderick, R. (2014, November 3). Teenagers Just Turned This Guy Alex Who Works at target
Into a Huge Meme. Retrieved from Buzzfeed News website: http://www.buzzfeed.com/
Bybee, C. (2005). Raising World Citizens: News Programming for Youth in the United States
and the Lost Language of Democracy. Contemporary Youth Culture: An International
Encyclopedia. Retrieved from Credo Reference database.
Cook, D. (1996). The Culture Industry Revisited: Theodor W. Adorno on Mass Culture. Rowman
& Littlefield.
Konnikova, M. (2014, June 25). How "Frozen" Took Over the World. The New Yorker.
Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/
Quail, C. (2005). Disney and Consumer Culture. Contemporary Youth Culture: An International
Encyclopedia. Retrieved from Credo Reference database.
Rosen, J. (2012). The People Formerly Known as the Audience. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), The
Social Media Reader. Retrieved from http://reader.eblib.com/
Witkin, R. W. (2003). Adorno and Popular Culture. Retrieved from Dawsonera database.

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