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In short, as a part of the cultural superstructure of the United States, the American
media voluntarily play a key role in supporting the status quo of the political system and economy. It is an effective way to protect their power and profits. To attack the existing arrangements of government or instill discontent with existing economic arrangements would be counterproductive. Such acts would reduce opportunities to make maximum profits for those who own and control the media. Thus, there is no need for government bureaus of censorship, regulating newspapers and dictating to movie studios, radio stations, or television stations who might not send out favorable views of American society.
The media are quite eager, the cultural critics say, to do that on their own.
It is not an easy task to bring together the complex ideas that have been discussed in
this chapter into a propositional list. Nevertheless, to try to provide an overview of this
complex body of scholarship, it is important to make such an effort. As indicated, many
of the ideas, analyses, commentaries, and criticisms of these scholars have been written in
terms whose meanings may not be clear to everyone. Reducing their major assumptions
and conclusions to a brief set of propositions, therefore, is a risky endeavor at best.
The focus here is not on cultural criticism broadly. That is far too large a body of writing
to try to pull together. The assumptions set forth below are mainly relevant to criticism of
the mass media and their content. In general, then, the major propositions and conclusions of
cultural criticism, focusing on the mass media, their content, and their influences, are these:
The Basic Propositions of Cultural Criticism of the Media: A Summary
1 Cultural criticism is a broad activity conducted by a variety of scholars who use many criteria to call attention to numerous flaws they believe exist in postmodern societies, including their systems of mass communication.
2 The assumptions about human nature and the social order that they use as premises for reasoning to the conclusions they reach are derived from ideological sources—that is, a priori conceptions of truth, as opposed to empirical observations made within the rules of science.
3 A major source of their a priori assumptions concerning the nature of postmod–
ern societies, and the part played by their media, is based in large part on the nine–
teenth-century conclusions of Karl Marx, but in many cases, these have been modified by his later interpreters.
4 An important assumption originally set forth by Marx is that the economy of a soci–
ety is the foundation on which its other features rest and that a cultural superstructure
(which includes its media) supports and reinforces beliefs by the masses in the necessity and superiority of that economy.
5 In postmodern societies, with postindustrial capitalist economies, the mass media
play a central part in supplying audiences with a range of content intended to convince them of the positive features of established political and economic arrangements.
6 Therefore, those who control the media in postmodern societies voluntarily shape mass communication content (news, entertainment, and other information) so that it will protect their enterprises and power and maximize their profits, in the classical tradition of capitalism.
Questions for Discussion
1 Critical cultural scholars say that the media play a central role in fostering the approval
and acceptance of the existing system of capitalism. As a result, people in societies
such as the United States believe that their political system is the best of all possible
328 Theories of Influences on Society and Culture
arrangements, and it provides maximum benefits for its citizens. In addition, its eco–
nomic system, capitalism, provides the best opportunity and rewards for those who
work and invest within it. So, what is wrong with that? Why shouldn’t people believe
they have the best political and economic systems, especially when compared to the
alternatives? How would critical cultural scholars respond to these questions?
