post class Horkheimer-Adorno

Like Jean, I was stuck by the quote “ The radio democratically makes everyone equally into listeners.” The choice of the word democratically is very interesting because it would mean that as listeners, we are all free to choose what we would like to hear and that all equally. Every spectator having the same right of choosing and the same voice. I can agree that we have the choice of turning of the radio or not, to change the channel or not but are we really choosing what is being aired? Not at all right? I find this quote very ironic and grate because it is what we are told to believe to be kept happy in our society. We think that we have all these choices and are free to decide what it is we want. But the truth is, we are in a consumer society where everything we think we choose is in fact set in front of us by the media, by society, by the way we have been raised, for us to “choose”. The reason we pick a brand at the store is because our mom use to choose that brand. The reason we watch a certain TV show, or listen to a certain type of music is because it has been advertised, our friends listen to it, watch it or for the sake of being “different” because no one knows about it, we feel like we move out of ideology by showing interest in them but they are all the same part of an other ideology. The most popular choices are the ones set by the hegemonic ideology because it is what we know best, have been expose to more. This just sends us back to what Althusser said, “ There is no practice except by and in an ideology”