A Reaction on Theodor Adorno’s “The Culture Industry: Reconsidered” (1963)

Here is an essay that was written 53 years ago and its message and the concepts presented by it are still relevant to this day.

Condensing what I understand based on what I read in the beginning of the essay, culture industry and mass culture are synonymous but not interchangeable. Mass culture is only a part of the broader culture industry. Culture industry is broader in the sense that it combines both the former and contemporary culture which is the popular culture, as well as it merges the high and low art which are separated for so long.

Adorno explains that the consumers of the culture industry are said to be of secondary importance to the latter, even when the culture industry can barely stand without its consumers, the masses. Hence, we can say that the power behind the culture industry has the final say to the products it creates, not the masses, although this is what it seems to be in the surface.

To this day, this is how Philippine TV and radio stations operate. We all know that TV stations sell their TV programs and shows to sponsors, not to consumers. Therefore, consumers are passive viewers, manipulated by the elite and sponsors.

The author argues that originally, the motive behind the culture industry was the profit. The cultural forms ever since had become commodities in the marketplace due to this economic return; hence, they were governed according to how they can increase profit for the culture industry, not because of their particular content and formation. We can conclude then that quality here was sacrificed for quantity.

Later on, the profit interests are no longer the driving force behind the culture industry. The culture industry has become public relations in itself in which there is no need to sell cultural commodities to the consumers as they will appeal to them regardless. Cultural commodities then are swallowed by the masses regardless of how and for what/whom they are made. This is added by the fact that people buy the idea of conflicts that can barely be solved in real life, but are possible through these products, as those products of the culture industry are representation of real life, which is the ideal life.

Hence, whenever a giant TV station in the Philippines airs a particular TV program that is different from the current programs, the masses embrace it and most of the time, it becomes mainstream. Take the case of a Korean-drama Jewel in the Palace when it was aired by the giant TV station GMA sometime in 2006. On the other hand, even when the same story line is presented to the viewers over and over again, like in the case of Philippine telenovelas, people would rather take it than not.

The essay is spot on when it mentioned that the quality of a cultural product is not measured by how many people it touches. That is why it is important that the masses should not simply swallow it all in, but question it critically instead. People are said to be well-informed because of the information disseminated through a specific cultural commodity, but in actuality they only conform to what the media feed them. Social consciousness therefore is lost as the people are more influenced by the cultural form’s ideology, and the consequence is that this influence can affect their behavior.

Adorno ends his essay by claiming that the culture industry is “anti-enlightenment”,.. “a total mass deception” and “a means for fettering consciousness” (Adorno 108). Applying this to the present, I could not deny the fact that this is the reality not merely in the Philippine mass media, but everywhere especially in Hollywood. Because of these, I began to ponder, how can we overturn this deception? In what ways can individuals decide for themselves without the culture industry’s influence?

Reference:

Adorno, Theodor. “Culture Industry Reconsidered”. Popular Culture: A Reader. Raiford Gaines and Omayra Zaragoza Cruz. London: Sage, 2005. 103-108. PDF.

On Research Papers and Thesis

Just before I write my thesis in college, my subjects in my Bachelor’s degree program had introduced me to their “mini thesis” called research papers. A research paper is actually one of the requirements of a particular course or subject, as a final assignment or project. Your professor probably assigned you to pick one among the topics he or she proposed, and then instructed you to come up with a 10-page paper equivalent to probably 1000 words write-up about your topic. For most of us, a mediocre paper is enough just to pass this course. We do not realize that this experience is really a preparation for a more complicated process, commonly known as the thesis, until the latter part of our college life.

You may choose to submit a poorly-written paper just like what I did to several of my courses requiring research papers just to pass a course. But you can also choose to excel in this area so you would be well-prepared when the final project of your program is put on your lap. Otherwise, your graduation day with caps and gown is impossible to happen. We don’t want that to happen, do we? We know that your graduation depends on your thesis.

Do remember that you will not be given a complex task like thesis unless you are well-versed in the particulars of your program. Every bit of what you learned will lead you to the most dreaded part of your college life. If possible, keep a paper-based or computer-based folder of all your activities and assignments in all of your classes. This is because you might need them when you are going to start writing your thesis. Even today, I actually keep an organized folder of all my courses in my laptop for future use. They are actually helpful especially when I want to recall a technique in writing that I have forgotten. They really are valuable even today when I am working in the corporate world as a writer.

Googling: A Modern-Day Writing?

Access to resources is now instant by means of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It is not a rarity that a student submitted a copy-paste of his or her reports or write ups that are lifted from a couple of online websites. Although school administrators in colleges and universities are not lacking in terms of reminding the students that plagiarism is a crime, cases of the latter are still rampant due to laziness in the part of students. We have arrived at the Information age where students become passive learners due to the many resources that are easily accessible by their fingertips. Now, in this sense, we should redefine learning in the Information era to integrity and credibility. We could only do this by reminding the students to practice their skills in writing even better.

Of course, writing requires hard work. We understand that it is not easy to compose a piece of report or two without doing research first unless you have enough knowledge of what you are going to write. Sometimes, we noticed that a sentence in a particular website precisely captured the words that we want to say. It surely is tempting to claim that group of words of your own without acknowledging the author. Sometimes, due to our carelessness, we only forgot to cite our resources or that we meant no harm against the source. Still we committed such crime.

We have to remember that it is in fact allowed in college to lift your ideas from a credible resource as long as you cite it properly. In the academe, these writing processes are commonly known as précis and paraphrasing. To remind you of this two, précis is summarizing a paragraph or an idea from your source while paraphrasing is putting in your own words or making the paragraphs of the original text longer than it is. We have been taught of the importance of précis and paraphrasing in our college years to avoid plagiarism.  It is a given that it is indeed hard to restate in your own words the text from your source. I can attest to that fact. When I was a freshman in college, I did have a hard time paraphrasing as I am not so much of a “talker” in writing before. But later on, due to endless and sleepless nights, I have learned to hone these skills on my own.

Fieldwork, Fieldwork

I decided to travel to Daet by bus one Friday night to accomplish a part of my final project in MMS 173. The trip took about 9 hours; the Superlines bus left Cubao at 9 pm and arrived in Daet at almost 6 in the morning. After an exhausting trip, I ate my breakfast in Jollibee at the downtown area because I hadn’t eaten since the night before I travel. After that, I took another 16-pesos multicab-ride to Pagsangahan, a countrified barangay in the town of Basud not so distant from the capital. I stayed in my grandma’s bungalow-type house which is considered as one of the most beautiful amidst the other native houses in Pagsangahan. I did spend the whole weekend there to take photos of traditional dwellings as I know no place with native types other than my grandmother and dad’s hometown. Actually, I was there for two reasons: to do photo walk of native houses and shoot for my documentary project. I was eager to do them the whole weekend because I have no time on the weekdays because of my work.

After taking a nap that same day, I bathed and geared up for a photo walk in the barangay. I probably spotted 30 houses as subjects until I reached the Pagsangahan bridge which is the boundary of Pagsangahan and the other barangay called Langga. Out of courtesy, I talked and sometimes pleaded with the owners to take a picture of the exterior of their houses. Most were too nice to let their modest houses be photographed; a few were doubtful of my motive; others talked to me as if I’m a good old friend. I noticed that a few were also a bit shy to talk, so I understood their silence as consent and then proceeded to take a picture. I even mentioned my aunt who is a pretty well-known dressmaker there just to convince some homeowners. All in all, the locals were very accommodating to let me experience the beauty of their homes from the outside. I wasn’t satisfied with a two or three hours photo walk that Saturday, so I decided to continue it the next day. When I reached the bridge of Pagsangahan, I waited for a ride and then got on a multicab heading to the capital Daet to buy a gift for my cousin’s birthday in Basud.

Pagsangahan Bridge

A barangay site street

The next day which is Sunday, I planned to go to the barangay site to finish the last part of my business there. My aunt suggested the site to me because the place is more of like a huge village of nipa houses. My 3 cousins and a niece did accompany me as I am not used to the place. We started after lunch and then wandered around the site. Indeed, the place is primitive; streets were rough and some houses have a detached comfort room. I can still remember that I used to live in a house like that in Basud 15 years ago, I know the feeling of uneasiness and discomfort when I go to the comfort room meters away from our house.

I can say that I do love field work, although I had limited time to do my projects there. I must admit that I would want to do this again even after I’m done with my MMS 173 class. This might be more of a hobby to me and who knows I might be noticed when I showcase a portfolio.

Photographs and Vanity

I went to UPD campus one fine Wednesday afternoon to accomplish my self-portrait assignment. Prior to going there, I prepared different sets of clothes, styled my hair, and put on a bit of make up so I would just retouch it on the set. I arrived at around 3 pm at Quezon Hall to meet my friend who accompanied me all throughout, and then we proceeded to the field on the left side right off the road going to the Office of the University Registrar. My friend helped me to mix and match and change clothes, and suggested good spots on the campus for the photo shoot. In fact he’s the one who convinced me to do a serious glamour-like photo shoot for my project. He was so eager to dress me like a doll even before we had an assignment like this in photography.

The field was perfect for the first attempt. The green grass and the building painted with red complemented my attire then. I wore a black coat with big buttons and animal printed shoes. Sadly, after a few minutes of staying there, it rained so hard for about 30 minutes or more. We ran to the nearest huge tree there, as there’s hardly any chance for us to get to the nearest shed without getting wet from head to foot. We stayed near the branch of the tree, allowing my friend to protect himself and our props and bags. I chose then to cover myself with my coat, for the sake of him and my camera and bags that I became wet except my shorts. It’s as if I showered with my wet hair and blouse–was a total mess right after. It’s a good thing that I had at least 5 photos to choose from, if in case it would rain until dark. The moment the rain stopped we then hurriedly went to the next spot, as my friend told me that we should continue the shoot for me to have lots of photos to choose from for my project. I bought the idea as the day would be wasted if we only have those 5 photos when I know for a fact that only 2 or 3 of them did seem acceptable. He suggested the School of Urban and Regional Planning mainly because we can shoot there without getting wet again until it gets dark.

Second attempt was the climax and ending of it all. Thankful that the design of the building allowed us to have different angles which led us for an additional 40 plus photos. The wall of the building was too pretty not to be the background of some of those pictures. Aside from the rough wall, the windows, steps, pathway, and even the vacant lot with trees and grasses were well-suited as backgrounds. We stopped when we started feeling hungry at around 6 pm.

The experience was tiring but fulfilling. I realized that I experienced what models have gone through their photo shoots. It wasn’t at all easy, in fact this required hardwork as a photographer and model. I’m not used to posing like that, in fact I appeared so weird on most of my photos. Truth is, of all the 50 plus photos, only two seemed okay. I finally decided that these two are the ones I’m going to submit.

Self-portraits

And The Most Exciting Part is..Post Processing

This is the moment I have been waiting for. Finally, we have moved to the post processing terms and techniques part. Tried a bit of techniques myself and I have to admit that I enjoyed doing it a lot. I have become addicted to cropping, straightening, and hdring my photographs using Picasa photo editor. Picasa has some features such as lomo, orton, hdr, sharpening, among many to take advantage of. Tried fake hdr to my recent photo collection of a birthday party in Jollibee and it seemed appropriate in some photos and not to others. I experimented with the fake hdr effect to photos with different subjects and I noticed that it isn’t for close-ups of people’s faces. It is only good with subjects such as inorganic or those with geometric shapes, among others.

Of all the topics in the post processing part, the RGB and CMYK issue is what I am most familiar with. I did a few tarpaulin layouts in Photoshop in the past and I always made it sure to set the documents to CMYK. Otherwise, they might end up just like the brochure project of my sister for the company she works with. The first is a picture I took of the printed brochure that was set to RGB, the second was set to CMYK. The second photograph below is my sister’s intended look of the brochure.

Picture 1. Set to RGB                        Picture 2. Set to CMYK

We wondered why this happened, as we still didn’t know then that this is due to RGB and CMYK issue.                     

My examples are surely related to graphics but of course are applicable to photographs. If we are considering to have our images be printed some time for future use, we will need to set them to CMYK so that color details will be the most faithful to what we see on our computer monitor. To do this in Photoshop, open the picture, then click Edit > Convert to Profile and then change the ‘Destination Space’ to ‘Working CMYK’. I don’t know if the following is also crucial to photographs, but the downside based from my experience in graphics is that colors in CMYK are limited as compared with RGB. I went through picking from a limited set of colors for my graphics as a result. I wasn’t satisifed with the output.

Now, I know why my friend came up with vibrant and lovely pictures. It is mostly because of the HDR, lomo, etc. effects he employed in his photos. He kept a tumblr page before where he showcased his photo collection and miniblogs and I wondered why he came up with pleasing photographs when he only used an old Sony point-and-shoot. Never did I ask my friend about this and I had been figuring out this all along, until today. It’s a good thing that there is specific unit allotted in our class to learn of this.

Fun, Fun Learning on MMS 173

As the class has reached the topic on the technicalities of photography, I realized how overwhelming the terms have gotten to be. As a newbie, although the lessons introduced become harder to grasp each time and then a new one follows, the more the lessons become exciting nevertheless. Further, although a few of the technical terms were not so much of an endearing word to remember, case studies become the equalizer in that they make learning new things become unforgettable and highly enjoyable.

Among the lessons opened under the technique section, that about the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed was perplexing at first particularly the exposure triangle. Although these words were partly familiar to me in a way as probably I heard them somewhere and ran into my digital camera’s setting, they still were a bit not easy to understand. I only absorbed the three terms after they were expounded one by one in each section that deals with them. I commend the inclusion of sample pictures there, but the explanations I had to read twice or thrice to understand. I don’t know others, but to me, this is because it is hard to take in the terms only through description unless demonstrated or that examples were given. And a huge factor of course is probably because I am a first timer, so reading it again and again just to fully comprehend is quite understandable.

Meanwhile, some examples such as the picture during the golden hour at UPOU headquarters did appear unreal to me the first time I saw it right on the upper center of the course site. Funny but this was actually my mindset every time I throw a glance of it whenever I open the course site. It was quite unexpected and surprising when Prof Al mentioned that the sky really did look like that at the UPOU headquarters on the picture. It was so good to know that. Hmm.. now I understand why Sir Al put it there. lol I would definitely try to practice taking photographs during golden hours after this.

As oppose to the daunting terms, case studies right after the main lessons were very fun and interesting. I did enjoy the case study about how to make the waterfalls silky. Before, I really thought the waters in pictures such as that were literally silky without knowing that this was a serious task of the photographer or that he or she took great pains in producing this output. A couple of days after learning that, I opened facebook and saw a picture with waterfalls. I then inspected it and understood first hand that it used the technique that Sir Al taught us. Talk about being addicted with the technique myself. Lol I am just thankful to learn this thing in this course. I am also particularly interested in shooting in low light condition or during the night. Using my digicam before it was so hard to arrive at a clean composition especially when you see white spots on your images right after. My friend told me it was sort of ghosts and it cannot be avoided. Oh well, I think otherwise–it has to do with the camera. Which way, I would love to know what they are exactly.

On Telling Stories on Your Photographs

This second blog of mine can be condensed to the inspiration I got from the real world past and present photographers and the stories behind the pictures I took. You see, the exercises in the “Greatest of the Past”, “Present Masters”, and the “Prose: Telling Stories Behind Your Pictures” forums have elevated my understanding of the terms that the class undertook in the design elements, design principles, and composition forums.

In the “Greatest of the Past”, Prof Al required us to choose one famous photographers in history and asked us to explain why we think he/she is the best amongst them all. After browsing through the given list of 100 most influential photographers in the past, I finally chose the number 2 there who is W Eugene Smith.  Even today, I am still thinking of compelling reason why I chose him in the first place aside from my personal biases in his photos of war zones. You see Smith had lived in the years of black and white printing, hence, he had been limited to showcase his works on the elements of design other than color. I think photographers in the present have an advantage over the past ones but this doesn’t make them greater in any way. Smith in the first place had perfected his skills in photograph composition in black and white, and that’s what modern professional and aspirant photographers should learn from him.

Smith’s most compelling compositions for me are war horror stories like this picture.

(Photo credit: leegallery.com)

Just like in the above forum, we were asked to pick one photographers in the “Present Masters” forum and described the meaning of his/her works to us but this time, in one of the contemporary photographers whether famous or not as long as we think his/her works are unique and touch us. Naturally, I chose one photographer that will be different from the rest in terms of themes, difficulty in composing, and being close to natural. In the website I found that showed quite a list of greatest photographers, my eyes were fixed to that of Nicholas Samaras works. Why? Simply because he is an underwater photographer. You know, while researching I had never been mesmerized with the fashion photography which is the most common. I don’t know, but my eyes cannot be forced to like it so. What I see in Samaras works is in fact a reflection of my personality in that I am drawn to the most realistic and vibrant photograph there is. Thus, my inclination is simply typical of me. In addition, I do know that it is very challenging to take pictures underwater. Compare this random picture on the left to that of Samaras’ on the right:

(Photo credits: Clarisse Mallari and Nicholas Samaras)

See what I’m talking about? Underwater photography is not easy.

Finally, in the “Prose forum”, we were instructed to pick our favorites from our photo collection and share the stories and what we wanted to express in the pictures. I decided then to put the most memorable pictures I took in a vacation in Bicol, Philippines. My reason for doing so is that these are the most decent photographs I took as a newbie and that this was the first time for me to tell stories through my compositions. I am doubtful if they have effect to the viewers but at least I heard one person, without any hint of my intention, that he was touched by the peacefulness and the natural view of the river.

In summary, an aspiring photographer like me should imitate W Eugene Smith and Nicholas Samaras in their passion in storytelling and the ability to show these stories despite obstacles in their way. As we know, W Eugene Smith was able to raise social consciousness and affect change through his photographs of real people and scenes despite being injured in the field, and Nicholas Samaras in an underwater setting, has been able to reveal the stories in the most unexplored part of the Earth that most of us might not have been known if there weren’t courageous photographers willing to dive ocean deep.

My Initial Progress in Photography 101

Right at the moment of my writing, I am thinking how I suck at photography. Not that I am so bad for a first-timer (yep, I just ran around merrily like a kid with a Canon IXY 210 f last year), just wasn’t properly educated before in the art of taking camera shots.

To be completely honest, prior to taking the course MMS 173: Photography in Multimedia, I was the usual type of taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures (i.e. documenting everyday moments with whatever camera is available). Never did it occur to me that there are these elements, principles of design, and many of the composition techniques I didn’t know before, even though I was briefed with the elements of design during my graphic design class in the last term (didn’t realize they are applicable to photography). That being an ignorant myself in the past with these technical terms, I did not know how to judge a photograph base on standards. Well, today I begin to notice imbalances in photos whenever I look on pictures on face book or anywhere else in the World Wide Web. It is embarrassing that I even treated then some of my compositions as anything but ordinary, so to speak. Well, several may be considered aesthetically pleasing at least to an ordinary person, but far from acceptable in the eye of a pro.

Before, I had no interest in taking photographs as I’d rather be the subject of photo shoots being a vain, superficial, or narcissistic (you name it) lady myself, aside from the fact that there was no available camera to use back then. Like I said above, I just have gotten exercising my hand and finger in clicking my digicam last 2012 out of curiosity if I have the so-called “eye”, as they say, and to add some to my photo albums as I had no current pictures of me to show off back then.

So here it is. Dennis my friend, an enthusiast, noticed and said I got the potential. He told me this during when we always hang out and we always bring our digicams. One fine afternoon, we were roaming around Marikina with our point-and-shoot cameras in hand. He was taking pictures skillfully as I noticed, while I took whatever what I think was perfect to capture. Then he borrowed my camera to see my shots and was surprised to see some good compositions while critiquing some parts of the photos. I was flattered and got inspired by that but in mind I seriously doubted because I thought “Nagkataon lang mas maganda iyong screen ng kamera ko sa kanya.” (“It just happened that my camera’s screen was better than his.”). As being typical of me, my reaction was “Tsambahan lang yan.” (“That was out of luck.”) as I had no purpose at all but to capture the moments.

Now, I’m not bragging or anything. In fact, I just want to say that after learning just the basics in my photography class, I have no right to be called as such. True because what I do know is being the best in this craft is more than the potential but the drive to pursue it or the never ending learning until you say you have gotten enough which is very rare because no matter how many times we hear others speak of our immense talent/capability and that we have become way advanced in the craft, we think otherwise—that we still have so much thing to learn, in fact.

I am privileged to have access to the overwhelming information about photography in the course site, especially in the forums, the knowledge of my professor and the practitioners in my class. I have all the time in the world to put this to good use in the future. My goal for now is to put “knowledgeable in photography” on my resume, after the first term.

Mobile Telephony for Future Development: Making It Happen

I always have been fascinated about predictions. Well, I guess, I am not the only one who is eager to take a glimpse of what the future holds for our lives. Dreams or even astrology for example do play a big part to somebody who wants to know something about his or her future.  Of course, the most thrilling part is if these things that were revealed in advance will turn out exactly just the way they are foretold.

ICT4D is no exception.  The current trends in ICT4D do foretell what the future will be like for this discipline. Prof Sandy must have estimated it right when he said that its future, more specifically for the agriculture sector, lies on the mobile telephony. Amazingly, this is precisely the same as the findings on 2012 World Bank report.

The World Bank’s latest report analyzes the growth and evolution of mobile telephony and its database services and applications, their consequences for development in agriculture, health, financial services and government, and how they are changing approaches to entrepreneurship and employment. This must be the way ICT4D is heading especially that the cost of mobile devices becomes cheaper and cheaper as time goes by while their quality is improving. Do imagine a world where the television, radio, the computer and the Internet are still in their infancy. Think of it that way in the present: that we are in the early stage of using this potential poverty alleviation tool—the smart phone. Indeed, the future is promising especially when we think about how ubiquitous the radio, television, and the Internet nowadays. I, surely can’t wait for making the smart phone for development becomes a reality.

Hence, if ever I would assess what the future will be like for ICT4D, I would exactly say the same thing as the Unit 3 has explained, given that I have been steadfast from the start in telling that the mobile devices will play a significant part in ICT4D’s future. This is grounded from the fact that three-fourth of the inhabitants of the world today has access to a mobile phone, based on the recent World Bank report. As evidence, World Bank also mentioned that:

The number of mobile subscription in use worldwide, both prepaid and postpaid, has grown from fewer than 1 billion in 2000 to over 6 billion now, of which nearly 5 billion in developing countries. Ownership of multiple subscriptions is becoming increasingly common, suggesting that their number will soon exceed that of the human population.

It is also striking that what is considered to be an ordinary and no-special-use gadget in rich countries has been used more purposely in the developing worlds of Africa, Latin America, and Asia as a necessity for lifestyles, livelihoods, and even for governance. However, if ever there will be a hindrance to the fully utilization of the mobile phones as means for eliminating poverty in poor regions of the world, this has to be on the role that the Apple company plays to balance out their product’s affordability. In other words, how can we make more accessible the tool that contains all the answers to the poor’s problem when in reality they cater only to the can-affords? In spite of this, there are, or there will be, alternatives out there just like the inexpensive smart phones comparable in quality to iPhones such as the Samsung smart phones.

There are also the all-important mobile phone applications that go hand in hand with the mobile devices. Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile reported that “more than 30 billion mobile applications, or apps were downloaded in 2011”, which are “software that extend the capabilities of phones”, for useful things such as “mobile wallets, navigational aids or price comparison tools. The challenge, as the World Bank continued, is “to enable people, businesses, and government in developing countries to develop their own locally-relevant mobile applications to take advantage fully of these opportunities” to advance human and economic development.

References

Flor, A. ICT4D: Information and Communication technology for Development, UPOU.

World Bank. (2012). Maximizing Mobile.

World Bank. (2012). Mobile Phone Access Reaches Three Quarters of Planet’s Population, July 12, World Bank Group. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/07/17/mobile-phone-access-reaches-three-quarters-planets-population