Mass culture and art : an interpretation of mass culture and its' relation to art

Abstract

Various theories of mass culture imply that in contemporary society the media has eroded the boundaries between art and mass culture. However a complete erosion of the above mentioned boundaries has not yet occurred, though some products can be considered to be both mass culture and art. Although there are no criteria that alone can determine the artistic value of a mass cultural product, there are criteria that can determine whether one has acquired the ability to pass an artistic judgement. The claims of the Frankfurt School, and in particular those of Adorno, explicit deny the role of the person as an active consumer of culture; on the contrary, the masses are passive and gullible consumers so they therefore are in no position to pass any judgements on Mass Culture. This dissertation aims to show that individuals who have invested their time in the arts and have cultivated an interest that has earned them the ability to make an artistic judgement. Such a judgement should be privileged over that of others.