Tagged: critical theory

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Public Sociology vs the Anger Industry (or Why Lying Makes Michael Savage Richer)

by pj.rey Cast deep in recession and with unprecedented political polarization inside the halls of government, it’s no shock that the American public is angry.  Perhaps, this frustration is merely a byproduct of legislative and discursive gridlock.  Perhaps, however, this anger is better understood as the cause of such gridlock.  But if this anger is the cause and not merely a reaction to the current political situation, we must ask: Where has all this anger come from?  Has this recession...

Sociology of Culture

Selling the Emotional Self

nmccoy1 Critical Theorist Eva Illouz offers a cultural historical revision to our understandings of the relationship between emotions, capitalism, and psychological discourse.  Her conception of emotional capitalism links the fundamental convergence of notions of self in modernity as both subject of emotional exploration and objectified commodity.   A recent article (see below) about how to sell yourself using Internet technology exemplifies the naturalized use of psychological and self-help discourse as a means to understand oneself and to sell oneself in...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Mass Deception and the Watchmen

Over the weekend, The Watchmen grossed approximately 55 million dollars in its opening weekend in the United States.  More than sixty years ago, sociologists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno argued that movies no longer need to pretend to be art and are in reality, just businesses made into an ideology in order to justify “the rubbish they deliberately produce.” The recent big budget gates in hard economic times suggests a fresh reading of this classic.  The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as...