In his article How to Look at Television, Theodor Adorno is trying to take a detailed insight inside the popular culture which has been using television as its major presentation. Therefore, the readers can acquire a certain level of awareness of the implication and mechanism of television in order to be sensitive to its nefarious effect.

The article starts with a brief introduction of the vague distinction between the high art and popular culture, the two of which are nowadays inseparable. Drawing its roots from the conventional artistic realm, Adorno further puts the context of class within which mass media is situated. It is then followed by its effect on what is defined as ‘social pattern’. For example, the positions and inequality between sexes have been altered. To finish this part Adorno points out the existence of the ‘overt’ and ‘hidden message’.

Different types of messages have rendered the structure of mass media multi-layered. The hidden ones are greatly concerned for its unorthodox nature and capability of escaping one’s consciousness. Therefore, the complex relation between it and the overt message is of much significance for research, Adorno then analyses its impact on the audience in their unconsciousness and sometimes, even the author of the works loses the ownership of it as the approach to It has been reshaped by the market.

In the final two chapters, Adorno draws attention upon the implication and stereotype within the structure of mass media. Although it seems to seize the hold of people’s way of perceiving the reality and hence put them in a situation of spectacles, stereotype still contains both sides of effect. On the one hand, Adorno highlights the danger of it but on the other hand, a precise insight is still required.

Adorno finishes this article with the widespread influence of the ‘message, prescription and taboos’ and thus the awareness of the psychological mechanism within the presence of mass media has again been given the emphasis.

Adorno’s How to Look at Television is of much value of analysis and further educating. Through the structurally constructed paragraphs not only are we exposed to the fundamental features of television, the mass media, but also, we are introduced to its essence and therefore, as Adorno expected, are enlightened, to a certain extent. The theoretical arguments are further accompanied by examples from various plays, television shows, and films, greatly clarifying the former to make his article further accessible.

Bibliography

Adorno, Theodor, W. (1954) ‘How to look at television’, The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television. University of California Press, 8(3), pp. 213–235. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1209731. (Accessed: 12 February 2019).