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CSS Sociology QUESTION #1674
Question 1
The Frankfurt School theorists — particularly Adorno and Horkheimer — introduced the concept of the 'culture industry' to advance which critical argument about mass culture under advanced capitalism?
  • That capitalist production has successfully democratized access to genuine artistic culture
  • That mass-produced popular culture functions as a mechanism of ideological domination, standardizing tastes and pacifying critical consciousness✔️
  • That elite art forms have been displaced by a more egalitarian cultural production
  • That the decentralization of media has weakened the concentration of political power
Correct Answer Explanation
In 'Dialectic of Enlightenment' (1944), Adorno and Horkheimer argued that the culture industry — the mass production of standardized cultural commodities (film, music, radio) — serves capitalism by commodifying culture, manufacturing false needs, homogenizing taste, and preventing the development of critical consciousness that might challenge the existing social order.