This is the topic for my Media Theory essay wherein I will explore Adorno and Horkheimer's assertions established in "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception." Using this chapter as a foundation for contemporary theory, I will exaine how other theorists respond to the arguments presented by the two theorists and how the theories that emerge from The Dialectic of Enlightenment chapter are manifested in Los Angeles as a urban and cultural space.

This account will serve to enhance my understanding of Adorno and his relationship to Los Angeles—his situation as a German exile during the World War II era and beyond. It will most likely appear in my conclusion: I would like to avoid overuse of direct subjectivity in the immediate context of my argument. Although, if any elements emerge that sustain the arguments established by Adorno’s work with Horkheimer in “The Culture Industry,” I will refer to this book in the critical part of my essay. It might also help to establish my initial portrayal of the intimacy of Adorno’s relationship to Los Angles.

This article focuses specifically on Adorno and his relationship to Los Angeles. In exploring the entries that appear in Minima Moralia, Israel explains the personal nature of Adorno’s theory, especially those thoughts that appear in “The Culture Industry.” Notes from this article will, like the thoughts expressed in Minima Moralia, probably appear in the concluding statements of my essay as they examine the more personal relationship Adorno has with Los Angeles. I do not want to over-emphasize the subjectivity of Adorno’s theories throughout my work—although they may be helpful in introducing the intimacy of Adorno’s response to Los Angeles and the Culture Industry it presents. This is an important essay as it reminds us that Adorno’s experience cannot be separated from his theories.