Cultural politics and globalized infomedia: C. L. R. James, Theodor Adorno and Mass Culture Criticism

Abstract

The mass culture and information technology industries — infomedia — are at the leading edge of the processes of globalization. These infomedia industries are organized by and in the interest of northern elites as part of the unequal global balance of power and resources. But infomedia, provided that they are subjected to searching critique, do offer to cultural activists resources that may be turned towards radical democratic projects. Both C. L. R. James and Theodor Adorno brought a radical humanist consciousness to bear on the mass culture industries in the USA in the immediate postwar period. Though their conclusions differed, their analyses taken together can provide cultural activists with effective tools for reading both the pitfalls and potentials of the emergent infomedia industries.