5 - Constituents of a theory of the media

Originally published in 1970, the article “Constituents of a Theory of the Media” shows an author already worried about how electronic media was influencing not only people’s consciousness but social and political structures as well. Hans Magnus Enzenberger points to the mobilizing power of the electronic media considering the way they are being used. For him, media apparatus were working to prevent communication rather stimulate it. The polarization between transmitter and receiver reflects the opposition among producers and consumers (15). The latter is unable to express their opinions since media is controlled by the consciousness industry. 

Enzenberger posits that the Left reduced the development of the media to the defensive concept of manipulation (17). For him, this concept was outworn and didn’t highlight anymore what it should illuminate. The nature of the media is ‘dirty,' says Enzenberger. The ‘New Left’ attempt to escape from the electronic media using archaic media, but it is inevitably impacted by aesthetic produced within the consciousness industry (18, 19). For him, the New Left fears of new media and capitalism explicit its weakness. The socialist movements should absorb media apparatus and use it for their causes.

For Enzenberger, to talk about media is to talk about manipulation, with no exceptions. Every media content is manipulated by some particular interest. On the other hand, the author poses television against the cultural monopoly of bourgeois when he mentions the egalitarian structure of electronic media and how it is accessible for anyone. For him, the new media is a mean of production, not for consumption. The electronic media could be a socialized means of production if in the masses hands (21). Enzenberger argues that the electronic medias should be used ‘everywhere where there is social conflict’ (23).

The author posits that the consciousness industry creates needs, but doesn’t satisfy any of them. For him, the only way out for this situation is a cultural revolution (25). He postulates the ‘emancipatory use of media,' considering the mobilizing potentialities of the media used to collective productions, political act, and mobilization of the masses (26). Enzenberguer accuses the ‘Marxist Left’ of giving attention only to the problems related to bourgeois when studying the consciousness industry and leaves ‘socialist possibilities’ aside (28). He questions the use Marxists made of media.

Enzenberger did some hard critics to Marshall McLuhan’s theories such as charlatan author, incapable of constructing concepts (29). To look just at media’s structure is ‘ideologically sterile’ (30) and it suppresses social problems.

In his article, Enzenberger also taps subjects such as Benjamin’s technique of reproduction and how changes in the conditions of production put art in the media, and the role of written literature and its future. In general, Enzenberger main concerns go around how masses could appropriate media to social movements. What is interesting in this article is to notice that when Enzenberger explicit his ideals of media as “… a mass newspaper, written and distributed by its reader, a video network of politically active groups.” (23), he was predicting what is currently happening related to digital activism.

Work cited:

Enzensberger, H. (1970). Constituents of a theory of the media. New Left Review, no. 64, 1970, pp. 13-36.