Critical Theory of Communication New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet

intersubjective alienation 168, 172
inverted commodity fetishism
67, 134
iPhone 217
irrational rationality 84
iTunes 89, 217

J

Jaeggi, Rahel 4, 22, 153, 156
jazz 87, 89
Jenkins, Henry 134
journalist 9, 67, 81, 100, 208

K

Kafka, Franz 85
Kant, Immanuel 5, 7, 142, 156
Kellner, Douglas 111
Kindle 217
knowledge 14, 40, 89, 179, 210, 215
knowledge society 177
Kurella, Alfred 87

L

labor 8, 14, 52, 94, 96, 114, 117, 128, 140, 144, 188, 216
labour 15, 39, 48, 53, 124, 125, 130, 141, 161, 169, 177, 181, 188, 197, 200, 210
labour power 11, 30, 63, 64, 122, 130, 200
language 28, 52, 54, 57, 90, 94, 179, 182, 185, 210, 214
law of nature 19
law of value 16
leisure 129, 131, 169, 210
Lenin 85, 191
Leninist theory of reflection 190
lifeworld 25, 29, 33, 50, 94, 154, 159, 187, 189, 214
LinkedIn 113, 133
liquefaction 130
literature 27, 28, 85, 87, 105, 191, 192
love 66, 93, 100, 127, 133, 144, 157, 194, 213
Luhmann, Niklas 54, 196
Lukács, Georg 22, 27, 35, 39, 47, 83, 105, 154, 208, 213

M

Machlup, Fritz 92, 99, 105

market 59, 80, 121, 154, 181, 194, 212

marketing 60, 66, 104, 123, 159, 172, 188

Marxism and Literature (Williams) 27, 192

Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (Vološinov) 27, 190

Marxism as process 2

Marx, Karl 3, 9, 29, 35, 59, 64, 69, 79, 86, 97, 106, 112, 117, 131, 138, 144, 156, 158, 179, 181, 188, 189, 192, 198, 207, 211, 215

Marx’s theory of the law 6
materialist philosophy 53
materialist theory 191, 207
mathematics 34, 155, 180
Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk 81
Mead, George Herbert 50, 158, 162
Mechanical Turk 63, 216
media 10, 25, 31, 40, 61, 81, 100,
104, 113, 120, 132, 140, 169,
184, 187, 194, 196, 202
media dualism 188, 189
media studies 25, 82, 194
Mendelson, B.J. 68
mental labour 179, 209, 217
mental work 56, 69, 95, 106,
209, 210
meta-dialectic 120, 211
metaphysics 32, 36, 96, 156
Microsoft 62
money 11, 20, 30, 59, 97, 99,
104, 122, 131, 134, 181, 185,
194, 214
monism 161, 173
morality 53, 142, 157, 163, 166, 173
moral philosophy 155, 213
music 60, 76, 79, 88, 93, 200

226

Index

N

National Socialism 36, 138
natural sciences 105
nature 8, 48, 51, 86, 89, 105, 116, 124, 144, 155, 163, 182, 190, 198, 210
Nazi 5, 31, 36, 78, 81, 88, 137, 138
necessity 58, 79, 94, 112, 118, 141, 215
needs 14, 17, 56, 65, 90, 95, 101, 115, 122, 129, 140, 142, 155, 159, 161, 164, 191, 213
negation of the negation 8, 11
Negative Dialectics 49, 76
Negri, Antonio 16
neoliberalism 78, 131, 161, 212
New Left 127
Nietzsche 138, 157
non-profit 80, 124, 147, 212
non-value 56, 164

O

objectification 48, 51, 98, 154, 157
objective alienation 41, 127, 168, 171
objective dialectics 117
One-Dimensional Man (Marcuse) 112, 119
On Jazz (Adorno) 88
online alienation 27
On Subject and Object (Adorno) 4, 29, 76, 98
On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening (Adorno) 88
On the Social Situation of Music (Adorno) 80
ontology 35, 49, 55, 63, 69, 210, 211
Ontology and the Theory of Historicity (Hegel) 37
Ontology of Social Being (Lukács) 4, 24, 39, 47, 49, 68, 86, 164, 208, 210
open Marxism 2
oppressed groups 8, 139
orthodox Marxism 15, 23
ownership 63, 129, 136, 145, 171, 197

P

Pakulski, Jan 15
participatory culture 134
participatory democracy 104, 134, 143, 167, 174, 201
participatory management 127
patriarchy 55, 63, 126
Pegatron 216
PeoplePerHour 63, 217
People’s Commissariat for Internal Afairs (NKVD) 85
performance principle 122, 126, 147
personal data 68, 116, 122, 171, 213
Phenomenology of Spirit, The (Hegel) 96
philosophy 5, 9, 26, 27, 32, 36, 53, 75, 78, 83, 100, 103, 105, 111, 112, 119, 154, 179, 183, 185, 190, 210
philosophy of language 27, 190
physical work 56, 60, 90, 96, 106, 199
Pinterest 133
play 60, 125, 137, 145, 182, 210

Index

227

playbour (play labour) 130, 212

pleasure 76, 124, 128

plural Marxism 2

political communication 9, 14, 196

political economy 7, 10, 17, 34, 68, 82, 101, 113, 177, 183, 192, 207

politics 16, 24, 38, 95, 104, 111, 115, 121, 139, 159, 173, 184, 188, 207, 213, 215

popular culture 76, 79, 93, 105

positedness 120

positivism 37, 103

postmodernism 15

Postone, Moishe 14, 17

poststructuralism 5, 165

power 15, 26, 32, 65, 83, 94, 96, 99, 121, 134, 156, 160, 186, 194, 196, 201, 209, 214

praxis 6, 8, 18, 29, 35, 37, 50, 117, 120, 144, 146, 211, 215, 219

pre-capitalist society 19

Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, The (Machlup) 92

profit 8, 10, 61, 64, 68, 80, 114, 123, 125, 128, 130, 141, 146, 177, 202, 209, 218

progress 14, 25, 51, 53, 114, 115, 197

proletariat 12, 17, 35, 48, 118, 158

propaganda 36, 86, 188

property 8, 63, 114, 117, 121, 128, 130, 137, 141, 144, 157, 160, 162, 167, 196

protest 25, 146, 157, 169, 218

Protestant 15, 19

public service 81, 141, 188, 202

public sphere 25, 81, 135, 160, 168

Q

Quantat 217 Question Concerning Technology, The (Heidegger) 34

R

racism 13, 18, 38, 87, 100, 106, 169, 191

radio 58, 80, 105, 195

rationality 6, 29, 32, 50, 96, 103, 114, 131, 139, 189, 200

real abstraction 179

Reason and Revolution (Marcuse) 7, 37, 112, 118, 211

recognition 4, 51, 66, 154, 158, 173, 213

redistribution 161

reductionism 16, 28, 132, 178, 180, 185, 214

Reflections on the Cult of Stalin (Lukács) 85

reification 3, 10, 20, 23, 26, 35, 40, 48, 50, 64, 67, 69, 132, 154, 209, 213, 215

Reification: A New Look at an Old Idea (Honneth) 162

relativism 41, 139, 173

religion 33, 65, 100, 104, 142, 183, 196, 207

Renren 113, 133

repressive tolerance 135

reproduction 54, 99, 106, 125, 162, 182, 214

revolution 11, 36, 69, 85, 118, 139, 144, 162

Rosa, Hartmut 4, 153, 155

Rosenberg, Alfred 138

Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio 27, 178, 191, 198, 214

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 156

S

Salzburg Festival 88

science 13, 16, 34, 85, 96, 100, 105, 139, 153, 191

Science of Logic (Hegel) 120
Sein und Zeit (Heidegger) 33, 35

228

Index

self-appropriation 156

self-control 63, 127, 166

sex 101, 125, 169

sign 179, 181, 189, 194, 214

sign value 183

Skoteinos, or How to Read Hegel (Adorno) 76

slave. See  slavery; See  slavery

slavery 17, 31, 53, 55, 61, 87, 118, 157, 168

Smythe, Dallas W. 29, 113, 125

Snowden, Edward 172

social change 25, 115

social factory 127

socialisation (Vergesellschaftung) 142, 165

socialism 3, 14, 83, 86, 118, 139, 146, 161, 166, 179

socialist art 84

social media 26, 39, 60, 66, 82, 101, 111, 154, 212, 218

social media ideology 40, 47, 67, 133, 134, 137

social movement 24, 101, 166, 174, 218

social production 17, 20, 97, 165, 180, 182, 190, 193, 197, 207, 213

social relation 12, 17, 67, 121, 131, 142, 145, 156, 187, 207, 214

social sciences 22, 25, 105, 161

social struggle 8, 65, 146, 166, 172

social theory 24, 153, 163

society 1, 6, 9, 25, 30, 34, 49, 52, 78, 87, 94, 97, 101, 105, 115, 118, 122, 128, 135, 139, 155, 178, 182, 184, 187, 196, 208

Sociology of Culture (Williams) 194

Sohn-Rethel, Alfred 178, 200

solidarity 100, 158, 160, 165, 173, 188, 219

spatio-temporality 57

Soviet Marxism 116

space 58, 79, 98, 122, 128, 147, 155, 174, 195, 197

species-being 19, 98, 144

Spotify 80, 89

Stalin 15, 56, 83

Stalinism 15, 85

status quo 78, 87

Stirner, Max 207

structure/agency-dialectic 193

Struggle for Recognition, The (Honneth) 159

student movement 119, 146, 147

subjective alienation 168

subjective dialectics 117, 122

sublation 11, 116, 120, 141

superstructure 28, 55, 164, 177, 182, 190, 191, 192, 209

surplus labour 11, 16, 19, 126

surveillance 12, 41, 115, 133, 147, 170, 218

symbol 15, 30, 50, 60, 65, 87, 92, 102, 120, 182

symbolic exchange 182

systems 20, 33, 54, 62, 65, 89, 94, 96, 135, 142, 160, 166, 185, 192

T

targeted advertising 61, 66, 123, 130, 135, 212

TaskRabbit 63, 217

Taylorism 179

technological rationality 10, 23, 34, 40, 115, 131, 137, 154, 210, 212, 213, 215

technology 20, 31, 40, 112, 115, 134, 145, 193, 197, 202, 209

teleological action 186, 214

teleological positing 24, 39, 52, 69, 164, 208, 213

television 27, 77, 170

Tencent 134

The I in We (Honneth) 160

Index

229

Theory of Communicative Action, The (Habermas) 25, 29, 50, 94, 186

time 16, 58, 64, 125, 144, 155, 195
Tomasello, Michael 162
totalitarianism 15
Tronti, Mario 127
true Being 9
truth 86, 102, 117, 139, 143, 165, 196
Tugendhat, Ernst 156
Tumblr 66, 133
Twitter 39, 60, 66, 116, 122, 123,
133, 136, 141, 145, 147

U

University of Frankfurt 153
University of Hamburg 191
unpaid labour 61, 63
Upwork 63, 217
use-value 17, 30, 48, 53, 56, 64, 67, 90, 95, 122, 124, 125, 129, 134, 140, 145, 159, 164, 173, 179, 188, 190, 191, 209, 213

U.S.S.R. 15, 83

V

violence 17, 32, 94, 102, 120, 127, 165, 168, 196
VK 133
Vološinov, Valentin 27, 178, 190, 192, 214
Vygotsky, Lev 4, 27, 41, 178, 189, 192, 214

W

warfare 115, 143, 165
Waters, Malcolm 15
WeAreDynamo.org 216
Web 2.0 81, 123
Weibo 60, 66, 113, 123, 133
Wiggershaus, Rolf 5, 22
Wikipedia 113, 141
Williams, Raymond 4, 16, 24, 41,
93, 95, 113, 178, 189, 192, 209,
210, 214

Wired 67

work 3, 17, 24, 26, 29, 30, 39, 47, 50, 53, 69, 83, 106, 114, 117, 121, 124, 147, 159, 164, 169, 179, 182, 186, 188

work and labour distinction 17, 124

World Wide Web 40, 116

Y

York University 18 YouTube 39, 60, 66, 80, 82, 89, 116, 122, 133, 136, 141

230

Index

CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION

T^his ^book ^contributes ^to ^the ^foundations ^of ^a ^critical ^theory ^ofcommunication as shaped by the forces of digital capitalism. communication as shaped by the forces of digital capitalism. One of the world's leading theorists of digital media Professor Christian Fuchs explores how the thought of some of the Frankfurt School’s key thinkers can be deployed for critically understanding media in the age of the Internet. Five essays that form the heart of this book review aspects of the works of Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Axel Honneth and Jürgen Habermas and apply them as elements of a critical theory of communication's foundations. The approach taken starts from Georg Lukács Ontology of Social Being, draws on the work of the Frankfurt School thinkers, and sets them into dialogue with the Cultural Materialism of Raymond Williams.

Critical Theory of Communication offers a vital set of new insights on how communication operates in the age of information, digital media and social media, arguing that we need to transcend the communication theory of Habermas by establishing a dialectical and cultural-materialist critical theory of communication.

It is the first title in a major new book series 'Critical Digital and Social Media Studies' published by the University of Westminster Press.

MEDIA STUDIES | SOCIOLOGY | CRITICAL THEORY

C R I T I C A L D I G I TA L A N D S O C I A L M E D I A S T U D I E S

THE AUTHOR

@fuchschristian | http://fuchs.uti.at

CDSMS

Professor Christian Fuchs is the Director of the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and the Communication and Media Research Institute. He is editor of the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique and a member of the European Sociological Association's Executive Committee. His fields of work are critical theory of society; critical digital media studies; information, media, communication & society.

WV

RRP £18.99

UNIVERSITYOF WESTMINSTER PRESS

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ISBN 978-1-911534-04-4 9"781911"534044