Meaning is given in the medium

Question

Does the highlighted section imply "it is the medium that gives meaning to things"?

Context:

While early critical theorists were keen to restrict this transcendent or emancipatory potential to high or serious art, younger critical theorists are more open to the possibility that some artifacts of popular culture might also contain something of the same. For the classical Frankfurt School, however, meaning is given in the medium and popular culture is manufactured meaning.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

cattttDoes the highlighted section imply "the real meaning exists in the medium but popular culture is just a kind of manufactured (non-genuine) meaning"?

I guess so. You're back reading some more heady stuff, I see. The meaning that popular culture assigns to a work of art is not "transcendent or emancipatory" but created by hype.

CalifJim · Answer

cattttDoes the highlighted section imply "it is the medium that gives meaning to things"?

I don't think they're saying that the medium literally gives meaning to things. I'd say that "meaning is given in the medium" here means something more like "a certain kind of meaning is (almost unconsciously) understood or expected which varies according to the medium that communicates it".

If the medium is a radio performance of a heavy metal rock band, we interpret its meaning differently — have completely different expectations about its meaning — than if the medium is a live performance of symphony orchestra which we pay to attend in a large hall. Or at least that's true according to the "classical Frankfurt School", though the "younger critical theorists" don't seem so convinced of it.

Opinions may vary on this.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

cattttWhile early critical theorists were keen to restrict this transcendent or emancipatory potential to high or serious art, younger critical theorists are more open to the possibility that some artifacts of popular culture might also contain something of the same. For the classical Frankfurt School, however, meaning is given in the medium and popular culture is manufactured meaning.

I'm a non-native.

I can't understand the paragraph above at all. I wonder whether it could even be put in plain English. For me, it is put in such a twisted wording that I've given up grasping the sense of it.

Meaning is given in the medium

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