Media Spectacle

The term media spectacle refers to the “society of the spectacle” described by Guy Debord in the 1960s, in which the economy, politics, social life,[Page 1080] and culture were increasingly dominated by forms of spectacle. Debord and a group of associates formed the Situationist International, which combined a theoretical critique of consumer and media society with a radical artistic and social politics. They identified consumer capitalism as a new mode of social control, as a “society of the spectacle,” that pacifies its citizens by creating a world of mesmerizing images and stupefying forms of entertainment. In contrast to passive spectators, they called for the creation of active subjects who would carry out a total subversion and revolution of the established society.

The society of the spectacle ...