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This ‘culture of entertainment’ was, until a few decades ago, of sec-
ondary importance with respect both to high and low culture. The
result, far from representing the ultimate democratization of culture
rather constitutes a total standardization of high-, low- and enter-
tainment-culture,49 with a progressive loss, within society – espe-
cially within the youngest generations, those most closely related to
the world of media – of the very sense of cultural hierarchies.
It is a fact that ‘audio-visual culture’ (which can be defined as
video clips, movies characterized by astonishing special effects,
interactive computer devices and, in general, all those kinds of pro-
grams which pertain to the infotainment television genre) has suc-
ceeded in captivating new generations. Behind this success is
media’s fundamental contribution to making ‘audio-visual’ culture
dominant in the present age.
On one hand, academic faculties and departments of humani-
ties seem to reject the idea of being part of a subordinate culture,
and react with a strategy of critical consciousness, with a strate-
gy of cynicism, according to which it is possible to understand a
‘fact’ just by denouncing it as false, corrupted or ambiguous.
This strategy has usually been successful, not because it per-
tained to ‘high’ culture, but for the reason that ‘high’ culture also
happens to be dominant. Since ‘high’ culture has been losing its
dominant position, the application of the same strategy in
Western schools and universities is now destined to fail. On the
other hand, faculties and departments seem to seek media appeal
by creating new forms of market visibility,50 or by creating new
INTELLECTUALS BETWEEN DISSOCIATION AND DISSENTING
270
49 It is worth noticing that on the homepages of many online newspapers from different countries
“Culture” and “Entertainment” or even “Arts” and “Entertainment” are presented in the same
menu bar. Some samples: the menu bar “Cultura & Spettacoli” (Culture and Entertainment)
appears on three major Italian newspapers: La Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Messaggero. The menu bar
“Culture and Leisure Time” appears on the most important Italian economic newspaper Il Sole
24 ORE. In the UK The Independent and Times Online present in the same menu bar respectively
“Arts & Entertainment” and “Arts and Ents”. The Catalan (but nationally distributed) Periódico
de Catalunya presents “Cultura + Espectáculos”. The American newspapers Los Angeles Times and
Washington Post present in the same menu bar respectively “Arts/Entertainment” and “Arts &
Living”. (Home pages of all the aforementioned newspapers accessed June 23, 2009).
50 In Italy, several universities inclined to run after media appeal bestowed Laurea Honoris Causa
(Honorary Degree) on celebrities like the motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi (University
of Urbino, 2005), the national rockstars Luciano Ligabue (University of Teramo, 2004) and
Vasco Rossi (University IULM, Milan, 2005), the anchor Mike Bongiorno (University IULM,
Milan, 2007).
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