I did the readings in a funny order this week, usually I just go through them as they are outlined in the syllabus from top to bottom, but I decided to attack the big ones first this week, so tackled Williams, Foucault and Fiske. It was only when I read Horkheimer and Adorno that everything sort of tied itself together. In reading Horkheimer and Adorno I was able to relate to Foucault, and his ideas about power and knowledge. It was quite scary to read of the Panopticon and think of the efficiency of power that this image implies, along with his ideas about discipline and the various methods which can be used to control the body. It seems to me that Foucault is leaning towards the idea that observation and gaze are the key instruments of power, an idea which I feel ties in with Horkheimer and Adorno’s notions that all products, or commodities, are essentially the same, it is just the way that we as consumers in our different groups are marketed to. So the notion of observation, that consumers are always being watched and observed, our needs and desires being continually assessed so that we may be more easily lead by the propaganda which comes our way, lead me to consider that the idea of the Panopticon was not just present during the 18^th century but that it has been carried through into the society in which we live today. A quote which struck me was “something is provided for all so that none may escape” (Horkheimer and Adorno 1243), which I think illustrates the idea of the modern-day Panopticon that is the technology/media-controlled society in which we live. Technology, it seems, has become the underlying structure for maintaining this cycle: as technology improves individuals feel the need to buy into this thinking they are improving themselves. This has been going on for many years, as Williams seems to suggest in his writing. Not only ‘things’ but individuals have also become mass-produced, if you think of the music industry there are so many pop icons who are gunning to be the next Britney or Rhianna. Again going back to technology, we think we are being individual in our choice or colour of iphone, or maybe the different screen cover we put on it, but everyone has fallen prey to the same propaganda which those in ‘power’ have used to influence our buying habits because of the knowledge they possess about our likes and dislikes, or what we may/may not be able to afford. I think this links back to Foucault’s notion that knowledge and power go hand in hand.