THE DISTRACTED ATTENTION OF MASS AUDIENCES 

"Adorno believed in the redemptive possibility of autonomous art which obeyed its own laws. The Enlightenment was predicted on the play of thought of the autonomous (self-regulating) individual, free from heteronomous constraint (the tutelage of another). 

Autonomous art is thus the free expression of a self-determining, creative 'author' who produces the art work. More crucially, this integral artistic freedom is embodied in the autonomy of the form and content of the art work itself. Art, in other words, obeys its own laws. As such, it stands in opposition to mass culture, which is governed by heteronymous (external) regulatory factors, most obviously the profit motive and the law of the market. 

The heteronomy of mass culture reveals itself in the search for mass audiences. In order to reach large and diverse audiences, the form and content of cultural products must be simple, accessible, and easy to understand. Thus, the forms of mass culture are determined by external pressures. It follows that the autonomy of art, if it is to be true to itself, must reveal itself in forms and content that resist the pull of heteronymous forces" 

Paddy Scannell | Media and Communication (60)