Debord's influence to other media research.

Debord's views concerning the spectacle have more recently been taken by others for their own research in their own particular field within the media.
One such example I have came across is Hanson's research into the culture surrounding celebrity chefs as media products, and food on the television and on the internet in the article Society of the appetite: Celebrity chefs deliver consumers. Hanson (2008) has used Debord's work as guidance as he claims that Society of the Spectacle 'offers a Marxist economic analysis of an increasingly image-dominated culture.' (p.50)   He then goes on in the beginning of his article to say: 'The theoretical framework for my discussion derives in part from The Society of the Spectacle (1967), in which Guy Debord (1931–1994) argues that our consumption of images—what he broadly terms the spectacle— informs hegemonic power structures by distracting us from actual social and material needs.' (p.50) Hanson has taken Debord's own ideas concerning consumerism in the media and in the capitalist marketplace to support his own idea for the media encouraging the literal consumption of food, as well as the consumption of images and 'spectacles'. Hanson concludes his article with the lines 'This only means that the spectacle—and the society it feeds—is stronger than ever. Celebrity chefs deliver consumers.' (p.65) Not only does Hanson use Debord's theory to support his own research, but also supports Debord's theory and claims it is as strong and true in the modern day as it may have been at the time Debord published his thoughts.

How Debord has influenced other scholars

Guy Debord's theories when first published, were relevant to increasing capitalist markets and the growth of the new, emerging media. Today, Debord's theories have been applied by many to ideas surrounding the internet. Many thinkers have been influenced by Debord and how his theories from the 1960's and 70's can be applied to modern day.This has been outlined in the article Psychogeography, Détournement, Cyberspace (Elias, 2010): 

Today, theoretically informed advocates and devotees of the Internet and Web 2.0 often draw correspondences between the SI's redefinition of city space and the redefinition of cosmopolitan space currently taking place in virtual realities...cybercultures sometimes adopt the term "psychogeography" to describe what happens when one travels through the World Wide Webb (WWW) landscape, applying SI concepts to the entirety of virtual space on the web.

Debord's theories which were once applied to the changes of reality, have influenced others to see the different reality involved in the internet, as reflected above.  In the same article the negativity of this is also reflected:

If anything, the web is increasingly part of the spectacle rather than a challenge to it. Like the postmodern city, the WWW has become naturalized as a dehumanized space of commerce, work, and diversionary entertainment; like urban territory, it now cordons off "neighborhoods" and gated communities that effectively limit wandering.

The writer of this article is of the opinion that the internet is encouraging the 'lonely crowds' discussed in an earlier blog, rather than being a positive contribution to society. 

However, other scholars also influenced by debord's ideas, take a more positive stance. In the article Oppositional politics and the internet: A critical/reconstructive approach (Kahn R; Kellner, D, 2009) saw Debord as promotional of the use of technology to  communicate media.  

Debords' contribution to the media

As a socialist, Debord was against the mass production involved in capitalist markets, including that of the media. This is made clear as he refers to it as ‘weapons’ in Society of the spectacle, which he says the ‘spectacular system chooses to produce’. (p.32)

Media giants choose to produce certain products because they will be most appealing to the audience it targets, yet it is clear they are only produced to make money. Debord highlights it is the 'reigning economic system' (p.32) which creates these goods. Debord also talks of the 'knowledge industry'(p.128) becoming the driving force of American economy. Our study group believe that the knowledge industry could refer to the informative nature of the media. We found it interesting that it was referred to as the 'knowledge industry'. The idea of making knowledge, a skill which costs nothing, into an industry, shows the power and monopolisation of capitalist corporations. 

Debord worried about the influence this may have on society. While media conglomerates are making money, people within society go from individuals into mindless consumers. Even the word ‘society’ begins to be used in very generalist terms. There is a loss of communities. Instead, in the modern western world, all communities have been moulded into an overall society. 

Debord also influenced the media through his filmmaking career. Debord’s films such as ‘howls in favour of Sade (1952)’ cam be seen as fitting in with the avant-garde experimentation at the time, however, they also act to highlight his political opinion. Debords’ films are described as “Marxist cinema set not so much on revolutionising the medium as on appropriating the medium in order to revolutionise the structure of life itself.” (R.D. Crano in Senses of cinema, 2007)