A Comparative Study of Adorno’s Culture Industry and Herman–Chomsky’s Propaganda Model in the Content Critique of the Film “Watching This Film Is a Crime”

Dehghani, Farshad; Marasy, Mohsen

doi:10.22034/rpa.2025.2058420.1139

A Comparative Study of Adorno’s Culture Industry and Herman–Chomsky’s Propaganda Model in the Content Critique of the Film “Watching This Film Is a Crime”

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Farshad Dehghani ¹ ^¶

Mohsen Marasy ²

¹ MA in Art Research, Faculty of Arts, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Art Research, Faculty of Arts, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran .

10.22034/rpa.2025.2058420.1139

Abstract

Content analysis of an artwork in a medium such as cinema has been the focus of many studies. Because of cinema’s influential power in today’s world, film criticism—especially in terms of content—holds a special place. The purpose of this article is to apply two approaches, the Propaganda Model and the Culture Industry theory, to conduct a content analysis of an Iranian film titled "Watching This Film Is a Crime" as a case study. The Propaganda Model, proposed by Herman and Chomsky, is one of the prominent frameworks in the world for analyzing the media, examining how contemporary media shape public opinion and function. The Culture Industry theory, the well-known work of Theodor Adorno, a leading philosopher of the Frankfurt School, critically examines cultural and artistic works in the modern world. "Watching This Film Is a Crime" is directed by Reza Zahtabchian and was produced in 2018 (1397 in the Iranian calendar). In this study, the content of the film is analyzed from the perspectives of these two approaches, followed by a comparison of the two analyses. Ultimately, it was found that both frameworks were able to provide a meaningful analysis of the film, each shedding light on its darker aspects. Considering the similarities and differences in their critiques, neither approach can be regarded as superior to the other.

Keywords

Film Critique

Propaganda Model

Culture Industry Theory

Watching This Film Is a Crime

Subjects