To expand upon the Frankfurt School, the school was made up by several Marxist scholars first started forming theories about media and culture. The aim of their studies was to explain the failure of the revolutionary movement and the rise of consumerism/capitalism. They theorized that media and culture are enslaved to the capitalist system: media don’t inform, but reshape peoples minds. IOW Media are powerful and people are passive.

Since then in the cultural studies has moved on from these theories and Marxist roots. There still is a post-Marxist branch of culture studies that believes research should be carried out into political meanings. For them culture is understood as being actively produced through complex processes, the production of meaning that happens at every level of the social and at every moment within cultural processes. (New Social Movements)

1. While some of the original marxist terminology is still used, arguing against the Frankfurt School is like arguing against Phlogiston theory.
2. The kind of people who usually argue against the Frankfurt School and cultural marxism believe that the media are suppressing their beliefs and controlling society through thought policing (IOW their beliefs about media are funnily enough not unlike that of the Frankfurt School)