"Having established the terms aura and masses as opposite poles in the political field of force, Benjamin proceeds to assert a functional affinity between masses and the media of technical reproduction by way of what might be called a phenomenological syllogism. If the aura is defined as the 'unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be,' the contemporary masses are characterized by an antithetical intention, 'the desire [...] to bring things 'closer' spatially and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction.
Every day the urge grows stronger [unabweisbarer; i.e less refutable] to get hold of an object at very close range by way its image [Bild] or; rather, its copy [Abbild], its reproduction. Unmistakably, reproduction as offered by illustrated magazines and newsreels differs from the image. Uniqueness and permanence are as closely linked in the latter as are transitoriness and reproducibility in the former. To pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mark of a perception whose 'sense of the universal equality of things [Sinn fur das Gleicharigein der Welt]' has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means of its reproduction. Thus is manifested in the field of perception what in the theoretical sphere is noticeable in the growing importance of statistics.
NOTE: translation modified.
Zohn's translation obliterates the crucial distinction between Bild and Abbild, obviously related terms which have acquired an antithetical meaning at this particular historical juncture: 'Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction.' Likeness, reproduction - same difference. At a loss for an antithetical term in what follows, Zohn instead constructs an opposition between 'reproduction' on the one hand and 'image seen by the unarmed eye' on the other, a free-style addition to Benjamin's text. 'The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception."
(Miriam Hansen, Benjamin, Cinema and Experience: 'The Blue Flower in the Land of Technology')

"Benjamin unambiguously endorses the radical reversal that comes with technical reproducibility of art, and which totally separates the new art forms from those that make up the uninterrupted continuum stretching from ritual art in mythic times to secular, autonomous art in bourgeois culture and society. He subscribes to this event without nostalgia. The 'comprehensive liquidisation' of 'the traditional value of cultural heritage', that goes hand in hand with the loss of aura, is even viewed as a cathartic event (pp.221;478). Indeed, 'for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual' (pp.224;481), Benjamin holds. With ritual and cult values radically severed from the artwork, a new era arises - 'a crisis and renewal of mankind' (pp.221;482) - in which art is 'based on another practice - politics' (pp.224;482). It is an entirely positive event for Benjamin - a liberating event in which mankind becomes reborn - and Benjamin celebrates it without regret.
(Gasché, Objective Diversions)

"Benjamin is aware of the egalitarian impetus of the media. Film, for him, brings works of art to the people. By its physical setting, art before the media remained remote from everyday life, and, by its internal design, aloof from the lower classes. This 'aura' surrounding works of art evaporates when art is reproduced many times and dispersed through social space, even appearing in working class districts. Once the work of art is placed closer to people, its mediation by the technology, in a parallel but opposite way, services to distance the audience to the performance, shifting the points of identification from the performer to the technology. In film, the audience takes the position of the camera, not of the actors, promoting, Benjamin contends, a critical stance. Furthermore, he argues that the principle of the media is that the author and the audience are in fact reversible, not fixed, and hierarchical, positions, undermining one of the chief means by which art championed, even against its will, authoritarian politics. In addition, the collective and simultaneous conditions of viewing film, he maintains, encourage both critical and receptive attitudes. [...] These features of the media promote equality and liberty for Benjamin. But they are not simply aspects of the technology; rather they are aspects of the way the technology is actualized in the culture. Films could be limited to a single copy and shown only in restricted locations, for example. In this case they would not be brought closer to the masses and they might retain their 'aura', as in fact many 'art' film do even today. Benjamin is very aware that the media are themselves also mediated by the major social institutions, especially capitalism. [...] In fact, for Benjamin, the potential democratizing advances of the media are all reversible according to the manner of their realization. There is no automatic guarantee for him of any particular political direction of the media. Technological determinism is thereby excluded from his analysis. Benjamin is able to formulate his view of the media in an intermediate zone between technology and culture[...]"
(Mark Poster, The Second Media Age)

"Distance is the opposite of closeness" (WB)

The idea of academic critical distance is useless and would miss the kind of everyday details Benjamin sought to locate. To be effective, it is important to bring things closer into focus in order to examine them, recognising a broad and inclusive view. This is an open rather than closed approach that Adorno criticised as a 'wide-eyed presentation of actualities'; rejecting the 'top-down' analysis that Donna Haraway calls the 'god-trick' of infinite vision as well as its 'bottom-up' popular alternative. It requires the study of even the most insignificant representations of reality to reveal secret meanings and messages.