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    This document provides an introduction to postmodern media theory and concepts. It discusses how postmodernism views media as shaping society and reality. Key ideas discussed include: - Reality has collapsed with media such that we live in a state of hyperreality defined by images rather than a discernible objective reality - Celebrities and media personalities have become commodities that structure our social relationships and compensate for a lack of meaningful experiences - Postmodern media texts like parody, pastiche, and intertextual works deliberately call attention to their constructed nature rather than aiming for realism.

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    Postmodern Media

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    This document provides an introduction to postmodern media theory and concepts. It discusses how postmodernism views media as shaping society and reality. Key ideas discussed include: - Reality has collapsed with media such that we live in a state of hyperreality defined by images rather than a discernible objective reality - Celebrities and media personalities have become commodities that structure our social relationships and compensate for a lack of meaningful experiences - Postmodern media texts like parody, pastiche, and intertextual works deliberately call attention to their constructed nature rather than aiming for realism.

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    138 views43 pages

    Postmodern Media

    Uploaded by

    adanic
    This document provides an introduction to postmodern media theory and concepts. It discusses how postmodernism views media as shaping society and reality. Key ideas discussed include: - Reality has collapsed with media such that we live in a state of hyperreality defined by images rather than a discernible objective reality - Celebrities and media personalities have become commodities that structure our social relationships and compensate for a lack of meaningful experiences - Postmodern media texts like parody, pastiche, and intertextual works deliberately call attention to their constructed nature rather than aiming for realism.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    of 43

    Contemporary Media Issues Postmodern Media

    Introduction to Section B of the Exam Part One

    This part of the exam asks you to consider some difficult academic debates. You will need to: Engage with a range of theories about how people use media; Learn about audience practices and habits; And demonstrate a personal position on the issues.

    Postmodern Media Definition


    Postmodern media describes the emergence of a society in which the importance and power of the mass media and popular culture means that they govern and shape all other forms of social relationships. Postmodernism suggests that popular culture and media images increasingly dominate our sense of reality, the way we define ourselves, and the world around us. Postmodernism tries to explain to terms with, and understand, this media-saturated society.

    Three Statements
    1. Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely taste a state of relativism. 2. The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a world defined by images and representations - a state of simulated or hyperreality. 3. All ideas of the truth are just competing claims - or discourses - and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning' discourse.

    Quote 1
    The mass media were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror.

    Dominic Strinati (1992)

    How can we tell whats real anymore?

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    The mass media (TV, cinema, radio, the press, the Internet) were once thought of as separate, as reflecting society as modern Now society and the mass media are so closely connected that society has become consumed by the mass media weve gone postmodern It is no longer a question of the mass media reflecting society, since reflecting suggest that there is a society, beyond the mass media version of society, that can be reflected! This is how postmodernism can suggest that we can no longer be sure of what is real.

    How real is Reality TV?


    Consider the X Factor To what extent is the X Factor actually real?

    Quote 2
    The world we see is the world of the commodity[the spectacle is] a social relationship between people that is mediated by images to compensate for the crumbling of directly experiencedproductive activity.

    Guy Debord The Society of the Spectacle (1967)


    What we see in the media is a false representation [a spectacle] of reality Were being sold a fake, something worthless to fill our empty lives

    Big Brother 8 (2007) Chanelle Hayes

    Who is the real Chanelle?

    How did Chanelle become a commodity?

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    Imagine a celebrity from popular culture. How have they become a commodity? How have they become part of the spectacle? How are they compensating for our own lack of productive activity?

    Jordan (1996) Page Three Girl

    Katie Price (2005) Eurovision Song Contest Singer

    Who is the real Katie Price?

    Katie Price (2004) Im a Celebritycontestant

    Katie Price (2008) Horse of the Year Show Rider

    2005

    2008

    2010

    How real is Reality TV?

    Bill Guttentag Oscar winning documentary and feature film writer, producer & director

    Made in Chelsea (2012) - Reality or Scripted Reality?

    Jade Goody (1981-2009) Star of Reality TV (& News)

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    How have BB housemates or X factor contestants or Made in Chelsea actors become a commodity? Debord called The spectacle a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.
    How has the audiences relationship with Chanelle or Katie or Jade been mediated by images? And if our relationships are mediated by images then what kind of reality are we living in?

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    The triumph of the spectacle is found in the emptiness of the media conscious celebrity. Debord sees them as people who have become possible roles for us to compensate for the crumbling of directly experiencedproductive activity. Celebrities provide us with false representations of life but because we spend our time watching the spectacle they ultimately become the reality of our everyday lives.

    Quote 3
    The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations - a state of simulated reality. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some pure reality that exists before the image represents it - this is the state of

    hyperreality
    Jean Baudrillard

    Reality has become hyperreality, truth has become simulation, we value things that are worthless

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory

    Homework Key Theory


    1. Guy Debords theory of the spectacle can be applied to the lack of reality in Reality TV. It suggest we live in a world that is light on meaning, on value, on truth. 2. This ties in with Jean Baudrillards theory of hyperreality. That we can no longer be sure if what were seeing is real or artificial the distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a state of simulated reality. 3. Watch the films youve been given for homework and think about how you can apply Debord and Baudrillards theories.

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    Dominic Strinati called Big Brother a 'fetishised hyperreality, in which the simulation has defeated any notion of the objective 'real'. And if we no longer know whats real how can we know what, or who, is right? Lets work through that again

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    We know that the media is 'in between us and reality, hence the word 'media and the idea of mediation. Postmodernists claim that in a media-saturated world, where we are constantly immersed in media - on the move, at work, at home - the distinction between reality and the media representation of it becomes blurred or even entirely invisible. We have lost our sense of the difference between real things and images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them. Pure reality is replaced by hyperreality where any sense of whats real and imaginary is eroded.

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory

    Lets have another pause. How can we use an example from popular culture to explain the idea that we can no longer see the difference between whats real and whats not?

    The Matrix (1999) Welcome to the Real World

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    Postmodernists claim that in a media-saturated world, where we are constantly immersed in media on the move, at work, at home - the distinction between reality and the media representation of it becomes blurred or even entirely invisible. For example in The Matrix (1999)

    Postmodern Media Ideas 1 Reality?


    Some critics see postmodernism and hyperreality as a historical development. The modernist period came during the early part of the 20th century when artists experimented with the representation of reality. Heres an example of a modernist text. An artist is experimenting with reality. But what is it?

    Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending A Staircase (1912)

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    After modernism comes postmodernism; Modernism is the artist playing around with representation. Postmodernism is where this idea of representation gets 'remixed', played around with even more, mashed up through pastiche, parody and intertextual references Where the people that make texts (artists, film directors, creatives) deliberately remind us that they are constructed texts and make no attempt to pretend that they are 'realist'. Others say that, if you think about it, postmodernism is just a new word to describe what has always gone on.

    Defining Postmodernism
    Pastiche, parody and intertextuality are terms that come from Fredric Jamesons (1991) theories. Jameson sees parody as the comic intention to produce an imitation which mocks the original whilst acknowledging that it imitates. Pastiche, however, is less about comedy and more about plagiarism. Pastiche is blank parody. Parody that has lost its sense of humour. An example might be The Day After Tomorrow (2004) as it recreates the 1970s disaster movie adding only CGI as a contemporary update. So be careful how you apply the terms

    Unknown Artist Superhero Descending A Staircase (2006)

    According to Jameson, why is this a Postmodernist text?

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    Another postmodern critic, Fredric Jameson, saw parody as the comic intention to produce an imitation which mocks the original. A painting like Superhero descending a staircase (2006) openly steals from Marcel Duchamps earlier work

    Defining Postmodernism
    Intertextuality is found in postmodern films and other media texts that borrow features from other texts. Though now seen as positive through films like Pulp Fiction (1994) and Scream (1996) intertextuality was seen by Jameson as being an example of cultural decline that there was nothing new anymore. Connections - What other media involves huge amounts of intertextual borrowing?

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    Lets take another postmodern look at that Duchamp painting again. Im going to show you two further representations of reality. After a few questions along the way I want you to tell me which one is the most real?

    Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending A Staircase (1912)

    Why is this a modernist text?

    Mel Ramos, Nude Descending A Staircase (2006) Why is this a postmodernist text? Parody? Pastiche? Intertextual?

    Eadweard Muybridge Nude Descending a Staircase (1886)

    Why is this a Modernist text? How does it change our reading of the 1912 Duchamp painting?

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    So which ones most real? The postmodernist would argue that they are all equally as real and equally as unreal. They are all representations of reality. The medium of oil paints or acrylic paints or the camera are mediating reality. Postmodernism is where we no longer concern ourselves with experimenting with representation (modernism) but we accept what is represented isnt real and experiment with even the idea of representation (postmodernism).

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    Lets look at a recent film and try to apply some postmodern thinking 1. We all know films arent real; 2. Even documentaries were first defined as creative treatments of actuality. 3. But to what extent is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) a postmodernist text?

    Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Opening scenes

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory


    So why is it a postmodern text? Because its playing around with the idea of representation; Its a pastiche and parody of film noir; Its full of intertextual references; The film director deliberately reminds us that we are watching a constructed text and makes no attempt to pretend that this is 'real .
    Now write up why KKBB is a postmodern text in your own words giving examples.

    Review
    What have we learnt? Postmodernism suggests that we now live in a hyperreal world. Reality TV is an example of hyperreality and the the representation of the spectacle - a
    relationship between people that is mediated by images.

    When representation gets 'remixed' through pastiche, parody and intertextual references this is postmodernism at play And that the Media Studies is no longer as easy as it once was.

    Applying Postmodern Media Theory

    Now explain Point 1 in your own words Here it is again:


    1. The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a 'reality' defined by images and representations - a state of simulated reality. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some pure reality that exists before the image represents it - this is the state of hyperreality.

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