The Starter Challenge:

I am the Chief Executive of Channel 4 and you have to convince me of

a new TV programme idea you want to sell. Create a TV programme for
channel 4 targeted at 14 - 24 year olds. It must:

1. Be random, but with audience appeal in mind

2. Be unique and unlike anything that is on the TV at the moment
3. Mix contemporary trends and ideas
(5 minutes)

A Critical Perspective: Postmodernism in our Modern

World
Media texts are constantly changing nothing stays the same. Texts
that appear to be rule breaking and unconventional are, on a simple
level, often described as post-modern. Some examples of post-
modern media texts are:

Gogglebox, Black Mirror, Community and

The Fried Chicken Shop.

* Post means after, and Post-modernism means after modernism.

A post-modern perspective

Post modernist perspectives reflect the fact that society is

undergoing serious change. All the old rules about what is right,
normal and typical are up for debate. Post modernists are
fundamentally concerned with breaking tradition; the way things
were always done.
Post-modernism:

Embraces change even when its confusing e.g. The Mighty

Boosh

Post-modernism accepts that there is no

absolute truth and sees that things are
changing into a new order e.g. The
Hunger Games, Bruce Jenners
representation in the media

Post-modernism accepts that we are becoming a global society

e.g. the Internet makes the world smaller and were all
communicating now as if we are in a global village.

Post-modernism accepts that there

is a decline in the belief in
science as a force for good e.g.
films such as The Terminator, The
Hunger Games, Humans - New TV
Channel 4 Drama)

There is a questioning and a rejection of old moral values (e.g.

Family Guy, Modern Family)
 Embraces such a wide variety of ideas.

Postmodernists believe that there is no real truth. They say that

knowledge is artificial and constructed.
So how can post-modernist perspectives help us understand
the media?

Post modernism tries to make sense of contemporary culture in the

media. REMEMBER Postmodernism is a way of thinking about the
media. It is a perspective.

For audiences it can be very difficult to work out what is truth? What
is real? Because everything the media produces is a construction.

For example, the documentary genre (e.g.

Benefits Street) tries to present the real
world, however, the institution always
have to shape it to their plan/agenda to
entertain audiences. It isnt truth.
EVERYTHING IS A REPRESENTATION!

The difference you can see between the media and our true reality
has broken down. YOU COULD SAY IT IS ALL BLURRING AND
BLENDING TOGETHER.

We now live in a hyper-reality defined by the many images and

many representations we see in the media everyday of our lives. The
post-modernism theorist Jean Baudrillard asserts that we cant
always tell the difference between what is and isnt real (a
representation). Significantly, he recognises that some things that look
real have absolutely no basis in reality. Hyper reality is the audiences
failure to recognise the difference between the truth/the real world
and hyper-reality. This is called the simulacrum.

An example of hyper-reality is reality

TV like The Only Way is Essex, which openly
states that it is scripted for your viewing
pleasure. Audiences will blindly watch and
allow themselves to be taken in by this false
idea that the things that happen in these
shows are real. People have to audition to
be in these so-called reality shows, many of which are wannabe actors
anyway. This begs the question why employ actors on a show that is
supposed to follow real people? Secondly is mediation. The moment a
producer places a camera and presses record, a text is being
mediated!

Another example of hyper-reality is Lady Gaga

These days in the media images refer to each other e.g. Lady Gaga
has many images of herself. The assembling of multiple images
comes to define her and the audience see it as a reality. Do audiences
know these images exist in a simulacrum and do they know they
represent each other in a hyper-reality?
It could be argued that she is simply reworking previous reinventions
through iconic stars such as Madonna and David Bowie. It all refers,
back, back, back in time nothing is new its all borrowed and re
worked.

Challenge: Can you draw a diagram that explains this theory so far?
Be creative think independently dont worry about getting it
wrong!

Extension Link:
https://natashaharmeryear1.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/hyperreality-
in-the-media/

* Another great example of a post-modern media text is the film The

Truman Show.
B Jean Baudrillard on post-modernism:
B We live in a media dominated world and
meanings are mediated for us. Lives gain
meaning through consumption and we
become products.
B Think about the obsessive trend in the media
regarding body image and the attitude that
B your body as a piece of artwork. The trends in tattoos, hair removal,
B liposuction, vajazzling, for crying out loud!!! Are all constructed
procedures
B for commodifying your body and ensuring capitalist business thrives.
What
B would Karl Marx have to say about vajazzling and tattoos? Peoples
B identities are increasingly becoming associated with these practices.

B
B
B
; So how can we spot post-modernism in a media text?
B
Postmodernism is also said to reflect modern society's feelings of
alienation and insecurities concerning your identity e.g. Raised
by Wolves, My Big Fat Diary
Reinvention of identity e.g. Lady Gaga
Radical breaking of conventions e.g. Gogglebox
Hybridity genres merging together e.g. Attack the Block = sci-
fi meets urban crime
Postmodern texts 'raid the image bank' recycling some old
movies, music and shows on television, the Internet etc. e.g.
Cassette Boy (YouTube)
Bricolage The term bricolage is used to describe a work that is
made from combining existing materials, independent of their
original purpose e.g. images of punk rockers wearing dog collars
as a fashion accessory, images of models wearing doc martin
boots with pretty dresses.
Simulation - The blurring of the real with the simulated,
especially in film and reality TV or celebrity magazines.
Simulation or hyper-reality refers to not only the increasing use
of CGI in films like The Hobbit films and The Avengers, but also in
the use of narrative enigmas of science fiction such as The
Matrix or Blade Runner. -'Is it human or artificial?
Disjointed Narrative Structures e.g. Pulp Fiction
Blurring of boundaries - It's easy to spot how boundaries
between 'high' and 'low' culture have disappeared. There's no
such thing as bad taste; you can enjoy, consume, shop for what
you like these days. Films are now transgressing boundaries, like
 those between 'high' and 'low' forms e.g. in Baz Luhrman's
Romeo + Juliet
distinctions between high culture and popular culture, have
gone, or become blurred Its Shakespeare meets Pulp Fiction.
Old ideas might regard soaps, sit-coms as lesser genres to news,
documentary and film whereas a postmodern perspective does
not recognise this difference in status, so Gogglebox can be
studied in a serious way.

A summary of post-modernism
Audiences must accept that reality is always changing. We MUST
accept that the media is in-between the audience and the real world.
Remember this is called 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 medias representation of it
becomes blurred or even entirely invisible to us. In other words,
we no longer have any sense of the difference between real
things and images of them, or real experiences and
simulations of them. Media reality is the new reality.

Useful links to post modernism:

http://www.onpostmodernism.com/television
http://tccpomo.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/mighty-boosh-postmodern-
analysis.html
http://www.slideshare.net/keirmorrison/facebook-and-postmodernism
https://introductiontoartsandculture.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/a-
simple-guide-to-post-modernism.pdf