Media Debates (Postmodern Media) Content / Assessment Map
AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, using terminology appropriately. (60%) | AO2: Analyse media products by applying knowledge and understanding of theoretical and creative approaches, supported with relevant textual evidence. (40%) | ||||
Media Concepts (3 Marks) | Contexts / Debates (3 Marks) | Use of Terminology (3 Marks) | Analysis using theory. (3 Marks) | Examples / Case Studies. (3 Marks) | |
Audience “How audiences are constructed and addressed by media texts and how audiences interpret and respond to media texts.” Industry “How and why media texts are produced, distributed and consumed.” Representation “How the media construct the social world, the mediation of ideas, individuals and groups.” Media Language “How the media communicate meanings through media forms codes, (technical) conventions and memes.” | Nothing New There are no new ideas! All art (and media) is simply a copy of a copy of a copy …We are doomed to constantly consume the music, stories, styles and politics of the past. Retro and vintage forever! Intertextuality and cultural competence Nothing True The audience can no longer tell the difference between reality and media reality. We learn many of our ideologies from the media we consume and model ourselves and personal identity on the media and brands which we consume. Our job is to shop & consume. Nothing Certain The audience and society has rejected the BIG IDEAS and traditional beliefs such as history and religion. These grand narratives are merely a way of maintaining traditional power relationships Features of postmodern media:
| Media Language Representation Audience Industry (Producers) Text Pastiche Parody Intertextuality Recycling Bricolage Copy of a copy of a copy… Simulacra Hyperreality Consumer Culture Myth Consumption Simulation Hegemony Identity Satire (parody with teeth) Grand / Meta Narrative | Jameson Modern media creates nothing new; it simply recycles old ideas, old images, old texts, old brands, old styles, through a process of pastiche, parody, quotation and intertextuality. He didn’t much like postmodernism. He said it led to, ‘a new kind of flatness, a depthlessness, a new kind of superficiality in the most literal sense.’ | YOU MUST ANALYSE AT LEAST ONE MEDIA FORM! (TV, FILM, MUSIC VIDEO, SOCIAL MEDIA, ADVERT) Identify the parodies or pastiches you recognize and explain how it is a copy of a previous text. Be specific about the source, the framing, the music, the words in the intertextual references and examples of self reflexivity and loss of historical reality. | |
Baudrillard Like Gauntlett he says we are living in a world in which we define ourselves through the products we buy and the brands we support. That this reality of brands, images, representations is a simulation. If you think it’s ‘real life,’ you’re living in a hyperreality. He didn’t much like postmodern culture, he said we lived in a time with, ‘…more and more images and less and less meaning.’ | Hyperreality and simulacra is often difficult to exemplify from a single media text as it is a critique of our society and culture at large. However, there are examples of characters in films or TV who live a hyperreal existence & who have to deal with the consequences of waking up from Plato’s Cave. | ||||
Lyotard Postmodern society has lost faith with all of the 'big truths.’ Whether those truths are from… religions(s), politicians,, science, beauty, poetry, art, culture, socialism, taste, values… nothing is sacred, everything should be questioned (satirised or challenged). | Many media texts challenge hegemonic ideas and grand narratives. However many simultaneously reinforce alternative ideologies and grand narratives such as consumer capitalism…ironically. | ||||