6.2.3: The postmodernist contribution to understanding the media

postmodernism as a sociological perspective

• associated with:

  • lyotard

  • derrida - rejected label of ‘posmodernist’

  • baudrillard

  • foucault - rejected label of ‘posmodernist’

• interested in the role of language shaping our understanding of the world

• sceptical of objective truth

• claimed people no longer believe in the inevitability of progress, power to science to solve problems, perfectibility of humanity or possibility of running societies in a rational way

• latter part of 20th century - shift to consumption rather than labour

  • media plays increasingly central role

postmodernist views of the media

• baudrillard

• traditional distinction between representation and reality has broken down in the new world

• world of hyperreality

  • people can no longer distinguish between real and fake

  • media images constitute and important part of lived reality

• turkle

evaluation

• individiuals have trouble distinguishing between representation and reality

  • anecdotal evidence

• criticism:

  • epistemologically flawed claim that the pursuit of objective truth is misguided

    • rests on assertion that knowledge is relative

    • claim itself states that this assertion is not relative but true

    • deny possibility of objective truth but want us to take the claims they make as truth

  • media claims aren’t backed by evidence

    • lack of researching supporting strong link between media representations and reakity

  • philo and miller

  • audiences have few llusions about what they’re viewing

    • hill

  • left wing attacks postmodernists for adopting a radical posture

    • functions to undermine examination of strctures of power and inequality

    • encourages ironic detachment from any issue seeming to take the idea of objective truth seriously

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