post modernism: jean baudrillard

key concept: from the real to the hypereal

• Baudrillard suggests that there have been 3 distinct cultural phases: pre-modernity,modernity and post-modernity

• we now live in the post-modern age which is marked by a massive proliferation in media content and media messages

• media proliferation has resulted in an implosion of meaning through the simultaneous presentation of oppositional truths

• media proliferation is enabled through the endless copying of pre-existing media. Media forms “blend” and hybridise during this copying process

• the postmodern age is marked by the dominance of advertising as a media form.Advertising has also impacted on other media forms creating hypereal inertia

• baudrillard suggests that media blending has resulted in the construction of fictionalised reality

• audiences yearn for authenticity in postmodernity; the media industry tries to satisfy the yearning through realised fiction

simulacra: early modernity

• renaissance to the early industrial revolution

• limited cultural production

• cultural production is dominated by a few authors (church and the states)

• the masses are held firmly in their positions by cultural messages

simulacra: modernity

• the industrial revolution to the second world war

• cultural representations beings to break down- producing multiple versions of reality

• cultural production is dominated by bourgeoise and legitmises the capitalist system

• mass media forms dominate

simulacra: post-modernity

• media produces hypereality- an explosion of meaning

• the media makes everyone a consumer- audiences have a limited relationship with authentic meaning

• advertising and televisions ascend as the dominant culutral forces

• contemporary digital technologies accelerate the effect of post-modernity

hyperreality

baudrillardsuggests that we are unable to separate the real world from that which is manufactured by the media. we live in a world that is beyond reality or is hyperreal

inertia

the constant stream of media that we are subjected to paralyses us or makes us anable to feel or act in a way that creates deep meaning

meaning implosion

sheer volumeof media and multiplicity of voices within the contemporary media landscape produces a cocktail of opinion that audiences can’t disentangle

media blending

media forms in the post modern age blur the narrative strategies of news, for example become absorbed into fiction