Baudrillard and Postmodernism

The ‘good old days’ before postmodernism

 Things were structured and mapped out for us

 We knew who we were and had clear identity
 We had firm beliefs about the nature of things
 Life was predictable
Jean Baudrillard

 ‘We are constantly surrounded by an ecstasy

of communication and that communication is
sickening’
 We are now just customers whose desires are created by the media
 We pursue the images attached to the products
 ‘Simulacra’- make believe goods which bear no relationship with the real world
 We live in hyper-realities in which appearances are everything
 Image is everything
Postmodernism and the media

 Postmodernists see society as characterised by diversity, choice and freedom

 Media output is diverse and offers viewers more options and opportunities
 Globalisation
 Many of us define our identities through the media
 Adverts focus on telling people who to be and how to be that and every day we see
400-500 adverts showing this
 Dominic Strinati- media saturation- describes how the media affects us and how we
spend large parts of our lives looking art screens and the rise in media consumption
levels and mass media products
 If we carry on increasing the amount we watch tv now, most children will watch tv
more than taking part in any other activity by the age of 18, even sleeping and in the
UK, we watch about 26 hours of tv a week, and it is even higher in lower classes
 85% of people have tvs in their bedrooms
 ‘Screenagers’
 60% of teenagers are highly addicted to their smartphones and leave them on for 24
hours a day
 Digital divide- those with a high income have higher access
 Exposure to multiple realities can negatively affect lives and make them seem more
empty due to false expectations
 There is nothing secure to hold on to and you can be who you want to be
 As technology becomes wider spread, we are exploited to different expectations and
views
 Proliferation
 True reality is blurred by media
 Hard to distinguish between image and reality
 Hyper-reality
 Simulacra- real events bearing little or no relation to the real world and what is
presented through the media is an edited an perfected view
  Simulation has 4 stages of destabilizing and replacing reality- faithful, perversion,
pretence and pure e.g. An overly edited model/photo
 ‘Window on the world’- media texts can be so realistic but postmodernists believe it
reflects on itself
 Same story reported in different ways
 Garrod (2004)- growth in reality tv gives a blurred difference between reality and
hyper-reality
 We celebrate those we see on reality tv rather our own personal lives and people in
them
 Identify more with media images that our own everyday experiences
 Living a media lead virtual lives rather than our real ones
 Distinction between popular culture (low art) e.g. advertising, genre films, pop music
to high culture e.g. fine art, opera and ballet
 No boundaries and difference between popular and high culture doesn’t exist now
Key terms

 Media saturation
 Screenagers
 Simulacra
 Hyper-reality
 Postmodernism
 The digital divide
 Simulation (4 stages)
 Faithful
 Perversion
 Pretence
 Pure
 Proliferation
 High art
 Popular art
Key features of postmodernism

 Consumerism is all
 Transformation of self
 Uncertainty
 Fragmentation of social life
 Incessant choice
 Globalisation
 Impact of technology on social life
Disneyland

 It is a simulacra- a simulated reality

 It is artificial- yet ‘real’
 It is a place that exists and is accepted because our imagination makes it so
 The fine line between fantasy and reality is ‘greyer’
 The power of the symbol over substance
Postmodernism

 Becomes the ‘new’ by referring to the ‘old’

 Invents by copying
 Is humorous and/or terrifying
Postmodern music videos

 Jessie J- Who’s laughing now

In this video Jessie is seen to
be playing stereotypical
characters in a school such
as the strict teacher, the
dinner lady and the bully. This
demonstrates hyper
consciences as it reminds the
viewer that what they are
watching is not real.
Intertextuality is seen an in the video there is a reference to Mean Girls where the
girls are all shown wearing
pink and are thought to be
the ‘bitchy’ girls. Bugs Bunny
is also referenced amongst
the lyrics.