Iesha Mclean Media A2

HALF TERM WORK

QUESTIONS

1. What does Post Modernism suggest about the value of high art (eg opera) and popular culture (eg TV)

It suggests that postmodern media rejects any media product or text and there is no actual value to these anymore as, anything can be art and can have an audience and there is no longer anything new to produce.

2. What does Post Modernism suggest about the ideas of truth or reality - how is this linked the the Media?

That media and reality has collapsed so we don’t know what the truth is anymore or reality.

3.Who were the 2 big thinkers and what concept do their theories share?

Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard both shared that we need to challenge dominant ideas

4.Give an example of 3 'Grand-narratives' or 'Meta-narratives' (2 will need you be your own not listed in the chapter)

Metanarrative

abstract ideas
Grand narrative

Examples: Christianity, (they believed that the human nature, is characteristically sinful, but has the possibility of redemption and experiencing eternal peace in heaven ) Marxism (Marxists believe that in order to be emancipated, society must undergo a revolution.) etc are all grand narratives which purport to explain things and reassure people. But with the advent of Post modernism in 1970s and 80s, the grand narratives started to disappear. Theorists understood that things can be understood only in parts not completely as there are no absolute truths. That there are only mininarratives which are provisional, temporary and relative truths.

5.What is significant about Disneyland and simulacrum?

Disneyland is a place that is real yet clearly a functional representational of everything being perfect. The significance of Disneyland and simulacrum is that we don’t actually live in a perfect nonviolent happy world that Disney is portraying.

6.How is our understanding of the events of 9/11 hyper-real?

Our understanding of the event is hyper real as we wasn't actual there when it happened, images and videos showed us this so we don’t know what really happened and how people felt (the truth)

7.What is significant about the Matrix as an example of Baudrillards ideas of simulation & hyper-reality?

The guy Neo reads Baudrillard's books what shows it is hyper-reality and simulation he knows it is not real

8.Why are Post-modern elements of The Mighty Boosh ?

Because it is a parody, there are many different intertexual references programs. So it is not just one genera it has a wide range of conventions.

9.Why are Post-modern elements of Extras ?

Because of the different elements

like parodye

10.Why is Grand Theft Auto Post-modern?

Grand Theft Auto is Post-modern because we can create ‘humans’ and do anything we want without never dying just come back to life and start again, there is no actual limit. It’s a fake Simulated game version of reality.

11.Why is the Cadburys Gorilla ad Post-modern?

Because the advert focuses on entertaining people as we like being entertained rather than told to buy something, so they do this rather than selling the product as it makes us want the product more and be happy eating it.

12.What does FLOW and IMMERSION mean?

Flow
people participating in an activity and they give feedback

Immersion
what the gamer puts in and how they are involved. For example sims are a great example of the human life and world, games go beyond to achieve things virtually rather than reality, they are putting more emotion the game.

ESSAY

"Explain why your case study is post-modern, analysing how it constructs meaning through its post-modern features"

Black mirror

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/4od#series-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld9m8Xrpko0

I have chosen to talk about Black mirror serious 2 as this is a very good example of postmodern as this explores our modern reality. Martha loses her boyfriend Ash and her friend Sarah tells her about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased. By using all his past online communications and social media profiles, a new 'Ash' can be created. Martha at first doesn't want to know and in the end out of curiosity, loneliness and sadness decides to talk to 'him'. By using technology she can call him up have a full convocation and take him places, show him things and by the next day she want more, a real life virtual Ash. All this that she has of Ash is fake, however she starts to think it is real and bonds with him even sexually. The fact that technology can take over our world and start to make things even people, constructs the meaning of postmodern, as technology and media can take over lives and become tour way of life. As clearly she prefers to have more and lives in a virtual world. Her life isn't real anymore however she is blinded and taken over by technology. That fact that people die every day and want the people they love come back can happen, due to technology. This is hyper real as it shouldn't happen but can in the future. It shows that reality is no longer pure or truth as our culture is full of media and we can no longer separate them as there is a full blur of boundaries. What is real what is true? No one knows anymore.

MATCH UP

1. Post-modern

E. A historical period in Western culture after the Second World in which society became dominated by information technology

2. Post-modernit
C. The semiotic landscape of a society dominated by consumer culture and information technology

3. Parody
A. to copy something in a humorous and tongue in cheek way.- stylistic approach

4. Pastiche= H.

To copy something without humour, irony or anything else that communicates difference

5. Hyper-reality
K. collapse of the distinction between the real and simulated. - can be argued style and a theme. a hyper real style and hyper real theme.

6. Consumer culture
B. A culture and society in which individual and collective identity is constructed in material acts of economic exchange e.g. shopping

7. Simulacrum
D. A copy without an original- it is a theme not a style.

8. Cultural capital

I. the dominant way of thinking about society and

culture enforced by the ruling class.

9. Signifier and the signified
G. The basic units of semiotic analysis.

10. Multi-accentuality
L. The way in which meaning changes according to context and over-time.

11. Ideology
J. A system of beliefs or ideas.

12. Hegemony
F. The knowledge and information that informs

people’s cultural consumption in a post-modern society