Postmodernism and the Media

What is it?

The concept is one that has become really useful in the analysis and understanding of contemporary media cuItture but unfortunately is not a simple one to define.

It is at once a sociological condition which it is argued that the western world has moved in to over the last 30 years or so, a way of working (i.e. we can talk of a pomo film/book/work of art, etc.) and a set of philosophical ideas about the nature of reality; and these three aspects interact, and are interdependent. Postmodernism is often paradoxical and contradictory,

Characteristics:

• Barriers of high and popular culture disappear

• Hyper realism simulacra

• Our perceptions of time and space shift and change; past present and future dissolve into an eternal present, boundaries of all types blur-between high and popular culture, genres, even reality and fantasy.

• The traditional role of the author as creative maker of a cultural artefact is brought into question.

• End of originality.

• Traditional metanarratives of family, work, etc. are no longer credible or workable.

• The future is generally portrayed as a dystopia rather than a utopia.

• Nostalgic look to the past.

As I said before, there is a considerable amount of debate over the definition of postmodernism – when and where it occurs for example and what it really suggests. One way of understanding post-modernism is to look at the social, political and cultural values that were and still are prevalent at the end of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Postmodernism works on a structural and political level; it can be used to analyse the fragmentary and contradictory nature of many of the contemporary media texts encountered by audiences.

Strinati (2010) states that there are a number of points to consider when defining postmodernism – firstly, he points out that postmodernism describes the emergence of a society in which the mass media and popular culture are most important and powerful institutions, and control and shape all other types of social relationships. Popular cultural signs and media images increasingly dominate our sense of reality, and the way we define ourselves and the world around us.