media mock postmodern media

What is Postmodern Media?

Postmodern media comes after modernism. Modernist theories suggest that every idea would be original with a strong belief in the grand narrative. Postmodernism believes that every idea is just cultural recycling and the collapse of the grand narrative. Lyotard believes in the idea of a lack of progress and the collapse of the grand narrative. The collapse of the grand narrative was due to the fact that it made films too predictive and boring.

If we look into the idea of the end of the grand narrative and if no films or television programmes had a structure to them then where would we end up? Many different boundaries would be collapsed. The boundary between audience and the text would be collapsed meaning that instead of the viewer watching the programme they would have to think about what they are watching and be in control of the outcome. One film that has broken modernist ideas is Wreck It Ralph. The film collapsed the structure of the hero/villain. Characters, which go against modernist theorist Propps idea of, film characters. In Wreck It Ralph, Ralph breaks the villain/hero structure as he is set as the villain in the video game but wants to be a hero. This goes against the typical idea of a villain character, as they don’t typically want to change and become a hero. The film format has even created its own genre of film with the characters being alive in video games and then living their own lives once the game is finished. This links to the idea that no character needs to have fixed identities, such as another text Nicki Minaj. Minaj constantly changes her image and has many different personas she uses to create her look such as Barbie. This shows that characters can take many different identities to create their own original identity that they can change and use. Another boundary we can collapse is the idea of texts always needing a resolution/happy ending; my third text black mirror explores the idea of dystopian and bleak endings that offer no resolutions as the audience is in control of the outcome. The programme shows the future we are heading for based on the way we are now, so the ending of each episode is based upon the audience’s behaviors.

A postmodern theorist named Jameson believes that all ideas come from cultural recycling which means that everything has no meaning and just focuses on the idea of style over substance. This idea comes from that anything has a fixed meaning, which makes the texts empty and just visually enjoyable without giving the audience anything to think about. Wreck It Ralph is an example of style over substance. The film focuses on cultural recycling and a sense of nostalgia. The film is based around a heavy sense of nostalgia with many different 80’s game characters references set in 8 bit style. As the film has no actual set meaning the film has this superficial aspect. The nostalgia aspect to the film is just a lot of cultural recycling, which means that the film is actually not original and is just a mixture of old styles. This benefits the film as it opens it up to an older audience with its style for them to enjoy as well as creating a ‘new’ style for the younger Disney generation to enjoy, as this would be a new experience to them.

A postmodern theorist Baudrillard believes that we live in a world made up from simulacra and that the boundary between reality and hyperreality is becoming blurred.  In the film Wreck It Ralph this boundary is blurred in many levels. In the film we can see the simulated, real life characters playing the games, the game characters being played and then the characters coming to life. This causes a simulation within a simulation within a simulation. This blurs the line between the real and the simulated as even the real life has become simulated and immersed into the game this is shown when the girl plays hero’s duty she joins the game and becomes a character alongside the game characters. The idea of real people joining into the simulated world is not a new idea and has been created before. In the film Tron, which was released in the 80’s where people from the world world can be taken into the simulated world.

Programmes are now made to have a deliberate postmodern style aimed at older and more intellectual audiences. A type of text that does is Black Mirror. The programme uses many different theories such as Baudrillard, Lyotard and Dubord. The programme takes ideas such as hyper reality, simulacra, and society of the spectacle. By taking all these different post modern theories we can plan out the future and come to a dystopian styled conclusion. The future will show everything being used for entertainment purposes created for style and to be watched instead of producing something for the audience to watch and think about.  If we link this to the idea of the audience being given control in the future we can see the idea of the panopticon where everyone is watching everyone and the truth or the simulated can be used for everyone’s entertainment created by everyone.

In Black Mirror – 15 Million Merits we can see a clear link of how social networking has influenced reality TV. The idea that we can be in control of what happens by voting in who we cant to be saved and elimination people in the way on social networking you can control who you are friends with, follow, like.  This links into Jameson’s ideas of cultural recycling, style over substance and no meaning. In 15 million merits the programme takes the idea of people watching a person as a way of punishment. She is visible to them so they can judge her and she has no idea. This is the same as social networking as we can sit and watch and judge people whilst appearing offline or invisible.

Although Wreck It Ralph has many different postmodern ideals it also conforms to some modernist ideas. The film follows a rigid classic Hollywood narrative style with a beginning, middle and end with a disruption near the stat and a resolution near to the end of the film. The film is Disney styles and so has many different modern beliefs. The films tend to focus on relationships and marriages, which is seen in Wreck It Ralph. Even though the films style is post modern the structure to the film is modern which allows the film to have a meaning and teaches young children lessons such as right and wrong, good and bad and about marriage.

As well 15 million merits has a grand narrative with the way the programme is structured giving it a modernist structure. The programme is completely postmodern but its structure is modernist.

Our post modern future will take us into a dystopian future where the audience will be in full control and create pure entertainment based on visuals and no actual meanings. This means we have two types of post modernism the conscious which involves modernists structures that gives the audience something to think about or the unconscious where style over substance is used and everything is just entertainment such as reality TV. This will lead us into a future where the lines between reality and hyper reality will become blurred that we know longer know the difference and become fully immersed into a hyper real state.