Opening presentation introducing the theories of Baudrillard and Debord and applying them to Reality TV, The Matrix and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Also introduces the concept of modernism and postmodernism as wider theories...

1. Contemporary Media Issues
Postmodern Media
Introduction to Section B of the Exam
Part One

2. This part of the exam asks you to consider
some difficult academic debates.
You will need to:
Engage with a range of theories about
how people use media;
Learn about audience practices and
habits;
And demonstrate a personal position on
the issues.

3. Postmodern Media – Definition
 Postmodern media describes the emergence of
a society in which the importance and power of
the mass media and popular culture means that
they govern and shape all other forms of social
relationships.
 Postmodernism suggests that popular culture
and media images increasingly dominate our
sense of reality, the way we define
ourselves, and the world around us.
 Postmodernism tries to explain to terms
with, and understand, this media-saturated
society.

4. Three Statements…
1. Postmodern media rejects the idea that any
media product or text is of any greater value
than another. All judgements of value are
merely taste – a state of relativism.
2. The distinction between media and reality has
collapsed, and we now live in a world defined
by images and representations - a state of
simulated or hyperreality.
3. All ideas of ‘the truth’ are just competing
claims - or discourses - and what we believe to
be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning'
discourse.

5. Quote 1
The mass media were once thought of as holding up a
mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a wider social reality.
Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface
reflection of the mirror.
Dominic Strinati (1992)
How can we tell what’s real anymore?

6. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
 The mass media (TV, cinema, radio, the press, the
Internet) were once thought of as separate, as
reflecting society – as modern…
 Now society and the mass media are so closely
connected that society has become consumed by
the mass media – we’ve gone postmodern…
 It is no longer a question of the mass media
reflecting society, since ‘reflecting’ suggest that
there is a society, beyond the mass media version of
society, that can be reflected!
 This is how postmodernism can suggest that we can
no longer be sure of what is real.

7. How real is Reality TV?
Consider the X Factor…
To what extent is the X Factor actually
‘real’?

8. Quote 2
‘The world we see is the world of the commodity…[the
spectacle is] a social relationship between people that is
mediated by images to compensate for the crumbling of
directly experienced…productive activity’.
Guy Debord ‘The Society of the Spectacle’
(1967)
What we see in the media is a false representation [a
spectacle] of reality… We’re being sold a
fake, something worthless to fill our empty lives…

9. Big Brother 8 (2007)
Chanelle Hayes
Who is the
‘real’ How did Chanelle
Chanelle? become a
‘commodity’?

10. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Imagine a ‘celebrity’ from popular
culture.
 How have they become a
‘commodity’?
 How have they become part of the
‘spectacle’?
 How are they compensating for our
own lack of ‘productive activity’?

11. Katie Price (2005)
Jordan (1996) Eurovision Song Contest Singer
Page Three Girl
Who is the
‘real’ Katie
Price?
Katie Price (2004) Katie Price (2008)
I’m a Celebrity…contestant Horse of the Year Show Rider

12. 2005
2008
2010

13. How ‘real’ is Reality TV?

14. Bill Guttentag
Oscar winning documentary and feature film
writer, producer & director

15. Made in Chelsea (2012) - Reality or Scripted Reality?

16. Jade Goody (1981-2009)
Star of Reality TV (& News)

17. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
 How have BB housemates or X factor
contestants or Made in Chelsea ‘actors’
become a commodity?
 Debord called The spectacle ‘a social
relationship between people that is
mediated by images’.
 How has the audiences relationship with
Chanelle or Katie or Jade been mediated by
images?
 And if our relationships are mediated by images
then what kind of reality are we living in?

18. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
 The triumph of ‘the spectacle’ is found in the
emptiness of the media conscious celebrity.
 Debord sees them as people who have
become ‘possible roles’ for us to
‘compensate for the crumbling of directly
experienced…productive activity’.
 Celebrities provide us with false
representations of life but because we spend
our time watching ‘the spectacle’ they
ultimately become the reality of our everyday
lives.

19. Quote 3
The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we
now live in a reality defined by images and representations - a state
of simulated reality. Images refer to each other and
represent each other as reality rather than some ‘pure’ reality that
exists before the image represents it - this is the state of
hyperreality
Jean Baudrillard
Reality has become hyperreality, truth has become
simulation, we value things that are worthless…

20. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Homework…
 Key Theory…
1. Guy Debord’s theory of ‘the spectacle’ can be applied to
the lack of reality in Reality TV. It suggest we live in a
world that is light on meaning, on value, on truth.
2. This ties in with Jean Baudrillard’s theory of
hyperreality. That we can no longer be sure if what
we’re seeing is real or artificial the distinction between
media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a
state of simulated reality.
3. Watch the films you’ve been given for homework and
think about how you can apply Debord and Baudrillard’s
theories.

22. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
Dominic Strinati called Big Brother a
'fetishised hyperreality’, in which the
simulation has defeated any notion of the
objective 'real'.
And if we no longer know what’s ‘real’ how
can we know what, or who, is ‘right’?
Let’s work through that again…

23. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
 We know that the media is 'in between‘ us and reality,
hence the word 'media‘ and the idea of mediation.
 Postmodernists claim that in a media-saturated world,
where we are constantly immersed in media - on the
move, at work, at home - the distinction between
reality and the media representation of it becomes
blurred or even entirely invisible.
 We have lost our sense of the difference between real
things and images of them, or real experiences and
simulations of them.
 Pure reality is replaced by hyperreality where any
sense of what’s real and imaginary is eroded.

24. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Let’s have another pause.
 How can we use an example from
popular culture to explain the idea
that we can no longer see the
difference between what’s real and
what’s not?

25. The Matrix (1999) – Welcome to the Real World

26. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Postmodernists claim that in a media-saturated
world, where we are constantly immersed in media -
on the move, at work, at home - the distinction
between reality and the media representation of it
becomes blurred or even entirely invisible. For
example in ‘The Matrix’ (1999)…

27. Postmodern Media Ideas 1 – Reality?
Some critics see postmodernism and
hyperreality as a historical development.
The modernist period came during the
early part of the 20th century when artists
experimented with the representation of
reality.
Here’s an example of a modernist text. An
artist is experimenting with reality. But
what is it?

28. Marcel Duchamp
Nude
Descending A
Staircase (1912)

29. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 After modernism comes postmodernism;
 Modernism is the artist playing around with
representation.
 Postmodernism is where this idea of
representation gets 'remixed', played around
with even more, ‘mashed up’ through
pastiche, parody and intertextual references
 Where the people that make texts (artists, film
directors, creatives) deliberately remind us that
they are constructed texts and make no attempt
to pretend that they are 'realist'.
 Others say that, if you think about
it, postmodernism is just a new word to describe
what has always gone on.

30. Defining Postmodernism
 Pastiche, parody and intertextuality are terms that
come from Fredric Jameson’s (1991) theories.
 Jameson sees parody as the comic intention to
‘produce an imitation which mocks the original’
whilst acknowledging that it imitates.
 Pastiche, however, is less about comedy and more
about plagiarism.
 ‘Pastiche is blank parody. Parody that has lost its
sense of humour’.
 An example might be The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
as it recreates the 1970s disaster movie adding only CGI
as a contemporary update.
 So be careful how you apply the terms…

31. Unknown Artist
Superhero
Descending A
Staircase (2006)
According to
Jameson, why is this a
Postmodernist text?

32. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
Another postmodern critic, Fredric
Jameson, saw parody as the comic
intention to ‘produce an imitation which
mocks the original’. A painting like
Superhero descending a staircase (2006)
openly ‘steals’ from Marcel Duchamp’s
earlier work…

33. Defining Postmodernism
 Intertextuality is found in postmodern films and
other media texts that borrow features from
other texts.
 Though now seen as positive through films like
Pulp Fiction (1994) and Scream (1996) –
intertextuality was seen by Jameson as being an
example of cultural decline – that there was
‘nothing new anymore’.
 Connections - What other media involves huge
amounts of intertextual borrowing?

34. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
Let’s take another postmodern look at that
Duchamp painting again.
I’m going to show you two further
representations of reality.
After a few questions along the way…
I want you to tell me which one is the most
real?

35. Marcel Duchamp
Nude
Descending A
Staircase (1912)
Why is this a
modernist text?

36. Mel
Ramos, Nude
Descending A
Staircase (2006)
Why is this a
postmodernist
text?
Parody?
Pastiche?
Intertextual?

37. Eadweard Why is this a Modernist
Muybridge text?
Nude Descending a How does it change our
reading of the 1912
Staircase (1886)
Duchamp painting?

38. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 So which one’s most ‘real’?
 The postmodernist would argue that they are all
equally as real and equally as unreal.
 They are all representations of reality.
 The medium of oil paints or acrylic paints or the
camera are mediating reality.
 Postmodernism is where we no longer concern
ourselves with experimenting with representation
(modernism) but we accept what is represented
isn’t real and experiment with even the idea of
representation (postmodernism).

39. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Let’s look at a recent film and try to apply
some postmodern thinking…
1. We all know films aren’t ‘real’;
2. Even documentaries were first defined
as ‘creative treatments of actuality’.
3. But to what extent is Kiss Kiss Bang
Bang (2005) a postmodernist text?

40. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) – Opening scenes

41. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
So why is it a postmodern text?
Because it’s playing around with the idea
of representation;
It’s a pastiche and parody of film noir;
It’s full of intertextual references;
The film director deliberately reminds us
that we are watching a constructed text
and makes no attempt to pretend that this
is 'real’ .
 Now write up why KKBB is a postmodern text in your
own words giving examples….

42. Review
 What have we learnt?
 Postmodernism suggests that we now live in a
hyperreal world.
 Reality TV is an example of hyperreality and
the the representation of ‘the spectacle’ - ‘a
relationship between people that is mediated by
images’.
 When representation gets 'remixed' through
pastiche, parody and intertextual references’
this is postmodernism at play
 And that the Media Studies is no longer as easy
as it once was.

43. Applying Postmodern Media Theory
 Now explain Point 1 in your own
words…
 Here it is again:
1. The distinction between media and reality has
collapsed, and we now live in a 'reality' defined by
images and representations - a state of simulated
reality. Images refer to each other and represent each
other as reality rather than some ‘pure’ reality that exists
before the image represents it - this is the state of
hyperreality.