Postmodernism chapter : Précis

Pages 136-167 of the A2 textbook looks very closely at the idea of postmodernism and the effect that it has on the media industry. Postmodernism plays with the relationship between media and reality. Images and representations of key issues are the core of this. Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudillard gave different interpretations of postmodernism. Baudrillard’s theory gives a clear idea of how the media effects our lives and so helps to make sense of why postmodernism is such an important theme and attribute of today’s media. Lyotard on the other hand wrote the book postmodernism explained to children so both theories try to make postmodernism easy for everyone to understand, but with different aims.
In terms of examples of postmodern media ‘The Matrix’ is a prime example. This is, because of the plot of the film imagining an alternative reality to our own and the machines taking over our minds as well as other ideologies of the film have been interpreted by many as the controlling force and the machine run world is a less ‘savoury’ reality. The Coen brothers are also big influences on the postmodern media world. They have made films, such as ‘The Big Lebowski’ and ‘24 hour party people’. In these films intertextuality helps to sew
in our knowledge of other media texts with our interpretation of the film which helps to give films their own idea and own postmodern unique attributes. The Coen brother films are often hybrids where they are made up of two different genres in order to possibly confuse expectations of their films.
In terms of Postmodern TV, programs like the Mighty Boosh carry the idea of Ecclecticism whereby a piece of media has completely strange and new ideas running together or the plots are fractured and some of ideologies of the texts are different from each other. For example in The Mighty Boosh features strange music and the ideologies of a very different perspective on reality with ideas of music lovers working in a zoo which is where you would imagine would be the last place they would work as well the utterly bizarre happenings within the Zoo, particularly with the animal behaviour so the setting is made full use of to provide the most laughs as can give to the audience. Ricky Gervais’ two comedy smash hits ‘the office’ and ’extras’ have similar aims to the Mighty Boosh with the characters trying to make it big in the world, but also portraying the trials and tribulations that can be linked to real life society.
Magazines and video games are the other 2 media platforms that provide a real insight into the ‘post modernistic world’. GTA has taken video gaming to a different level with all the attributes of crime within the real world which can influence the players to do it themselves and magazines also help to construct postmodernism with playing with audience desires, like in ‘Nuts’ magazine and the desires of men being played upon.