2. • The rise of the new media is seen by some as part of the
change from a modernist to a postmodernist society.
• Key argument – we live in a world that is shaped by the
media. Media images and representations have become
our reality and computer technology has created a virtual
reality which has replaced real-life.
• Key Sociologist – Baudrillard – we live in a media
saturated society where media images distort and
dominate the way we see the world.
3. • Our view of the world is distorted and sanitized by the
media.
• War and conflict has been shown as a media constructed
spectacle so much so that we are unable to distinguish
the reality from the Hollywood portrayal of war or the
images we see in video games.
• This distorted view of the world is called HYPEREALITY
with the media presenting a SIMULACRA – artificial
images or reproductions of real events viewed
simultaneously around the world.
4. • Media shows such as…
• I’m a celebrity get me out of here
• Wife Swap
• Big Brother
• All blurring the distinction between reality and hypereality.
• All of these programmes stem from an artificial base, without
the media the celebrities wouldn’t be in the jungle, wives
would not be swapped and the artificial environment of the Big
Brother House would not become “real” for the audience and
contestants.
5. • Emphasises the importance of the mass media in shaping
consumer choices.
• Media messages from all angles increasingly influence the
was we define ourselves. The mass media created pressures
and desires to consume and many of us define ourselves in
terms of media imagery.
• Media enforced trends become more important than the
content or quality of the product, the visual effects in films
more important than the plot and the ever increasing number
of people who are famous for no reason at all apart from being
made celebrities by the media.
6. • The media has created an uncertain world – do we know
what to believe?
• We identify more with the media images than we do with
our own daily experience – are we more likely to identify
with the communities of those in the soap operas than
those in our own community?
• BUT…do postmodernists assume that we approach the
media with no prior experience of our own? Can we not
ignore or interpret media images? Are factors such as are
gender, class, ethnicity, our life experiences, friends,
peers, education more likely to determine how we select,
interpret and respond to the mass media?
