Post-Modern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture 'eats itself' as there is no longer anything new to produce. There are three ways media can be post-modern, these are historical, stylistic and theoretical. The two texts that I will study are the film 'Wreck-It Ralph' and an episode from the Television series 'Black Mirror'. 'Wreck-It Ralph' is to an extent post-modern, as the Disney film includes elements of nostalgia which shows Jameson's theory that because we no longer believe in a better future, we are constantly recycling the past. Also, the use of intertextuality and parody throughout the film collapses the Grand Narratives. However, 'Wreck-It Ralph' can't be called a post-modern film as it is a Disney film intended to bring laughter and joy to young audiences and adults alike, not make them question society. In 'Black Mirror', the episode 'Fifteen Million Merits' shows a future where peoples lives are determined by how much 'merits' they have, in which they earn by powering energy from cycling. The dystopian world shows that the more 'merits' you have, the power you have. However what is disturbing about the episode is that the future isn't that far from the present day consumerism. Baudrillard's ideas of simulacra and hyper-reality are present in the episode from the Mii-like avatar's to the parody of the X Factor and all the lack of real-life in between. 'Black Mirror' is more post-modern as they use more theories to create a warning. Whereas 'Wreck-It Ralph' has a stylistic approach to create nostalgia. The Historical approach to post-modernism features the collapse of modern views on government and society that people started to lose belief in the system and saw that nothing would get better. It was the end of progress and the belief in grand narratives coined by Lyotard. Jameson's theories were a Stylistic stance to post-modernism, with his main idea about the fact that there is no progress so we recycle the old, which makes it nostalgic and retro, for example, the film 'Wreck-It Ralph'. The four theorists who took a Theoretical approach to post modernism are Lyotard, Baudrillard, Debord and Foucault. Lyotard believed in the death of the 'Grand Narrative' which means that we no longer believe in a better future, that we are just recycling things from the past. People didn't believe that there was any moral culture anymore and the growing consumerism has made the value of everything to become 'empty'. Baudrillard coined the theory which included hyper-reality and simulacra, which meant that people started to lose belief in reality, therefor there was a collapse between what's real and what's artificial. Escapism was the only way of coping. Debord believed in style over substance, that most things don't have meaning anymore. He wrote about this in his theory and called it the 'Society of the Spectacle'. Where consumerism in society leaves people wanting more. Foucault believed in 'The Panopticon', which is the idea that we are all captive in are own lives, under constant surveillance. His theory also tells us that the people in the power are the ones that hold the truth. 'Black Mirror' uses a theoretical approach to post-modernism which makes it more post-modern than Wreck-It Ralph's stylistic approach.
Lyotard believed in the 'Grand Narrative' and the end of progress. He believed that when we lose belief that anything is going to get better we get simulacra and hyper-reality as a form of escapism. His theory came after modernism and was a rejection of people who believed in 'the system'. As there is a loss in faith in anything new we are recycling the old which is known as cultural recycling. 'Wreck-It Ralph' is an example of where boundaries collapse between genres. For example, when Ralph is tired of always being the villain, he decides to enter the game 'Heroes Duty' where he will gain the gold medal and become the hero. The game shows a world of dystopia that is the complete opposite to the world Ralph lives in.
Lyotard believed in the 'Grand Narrative' and the end of progress. He believed that when we lose belief that anything is going to get better we get simulacra and hyper-reality as a form of escapism. His theory came after modernism and was a rejection of people who believed in 'the system'. As there is a loss in faith in anything new we are recycling the old which is known as cultural recycling. 'Wreck-It Ralph' is an example of where boundaries collapse between genres. For example, when Ralph is tired of always being the villain, he decides to enter the game 'Heroes Duty' where he will gain the gold medal and become the hero. The game shows a world of dystopia that is the complete opposite to the world Ralph lives in.
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