Revision

1) Define - postmodernism?

• relationship to modernism

• traditional ideas + structure

• rejects this

2) Apply characteristics to the three texts:

• empty, superficial, hyper-real (can see in media texts, style, Jameson etc.)

3) Apply thinking PoMo to the three texts:

• argue that this is a structure

4) Historical Approach:

• Tron 1982 to Social Media + Gaming (present)

• Sims, GTA etc. more PoMo

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Exam Questions

1. How do Post modernism media texts challenge additional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?

• Challenges it, collapses it
• Immersion
• Gaming + Social Media
• Black Mirror + Wreck It Ralph are post-modern BUT to a certain reason and EXTENT!! (Doesn't challenge text reader relations, film and old gaming we're invented years before) MODERNIST FORMS. They are stylistically post-modern (Intertexuality, nostalgia and style over substance) BUT theoretically uses PoMo ideas
• "Post-Modern media texts don't challenge text-reader relations however Digi-modern texts challenge it massively." Mr Barton
• Simulated (Sims, GTA etc.), fluid identity

2. How does PoMo make a text a richer experience for audience?

3. To what extent can some texts be considered PoMo?

Grand Theft Auto Gameplay

• Baudrillard - Hyperreality, exaggerated (fire explosion)

• Simulation - Unlimited lives

• Promiscuous - Nightlife, prostitutes etc.

• Fluid Identities

• Sadistic - hurt/kill without consequence

• Commodity - Stealing money, consumerism, buying guns and cars etc.

• Power + Control ( Panopticon) - no power in real life, urges, society doesn't condone violence yet these videos do

• Voyeurism (sexual posters,violence against   women)

• Grand Narratives - no belief that anything will get better, submerged in the game/the violence

• Audience + Text - control the outcome of the story.

There are 3 ways gaming can be postmodern:

1. Historical

2. Theoretical

3. Stylistic

Gaming is post-modern, filming and TV are modern.

When we're looking at stylistic, hyper-reality and simulation shows it is the most powerful way it can be post-modern.

DeBord tells us that we're buying fake stuff to express the fake real. The problem is that when your confronted with reality it will never live up to it.

Foucault tells us that fluid identities can happen when there is a loss of morality, we can become violent and different in games than what we are in real life.

What was postmodernist is now digimodernist.

DIGIMODERNISM

Digimodernism is a rejection of postmodern ideas. It is created from a development in technology. It is about the strengthening of simulation. Digimodernism has rejected morality and taken a trait of childishness. We've left post-modernism as it starts to decline, existing at the same state then going into Digi-modernism. 

Cultural autism where we can't interact with other people. 

Conclusion of Digi-Modernism

Technology has brought us to a place in history that has allowed us to produce simulations (avatars, 2nd lives, Hyperreality, immersive reality) - this is postmodernism, the collapse of the real and artificial. Baudrillard suggested we could no longer tell the difference - we are lost in simulation. This opens us up to the concept through familiarity with virtual worlds/ virtual identities that reality itself is a Simulation. Ironically - by moving to Digimodernism (Post Post-modernism) we find ourselves in Plato's cave. 

Post Modern Audiences

The postmodern audience has more control through showing something is popular. Social media gives you the ability to make something trend. Hierarchy gives the audience the power to choose something that is morally and not culturally good. The audience watch with a sense of irony (ironic position/detached position). 

Do audiences like empty texts?

- We could argue this because of Black Mirror.

Has good narratives become important for audiences?

- No, style over substance.

To what extent are the texts 'Wreck-Ralph' and Black Mirror's 'Fifteen Million Merits' modern or post-modern?

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.

Black Mirror Assessment

Simulacra & Hyper-reality

"We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less meaning." - Jean Baudrillard.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE.

Society of the Spectacle

"Capitalism has reinforced its control over the masse through the transformation of culture as a whole into a commodity - something to be bought and sold. Thus the spectacle is not much a set of particular cultural or media events and images, - like say the X Factor final - but characterises the entire social world today as an illusion, a separate form, or masking of, real life" - Mike Googan.

NO BELIEF, STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE, CONSUMERISM.

Panoptic Postmodern Futures

"Reality TV is a collective expression of the Panoptic (obsession)...it offers a glimpse into the different potential futures that postmodernism can take. What is reality television then, and what makes it so appealing? Reality television occurs when Regular Joe People, like you or me, play themselves on TV. Of course this alone would be boring. So reality television consists of putting ordinary people into extraordinary and unexpected situations. Why is this interesting to others?...The watcher...performs an immediate reflexivity in which the watcher becomes, in their own mind, the watched" - Joshua Kane.

PRISON - UNDER CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE.

Summary of Article: http://leighmediaa2pomo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/15-million-merits-postmodernism-essay.html

I think that the article is saying that 'Black Mirror' isn't just representing a future but parts of the present reality. The article explains that 'Black Mirror' was made to be so uncomfortable to watch because it could be our future if we carry on down the path we are on. 'Black Mirror' is post-modern because it highlights how we look towards television and technology.

Starter: Simulation and Emptyness

Society of the Spectacle - work of Marxism, social networks mediate your relationships, consumerism/product, style over substance, POPULARITY, abandonment of morals = NO BELIEF (Lyotard)

Hyper-reality - reality that has been exaggerated, distorted, enhanced.

Simulacra - inability to distinguish between reality and simulation. Artificial etc.

Voyeurism - looking in order to gain pleasure, power, sexualised

Panopticon - prison under constant surveillance

1950's

MODERNISM - Traditional Values
After the war, soldiers came back to find that they were still under rules, government, totalarilism.

1960's
POST-MODERNISM
Strikes
Hippies - Peace, Love & Drugs (Human Kindness)

1980's

Tron + Video Games
Simulacra

2000's
Broadband Internet
Beginning of simulation replacing relationships


2015 - NOW -

Contemporary media + culture

2025 - CONCLUSION (Black Mirror)

Modernism becomes weaker, post-modernism becomes stronger.

HOMEWORK:-

Pre-reading 1: Article on Black Mirror
http://leighmediaa2pomo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/15-million-merits-postmodernism-essay.html

Prep work 2: Essay Plan on Case Study 1 ready for next lesson
Recap on Learning Case Study 1: Ralph

Lyotard - the lack of belief in the 'Grand Narrative' (Modernist Ideology/Theories accepted as Truth)

Tron - Simulation

1982

Man is transported into hyper-real world.

2012

Our sense of hyper-reality has become stronger

Wreck It Ralph 

We've become so okay with the sense of simulation/artificialness/fakeness that we've got a computer character who's become humanised. 

Ralph is a arcade character transported into another arcade game.

Do you think Ralph references Tron?

- Intertexual reference of Wreck It Ralph,

- Baudrillard theories

Both Tron and Wreck It Ralph are Disney films which means they believe in happy endings and good and evil.

Discuss relationship of the film to Tron

How is the clip postmodern?

• Religion (grand narratives) - laser beams going above - in space, to God. Wreck It Ralph sacrifices himself in the volcanoe
• Collapse boundaries between 2 worlds - Tron character tries to break out of the prison, tried to believe in humanity, modern views but still worried that that world still has a system.
• Heightened augmented reality - 
• Human or Technology ('User' or 'Programme')
• Simulation (faces, clouds & cities, people)
• Audience sense of nostalgia (Retro)

Synopsis of Tron

• We see the evolution of MCP becoming more powerful, and eventually is able to gain enough knowledge to overpower and control Dillinger;
• MCP wanted to kill Flynn in the computer world to prove his strength;
• Tron, the program, is the real hero, not Flynn, the user;
• Due to Tron’s success, not only is the “grid” safe, but he also saved the humans and “real-life” by killing the MCP.

To what extent is Wreck-It Ralph a 'Post'-Modern text?

Collect examples from the clips

Discuss how it demonstrates the following to create something new and create Nostalgia:

1. PARODY &/or PASTICHE
2. BRICOLAGE 
3. INTERTEXTUALITY (TRON?)HYBRIDITY 
4. NOSTALGIA & RETRO 
5. PLAYFUL & IRONIC (Self Reflexive)

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'Wreck-It Ralph' is an animation based around an arcade game character Ralph, who's main goal is to become the 'good guy' by bringing a gold medal back to the 'Fix-It Felix' characters who consider him to be the bad guy. Nostalgia is seen straight away before the film even starts as an old Disney animation intro fits with the retro feel of the film. The introduction of Ralph shows post-modernism because we soon align with him, the 'bad guy' and not the other characters in 'Fix-It Felix'. The film shows styles of parody in the 'Bad Guys Anonymous' scene when the 'bad guys' of known arcade games are neutered down to people just like us, they become human-like and Ralph speaks up to say that he doesn't want to be the bad guy. This is creating a parody version of the way people have grown up with games and see the 'bad guys' in a different way. Pastiche is shown in the beginning of the film when Ralph is introduced. This is when the arcade game 'Fix-It Felix.Jr' comes to life through the film and shows hybridity because this wouldn't usually happen in real life. However because the film starts of with a arcade style look on the screen, which is a pastiche of the arcade games people grew up with, it helps to make the film enjoyable as you want to believe Anonymous happens in real-life. The common modern structure of narrative is broken in the clip, the Hero's Duty female character is portrayed as masculine and more dominant than Felix. As they are about to kiss she fires her gun and kills the romantic mood, this contrasts to modernism although during the clip we do see Felix saving her as she stares at him, this is the only part in the clip that follows rules of modernism.

In the game 'Candy Rush'  from 'Wreck-It Ralph' we see the racing track smothered with sweets, ice cream and chocolate. This can be viewed as a Bricolage between Mario Karts racing and Willy Wonka's candy land this is an example of Post modernism and intertextuality. The trailer from the film 'intertexuality', we see that hyper-reality hasn't been done before and even though the film is dated, it shows a future of simulacra where people immerse themselves in their video games rather than existing in real-life. In the clip we see humans that are animated, this is a feature of post modernism because we can not distinguish what's real or simulated, we see a simulated game with artificial humans, this collapses modernistic narrative structures and is also playful and ironic.There's more nostalgia in the film that might have been missed, which is at the very beginning of the film when the camera zooms in to the 'Fix-It Felix.Jr' game. However, included in the wide angle shot before this, is games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, which are nostalgic  to many adults who grew up playing those games. The retro computer screen fits within the feel of the film, which creates bricolage as the idea of abandoned arcade games blend with modern day animation. Post-modernism is present in 'Wreck-It Ralph' through nostalgia as it shows our lack of belief in human progress when we keep looking back in the past. Bricolage blends the idea of video games and films, and while we can control video games, we cannot control this film. This comes into the self-reflective side of the film which shows that there is no line between good and bad in people. 

The ideas that feature in Wreck it Ralph show eclecticism because it draws on more than one idea and does not go on just a set of assumptions. For example, we don't assume that all the villains are the bad guys, that there is good and bad in everyone, as even the people from 'Fix It Felix' show acts of bullying towards Ralph, who just wants to be the good guy, and fit in. There is a modernist view of the villain living in the dump, in the darkness alone, while the heroes live in the nice penthouses illuminated. (Light representing goodness and purity and darkness representing the opposite, it is clear that the grand narrative here is fairly modernist.) At Bad Anon, the villains show a degree of vulnerability, and not in the modernist way of being vulnerable. These emotions and feelings of self doubt are apparent, in a post modern way. A line from one of the villains (a zombie) is "labels won't make you happy, you must love you." Modernism was obsessed with labelling people, genders, sexualities, races. A post modern society tries to break down these labels and has even introduced people that don't identify with any of these labels. While it is a kids film, Disney still showing that it has a message in it, despite it's post modern qualities.

WORDS: 815

Christmas Work Exam Prep

Starter: Why are these videos relevant?

This video shows a Japanese soldier choosing not to kill Wolverine, and in turn, Wolverine shows his gratitude by stopping the Japanese soldier from killing himself as the atomic bomb strikes. He is shown leading the soldier to shelter and protecting him from the atomic bomb. I think the relevance of this video is that even though there are horrors such as the atomic bomb killing thousands of people and leaving behind a wasteland, there is still humane people left in the world. Or at least that's what the director is trying to get across. However, this could be just a ruse, to fool the public into thinking everything will be alright in society.

This trailer could be relevant to Media studies because back in the 1980's, this is what they imagined a hyper-reality in the Tron game to be like. The graphics back then were simple and didn't make the reality look believable. Therefore, the film wouldn't have had much of an impact on society as the public wouldn't have escaped in this world.

This trailer showcases the reboot of the classic RoboCop film, created in 1987. The intent of the film seems to set out to boost the decreasing popularity of cops, particularly the USA. The trailer also comes with a critic reviewing the trailer, who says the new RoboCop 'looks like a washing machine', this shows how people perceptions of the original RoboCop don't want to change, and most are still stuck in the past. The film shows that we are living in a future where we are constantly looking back on the past and nothing is ever truly original anymore.

WRECK IT RALPH

1. Why does it LOOK Pomo? (Jameson)

The look of Wreck It Ralph plays with the idea of recycling retro and combing it with the newer looking graphics of today. This way people familiarise themselves with the old game characters but are still able to watch a film which keeps up with the change of technology. Even at the beginning of the film an old Disney animation introduces the film, which triggers an emotional memory from viewers before they have even watched the film. Especially, in the last scene it shows how combining different intertextual ideas and creating a bricolage has become a new way of making “old” feel “new” and exciting. Bricolage blends the idea of video games and films, and while we can control video games, we cannot control this film. 

2. Does it THINK Pomo? (Baudrillard)

The ideas that feature in Wreck it Ralph show eclecticism because it draws on more than one idea and does not go on just a set of assumptions. For example, we don't assume that all the villains are the bad guys, that there is good and bad in everyone, as even the people from 'Fix It Felix' show acts of bullying towards Ralph, who just wants to be the good guy, and fit in. There is a modernist view of the villain living in the dump, in the darkness alone, while the heroes live in the nice penthouses illuminated. (Light representing goodness and purity and darkness representing the opposite, it is clear that the grand narrative here is fairly modernist.) At Bad Anon, the villains show a degree of vulnerability, and not in the modernist way of being vulnerable. These emotions and feelings of self doubt are apparent, in a post modern way. A line from one of the villains (a zombie) is "labels won't make you happy, you must love you." Modernism was obsessed with labelling people, genders, sexualities, races. A post modern society tries to break down these labels and has even introduced people that don't identify with any of these labels. While it is a kids film, Disney still showing that it has a message in it, despite it's post modern qualities.

3. Is it AFTER modernism (what structures and boundaries - Lyotard)

It has a grand narrative. It follows the story of a good person trying to prove the world wrong about himself, fighting evil and in the end, the good wins. This is a typical, “happy ending” type of story, which according to post-modern views is very “modern”. Post-modern ideas explain that grand-narratives are being collapsed but this film does not support that. Therefore, you could argue that this is not a post-modern film but it only explains and demonstrates post-modern ideas. 

APPLY TERMINOLOGY TO WRACK IT RALPH

Bricolage

Parody

Pastiche

Hybridity

Hyper-reality

Intertextuality

Style Over Substance

Self-reflexivity

This comes at the point in the film when Ralph accepts his status for what it is not what he does, as he hurtles himself into the volcano, "I'm bad and that's good". The slow-motion part shows hyper-reality as this doesn't happen in real-life.

Immersion

Flow

Prosumers

Nostalgia

Grand Narrative/ Meta Narrative

Popular (Low) Culture

Simulacra

Examples of Post-Modernism

1.  Wolverine - Pastiche (celebrating something)
2. Matrix - Hyper-reality (in-ability to distinguish from reality)
3. Lady Gaga - Parody (mocking something)
4. Death to Videodrome - Grand Narrative/Disjointed Narrative (represents history)
5. Doctor Who - Grand Narrative (erosion of history), Dystopia (bad environment), Hyper-reality
6. Pulp Fiction - Simulacra (simulations of reality)
7. Miley Cyrus - Pastiche (parody of other video)
8. Aphex Twin - Dystopia (bad environment)
9. Dead Set Davina - Hyper-reality (in-ability to distinguish from reality)

Post Modernism Revision

Modernism - 

• Came from Victorian Era right up to 1914 - came from the believe that the lives of people we're improved by science. 

Turning point - 

• First World War made people doubt that the world was a better place. Science created weapons that destroyed.

Post-Modernism- 1960s onwards

• The idea in the loss of goodness in people and a suspicion in people. 

• Brought on by The Holocaust and The Atomic Bomb in the Second World War.

• People gave up on religion. 

• Rejects and comes after modernism.

However:

• There are still aspects of modernism in society -

1. Genre Hybrids

Theorists -

1. Baudrillard - Hyperreality and Simulacra
2. Lyotard - grand narratives (MAIN ROAD - ORIGINATOR)
3. Jameson - Hybrility

Technology:

1. Communication

2. Hyper-reality

Consumerism:

1. Food - Marks and Spencer's 

2. Clothes - reputation for people to buy into 

3. Deaths - selling products, superficial, Micheal Jackson

Emptiness:

1. Collapse of Rules and Meaning

2. No Belief - religion, science, government

Nostalgia:

1. Video Games - not immersive

2. Snakes on Nokia, PAC Man

POST-MODERNISM IS A REFUSAL TO BELIEVE IN THINGS WE ARE TOLD TO BELIEVE IN.

People have lack of belief in progress so to make anything you have to look back - that's why there isn't anything new.

Post-Modernism Text

Post-Modernism Exam Example

Grace Cuthbertson:

To what extent is Wreck It Ralph a postmodern text?

It can be argued that Wreck It Ralph is a postmodern text, but in my opinion, it is more modern than post modern. It has aspects of both modern and post modern texts though. Despite using intertexuality, nostalgia e.g. pacman and bricolage, which are all aspects of Jameson's post modern theory, this film itself is in fact more modern.

Throughout the film, there are two Grand Narratives. The first one being Religion. Ralph goes into the volcano to sacrifice himself to save the world. This shows him as almost 'Godlike'. This is clearly a grand narrative as it is a large scale theory, influened massively by the progress of history.

The second grand narrative shown is in the last scene. The idea of the female character being a princess and then wanting to become president shows the change in femininity. It is clear that a princess is a very feminine role where as president is quite masculine. The change is shown most obviously through her appearance. This goes against the modernism theory. In the last scene, combining different intertextual ideas and creating a bricolage has become a new way of making “old” feel “new". 

The film shows recycling the gaming culture and create something new that will create nostalgia for a large audience. Dystopian is very Post Modern as that type of audience reject new ideas and don't believe in progression. It can be argued that the film is post modern in the sense that it has an audience within the film as well as the audience watching, but the film follows the story of what looks like a evil person who eventually becomes good and the villain who looks good at the start but is seen as evil by the end of the film. The film follows the equlibrium theroy and has a typical, “happy ending”which is very modern. It also has the propp theory within the characters e.g. hero, villian, helper.

Overall, id say it can be argue that this is not a post-modern film but it only explains and demonstrates post-modern ideas and is in fact more modern than post modern. It does this to appeal to a wider audience.

3 Types of Post Modernism

1. Historical (as an era – 'after' Modernism or 'against modernism', end of history/progress, cynical, what caused it, when is it?)
2. Aesthetic (what it looks like, style over substance, retro, nostalgia)
3. Philosophy (what it thinks like – grand/meta narratives, hyper-reality, simulated)

STYLE

Hybridity - can take various forms across most media. Means its from more than one source, mixing and sampling of different kinds and levels. Hybrid (hierarchies of taste) distinctions between high culture and popular culture. Post Modernism 'raid image bank' is available through digital technology.

Bricolage- "Jumble" - Used to refer to the process of adaption where aspects of one style are given different meanings when mixed with stylistic features.

Simulacra- Jean Baudrillard. Blur of real in film, tv and magazines e.g. increasing CGI in films and scripted documentary in TOWIE. 

Wolverine

Shows simulacra through increasing CGI. Popular Culture.

The Matrix

Post - Modernism notes

Ideas of truth need to be deconstructed

People who are privileged construct these ideas whereas people who live in underprivileged countries break conventions every day. 

If truth is absent then how do we deal with the matters of justice.

Baudrillard believed in hyper-reality presenting a different world to our own, a fictional one.

Simularcra - simulations of reality that replace any 'pure' reality.

The concept of grand narrative, and in particular what Lyotard called the “emancipation narrative”, concerns the kind of meta-narrative which talks, not just about “one damn thing after another”, but sees some kind of interconnection between events, an inner connection between events related to one another, a succession of social systems, the gradual development of social conditions, and so on – in other words, is able in some way to make sense of history. More particularly, when pronounced as it usually is, with a sneer, the “grand narrative”, the “narrative of emancipation” is all those conceptions which try to make sense of history, rather than just isolated events in history, concepts like “class struggle”, socialism and capitalism, productive forces and so on.

According to Lyotard, in the postmodern period, people no longer believe in grand narratives, and consequently, to the armies of postmodern pen-pushers, ipso facto, “grand narratives” are old fashioned and oppressive – oppressive because one grand narrative excludes another and doesn’t my narrative have just as much right to truth as yours?

The Matrix represents what could happen in society as they realise they aren't happy plugged into machine. This could represent society becoming more reliant on technology. 

The 9/11 was a scapegoat for terrorism and military invasion.

The Mighty Boosh deliberately messes with the idea that they are suppose to be a TV show and pretending that what the audience is real - TV shows are artificial. There is no depth or meaning - it is superficial.  

What people believe in: 

Grandparents

Family

Religion

Their country

Science & Technology

The government has destroyed the believe in the system because nothing has changed. Protesting shows that people don't buy into it. People have lost faith. Post modernism is not a belief in nothing but a rejection in traditional structures/dominant idealogies. 

We have emptiness because we have no belief in anything anymore. We have moved from external desires to internal desires. 

Post-Modernism words: 

1. Intertexuality - The relationship between texts
2. Distopia - An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
3. Simulacra - Simulations of reality that replace any 'pure' reality.
4. Bricolage - Bricolage is a word which is used to mean an assemblage of objects, along with the trial and error process of putting such objects together.
5. Pastiche & Parody - A pastiche imitates and celebraes something and a parody mocks it.
6. Superficial - Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely.
7. Nostalgia - Something done or presented in order to evoke feelings of nostalgia.
8. Hyper-reality - Hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality
9. Prosumers (Participatary media) - The merging of producers and consumers.
10. Grand Narrative -  An abstract idea that is supposed to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge

Genre Demonstration

Theories applied to my Music Video

To what extent does your music video conform to the structures of Audience theories?

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change. One of the most influential versions of this kind of ‘hypodermic’ theory of media effects was advanced by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer: the ‘Pessimistic mass society thesis’ which conveys ideas of a ‘mass culture’ for the audience. This idea suggests that the media has the power to ‘inject’ a repressive ideology into the consciousness of the masses (who are powerless to resist). The theory suggests that certain music video genres/artists such as rap or RnB deem inappropriate through the lyrics or themes and can create a change of attitude (usually for the worse) or creating an acceptance. The idea for my music video shows that I have used the idea of the hypodermic theory because the idea of depression in teenagers and how they are impressionable to what they see in the media. They have been influenced by music about life. My music video will be a message influence people with depression to take a second thought and think about the good things in their life. Rather than the influence of my video being a negative effect on my audience, I will use the video to be a positive re-enforcement to encourage those with depression that life is worth living. However, my music video won’t be one that will influence people's decisions subconsciously because I want the audience to make their own decision on my interpretation of the track ’I See Fire ft. Jasmine Thompson’.

This is the idea that the audience have an active role to play in the understanding of, and creation, of meaning within a media text. The pluralist idea is the exact opposite of a hegemonic one. A pluralist model argues that there is diversity in society (everyone is different) and therefore there is also choice (we can choose what to believe and what not to believe).The readings theory could apply to my music video because I feel that my message of depression could be interpreted in a different way which could offend people rather than motivate people with depression to live their life. I think that the lyrics from ‘I See Fire ft. Jasmine Thompson’, could be mis-interpreted because the lyric, ‘then we should all burn together’, implies that I am encourages people with depression to end heir life, which could offend people. However, my view is saying that people with depression should stick together and battle their demons to commit. I don’t think that my audience should mis-interpret my message because the girl ends up fighting her demons and waking up in reality. She also wakes up and walks out of the hospital to find that she can live her dream in reality, as she wonders onto the field. 

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. My music video uses the UGT because it will seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. The imagery in my video hints to the idea of the after-life and heaven which seeks out people’s religious believes. Many people believe in heaven and want to know that there’s something there to believe in when their gone. However, for people who don’t have depression, the video might not appeal to them. I do believe though that it will trigger emotions from the audience which targets what the audience wants to feels from songs, or at least my artist, ADDAL’s song.

It was Stanley Cohen, in his work, Folk Devils and Moral Panics. (1987) who first coined the term 'moral panics'. He defined the concept as a sporadic episode which, as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral panic, or in other terms, worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy. He describes its characteristics as "a condition, episode, person or group of persons [who] become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." [Cohen, 1987: 9] Cohen goes on to discuss the way in which the mass media fashions these episodes, or stylises them, amplifying the nature of the facts and consequently turning them into a national issue, when the matter could have been contained on a local level.Cohen shows that my music video creates moral panic because I will be bringing up depression, which is a problem that isn’t discussed often in society. Seeing as I am appealing to a young audience but bringing the message of how many are depressed, it could be risky because they make not relate to that idea and may push it away. The scenes in the music video I will produce, will create a moral panic because I want to bring the topic of depression to the attention to others. The scene with the girl underwater in the bath tub could shock viewers because they won’t want to know how she got to the hospital, however this is important for the viewer to understand her pain. This triggers the audience to think emotionally about ADDAL’s song. Although my music video will create moral panic, it will be for good reasons as it will raise awareness about the problems people with depressions have to face everyday. I hope that it will inspire people with depressions that they are not alone and that someone hears, that they have a voice. I think that a way to grab an audiences attention is to shock them first, to get the idea out there, otherwise the problem of depressions in young adults is still out there.

Frank Parkin and later Stuart Hall analysed the readings within audiences as either dominant or preferred reading (the meaning they want you to have is usually accepted), negotiated reading (the dominant reading is only partially recognised or accepted and audiences might disagree with some of it or find their own meanings) and oppositional reading (the dominant reading is refused, rejected because the readers disagrees with it or is offended by it, especially for political, religious, feminist reasons etc.The pluralist model and the active audience theory could apply to my music video because I show that my audience have an active role in how I have constructed my video. I wanted to put across the theme of depression so that the audience understands the dangers if it. I wanted to bring awareness because I was inspired by audience of young adults, who suffer greatly from depression. However, my video can be interpreted differently because of the lyrics and the audience can choose what to believe or not. My music video shows that she stays in reality and ends up happier, however others could read it as her not liking reality as she walks out of the hospital she was trapped in.