How do
post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the
concept of representation?
Postmodernism is a
historical period after Modernism, in other words, Modernism saw belief in
progress, a self-serving unfulfilled culture with structure and order and a
world inspired by science and technology, until people begun to question their
ideologies due to wars and the bombs used in them. Therefore, in the
Post-modern world we now live in, we are left with defragmented ideologies, a
spoilt culture in which we have a lack of faith in anything new and where we
celebrate technology for technologies sake and not the science behind it. Therefore
in Postmodernity, we are faced with media texts in which offer style over
substance, where we are much more accustomed to the look and style of the text
rather than the content. Audiences used to passively watch television,
whereas in Postmodernity audiences now actively watch, and now there is a huge
variety of different media forms for audiences to watch, and due to this in
Postmodernity we now celebrate popular culture. And in comparison to the structured meaningful modern
texts, postmodern texts are hyper-real with no specific structure or meaning,
which is a result of our postmodern world where structures are blurred and
broken down.
Postmodern texts contradict modern values and beliefs and
as a result challenge tradition text-reader relations. For instance, examples
of such texts include Wreck-It Ralph, reality television shows such as the X
Factor, music artists such as Nicki Minaj, video games such as the Sims and television
programmes such as Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror: White Bear.
Postmodern media challenges modern representation, an
example of this is Nicki Minaj, one of today’s most popular music artists and
is a prime example of how the structures have broken down since Modernity. She
bases her image on a Barbie doll, which was predominantly modern and yet, as
Jameson would say, she has recycled the culture of Barbie, and from using this
intertextual reference, Nicki Minaj has created a representation of herself
which is simulated and hyper real. This refers to Baudrillard’s theory of
simulacra and his belief in the fact we cannot have anything new anymore, 'an artificial
representation of reality that no longer bare any resemblance to the original',
therefore in postmodernity the media create idealistic representations of
reality that outclass reality. Furthermore, Nicki Minaj has several alter-egos,
which Foucault would describe as her having a ‘fluid identity’, meaning her
identity is framed and is a shifting, temporary construction. And due to the
collapsing of structures in postmodernity, we as an audience accept her
representation of herself as we have adapted to post-modern texts and have
surrendered to popular culture.
The idea of fluid identities
is also carried on through playing video games such as the Sims, as it enables
the audience to represent themselves to be whomever they want to be, to be a
character, via a simulation. Video games offer the audience a heightened
reality and due to this heightened reality, the audience become immersed in the
game, losing sense of reality in the process. This process of immersion and
fluid identities also refers to our use of social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter, where we a population have become immersed in the use of
these websites, and can represent ourselves to be whomever we wish, where we
can post photos in various poses or photos of other people who we can say we
are, and due to being behind a computer, people can live out their fluid
identities over the internet. The idea of flow and immersion and fluid
identities was not possible in modernity as media such as television did not
offer the text-readers the opportunity to decide what happens in the programme
without a chance to control the outcome, however in postmodernity we as an
audience prefer to have a sense of control. This sense of control is
demonstrated in television shows such as White Bear and The X Factor. Even
though White Bear is not an interactive programme, Charlie Brooker demonstrated
our need for control by having the audience in White Bear participate in a
television programme which follows the public ridicule of a known criminal. In
reference to the X Factor, a reality television programme, which showcases
aspiring music artists who compete against one another to win a recording
contract, the irony being they sing songs from the record label in question’s
back catalogue, hence demonstrating Jameson’s theory that nothing new can be created
and that culture is being recycled. In comparison to the modern audience, in
postmodernity, The X factors allows the text-reader to have the ability to choose
their winner by voting and hence leads them to fill a sense of control.
Films and games are similar
as they both revolve around a character who wants to accomplish a goal or end,
therefore breaking the boundaries between audience and media content because
without an audience to use, the media cannot exist. Therefore Wreck-it Ralph is
a prime example due to the fact it draws intertextual references from 1980
games such as Pacman, Sonic and Tappers, plus various others, which creates
Nostalgia, an aspect of Jameson’s post-modern views and comes together as a
film. And due to this bricolage of intertextual references where the characters
from such games have their own world and merge together such as at the end when
all the games who’s plugged had been pulled out, merged into Fix-It Felix,
Wreck-It Ralph in effect breaks down modern structures as in modernity genres
did not merge together in hybrids. And hence by using these intertextual
references, this shows that by recycling the gaming culture, something new can
be created that will create nostalgia and as a result be marketable not only to
the 1980s/90s generation, such as the parents of today but to the newer
generation such as their children.
On the other hand, as a
film, it could be argued that Wreck-It Ralph embodies a grand narrative
structure, which is a modern aspect and follows the traditional stereotype of
an imperfect ‘odd’ hero overcoming their perceived deficiency and who prevails
in a fight against evil, which we see in many modern texts such as Aladdin, a
thief who becomes the hero. Due to the film being narrated by Ralph, this is an
example of self-reflectivity, as he is aware he is a game character and decides
to go against his ‘villain’ status and become a hero, this in effect blurs the
modern structure of Lyotard’s grand narrative where the hero is good and the
villain is bad, therefore also blurring the binary opposites of good vs evil,
on the other hand another Post-Modernism view on grand narratives is that films
had a typical ‘happy ending’ and in the
case of Wreck-It Ralph there is a happy ending, and hence conforms to the modern
structure. Therefore, I would argue that Wreck-it Ralph is not as post-modern
as the other texts I have referenced.
In conclusion I believe that Postmodern media does challenge
the traditional text-reader relations and representation, as in reference to
the Postmodern theories they can be applied to the texts I have studied such as
Jameson’s recycled culture, the breaking of boundaries with Lyotard’s Grand
Narratives and Baudrillard’s simulacra and simulation, and as a result found
the texts to be Postmodern, with recycled modern aspects. In reference to the future, I am led to wonder
how postmodernity will evolve, due to the idea of nothing ever being new,
whether we will stay at a standstill of recycled ideas with no progress ever to
be made, or to effortlessly carry on trying to create something new, I think
Black Mirror is right in what it is trying to put across, if we carry on the
way we are, the likeliness of a dystopian society is inevitable.
Terminology 7/10
AEE 12/20
Examples 13/20
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