introduction - mediaandculturalstudies.co.uk
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Simulation/Simulacra explored
Postmodern world and hyperreality
Blurring of real/unreal
Other models of reality
Relating these ideas to
◦ News, war reporting, medical dramas, food
Learning Outcome 3: analyse and critically reflect upon a selection of generic popular texts –television news (and others) and reality
Assignment 1: Analysis of television programmes or television itself in relation to hyperreality/simulation/simulacra? (Baudrillard)
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Baudrillard
World is no longer real but only a simulation
Hyperreality, simulacra and mass media
Simulation: Representation of things which may come to replace those things
◦ Exist in layers and hence become simulacra
Simulacra: layers of simulation that exist –reality is not knowable
Map story (Borges map)
Q: Have we lost touch with reality?
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Real Image
Image
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Postmodern world
Postmodernism – no coherent, unified representation of the world
Simulacra: Simulacra et Simulation 1981
◦ Simulacra is the copy without an original
◦ E.g. Disneyland’s Main Street USA
◦ https://youtu.be/AxgJHmLVyNU (2.02)
Phases of representation
◦ The image reflects reality
◦ The image masks/changes reality
◦ The image masks the absence of reality
◦ The image is disconnected from reality (own simulacrum)
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Hyperreality
Hyperreality: boundary between image, or
simulation, and reality breaks down
◦ World of hyperreality
◦ E.g. Obama is a simulation of politics
We are bombarded by these (simulations)
and (simulacra)
Extreme viewpoint – there is no real
Culture/Society as flux of signs and images.
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News
News is about immediacy
◦ 24 hour channels and structural/procedural
routines
News values
◦ See Galtung and Ruge for the basics
E.g. Charlie Brooker on News (2.02)
Charlie Brooker live news reports (4.59)
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War and Hyperreality
Hard to know what is actually going on
Conducted as a media spectacle
E.g. missile eye view or drone camera
Similar to video games
Charlie Brooker on War (6.13)
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Medical dramas and Hyperreality
Medical Dramas
e.g. Holby City promoting
unrealistic expectations
CPR success rate on TV 67%,
in reality 8% to 37%
BMA – greater litigation
because of shows like Casualty
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Food programmes and hyperreality
Food as a simulacrum
Food seen in terms of appearance rather than smell or taste
Food programmes often focus on food education
Cookery programmes tend to be competitive with contestants
Focus is on emotions in a kind of hyperreal situation.
E.g. Ready Steady Cook (7.30)
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Other modules of reality
Onion model of reality
(Mattessich 1991)
◦ More stable core/less stable
surface
Mimesis (Aristotle/Plato)
◦ Associated with representation
◦ Constructs a wold of illusion
◦ Images bind our experience of
reality to subjectivity
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Core
Layers
Outer
End of Postmodernism
Some academics suggest that postmodernism has finished
Elements of culture
◦ Residual elements of culture from past still present
◦ Emergent aspects of culture in opposition/alternative to dominant culture
Disagreements about terminology
◦ Postmodernity, post-post modernity or something else (metamodernism, cosmodernism, authenticism 5.25) .
Baudrillard still relevant e.g. https://youtu.be/IQovoot_ZUM (1.52)
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Summary
News and creation of news stories
Baudrillard – ideas such as hyperreality and simulacra
Phases of representation – losing/replacing the real
We can apply these notions to other television programmes such as food, Black Mirror and others
Other models of reality
Context of postmodernism/end of postmodernism
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References Barker, C. (2016) Cultural Studies. London, Sage.
Baudrillard, J. (2006) War Porn. Journal of Visual Culture. Vol.5(1), pp.86-88.
Kellner, D. (1993) Baudrillard: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mattesich, R. (2003) Accounting model of reality: A Comparison with Baudrillard’s orders of simulacra and its hyperreality. Accounting, Organisations and Society. Vol. 28(5) pp.443-470.
Merrin, W. (2005) Baudrillard and the Media. A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity
Poster, M. (ed.) (1988) Baudrillard Selected Writings. Cambridge: Polity.
Redhead, S. (2008) The Jean Baudrillard Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Viviani, D. (2013) Food, mass media and Lifestyle. A hyperreal correlation. Italian Sociological Review. Vol. 3(3), pp. 165-175.
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