4.1 ownership and control of the mass media - postmodernist theories

Question 1

What are the main arguments of postmodernism?

Answer 1

• the metanarratives that used to be crucial for modern society, no longer have the same relevance today
• people are much more diverse in their approach and no longer seek guidance from experts to the same extent

Question 2

What do Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard argue about the media?

Answer 2

• the media dominates contemporary society as never before
• Baudrillard = we live in a media-saturated society

Question 3

What is meant by media-saturated?

Answer 3

• means that it is no longer possible for us to escape the influence of the mass media
• media images have become part of our way of seeing the world

Question 4

What does Baudriallrd mean by hyperreality?

Answer 4

• the media creates a view of reality that is distorted
• the media are constantly trying to produce images that are so accurate and realistic that they are in a sense, ‘more real than reality’
• we are no longer able to tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t

Question 5

What is meant by simulacra?

Answer 5

• artificial images or reproductions of copies
• it has resulted in individuals subjecting media content to multiple interpretations

Question 6

What does Trowler argue about media messages?

Answer 6

• in a postmodern world, media messages are polysemic

Question 7

What is meant by polysemic?

Answer 7

• each media message/text is now interpreted in a variety of ways, which makes it difficult for any one message to be more powerful than another

Question 8

What are the reasons Dominic Strinati suggests the mass media is important for the development of postmodern society?

Answer 8

• now that our economy is no longer based on manufacturing, the media are increasingly responsible for providing most of our experience of social reality
• image and style have more significance than form or content

Question 9

How has the distinction between media producers and consumers become less distinct?

Answer 9

• there has been a shift in media production away from global corporations to individuals e.g. blogging and vlogging
• individual consumers of the media are also involved in re-inventing and subverting the existing media products of global corporations in imaginative and playful ways

Question 10

What does Levene (2007) argue about media and choice?

Answer 10

• members of society now have greater choice in their access to a greater diversity of media, which makes it easier for them to reject or to challenge the metanarratives proposed by the powerful

Question 11

What example does Levene use?

Answer 11

• how university students in 2007 could utilize media products such as Facebook and Twitter to construct a ‘viral’ campaign to defeat HSBC which had proposed to introduce overdraft fees

Question 12

What are some critiques of postmodernist theory?

Answer 12

• they exaggerate the extent to which wider social influences have subsided
• they exaggerate the impact of ‘information explosion’ on ordinary people’s capacity to bring about change
• they fail to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence for the existence of structural inequalities in wealth and power relations, making it difficult for powerless groups, whatever access they might have to the media, to bring about any meaningful change to their everyday lives