Postmodernism Essay

 A Level Media Studies

Analyse the key characteristics of postmodern media. [15]

Postmodernism is believed to be a rejection of modernism. It is the saturation of culture through mass production to the extent that we can no longer differentiate between reality and representation (hyperreality). The aim of post-modernism in films and TV would be to subvert the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization and to rest the audience's suspension of disbelief. Its core value is to celebrate imitation and mimicry. In this essay, I will be explaining postmodernism's key characteristics attached along with appropriate case studies.

A media text that is greatly postmodern is the 2022 release of a Disney+ show, SheHulk, which includes features and characteristics such as parody, self-reflexivity, and satire. Firstly, the use of parody (a 'mockery') in SheHulk's season finale (episode 9) is presented through the reference to Marvel's Executive Producer, Kevin Feige, as SheHulk fights the "K.E.V.I.N." robot purposely named after Kevin Feige himself. Naming the machine after him could be to pay respect for his media production work. This particular information raises Barthes' narrative codes of cultural code which requires audiences' prior knowledge of Marvel and their executive producer in order to understand the "K.E.V.I.N." robot. As the audience acknowledges this, it could interest them further through the sense of humour to provide a good-natured comedy. Secondly, self-reflexivity is displayed by SheHulk herself "breaking the 4th wall" explicitly in ways of interacting with the audience, "Is this what you guys want?" and quite literally breaking the 4th wall. We were exposed to SheHulk forcefully exiting out of her show from Netflix's home page to the Marvel/Disney studio lot and straight into SheHulk's writers' room, or the "real" world. Self-reflexivity, such as breaking the 4th wall, subverts to typical superhero films. This utilisation can further hook audiences' interests since it shifts their expectations of this superhero film and will proceed to watch to expect the unexpected. Lastly, SheHulk also utilized the postmodern feature of satire that being copying/imitating something targeted to a larger group of people. In this case, SheHulk made a commentary and/or critique on how all Marvel movies have a blueprint of implementing the same plot and ending, which is eventually boring and dull - where the story and ending are heavily predictable and expected by the audience. This critique by SheHulk was really unexpected as the show SheHulk itself is a Marvel Universe production. However, as superhero films normally end with the hero winning, SheHulk still conforms to this even after the critique made towards typical superhero films' endings.

The truth in media texts has become difficult to distinguish due to postmodernism, as supported by Jean Baudrillard's idea of reality and hyper-reality. Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality states that we're surrounded by representations of reality (simulations) and that we can no longer distinguish between simulation and reality. Additionally, Baudrillard's idea on reality: heightened reality and hyperreality (simulation), believed that we are still able to tell apart the truth (has a strong link with reality). Whereas, hyper-reality has little to no link to reality but is packaged as real, meaning that there are artificial copies filled with simulacra (attempts to seem real) - it is difficult to differentiate as they are often packaged in the same way. One post-modern media text that is considered as heightened reality would be the 2020 release of a documentary, "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet". Here, it presents the impact of the destruction of humanity, and/or war. David himself was first shown wandering around an abandoned, destructed house/shelter, where we can still presume that that location was the inevitable impact of the war. To add, a time-lapse shot of scenery in the wild, a falling tree, predators hunting their prey in the wildlife, and close-ups of small animals are generated to be genuine, and are clearly seen to be actual. Moreover, artificial effects may also be present, such as narration (voice-overs), editing, and non-diegetic music, where it is still easily distinguishable from the certainty of reality. On the other hand, one of the heavily postmodern shows and/or documentaries that are considered hyper-reality would be "Keeping Up With the Kardashians". One of the very few true events that we can still distinguish could be their runway, fashion events (e.g. New York Fashion Week), nightlife, and the sets (e.g. their houses). Elements that make it difficult to tell apart reality include scripted scenes and events, such as pranks done among friends and/or family, and hence, scripted emotions and reactions. This effect may have on the audience that we prefer hyper-reality over reality (it may become more entertaining to us rather than heightened realistic documentary (David Attenborough's - as previously mentioned), possibly due to the reason that we are in denial of the truth. However, hyper-reality will eventually create unrealistic standards in media, thus applicable to our daily lives. For instance, the Kardashians portray a certain image and/or encourage a certain ideology of themselves in the media, such as "the perfect face". This will inevitably add to unrealistic beauty standards. All these raise one of the many possible critiques of postmodernism, where the audience may need to and is required to be media literate to define and/or distinguish between reality. In the case of the Kardashians, the audience must acknowledge the fact that the Kardashians' lives aren't everything that has been exposed to the audience.