Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Assess the postmodernist views of the mass media.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

POSTMODERNIST view of mass media. PM argue mass media are central to the PM theory, as the decline of traditional communities, time-space compression and flexible production ? all derived through the media. PM argue the global society is media-saturated, making it harder to distinguish between reality and hyper-reality, and making culture fragmented and unstable. PM challenge viewing audience as passive and easily manipulated, as they use media images to construct individual identities. The major criticism of PM is that their argument is based on abstract concepts and a lack of empirical evidence. Marxists criticise PM for ignoring inequalities in media access, and that the media messages can mislead the audiences, as the main effort behind them is maintaining profit for capitalists. PM argue the society today is media-saturated. ...read more.

Middle

PM argue the media actively create reality. BAUDRILLARD argues media images have replaced reality to such an extent that we live in hyper-reality, i.e. reality structured by electronic communication. In turn, the media present simulacra (artificial copies of real events), which is hard to differentiate from reality. There is no longer separate reality for things like TV programmes, highlighted by media stories about fictional characters. TUCKLE notes that the lives of TV characters have become more real to the audience than actual communities. For example, people felt so strongly about TV show Cheers that they created Cheers bars in America, similarly to creating Central Perk coffee shops after popularity of Friends. Moreover, the media can create realities of such major events as wars. BAUDRILLARD argues that the First Gulf War was a simulation created by the media, noting that ?the war only happened on TV?. ...read more.

Conclusion

However, PM are criticised for not being able to empirically prove the link between popular culture and creation of identities. PM conducted small scale ethnographic research, as they reject possibility of discovering objective truth about social world. However, it severely undermines their argument. In support of PM, however, neo-functionalist PUTNAM found empirical evidence to highlight the breakdown of the real world social interaction and declining social capital due to the influence of the media, and especially new media. In conclusion, PM view of the media is influential in drawing attention to the impact of the media on creation of identities and how consumption influence people?s ability to create their identities themselves. However, the major limitation of PM theory is reluctance to recognise the significance of the market forces and concentration of media ownership in understanding the media impact on the society. Moreover, PM do not acknowledge the media?s role of promoting and exacerbating inequalities among audiences. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Media section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Media essays

  1. Popular American Culture - Beauty in the Media. America heavily relies on mass ...

    have no choice but to carry their 'flaws' often struggling with a low self-image. Without a doubt there are those who are obsessed, wasting and spending millions on surgery, beauty supplies, diet supplements, dental work, and other self improving procedures.

  2. How does the media represent female bodies?

    how many pages included images of women which were accompanied by text describing how much weight a female had lost and what diet tips she recommended. Each magazine had a very similar number of pages dedicated to weight (approximately 10 pages).

  1. The function of Education is to develop and reinforce social solidarity.

    expectations are derived from the accepted norms and values of the society which they inhabit . These social norms are generally accepted and agreed upon. As the behaviours are repeated in more interactions and these expectations are entrenched or institutionalized a role is created.

  2. I am going to examine how mass media representations of homosexuality have changed over ...

    The shots used are medium close-up. He and Hannibal are in a room surrounded by mirrors that reflect a lot of images of him. He breaks the mirrors and uses the glass to repeatedly slash of chunks of his

  1. "Any sociological explanation of the influence of the mass media needs to take into ...

    The Empiricist Tradition/Approach (as first proposed by Prof. Halloran) brings together researches & studies onto the effects of mass media. This approach is concerned in find out as much evidence as possible about media audiences, e.g. people, age, gender, social status, occupation, leisure, etc. Berelson & Steiner in 1964 concluded that people tend to see & hear communications/media content that are favourable or 'congenial [related] to their predispositions [willingness].'

  2. Assess cultural pessimist views of the new media

    Cultural pessimists argue this leads to loss of social capital. PUTNAM?S ?bowling alone? study suggests social capital is declining in the US, partly due to new media encouraging social isolation and losing touch with real social networks.

  1. To what extent does the Media affect body image in teens and their perception ...

    Did I do it by year or by gender? The graphs were done on a trial and error basis however I felt like they were done in a correctly in the end. Another study found that 27% of the girls that they carried an experiment out on that felt the

  2. Assess the effects of mass media on popular culture.

    the developing world can be injected with modern ideas that begin cultural ideas that will help to develop those societies. For example the recent spread of protests in Northern Africa, and the overthrowing of the Gadafi regime in Libya, because the people wished for a democratic government, rather than a

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work