Provide your definition of postmodern media and support it with with examples.
Postmodernism was an idea created after modernism, to challenge the ideologies that modernism had created. A postmodernism structure was formed around the lack of belief that others had started to lose, an example of this being World War Two and the effect of the Atomic Bomb. It gave that sense of there being no morality, nobody knew what to believe anymore, this also came from other structures being broken, an example of this being the idea of a perfect family (two parents, two children) with divorce and family separation being more of a common normality, this showed how the boundaries that modernism was had started to break, allowing postmodernism to be a prominent ideal.
Wreck It Ralph is a film that shows a great deal of postmodernism, without showing too much due to being created by Disney. With the main character being an villain in the arcade world, the film brings nostalgia to older viewers, with other games and intertexual references including Sonic and Mario being mentioned and featured, it would give a sense of being young again. With again the world being based on a sense of there being no morality, an issue with nostalgia could occur, with the audience wanting to go back to a time when they had less troubles. Nostalgia is powerful as you're looking back and not looking forward and developing. It is encouraging a way of escape.
Dystopia is featured within the film, this is created by the game 'Hero's Duty' - based off the game Call of Duty. This is shown within in the film when the world created by the arcade characters is taken over by pixelated bugs. The dystopia provides the fact of how bad things can happens and take over the good. This could be an idea of war and how one country goes to fight another.
Another factor shown within Wreck It Ralph is Morality, showing that good beats evil. This is shown when by accident Ralph ends up ruining a party he wasn't invited to, to celebrate the anniversary of his game. Others involved leave him, making it so he is alone is a lonely penthouse. Disney is showing how good can beat evil and showing by him being alone there is that sense of him getting what he deserves. But due to the lack of belief there is the factor of is this being shown purely being it is a children's film, in reality due to there being no morality would good really beat evil. Or could evil really win and be the one who is victorious.
A positive resolution is also shown within the film this is shown when Ralph visit an AA meeting for being bad. It showing that there is a positive resolution as he's deciding to turn up to change his life and make himself good. This is an example of morality and that something good is happening.
Another media text which is based on postmodernism is Black Mirror. The TV show is created by Charlie Brooker, showing how by living in a post modernism world can effect us. He is creating a warning of what could be. Black Mirror and Wreck It Ralph are similar types of texts, as they are both post modern, but only to certain extents.
The episode of Black Mirror I decided to look into was '15 Million Merits' a world based on the theory Baudrilliard produced of simulacra. The Tv show showed how nothing was real, creating a sense of emptiness. It showed how there was this world where really everything was based on money. Their everyday job was to produce electricity by cycling on exercise bikes, this showed a sense of a superficial, as those who were deemed skinny and active were allowed to cycle, with those who weren't having to do other jobs which would be quite demeaning to them.
The only way out of this bland simulated and hyperreal world was to be a contestant on a TV show named 'Hot Shots' - a produced talent format similar to the X Factor or Britain's Got Talent. Hot Shots showed Jameson's theory of style, as those picked to go further in the show where based on looks not ability, this shows a sense of style over substance.
Another media text which shows post modernism is the Sims 4, an online world hugely created through Baudrilliard's theory of simulation and hyperreality. With Sims 4 with the game being post modern, due to it being a gaming structure it is also digimodernism, this is due to you being able to control what is happening.
The game allows you to be who you want to be, this shows fluid identity as you allowed to express yourself without a superficial viewed being placed upon you by others in society. The game allows you to look and behave how you want, for example you could drown another sim just because you felt like it, in reality you'd be put in prison, in the game world you'd just live your normal everyday life. The game holds no consequences.
Another factor that the game provides is panpoticon, the fact of the sims allows you to everything. Other example being Big Brother and in a way prison, as you're always being watched.
Run out of time, didn't get to write everything that I had planned to do.
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