As you wait for the lesson to begin – write down the five things that you can see on this slide

As you wait for the lesson to begin – write down the five things that you can see on this slide.

Unit: Introduction to A-Level Media Studies

Title: ‘Media-saturated society’

Aim:• To appreciate that “reality” is a questionable idea and that the media has

played a significant role in changing the way that we view and understand the world.

Now for the answers:

Strawberry

Table

Pen

Water Elephant



Read the following quote and discuss with your partner what you think that it means:

"Postmodernism tries to come to terms with and understand a media-saturated society. The mass media, for example, were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and

thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror“

Dominic Strinati (1992)



Read the following quote and discuss with your partner what you think that it means:

"Postmodernism tries to come to terms with and understand a media-saturated society. The mass media, for example, were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and

thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror“

Dominic Strinati (1992)

Not easy – ok let me simplify this for you:

We live in a society where media plays a role in almost every aspect of our lives. It was felt 20 / 30 years ago that the media reflected what was happening in society. Now it is

felt that what happens in society is created by the media.

This suggests that society is a copy (the reflection) of the media (the mirror).



• Strinati is suggesting that reality does not actually exist. This is because media dominates our lives so much that our understanding of the world (our reality) is based on our experiences, many of which come from the news we read, the TV shows we watch and the websites we surf.

• This idea while hard to comprehend at first is a very important piece of media theory and is supported by many media academics including Jean Baudrillard (there will be more about him later).

• However, before we get bogged down in theory and writing. This idea has been explored very successfully on the big screen.

Watch this!



The Matrix (1999)

Neo thinks he lives here:



Answer the following questions• What has Neo just discovered about the world?• What did Morpheous mean when he said “It is the World that has been

pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth”• How could this idea be applied to our world?



The Matrix is based on the ideas of a French theorist called Jean Baudrillard. He believes that we live in a “hyper-reality” made up of two stimuli:• Simulacra – a copy without an original• Simulation – creations / models are confused as being real

He feels that due to the media’s dominance within our lives and recent trends to present large amounts of supposed reality TV that the boundaries between reality and fiction have become blurred.

Media representations of fashion, art, celebrity become more real to us than everyday things. This is because we prefer to be entertained than informed. We would rather go to Disneyworld than go to work. The consequence being that reality loses its importance and that the simulated (media) world takes precedence.



Baudrillard points out how our modern culture is contrived of images and other stimuli from media sources and simulations rather than what is considered real and how it becomes what is real to us by perception.

For instance, we are all familiar with various commercials and other forms of advertising that are creations, sometimes of non-real visuals and events, to promote products. We see people and places on TV that we have never been to - yet we know them visually as if we had. It is the simulation that is real to us - not the real place.

Another and maybe even better example would be how we relate to ancient cultures. Archaeologists dig them up and create simulations of their cultures in museums that we see. Film makers create dinosaurs that seem absolutely convincing. We have never seen the real societies and ancient creatures thus the simulacra of these is what becomes real to us about them.

Baudrillard clearly defines how various things like Disney, multi-media advertising and many other sources have replaced the stimulus of the real for us and how our

media culture has become our reality.



• On the worksheet you have the break down of a key event in the recent Iraq war. We will read through it together.

• After we have read it ask yourself this question – which version is real, the original news broadcast, the edited version or neither of them???



Everyone’s reality is different – therefore we can say that due to the fact that

we live in a ‘media-saturated society’ there is no such thing as reality!

Conclusion?

Documents

As you wait for the lesson to begin – write down the five things that you can see on this slide