Explain why the idea of postmodern media might be considered controversial?

Explain why the idea of postmodern media might be considered controversial?
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Tv: Extras, Skins
Games: GTA, Call of duty.
Advert – Cadbury advert.

GTA – Values – The role of women, violence, doing crime to progress in the game. Against the police. Hot coffee mod.

Skins – promotion of drugs.

Call of duty – Shooting innocent women and children in the airport. Shooting the president

Extras can be seen as postmodern in the way that it deconstructs itself - a situation comedy writer deliberately confuses, for comic and satirical effects, the line between Ricky Gervais as a sitcom writer, a standup comedian and his on screen character.
Gervais persuaded real celebrities to appear as themselves within the show was radical. The audience is forced to respond to deliberate decontextualisation - are they acting or are they being themselves.. The celebs themselves are media texts, we see herea really direct, visable and unusual example of intertextuality; is their character real, or are they just playing a role.
Cadburys Gorilla advert

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Postmodernism is a concept applied in media texts which suggest that artists and audiences are now prepared to accept a media text may not be true to reality. That creators are deliberately making the products to reflect media reality. Distinction between the media and reality becomes blurred so no longer have any sense of the difference between real things and images of them or real experiences and simulations. Postmodern media rejects the idea that that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely personal taste. Anything can be art, deserve to reach an audience. There is no longer anything new to create.

The office (2001-2003) is a situation comedy using and subverting docusoap conventions ( A mockumentry). Without our understanding and knowledge of this genre, in how people normally behave in the office, the humour would not work. The office takes a mocking approach to work life of an office. Suggesting that managers, lack skill and brains to be running an office. In one scene we see Gervais having a serious one on one meeting in making someone redundant. The conversation doesn’t represent that as a realistic situation, the situation itself may of course by very normal, but they way it was portrayed was unrealistic, with a handy man being in the room, under the desk and popping his head up by Gervais and the wayward conversation of talking about what defines being a midget. Similar techniques were used in a similar program Lunch Monkeys (BBC 3 2010) which portrayed the life of the business post room. Controversially showing the divide between the job roles in a comical way. That those in the post room were looked down on by the other workers in the office, the show also decided to show Asif as very little brains, getting excited at the little things, such as boasting about knowing the first name of the queen.

In a more recent role for Gervais from the office. Postmodernism was taken to a next step in the situation comedy ‘Extras (2007 -2009)’ Extras can be seen as postmodern in the way that it deconstructs itself - a situation comedy writer deliberately confuses, for comic and satirical effects, the line between Ricky Gervais as a sitcom writer, a standup comedian and his on screen character. Gervais persuaded real celebrities to appear as themselves within the show was radical. The audience is forced to respond to deliberate decontextualisation - are they acting or are they being themselves.. The celebs themselves are media texts, we see herea really direct, visable and unusual example of intertextuality; is their character real, or are they just playing a role.

One of the most controversial media texts at the moment is videogames. With games and gaming consoles becoming much more advanced, the graphics becoming better and more detailed. The art work becoming more realistic. To the real world.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, its not the Not the content in the game which is considered postmodern, but the playing experience what is postmodern whether the player/reader of the text/game is immersed in a set of practices. It immerses the player in a convincing, intricate and believable world, but the reality it represents is the stuff of films and other media. Taking on the character of the individual and live in a real city, is a profoundly hyper real experience. The Grandtheft


It was in the gameplay itself where Grand Theft Auto managed to break the mould in many ways. Grand Theft Auto contained free- from 'go anywhere you please' gameplay that saw you tied to a over-arching plot that contained various missions to complete but also left you free to explore the huge world in your own time, finding hidden packages and rampage icons, exploring the world and doing what you wanted. Decisions moral or not to wander around enacting acts of violence on pedestrians for no strategic purpose is made on the basis of prior experience (being a GTA game) learning and practising the skills you will need to progress in the game. But also this demonstrates a metalanguage about ways of being in the game. The mere fact that the game apparently gives you moral decisions to decide what you do in the game is criticised that the only way to progress in the game, to complete levels is to kill, do criminal activity and to take on the police. Thus these moral decision are taken away, and it is infact the game what is leading the gamer in what to do in levels.

The value of women in the game, have also been of hot topic. That it promotes sexism and degrades women in real society, that they are sex objects and that men are hierarchy. Those gamers may take these values and use them in reality, and treat girls the same way.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Activision 2009) has also hit media headlines for some of the missions in single player mode. Where in one level, in a Russian airport, which was designed exactly how the real Moscow airport is, even going down to the detail, of the books on the shelf in the book shop. The mission states to kill as many unarmed civilians in the airport, including women and children, although not doing so won’t fail the level, but the fact writing it up on screen to do so, makes the player feel like they have to, whether they know its morally wrong.

Cadburys in 2007 created a unique advertising campaign, but which some viewed as controversial as there is no real visable connection to chocolate. Just a gorilla playing on some drums to a song by Phil Collins. Although it has been argued that it does in fact, but it does it in its own unique way it strips back the unspoken pleasure of chocolate, so actually offers a direct connection to the appeal of the chocolate as a secret guilty pleasure. It has managed to get the audience to associate the royal purple to be part of their brand, that whenever audience will see a gorilla, drums or purple that it would make the audience think about dairy milk, to want some. Also many replications of this advert have been made which increases its audience range.

A2 media book notes.

Media book notes.
The media is the in between us and reality.

Distinction between the media and reality becomes blurred so no longer have any sense of the difference between real things and images of them or real experiences and simulations.

Postmodernism idea of representation gets 'remixed', played around with, through pastiche, parody and intertextual references. Made to look like constructed texts and not realist.
Others say that postmodernism is just another way of thinking about media.

Strinati (1995: 224)
"The mass media... were once thought og as holding up a mirror, to and thereby reflecting a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of the surface reflections of that mirror. It's no longer a questions of distortion since the term implies that there is a reality, outside the surface simulations of the media, which can be distorted, and this is precisely what is at issue."
• Postmodern media rejects the idea that that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely personal taste. Anything can be art, deserve to reach an audience. There is no longer anything new to create.

• The distinction between media and reality had collapsed. And we now live in a 'reality' defined by images and representations - a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some 'pure' reality that exists before the image represents it- this is the state of hyperreality.

• All ideas of 'the truth' are just competing claims - or discourses - and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning' discourse.

Products deliberately set out to explore and play with this state of hyperreality. These texts are said to be intertextual and self-referential - they break the rules of realism to explore the nature of their own status as constructed texts. Seek to present a media reality, rather than reality.
Jean-francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard.
Idea of truth needs to be 'deconstructed' so that we can challenge dominant ideas that people claim as the truth - Grand Narratives.
Media texts make visible and challenge ideas of truth and reality, removing the illusion that stories, texts or images can ever accurately or neutrally reproduce reality or truth. There are always competing versions of the truth and realit.
Baudrillard (1988)
Truth is what we should rid ourselves of as fast as possible and pass it on to somebody else. As with illnesses, it's the only way to be cured of it. He who hangs on to truth has lost.
Hyperreality
Disneyland - a place which is at the same time a real physical space, but also a clearly a fictional, representational world.
No longer any 'original' thing for a sign to represent - the sign is the meaning.
Society made up wholly of simulacra - simulations of reality of which replace any 'pure' reality . Pure reality is replaced by hyperreal where nay boundary between the real and the imaginary is eroded.
Bricolage
the remixing of existing formulas, explaining how the show demands a more active audience response.- decoding a 'media puzzle' and sees the programme as hyperreal in as much as it exposes and plays around with the conditions of its own possibilitys - meaning it delibrately messes about with its own status as a television programme, rather than striving to create the illusion that what we are seeing is 'real'

Ricky Gervais - The office and extras.
Knowing, self-reflective approach and how it parodies the conventions of the genre.
The office is a situational comedy using and subverting docusoap conventions. Without our knowledge of this genre, in how people normally behave in the office, the humour would not work.
Extras can be seen as postmodern in the way that it deconstructs itself - a situation comedy writer deliberately confuses, for comic and satirical effects, the line between Ricky Gervais as a sitcom writer, a standup comedian and his on screen character.
Gervais persuaded real celebrities to appear as themselves within the show was radical. The audience is forced to respond to deliberate decontextualisation - are they acting or are they being themselves.. The celebs themselves are media texts, we see herea really direct, visable and unusual example of intertextuality; is their character real, or are they just playing a role.
The Cadbury Gorilla.
No real connection to chocolate. Just a gorilla playing on some drums to a song by Phil Collins.
Strips back the unspoken pleasure of chocolate, so actually offers a direct connection to the appeal of the chocolate as a secret guilty pleasure
Videogames.

Subvert our original ideas about the distinction between reality and the simualtion or image. Second life offers the participant the opportunity to purchase virtual land with real money.
Slavoj Zizek
"Virtual reality simply generalises the procedure of offering a product deprived of its substance, of the hard resistant kernel of the real - Just as decaffeinated coffee smells and tastes like coffee, Virtual reality is experienced as reality without being so. What happens at the end of this process of virtualisation, however is that we being to experience the 'real reality' as a virtual reality."
Immersion - Describes how the gamer invests imagination into the gameworld
Flow -a state whereby an activity demands incrementally harder, but increasingly pleasurable and achievable challenges, while providing regular feedback
Grand Theft Auto IV
Opinions: The game is a masterpiece against the game should be banned.

It immerses the player in a convincing, intricate and believable world, but the reality it represents is the stuff of films and other media. Taking on the character of the individual and live in a real city, is a profoundly hyperreal experience.
Not the content in the game which is considered postmodern, but the playing experience what is postmodern whether the player/reader of the text/game is immersed in a set of practices.
The player in GTA has soo many option, within single player, multiplayer, within mini-games (bowling, cop missions.)
Play magazine 2007

"It was in the gameplay itself where Grand Theft Auto managed to break the mould in many ways,. Grand Theft Auto contained free- from 'go anywhere you please' gameplay that saw you tied to a over-arching plot that contained various missions to complete but also left you free to explore the huge world in your own time, finding hidden packages and rampage icons, exploring the world and doing what you wanted"
Decisions moral or not to wander around enacting acts of violence on pedestrians for no strategic purpose is made on the basis of prior experience (being a gta game) learning and practising the skills you will need to progress in the game. But also this demonstrates a metalanguage about ways of being in the game.

Explain how certain media can be termed postmodern.

Postmodernism like modernism follows most of these same ideas rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art rejecting right genre distinction emphasising pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Postmodernism and Modernism are very similar, but it differs in its attitude towards a lot of these characteristics. Modernisms view of fragmentation  is that of something tragic, something with meaning. While Postmodernism in contrast, celebrates and encourages fragmentation, that the world is meaningless so why pretend that the art has meaning, when it should be celebrated for its just plain right nonsense! We are constantly immersed in a media, at school, at home out in the town - the distinction between reality and the media representation becomes blurred, we no longer have any sense of the difference between reality and the media. Texts are deliberately exposed to display to the audience that the texts aren't real. While others suggest that postmodern is just an alternative way, a new way of thinking about media, when it has always been this way.

Some of the main ideas of post modernism are that it rejects the idea that any media product is of any lesser or greater value than another, anything can be art anything can attract an audience. The distinction between media and reality has disappeared, we now live in a world where representations have been formed by the media.

There are many media examples of media products which postmodernism ideas are strongly emphasised throughout, for TV drama, I will be using case studies on the Inbetweeners, and I will also delve into the gaming world, using Call of duty.

The Inbetweeners (E4 2004) Is set around four male A Level students attending a local secondary school; however the focal point is Will who joins the school, when his wealthy parents divorce, thus ending his luxury all expenses paid education ride on the public school parade. The situation is ordinary enough. It's a daily occurrence for children to have to attend their first day at school, having to meet new friends and just trying to fit in. However this ordinariness, could also be considered postmodern.
            In some respect it parodies previous school based dramas, such as Grange Hill (1978-2008) and Byker Grove (1989 - 2006). In the fact it sets the drama around characters at school, but makes the characters the complete opposite of these 2 older dramas, the inbetweeners characters frequently swear and make sexual references. None of which would of happened in Grange Hill or Byker grove, which were both more moral and focused on matters that faced there young children  audiences in that era. This can also be said to be argued with BBC 1's Waterloo road. Although it could be considered that Byker grove and Grange hill were postmodern for their time.

Bricolage mixes up and uses different genres and styles. In the Inbetweeners it mixes up; Comedy, drama, romance, realistic issues and slapstick. Comedy – making jokes, to entertain the audience, such as making up names for Will, for his Brief case and large badge he had on his first day at school. Drama – by using realistic characters and following their lives. Romance – Following the romance of Simon and his love for Carli, with other romances regularly shown, With Simons persistent crush on Charlotte, and in series 2 episode 6, Jays change in romance style for a ‘real’ girl called Chloe, showing the importance romance plays in contemporary British boys lives. Realistic Issues – Will trying not to be in the unpopular crew, wanting to be accepted by his new school, in trying to buy a drink while underage. Slapstick – Will being thrown in to lake in his underpants by the mechanics at the garage where he is doing work experience in series 2 episode 2. Bricolage is also strongly shown in the film 'Brick' where it mixes us high school drama, with crime and mystery, it doesn't run in a linear sequence order of events, the use of Dutch camera shots, which show a conversation between head teacher and student, in an unconventional way, where the conversation wouldn't be considered normal between student and head teacher, which dialogue exchanged would be more relevant for a crime film than high school drama.

The blurring of boundary between text and audience is a characteristic of all videogame. The audience becomes an active participant in the game. Even in two dimensional arcade games of the 1980's, the player is involved in the text by using a controller to control a character in a game.
            It is the level of immersion that characterises modern gaming. There are three main elements in Call of Duty that involve the player further with the game.  The first person perspective, the gamer sees the environment of the game as if you are  the character in the game (seeing the hands holding the gun). The level of immersion becomes even more compelling with missions where it demands your participation in the game, this is also shown in other first person shooters, such as resident evil, where missions require you to crack puzzles to get into a room and to get further into the game.

The detailed three-dimensional mise-en scene, in modern days, the advancements of technologies, allowing very high graphics to be displayed on screen, The Xbox 360 for example has a 500 MHz graphics card, which can show very high detailed images. Games are often being designed on real buildings and places. for example GTA vice city, the streets are actually based on street maps of vice city. Where people from that city, could know where to drive to places without using the satnav, as if they were driving there in real life. The incredible of amount of detail that goes into parts of the scenes what are just really background scene filling images, in one level on COD MW2, A winter tale, appears on a shelf on the shelves of a book shop, in this level the Moscow airport is also based on the real Moscow airport.

With the increasing ability to play games online against other people, has led game designers to spend alot more focus on the online play rather than the single player game. Being able to play against other people allows more freedom and blurring of boundaries are emphasised even more. As it feels like you are actually shooting at other people. With psychologists claiming that children playing games such as Call of Duty actually creates aggressive behaviour in real life from them, and this is why games have age ratings on them.