You can answer these questions in a formulaic way. Here is a way through...
Introduction - THERE ARE 3 WAYS MEDIA CAN BE POSTMODERN
Begin with Lyotard & the end of progress. Explain Postmodernism as being 'after' & 'a rejection' of Modernism, and particularly the loss of faith in Grand-Narratives. LINK THIS TO HOW THESE MEDIA ARE POSTMODERN
1. Blurring or collapsing boundaries? If there are no Grand Narratives, or theories to understand the world by, then what happens to those structures in Media texts - eg the boundary between the audience & the text? The hero/villain, the different genres? Do characters have fixed identities (Gaga, Minaj, Ralph?) Narrative resolution/happy ending? Male/female behaviour? How can you apply this to Wreck it Ralph/Gaga/Black Mirror?
COMPARE & CONTRAST YOUR 2 TEXTS -DO THEY COLLAPSE BOUNDARIES - DOES THIS MAKE THEM POST-MODERN?
2. Jameson (stylistic Postmodernism). Wreck it Ralph is your key text to refer to here, I would suggest that you explain how the loss of belief in any FIXED meaning means that texts are rendered empty & superficial & endlessly reference each other, ie: Nostalgia is constructed by endless cultural recycling, Retro styles etc (8 bit 80's video games). If nothing original can be created now, then all we can do is jumble old styles. Discuss how this targets the older audience Retro/Nostalgia as well as the Disney children.
Discuss the intertextual references to Reality TV & Social Networking in your Black Mirror example - how is this an example of Jameson's cultural recycling? DOES THIS PROVE THAT NO NEW IDEAS CAN BE DONE?
COMPARE & CONTRAST YOUR 2 TEXTS - ARE THEY BOTH STYLISTICALLY POSTMODERN? HOW IS STYLISTIC POSTMODERNISM LINKED TO END OF GRAND NARRATIVES?
3 Baudrillard & Debord
Baudrillard, who is one of the main postmodern theorists, states that ‘we inhabit a world made up wholly of simulacra – simulations of reality which replace any pure reality. Pure reality is thus replaced by the hyperreal where any boundary between the real and the imaginary is eroded.’ Again how can you apply this to Wreck It Ralph? Relate the concept of Ralph to our older example of 'Tron'.
COMPARE & CONTRAST YOUR 2 TEXTS - ARE THEY BOTH USING SIMULATION & HYPER-REALITY? HOW IS THEORETICAL POSTMODERNISM LINKED TO END OF GRAND NARRATIVES/STRUCTURES?
COMPARE & CONTRAST YOUR 2 TEXTS - ARE THEY BOTH USING SIMULATION & HYPER-REALITY? HOW IS THEORETICAL POSTMODERNISM LINKED TO END OF GRAND NARRATIVES/STRUCTURES?
4 Move on to Media which are deliberately PostModern (Thematic)
Other types of TV programmes & Films, however, take the ideas behind the theory and deliberately use them to make Postmodern shows aimed at a more intellectual audience. Black Mirror for Baudrillard, Lyotard and Debord. Take this. Charlie Brooker takes Baudrillard & Dubords ideas and plays around with them.
Discuss how this demonstrates thematic approach to postmodernism
depicting a distopian future where everything is commodified. Discuss
how truth and authenticity is consumed as entertainment. Apply
Baudrillard, Foucault (power & panopticon) and Debord.
COMPARE & CONTRAST YOUR 2 TEXTS -
ARE THEY BOTH DELIBERATELY POSTMODERN & INTELLECTUAL OR ARE THEY
EMPTY & SUPERFICIAL?
6. Argument. THERE ARE 3 WAYS TEXTS CAN BE POSTMODERN - WHICH ONES APPLY OR DON'T APPLY TO YOUR CHOSEN TEXTS?
6. Argument. THERE ARE 3 WAYS TEXTS CAN BE POSTMODERN - WHICH ONES APPLY OR DON'T APPLY TO YOUR CHOSEN TEXTS?
STOP! Wreck
it Ralph has Modernist ideals and the Classic Hollywood Narrative happy
ending - marriage, heterosexual relationships etc - isn't this
Modernism?
STOP!! As well as clear serious postmodern message to be told – a Distopian warning of the type of world we could be heading for like in 15 Million Merits. If it has a message then isn't this a Grand Narrative?
STOP!!! Are either challenging the traditional audience and text relationship as X factor does? Therefore to what extent are they post-modern by this comparison with Reality TV & Social Networking?
STOP!! As well as clear serious postmodern message to be told – a Distopian warning of the type of world we could be heading for like in 15 Million Merits. If it has a message then isn't this a Grand Narrative?
STOP!!! Are either challenging the traditional audience and text relationship as X factor does? Therefore to what extent are they post-modern by this comparison with Reality TV & Social Networking?
7. Add a conclusion and a thought about the future.
So in conclusion, it could be said that there are two kinds of Postmodern media, the conscious and the unconscious (like reality TV)
15 million Merits was shown on CH4 & limited time on 4OD to a
non-mainstream audience whereas Ralph did very well in the cinema. Perhaps the failure of conscious shows like these to reach a wider audience shows that eventually, Postmodern Media will engulf us without us knowing about it and as Baudrillard said, we will be immersed in a world in which the lines between fiction and reality are blurred and we will live in a state of hyperreality.
