Post-Modernism exam questions

 Evaluate the arguments for and against considering particular media texts as postmodern.

One of the arguments for considering particular media texts as postmodern relies on Jean Baudrillard's idea on different types of realities, which can be seen in the American show 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'. Baudrillard suggests that there are three types of reality, the reality we live in, heightened reality and hyperreality, he also says that we prefer to live in hyperreality as opposed to our reality. The Kardashians show is an example of hyperreality, this is because of simulacra, meaning that the show represents something that no longer or never exists, one example taken from the show is during the family goes shopping, the shopping scene is trying to represent real life shopping, but is actually staged to be more enjoyable for the viewers.

Analyze the ways in which particular representations of social groups may reflect the organizations which produce them.

One of the ways in which particular representations of social groups may reflect the organizations which produce them is through subverting Post-Colonialism by having a bias towards their own groups of people/social group. The Post-Colonialism theory is the way media texts represent people that are rooted to colonial pasts, meaning that the media is Eurocentric, representing the pre-colonizers or whites as superior, strong, has a strong military while the pre-colonized or others are represented as weak, dependent and uneducated. One example of a subversion of Post-Colonialism is Jordan Peele and his movie Us, in this movie, and like other Jordan Peele movies, the main lead actors are all black, having more representation in his movies