How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text reader relations and the concept of representation?

How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text reader relations and the concept of representation?

Post-modern media texts challenge traditional text reader relations as they allow the audience to immerse themselves in a simulated world as a form of escapism which is more aesthetically and physically pleasing than the real world we live in. As Lyotard’s theory suggests that the lack of faith in grand narratives being the reaction to modernism to cause post modernism, the barrier between audience and producer has blurred. This blurring has resulted in audiences being able to immerse themselves into texts as they have never been able to do before. As postmodernity suggests, we as a customer culture choose style over substance and prefer the hyper-real to the real, supported by Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and the argument that we no longer can differentiate between what is real and what is not.

This idea can be seen in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episode 15 Million Merits as the protagonists live in a more or less entirely digital and simulated world reflective of our virtually dependent society. The characters live in an enclosed environment, are watched and controlled via CCTV cameras and their lives are lived through digital avatars of themselves. There are parallels between the narrative of the programme and real life, such as how the characters cannot skip advertisements on the screens in their rooms; similar to the way you cannot skip adverts on YouTube. The show itself deals with the idea Guy Dubord argues of a society of people creating a relationship through mediated images as the protagonist Bing talks through his avatar to Abi’s avatar and this is considered normal practice in the dystopian world in which they live. This idea of the relationship between two characters through avatars being of more importance and value than through the actual humans themselves suggests the idea that what we consider to be representative of humans and human relationships is not what it used to be, and that because this structure of the simulated world being immersed into real life for these characters, we cannot tell the difference anymore. The post-modern element of dystopia which is in the narrative that reflects our actual society challenges the text reader as the programme itself, is a philosophical statement meant for the audience to interpret as a warning, unlike many other shows being broadcasted right now in attempts to gain a stylistic- over substance generated mass audience.

The development of games that use simulacra as a main selling point has challenged the traditional text reader relation of post-modern media as the structure of fixed fluid identity has collapsed, allowing gamers to completely immerse themselves into games to the point where it overtakes the value of their real life and actually has a serious effect on the social norms of the 21^st century which we abide by and conform to. The game Second Life promotes this as gamers can make real wages by working in the online world and some even use this website for their real jobs by owning companies and having jobs to make money, allowing them to make a living through the game and in some cases not have to get a job or career in reality. This line between the hyper-real and the real, as Baudrillard suggests, is blurred by the increasing popularity of games such as this – games where people can reinvent themselves more accordingly to what they want to be like rather than what they actually are or can in actuality create themselves as a totally different person of different gender, skin colour, age etc if they wish. In this era of arguable post-modernity, people prefer the fake over the real and so these games are ideal outlets for their deepest desires of themselves to be portrayed. These avatars and creations people make are often representative of themselves in some form as they hold some slight personality reminiscent of their human creator.

In the same way that games such as Second Life or the Sims allow one to be expressive in their multiple characters and extensions of themselves, singer artist Nicki Minaj presents herself as a concept of this multiplication. The post-modern text reader and an artist’s relationship is arguably developing to a point where as Baudrillard would suggest, style is more important and more valuable in strategically marketing singers than substance. Nicki Minaj for example, is sold to mass consumers by her dominating image and style. She uses multiple alter egos including ‘Black Barbie’ and ‘Roman’ to sell her image and this gains text readers’ undivided attention because as our attention span is so short, we are visually enticed by images and vivid caricatured details. As the post-modern audience themselves are able to change their identities so fluidly and with no hindrance, this change in Minaj’s portrayal of herself is unsurprising to a certain degree. Although the way she visually depicts herself, often using arguably pornographic and provocative costumes and outfits teamed with pretty and ‘girly’ dresses, a bricolage in itself, we as a postmodern culture have become used to this too in day to day life by the over-sexualisation not only of singers, but of performers in all fields, through image. The hyper reality connoted with the hyperbolic styling of Minaj is used as a form of escapism for the post-modern text reader in which some find aesthetically pleasing and more interesting than sights they see daily, encouraging them to take notice, and therefore develop a relation with the artist, eventually leading them to be a fan or sorts.

With this loss of distinction between what is real and what is fake, Jameson’s theory of the more empty and superficial a text is, the more consumption there will be of it – relating to the ‘cultural logic of late capitalism’. And so in conclusion, as a post-modern audience, we read texts in a way that challenges everything modernity suggested was progress. We do not just accept narratives of TV programmes - they are created in such a way that we, who arguably have no faith in anything new, have to think about our society and the way progress has stopped and what this has stopped us as a people from doing. With this lack of faith, we revert to escapism through meaningless and vacuous games, programmes and musical concepts in an attempt to find a reality in which we can progress and to some certainty, be ourselves.