Baudrillard's Theory of Simulacra, simulation, postmodernism and hyperreality

Question 1

What does Hyperreality mean?

Answer 1

A state where we cannot tell the difference between reality and the simulacra.

Question 2

What does Simulacra mean?

Answer 2

Something that replaces reality with its representation.

Question 3

What does Baudrillard argue?

Answer 3

Media products evolve and society ‘wants more’
We have media products - news for example that is a heightened (more intense) version of reality perhaps.

Question 4

Simulacra and Simulations:

Answer 4

The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth–it is the truth which conceals that there is none.
The simulacrum is true.

Question 5

When was Postmodernism?

Answer 5

After Modernism.

Question 6

What is Modernism?

Answer 6

A style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms.

Question 7

What is A Bureaucratic State?

Answer 7

A strict government characterised by an adherence to fixed rules and a hierarchy of authority.

Question 8

Difference between Modern and Post modern age:

Answer 8

Modern age:

• Mass production
• Community life
• Social class
• Family
• A belief in continuity and situation
• A role of education
• A one-way media
• Overt social control
• Nationhood
• Science aided progress and finding the truth
• Structure/security/place/stability
• YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE

Post modern age:

• Mass consumption
• Fragmentation (individualism)
• Identity from other sources
• Families (many options)
• Breakage with the past/tradition
• Education for what?
• Duality of media (choice/interchange)
• Covert control (CCTV etc)
• Global
• Science is only one source of knowledge – plurality of truths now
• Confusion/lack of structure/
  incessant choice
• YOU CREATE WHO YOU WANT TO BE

Question 9

How is Post Modernism present in Media?

Answer 9

1. Media has saturated our lives.
2. The media becomes a mixture of styles, old, new, intertextual – referencing other media, a melting pot of different styles.
3. Media has become global. We have lost a sense of identity, space, time.
4. There is no truth, we accept certain things make no sense!

Question 10

What does Intertextuality mean?

Answer 10

A mixture of styles, old, new.

Question 11

What does Intertextual referencing mean?

Answer 11

Other media, a melting pot of different styles.