Criticisms of Postmodernism (James Rosenau)

Rosenau (1993) identifies seven contradictions in Postmodernism:

1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.
2. While postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective. 
3. The postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.
4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation. 
5. By adamantly rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, Postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment.
6. Postmodernism criticises the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself. 
7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.

Postmodern Audiences

How do postmodern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation? In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a postmodern world?

• Have audiences become accustomed to the stimulation and excitement of spectacular films/games and a sense of spectacle has become something that (young?) audiences increasingly demand from cultural experiences?
• has narrative coherence become less important for audiences?
• In terms of ideas, has cultural material become more simplistic and superficial, and audiences are no longer so concerned with the process of understanding a text. 
• Has the attention span of audiences reduced as they become increasingly accustomed to the spectacle-driven and episodic nature of postmodern texts. 
• In its 'waning of affect', has postmodernism contributed to audiences become emotionally detached from what they see. They are desensitised and unable to respond 'properly' to suffering and joy. 
• Has postmodernism contributed to a feeling among audiences that arts and culture does not really have anything to tell us about our own lives and instead simply provides us with somewhere we can escape or retreat to. 

Postmodernism and Audience Theory

Alain J.-J. Cohen has identified a new phenomenon in the history of film, the 'hyper-spectator'. "Such spectator, who may have a deep knowledge of cinema, can recognise both the films themselves and filmic fragments into new and novel forms of both cinema and spectatorship, making use of the vastly expanded access to films arrived at through modern communications equipment and media. The hyper-spectator is, at least potentially, the material (which here means virtual) creator of his or her hyper-cinematic experience" (157)

"VCRs and laserdisc-players or newer DVDs have produced, and are still producing, a Gutenberg-type of revolution in relation to the moving image."

Anne Friedberg has argued that because we now have much control of how we watch a film (through video/DVD), and we increasingly watch film in personal spaces (the home) rather than exclusively in public places, "cinema and television become readable as symptoms of a 'postmodern condition', but as contributing causes." In other words, we don't just have films that are about postmodernism or reflect postmodern thinking. Films have helped contribute to the postmodern quality of life by manipulating and playing around with our conventional understanding of time and space. "One can literally rent another space and time when one borrows a videotape to watch on a VCR... the VCR allows man to organise a time which is not his own... a time which is somewhere else - and to capture it."

Anne Friedberg: "The cinema spectator and the armchair equivalent - the-video viewer, who commands fast forward, fast reverse, and many speeds of slow motion, who can easily switch between channels and tape; who is always to repeat, replay, and return, is a spectator lost in but also in control of time. The cultural apparatuses of television and the cinema have gradually become causes for what is not... described as the postmodern condition."

Postmodern and Media Industries

Whereas modernism was generally associated with the early phase of the industrial revolution, postmodernism is more commonly associated with many of the changes that have taken place after the industrial revolution. A post-industrial (sometimes known as a post-Fordist) economy is one in which an economic transition has taken place from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. This society is typified by the rise of new information technologies, the globalisation of financial markets, the growth of the service and the white-collar worker and the decline of heavy industry. 

Postmodernism and the Film Industry

It has been argued that Hollywood has undergone a transition from 'Fordist' mass production (the studio system) to the more 'flexible' forms of independent production characteristic of postmodern economy. 

The incorporation of Hollywood into media conglomerates with multiple entertainment interests has been seen to exemplify a 'postmodern' blurring of boundaries between industrial practices, technologies, and cultural forms. 

G325 Exam

Question 1A
Include both AS and A2.

Question 1B
Choose to write about either AS or A2.

1A Exam Question

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making, Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25 marks]

Tips for Question 1A

There are five possible areas that can come up;
Digital technology
Research and planning
Conventions of real media
Post-production
Creativity
The question is likely to mix and match the five.

What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.

What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard - include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programmes such as blogger, youtube, etc.

In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.

What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples - institutional research (such as how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally, logistical research - shots of your locations, research into costumer, actors, etc.

What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don't repeat yourself.

What do you understand by 'post-production' in your work?
For the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing programme, or desktop publishing.

For each of these lists, the next stage is to produce a set of examples
so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example, You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need yo do more than just say 'I looked on youtube' for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced you work.

This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about the progress
most, if not all, the projects you have worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which reward you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!

Final tips: You need some practice - this is ver hard to do without it. Have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to tailor your writing to that length.

Exam Board Advice Question 1A

Question 1A is always about how your skills have developed.

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
Paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it - what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated? Use an example.
Paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.
Paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
Paragraph 5 short conclusion.

G325 Exam Board Advice

G325 exam from petefrasers