Media Studies - Post Modernism & Jean Baudrillard

 Baudrillard had many ideas about post modernism.

Previously, everything in the media, like the locations, people, and events were all an accurate portrayal of real events that actually happened. Nowadays, in this postmodern world, they have all been replaced by representations of what the producers want you to see using many different techniques like editing, CGI, etc.

According to Baudrillard, our real lives are all played out in reality. However in the media we see heightened and hyper realities. A heightened reality is a form of media that has links to reality, but still has artificial elements that are added in. For example, David Attenborough's wildlife documentary or a Football Game being broadcasted live. We are shown the actual animals and the actual players but wildlife documentaries often add music, commentary and more that aren't actually real. Football Games and the news will show specific events through the lens of their own agenda. The football game's broadcasters will put the focus on a specific player, or the moves of a single player and will broadcast something that creates a story catered towards audiences. Compared to in actual reality, where you can see all players and everything they do.

In Hyper reality, media is packaged as real but actually has little to no connection at all to reality. It is difficult for audiences to determine whether what is shown in these hyper realities are real or not as they are filled with simulacra (which are things that have lost all meaning or never had any meaning in the first place due to its portrayal in the media over and over again.) Reality TV shows like the Kardashians and what we see on the social media pages of influencers are all forms of Hyper reality as none of what we see is actually the accurate portrayal of events, as they are all artificial events that happened in real life. Baudrillard further states that people, audiences, and society as a whole actually prefer to live in this hyper reality, as it is more entertaining and comforting than watching the actual and more boring events.