Media Studies A2

Jean Baudrillard

  (27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007)

Born in France, Baudrillard was a social theorist and critic who is best known for his analyses of the modes of mediation and of technological communication.

He taught sociology at university and then started writing books which gained a wide audience in the 1980s and 1990s.

His best known work is a series of essays called Simulacra and Simulation.

'referent' – The object in the real world that is used to make the 'image'.

'image' – the visual representation of the 'referent'.

The 3 Phases of an Image

1.    The image/sign is a reflection of basic reality

2.    The image/sign masks or perverts a basic reality – I.e. people intentionally distort images of reality.  (The image moves further away from the referent (reality))

The image/sign bears no relation to any reality. It exists as a postmodern ‘simulacrum’

Frederic Jameson

Born in 1934, Cleveland, US.

Neo-Marxist

Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" was initially published in the journal New Left Review  in 1984

Jameson suggests that 'postmodernism' is the style brought about by modern corporate capitalism.  (You don't need to worry too much about this, if the phrase 'capitalism' phases you.)  In other words, instead of a major 'sea change' in society, economics and culture, he argues our society hasn't changed dramatically, but multinational capitalism has now taken over the spheres of culture and artistic production.