Postmodernist views of globalization of popular culture

The postmodernist view of globalization of popular culture.

Postmodernists argue that industrialisation and the manufacturing of goods is in decline and that consumption, mass media and 'services' have become more prominant within society. In these 'media saturated societies' the media and the popular culture that generates shape and identity and lifestyle are much more than the traditional influences such as family, community, social cass, gender, nationality or ethnicity. Postmodern society underpinned by globalization choices and consumptioon patterns have been made more diverse by a globalized media which has resulted in other cultural lifestyles being easy to reach. Thus the media has changed and shaped our consumption patterns by making us more aware of the diversity of the options that are available to us in terms of lifestyle choice and sonsumption that exsists in the postmodern world.

Baudrillard argues that we now live in a media saturated society in which media messages now dominate and distort the way we see the world. Media images and representations then become our relaity due to computer technology allowing us to create virtual realities that could replace our real life counterparts.For example, media images replace reality to such an extent that laser technology and video reportage have eliminated the blood, the suffering, the corpses from war and the TV news presents a santised version of events- Baudrillard calls this conditon 'hyperreality'.

Due to the amount of information we recieve on a daily basis, the distinction bewteen reality and the words/images which portray it break down. Words, images and information they cinvey become more open to interpretation; mirroring the breakdown of 'objectivity' itself. In hyperreality, the media presents what Baudrillard calls 'simulacra' known as artifical images or reproductions/copies of real events. Due to the fact that we are…