1. A little guide..
PostMODERNISM

2. POSTMODERNISM
"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked."Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12)
where to begin?
3. Traditional model
The traditional perspectives tend to emphasise a similar model
Assumed to have similar responses
NOISE
Sender
messages
medium
Mass audience
Feedback ?
Assumed UNIVOCAL
Shannon & Weaver
4. Structuralists1950s-1960s
SASSURE saw language as a cultural creation rather than something innate: as a social system that was ordered, coherent and governed by a set of rules.
PEIRCE -took Sassures ideas and expanded them to include not just language but other social constructs in society. Peirce introduced the term Semiotics. He also differentiated signs into SYMBOLIC (or ARBITRATED), ICONIC and INDEXICAL.
LEVI-STRAUSS (a structuralist anthropologist) worked on the importance of structuring oppositions in myth systems and in language linked to binary oppositions as these structures are often used/constructed as pairs.
BARTHES took things further in his seminal text Mythologies (1972) and applied these ideas to daily life and popular culture well come back to Barthes later.
5. BINARY
Man
Active
External
Public
Producer
Provider
Woman
Passive
Domestic
Private
Consumer
Dependent
OPPOSITION
structuralists
Sassure, Peirce, Levi-Strauss, Barthes
6. Did you see signs? What do they mean? How do you know? Does it matter?
Semiotics- the study of signs
7. The current discussions of stereotyping and representation is widespread. Does this mean things have changed in any way? Have we just moved on to new groups?
So were all PC now right?
8. The Red Queen made no resistance whatever
The thing with resistance is that it almost always happens
AND
contrary to what youre told,
Has always been happening
9. 10. 11. 12. 13. SUBVERTISING
14. 15. BINARY
Man
Active
External
Public
Producer
Provider
Woman
Passive
Domestic
Private
Consumer
Dependent
OPPOSITION
Structuralists ?
Sassure, Peirce, Levi-Strauss, Barthes
16. Modern applications ?
WEST
EAST
Foreign
Strange
Irrational
Barbaric
Backward
Extreme
Dangerous
Inferior
Criminal
THEM
Western
Normal
Rational
Civilised
Modern
Moderate
Responsible
Superior
Justice
US
Bite back?
Sometimes our understanding is better explained by what it is NOT than what it IS
17. *hypodermic
If we change West and East to something like CHRISTIAN and MUSLIMor STRAIGHT and GAY what happens to this model?
Its still useful right?
Well thats the problem with a lot of these media theories they all have strengths and weaknesses and someone always comes along to debunk or update your model BUT rarely do theoretical models become completely obsolete in Media Studies*. What youre left with is a whole series of models you can use to critique your text the trick is to treat your arsenal of models as a TOOLBOX where you pick the tool (model) that is the most apt for the particular work youre doing.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.