Post-Modernism Essay

Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of post-modern media

Post-modern media is a very broad term used to describe a media text that goes against the usual conventions of a media text. This could be through things such as referencing existing texts, 'remixing' other texts and adding things that are generally considered different or against the normal conventions of a type of text. In theoretical terms post-modernism can never progress as it is consistently re-uses old and existing media texts.

The main and biggest reason people may not be convinced by post-modern media is because they feel it is just copying and takes away the originality from media texts meaning media texts will never progress and constantly be unoriginal but is this true? For example Hollywood film director 'Quentin Tarantino' is well known for a being a post-modernist as all of his films in some shape or form will use conventions of post-modernism. For example Tarantino's World War 2 film 'Inglorious Basterds' uses many elements of post-modernism. The film constantly references old and existing films that may not even be from the same genre of film. A good example of this would be the introduction to the film which is almost identical to the introduction of the spaghetti-western film 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly'. Many viewers of the film will not even notice the similarities between the two films and the fact that he has been able to use the same conventions of an existing film into a different context in itself could go against the claims that post-modernism is unoriginal.

'Kirby Ferguson' who created an online video series around the subject claims that “everything is a remix”. He says that almost all of today’s media is a reference to an already existing text which is then altered. Ferguson's rule is that texts are either 'copied, transformed or combined'. An example of where this rule is apparent is American rapper 'Kanye West's song 'Gold Digger'. The song features heavy references and sampling of the song 'I Got a Woman' by 'Ray Charles' which is in itself a copy of the song 'It Must Be Jesus' by 'The Southern Tones'. As you can see this is an instance of a media text being copied and transformed. The original song by 'The Southern Tones' was a song about the acts of Jesus and praising him this was then transformed into a song about a woman in 'Ray Charles' song and then transformed once again into a song about a woman who is after mens money. So again does this show the creativity of Kanye West in that he can change a songs meaning completely into something new or does it mean he has been unoriginal and not creative at all?

There are however extreme uses of post-modernism which use that many references and copies of existing texts that it becomes almost a joke. An example of this is the film 'Hobo With a Shotgun' which used so many references that it took all of the seriousness away from the film and made it a joke. The film is almost a parody of post-modernism by referencing everything that was bad about existing films changing the context of it and making it even worse. This type of film could be a reason why some people may not be convinced by post-modernism.

'Frederic Jameson' is against the idea of post-modern media and thinks that post-modernism is vacuous and trapped in circular references stating that post-modern media is “Nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose.” Whilst some people will see this as a reason to not be convinced by post-modern media a post-modernist may argue that that is the whole purpose of post-modern media.

To conclude I feel that 'Frederic Jameson' has a point in what he is stating however I also feel that the idea of post-modern media is in fact a creative process as it means existing texts are constantly being re-used and transformed into something completely new.