Postmodernism
What's that then?
A currently popular (I hesitate to say fashionable although intellectuals do have fashions) intellectual concept. It is used as a way of grouping and describing the styles of thought and culture attracting most critical attention during the final few decades of the twentieth century. It is sometimes affectionately referred to as 'pomo' by people with beards. 'Postmodernist thought' has caused a revolution across all academic disciplines, from Physics to English via Geography. Postmodernism offers a different way of both constructing and deconstructing ideas.
How do I recognise it?
Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate (ie experienced in other texts) audience and will exhibit many traits of intertextuality. Many texts openly acknowledge that, given the diversity in today's audiences, they can have no preferred reading (check out your Reception Theory) and present a whole range of oppositional readings simultaneously. Many of the sophisticated visual puns used by advertising can be described as postmodern. Postmodern texts will employ a range of referential techniques such as bricolage, and will use images and ideas in a way that is entirely alien to their original function (eg using footage of Nazi war crimes in a pop video).
You will find postmodernism referred to constantly as a 'buzzword' in Media Studies. Beware! It is often used improperly by people (academics and students alike) who have at best a fuzzy comprehension of its meaning and simply want to appear clever. In fact, postmodernism has been referred to wrongly so often that its precise meaning has become difficult to pin down - and it is often referred to when no other concept seems to fit ie if you don't really understand something you can refer to it as 'very postmodern'.
What's it go to do with me?
Many media texts are deliberately constructed as postmodern and you are expected to engage with them as such. For A-level Media Studies, you need to understand the significance of the term, and how it can be used as part of your deconstruction of texts.
For a list (written in very postmodern-and-difficult-to-decipher-green-text) of ways in which postmodernism influences our everyday life, try the Crossroads project.
Where do I find it on the web?
The Internet is the ultimate in post-modernity: a series of fragmented, interlinked pages which are all a result of authors reading other webpages and stealing ideas and images. You will find postmodernism referred to in a plethora of university-based sites, in online journals (such as Salon.com). Checkout the Yahoo Listings.
If you find the textbooks confusing, then try the Post-Modernism Generator to see where the writers got their ideas from.
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