Baudrillard Mass Media Facilitate Non-Communication - Research Proposal Example

Baudrillard Mass Media Facilitate Non-Communication According to Baudrillard, mass media facilitate non-communication. Discuss the meaning of this claim and evaluate also whether online media restore Baudrillard’s sense of communication. Introduction Jean Baudrillard was a sociologist, philosopher and author famously known for his principles of simulacra and hyper-reality. He argues that mass media serve a social function, getting rid of what they reproduce the pale models, thus closing out any likelihood of genuine reciprocity (Baudrillard, 1981, p.164). The study on whether media facilitate non-communication and views of Baudrillard on online media is particularly a welcoming idea on his conceptual contribution to media studies and his attenuation of the symbolic as it is operationalised into the sign. Discussion According to Bauldrillard, the subject of reality no longer precedes the plan of representation. He was fascinated how media impacted on our view of reality and the world (Baudrillard, 1981, p.164). This is accentuated in postmodern media, where individuals live on realm of hyper reality which he terms it as “the death of the reality” and links it to what is experienced in television, videos and music. The true and false copy of information been ruined because of what Baudrillard calls the culture of dominance by TV, films, news media and the internet. From his point of view, what is being demonstrated in the mass media facilitate non-commmunication because of simulations of reality, which are not any more or less “real” than the reality they stimulate (Castells, 1996). Baudrillard argues that postmodern society take “maps” of reality such as television and films as more real than our actual lives; the simulations come first in our lives. He cites example, where individuals make television characters to be more alive in their lives than their equivalents (“did you see what Evaluna did last night”). Individuals interact via the media, for instance with film characters like Hollywood actors more than what they do with their own friends and families. This has driven people in an era which reality is placed in tatters, with simulations remaining intact; simulation has dominated our lives and image has lost any connection to real things. In the past, a “real” moment transpires when a person experienced another person’s presence and dialogue, or watched the happenings in the street or neighbourhood. Nowadays, what we experience day by day are exhibitions, images and symbols (Holmes, 2005). To easily realise to what extent we have turn out to be dependent on mass media, one should try living a month without a mobile phone, laptop, TV, radio and iPod. Probably for many, such dispossession would be comparable to an emotional and mental torture. The absence of any devise of mass media will hit them in a quite undermining manner. Consider some few instances of the way symbols and signs stash our thinking processes. Taking a morning drive at work, a man tunes to his radio and hears a commercial advertisement on home mortgage, or real estate investment plan. Holmes, D (2005) He glances through the window and notices a billboard of beautiful face with the message, “men who cares, invest for their children education: junior account at Barclays Bank”. At work before he reads his emails, he takes a momentary look at the subject illustration of his personal account and all in one meet head-on with the following: Tips for taking good care of your wife. 10 things women need from men. Investing for your children future. After work he stops by the shopping mall to buy a DVD for his son, but before goes in the music store, he spot a big poster of 50-Cent in a good looking jeans and a vest in an alluring gentleman pose Gilder, G. (1992) What meaning does the poster symbolises at the music store? Maybe none or the subliminal message that buying 50-Cent music will turn someone to a gentleman poses. At the end of the day, one may ask the real connection of things the man listened and saw the whole day, the actual experiences of his life. Or consider a observer’s response, after a televised presidential debate as what is happening now in US, one may say Barrack Obama came out as genuine or honest guy who could safeguard American interests Genosko, Gary (1999) Under this context, one may ask himself or herself the meaning of being honesty and genuine. In a real sense, means nothings, as it universally known that politician will always present their best image before the TV camera, contrary true self and tell people what they are longing for to derive an advantage. For example, presently, the American politics is characterised by security to the nation and economy and healthcare plans. Thus, any presidential candidate will take advantage of the three things to paint a true image of what he will do when in the real sense economic issues are regulated by market forces. Or, still again, consider the debates on Afghanistan war and returning back troops, opponents may accuse one another on their legality on war when people knows very well they are were on UN mission of bringing peace in the country. Also on the issue of whether Hillary Clinton will support Obama or not. The favourite pundits who think are too clever when it come to analyzing political matters will present their views different, for example the following may be said about this argument: first, the person usage is itself a sign, every person knows the truth that Hillary is a political doll that has be fashioned by media to a public figure. This makes it hard to differentiate her from the image major media perceive her to be. Several questions may be asked about her, whether she is good or bad, liberal or moderate, and her contribution to Obama’s presidential bid Frankovits A. (ed.) (1984) Such questions have no correlation at all neither the truths nor the lived experienced of human beings. And whether the pundits or journalist are intelligible on their quest for news that generates political smog, it all depends on the code transmitted and legitimised. Secondly, the questions posed presupposes that (i) it matters whether Hillary will run; (ii) that electoral results have any importance in modern US; (iii) that such kinds of questions are enough to be repeated for a longer time. Such examples would be perceived by Baudrillard as evidence of the kind of world we are staying, basically different era. An era taken over by signs, images and appearances than what used to be known as reality, during conventional time; simulacra, or replicas of originals that no longer live. According to Chen, Kuan-H (1987). Technological structure of media affects our attitudes, feelings and thoughts, and that the view of mass media could serve various decisive liberated ending, for example, by being more inclusive and by providing more radical or subversive voices through programming, thus making it merely delusional. He further asks whether information generates any meaning or destroys it. It can’t be said that online media restore Baudrillard’s sense of communication because in itself it too replaces all reality and meaning with symbols and signs. Thus, communication via online media such as face book, twitter and You-tube are of simulation of reality rather than reality itself. Baudrillard’s views on online media are of very perceptive analysis of a phenomenon that is very common with new technology, where people are now looking to replace reality with manageable simulacrum, where they are mostly commercially compelled. He perceives that the problem is not with symbols and signs in them, because they connect us with a reality in a powerful manner (Castells,1996) Similarly, there is nothing wrong with email and social networking sites like twitter and face book. Facebook is a really handy way of keeping in touch with friends at large. But it’s imperative to understand the deal in-between the exchange of convenience through online media. A price has to be paid, that is privacy, and one should know beside commmunication he or she is signing to be advertised, thus, a rationale behind online media such as Facebook. In regards to Gilder, G. (1992) .The real hitch comes up when the symbols replaces reality rather than connecting us to reality. For example, a person may spent the whole evening browsing Facebook at the expense of actually doing something meaningful with his or her couple or family, thus at this point, simulation is said to have started eating up the reality. From Baudrillard’s views, postmodern world, real activities and relationships are in real danger of being swallowed up with the never-ending quagmire of entertainments and boundless virtual worlds where virtual selves spend virtual lives. Conclusion In conclusion, with the existence of technology like Second Life opening up new horizons in simulation, the development is simply expected to speed up. One of the key challenges facing us in postmodern world of technology and hyper reality is to aggressively uphold real, valid activities and relations in lives. A media surrounding with a more sharply defined political differences between newspapers and radio programmes offers a better test of whether selective exposure is exercised when conditions forces it to act so .For instance, British voters are well aware of the partisan slant in their media, and there are many competing products from which they can choose. Bibliography Baudrillard, J. (1981) Requiem for the media in For A Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, pp.164-184 Baudrillard, J. (1983) The Implosion of Meaning in the Media, In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities, Semi text (edn), Foreign Agents Series: 93-11 Castells, M. (1996) The Culture of Real Virtuality: The Integration of Electronic Communication, the End of the Mass Audience, and the Rise of Interactive Networks, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Chen, Kuan-H (1987) The Masses and the Media: Baudrillard's Implosive Postmodernism in Theory, Culture and Society, 4: 71-88. Frankovits A. (ed.) (1984) Seduced and Abandoned: The Baudrillard Scene, Sydney: Stonemoss. Genosko, Gary (1999) McLuhan and Baudrillard: The Masters of Implosion, London & New York: Routledge. Gilder, G. (1992) The Rise and Fall of Television’, in Life after Television, New York: Norton, pp. 35-49. Holmes, D (2005) Communication Theory: Media, Technology, Society, London, Sage. pp.1-19. Huyssen, A, (1995) In the Shadow of McLuhan: audrillards Theory of Simulation in Twilight Memories, New York: Routledge. Levy, P. (2001) The Universal without Totality: The Essence of Cyber culture. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 91-102. Kellner, D. (ed.) (1994) Baudrillard: A Critical Reader, London: Blackwell. Kroker, A. (1985) Baudrillard’s Marx, Theory, Culture and Society 2.3: Kellner, Douglas, (1989) Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond Merrin, W. (2005) Baudrillard and the Media: A Critical Introduction, London: Polity. Poster, M. (1995) Social Theory and the New Media: The Second Media Age, Cambridge, MA: Polity, pp. 3-22. Rheingold, H (1994) The Virtual Community, London: Secker and Warburg. Turkle, Sherry (1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York: Simon and Schuster. Read More