We do know that the postmodern era began after WW2 and was even more emphasised when the generation gap occured - teenagers began rebelling against religion, science and the government and began having their individual beliefs and views after being influenced through huge bands such as The Beatles - therefore the audience became saturated in the media and began being passive audiences, absorbing media and being influenced by propaganda.
This leads me onto The Hypodermic Needle Theory.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory implied that the mass media had a DIRECT and powerful effect on the audiences and the way they behaved. Theorists believed that the media could 'inject' ideas into the audiences and shape the opinions they have on things. Theorist Michael Choukas said ‘’Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd’’ (Choukas, 1965:15) I highly agree with this as Michael is basically saying that the passive audience no longer need to use their brain and THINK, when there is ‘ready-made opinions’ out there for them. People would just look at propaganda posers and send themselves or their sons out to war without a thought of whether they even wanted to. An example of the Hypodermic Needle theory is the Nazi Germany in the 1930’s leading up to the Second World War. Germany released powerful films such as ‘Triumph of the Will’ which used propaganda methods to inject ideas promoting the Nazi cause into German audience.
Simulacrum
Jean Baudrillard believes that there is no longer originality in the world and no one real truth. He says that everything is a copy of a copy and the media is more real than reality itself. An example of this is during the 9/11 crash. Jean said that people where referring the crash to 'like a movie'. This leads us on to 'The Death of The Author' this is when all meaning behind a text is gone, everything is subjective and the audience create meanings themselves of what something is. This becomes a problem when stories are adapted from novels into film. The audience become so entangled in their imagination and the book that when the film is released they can become disappointed as they have built something up in their head.
Another post modern term is Hyper Reality. Hyper reality is used in films to over exaggerate styles or parts of the film to make it more exciting for the audience. It can also be used to exaggerate a period drama to modernise it slightly or to add more depth to the original world. An example of this is in the film 'The Wolf of Wall Street' they exaggerate the world he lives in to make it more interesting for the viewer. Moreover, period dramas often over change slightly or exaggerate costumes to make it more of an adaptation and interesting for the viewers - an example of this is in the Tv series 'Masters of Sex' I watched a video on YouTube where the costume designer admits its a 'hyper real version of the 50's.' clothes wise.
Temporal distortion is often used as a postmodern feature in films to create a non linear timeline. Usually stories consist of a beginning, middle and end. However, sometimes characters have flashbacks or they talk directly to the audience which is what temporal distortion means - when there is a time in the film which interrupts the story or doesn't follow a normal narrative structure.
Nostalgia is when there is a longing feeling from the audience to be back to an earlier period in their life - due to a film/text they have read/watched. Period dramas often create nostalgia for the audience as if there was a huge event that happened when they was younger and they are watching a period drama it might make them miss being young or it could do the opposite effect, cause distress for the audience if that time in their life won't so good.
All the above features and more enable us as an audience to recognise a postmodern text and engage more with the story from use such as nostalgia and temporal distortion. Researching into postmodernism has allowed me to recognise what features are used so I am able to find them in the tv texts I will be looking at in my essay.
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