Modernism to Postmodernism

Modernism is, according to Creeber, the “term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution” (Creeber, 2009, pg.11) This brought about what the Frankfurt School called the Culture Industry and they held the opinion that the media produced as a result of this was “standardized, formulaic and shallow” (Creeber, 2009, pg.17) This media was produced for the masses and lost the individuality that high art as media had. Due to this “modernism’s reaction to modernity is often perceived as intensely paradoxical” and also hostile. (pg.12)

After the industrial revolution came postmodernism where people “become actively involved in the very production of the media; moving power away from the ‘author’ into the hands of the ‘audience’” (Creeber, 2009. Pg.20) This audience involvement ties in with the idea of audience participation, one of Jenkin’s defining concepts of Convergence Culture. (Jenkins pg.3)

Postmodernism celebrates popular culture's lack of deeper meaning and Post-structuralism allows viewers to take their own meanings as they decode the meanings embedded in the semiotics of a piece of media, rather than taking the meanings that were encoded into the text.

People can now make the media they want to see and distribute it online for millions to view, however, not everyone has access to equipment or the internet to make their own media. Those with this access have far more control over what is produced and what becomes popular in todays culture.

After the industrial revolution came improvements in technology which ultimately lead to a switch from old analogue media to New Media in digital formats. This lead to a convergence in media which has also aided people in creating their own media.

The audience hasn’t been merely passive viewers of media for some time, but they are even less so now. Especially with “Theories of ‘fandom’ (...) with the Internet allowing the fans of different forms of culture to create virtual communities that add to the original understanding and even content of their chosen interests” (Creeber, 2009, pg.19) This coming together of fans to help understand their favourite content demonstrates collective intelligence, which is more prominent in todays culture than in the days before the internet.

This shows us that the ideas of New Media and Convergence Culture are closely linked together and are also linked with postmodernism and post-structuralism and that they wouldn’t be as they are without each other.

Bibliography

Creeber, G. (2009). DIGITAL THEORY: Theorizing New Media & Cubitt, D. (2009) Case Study: Digital Aesthetics in ED. Creeber, G. & Royston, M. (2009) Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media; Maidstone, Open University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2nd revised edition, NYU Press