Postmodern media
: I just read this on Terry Heaton’s very good essay about postmodern video news from the people. It fits the discussion about music below (as well as yesterday’s from AlwaysOn).
Postmodernism is the Age of Participation. The need to learn has been replaced by the need to apply, and that means all of the rules of our culture are being rewritten, including those for television news. Postmoderns (Pomos) trust their experiences, and if they’ve not experienced it, they want to hear it from somebody who has. This means information that is up close and personal and that includes many perspectives, not that which is provided by arms-length experts or delivered in some hyped manner that’s a mile wide and an inch deep. Pomos also don’t want their information sanitized, because they don’t trust the sanitation workers. Part of that distrust is based on Postmodernism’s rejection of hierarchy and elitism and a desire for control over their own lives.
Pomos also want to talk to each other and share the “news” that’s relevant to them, and this is already occurring on the Internet through blogs and social networking. In the expanding circles of what’s important to me, that which is closest and those who are closest are most relevant. The Net facilitates that need like nothing since the telephone. Who would argue that the news of my loved ones is more important to me than the news of my nation?
In the end, we’ll see that the whole top-down media culture, whereby information is trickled down to the masses through institutional channels, is replaced by one that is much more user-centric and connected. Involvement in all of life at the local level will increase, including participation in the political process.
These are, indeed, exciting times.
