Activity 11.1
Intertextual references are common in television advertisements. Make a note of advertisements you have seen which refer to television programmes, films or other media texts. How might intertextual references serve the needs of advertisers in positioning products and brands, and engaging viewers’ interest?
Activity 11.2
If postmodernist theorists such as Lyotard claim that ‘grand narratives’ have lost their legitimacy, does this claim make postmodernism a ‘grand narrative’ itself?
Activity 11.3
How would you use the ability of video recorders or computer editing systems to make ‘scratch’ videotapes that might qualify as postmodern in Lyotard’s and Jameson’s sense of the term? In what ways might such texts ‘shortcircuit traditional interpretive temptations’?
Activity 11.4
Baudrillard’s arguments about the 1991 Gulf War and their extension to the events of 11 September 2001 are deliberately provocative. How would you defend these ideas against the criticism that they underestimate the emotional impact of television coverage?
Activity 11.5
To what extent is the inclusion of ‘world music’ in MTV a recognition of non-Western local cultures, and to what extent is it an example of the commodification of these cultures for the benefit of the music industry?