Explain why the idea of postmodern media might be considered controversial.

Postmodern media is a term used to describe a set of texts (media) that, because of certain qualities, remove then from the bracket of modern or traditional media. These aspects in such texts may be intertextual references (to other texts that may be deemed out of place), bricolage (this is the combination of ideas and stimuli that are drawn from a varied range of influences), hyper-reality (an overly exaggerated reflection of reality), simulacrum (similar to hyper-reality in the sense that it is a reflection of something else, yet typically represents something which is not inherently real to begin with) and finally self reflexivity, which is the act of referencing the text referencing either the same text or associated stimuli (the most common example of this is a singular film referencing other films created by the same director.) These aspects arguably make up the basis of postmodern media, and because of this they serve a variety of purposes, directors may use these tools to relay important points or even for comedic purpose, but at times this is considered controversial for a number of reasons by a variety of individuals and in some instances other professionals or theorists. Inglorious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino is one such postmodernistic text. Inglorious Basterds features heavy amounts of bricolage from other texts and intertextual references from other eras, for instance, in the opening scene alone, the shot featuring monsieur La Padites farmhouse is almost identical to the opening shot in The Sound Of Music directed by Robert Wise 40 years earlier. When this is matched with a spaghetti western version of Beethovens famous Fur Elise and the opening title of once upon a

time in Nazi occupied France the audience may get the impression that they are watching some odd sort of fairytale film, rather than one of a serious temperament. This then, is where controversy may lie, when dealing with sensitive historical subjects such as the extermination of the Jews in WW2 and of course the Nazi regime as a whole, it could be considered in bad taste to create such a laid back film about such a place in history. In this respect, the postmodern aspects of the text could quite easily be considered controversial from a moral and ethical point of view. It was Frederic Jameson who proposed that postmodernism (and its included media) is depthless and because of this, does not speak to an audience. The sometimes abnormal or unconventional aspects that create postmodern media render it void of any meaning, according to Jameson. Jameson also argued that postmodern media has historical deafness attached to its texts, because, as he argues, the texts have do not have to exist within any sort of logical confines (references to other eras and prods that remind the viewer the text is superficial are all examples of a lack of logic) they have the ability to act without much regard for universal truths such as history. This, according to Jameson gives postmodern texts historical deafness and clearly this is a controversial quality for any text to have. This point is particularly