Postmodernism

Many theorists argue that we are part of a post modern age, shown across all of our cultural activity including fashion, the media and architecture.

The 'modern' period lasted 50-60 years. The texts produced in this time were defined as part of 'high culture' and were aimed at small and mainly middle-class audiences, which included academics and critics, and so these texts had effect on other artists.
This was in contrast to more 'popular' works of the time.
'Popular' can be defined as:
-well liked by many people
-inferior kinds of work
-work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
-culture actually made by the people themselves. (Williams 1983)

Modernists saw themselves as part of the avant-garde, developing new media forms, much modernist work is still difficult for contemporary audiences, aspects of modernist style has been slowly absorbed into the mainstream of media production.

Postmodernism is not considered a movement as such, instead it is said to be a condition in which creatives feel free to take inspiration from earlier movements to mix and match.
Postmodernism's effect on culture is said to have made our reality dominated by popular culture. So that now, art and popular culture does not reflect reality as it is so full of advertising, film, video games and TV.
"Advertising no longer tries seriously to convince us of it's products real quality but, for example, just show us an amazing special effects whiz" (Branston and Stafford 1996 pg 180)

Because of this, distinction between 'high art/culture' and popular culture have gone or become blurred. For instance, with Andy Warhol's multi prints of Leonardo's Mona Lisa.
There is a feeling that there are no longer distinctions between the 'high' and the 'popular'.


Branston and Stafford (1996) The Media Student's Book, Routledge International Thomson Publishing Company

Williamson, R (1983) Keywords, Fontana Publishing

International Journal of Advertising- Differences in brain information processing between print and computer screens

This was a very science-y article. But I think I get it.
This study aimed to find whether reading differs between print materials and the same information delivered via a computer screen.
'When the internet is used, many people print out lengthy or difficult reading materials presented on a computer screen so that they 'can read it' or so that they 'can understand it' (Geske & Bellur, 2008 pg 399).

The brain adapts to new technologies. One factor to consider that differs between print and digital is luminance. Eyes and sight develop using mostly ambient light or reflected light (that which humans use for everyday looking), not direct or radiant light.
In the last century, a lot more sources of direct light have come into our everyday lives; such as computers and televisions. The eyes and brain react different to these light sources and so the differences in the brain can be measured through brain patterns and neurological responses.

The article also explains the difference between bottom-up and top-down attention mechanisms in the process of visual attention.
Bottom-up is when visual attention is caught by a stimuli that stands out to the person- it is triggered by 'raw sensory data' (Geske & Bellur, 2008 pg 404)
Top-down is when visual attention happens voluntarily, so to objects that have importance to the person.


In this case, advertising would have to work with the bottom-up mechanism, grabbing attention.


The results of the study showed that EEG scans (Electroencephalography scans on the brain) can detect a difference in the brain processing between print and digital medias. But as new media technologies are introduced, more research needs to be done into the differences in brain processing with those. 


None of this is directly related to my essay topic, however it could be argued that as people spend more and more time on their computers and not reading print. that the things that are top-down stimuli (so they pay attention to because it holds importance to them, or has help importance to them before) will be digitally based. Print and long copy advertising will have to work even harder to catch their attention as part of the bottom-up process. 




Geske & Bellur, 2008 Differences in brain information processing between print and computer screens: bottom-up and top-down attention factors. International Journal of Advertising 27(3) pg 299-423.

Journal of Advertising Research 'Emotional Engagement: How Television Builds Brands at Low Attention

This article gives a definition for 'attention'

"The taking possession by the mind, in clear and vidid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought"

It suggests that attention is not a 'Directional on-off process going from attentive straight to inattentive' (Heath, 2009 pg 62) but instead works more like the conscious and the semi-conscious, so attention happens as different levels. 

Our level of attention is linked to the depth of cognitive process that is taking place, or the amount of conscious thinking directed at an advert at a particular moment. Between attention and engagement a link can be made between the effectiveness of an advert and the successful transmission of the message intended. 

Attention is related to engagement with the following definitions

1. activation

2. connection

3. receptivity

4. internalising

5. involvement

6. interaction

7. buzz

The conclusion of the article is, 

"There is no question that most marketers would like their advertising to do both of these things, ie get attention and engage feelings. That is possible only if the advertising has a genuinely new and interesting message supported by strong creative values that provided emotional support for the brand. But, reality rarely provides such opportunities" (Heath, 2009 pg 70)

The article concludes in reference to the effectiveness of television advertising. However, with the development of digital medias (such as viral and online campaigns) I believe that the ability to put across a new and interesting message is improved through use of new media. 

By using new media and communicating in a range of ways that is innovative and creative should improve attention and engagement.


Heath, 2009 'Emotional Engagement: How Television Builds Brands at Low Attention', Journal of Advertising Research March pg 62- 71.

Journal of Advertising Research 'Does the internet dig too deep?'

This study was more focused on people's attitudes towards privacy matters and personal security over the internet. However, there were some interesting points raised that can be related to my topic.

"There has been a paradigm shift from perceiving privacy as an individual right and a move toward identifying 'fair-information practices' intended to prevent privacy threats. This is a hallmark of privacy concerns in the digital age of computers, internet access, mass storage and movement of personal information" (Curry, 1997)

The findings were as follows,

64.9% said they were 'very' or 'somewhat' worried about their personal privacy. Respondents aged 25-49 years old were slightly more worried than those 18-34 and those ages 50 and older.

When asked about the statement, 'Some companies know more about me than I want them to know' more than 80% 'strongly' agreed or 'somewhat' agreed with the statement. Adults aged 18-24 years (34.2%) were less likely to agree 'strongly' with the statement than respondents aged 25 and older (40.9%).

The study, however, was limited to those with internet access at home and because of this, the attitudes and opinions of those without internet access were not included.

For my research, this just gives a bit more insight into people's attitudes about the internet, something which I am suggesting as a contribution to our accelerated daily lives. In terms of advertising, it could go to say that people are suspicious of online campaigns, if they ask for any personal information input. It also goes along the lines of the panopticon, where if people are concerned about being monitored whilst spending time online, they might not want to be monitored when sharing information such as viral advertising videos or monitoring of popularity of different campaigns.


Curry (1997) The Digital Individual and the Private Realm. Annals of the Association of American Georgraphers, 87(4) pg 681-99.

Kachhi & Link (2009) Does the Internet Dig Too Deep? Journal of Advertising Research (March) pg 74- 81.

International Journal of Advertising- Creative Determinants of viral video viewing

Although this article was focused on the design of viral advertising, and exploring hypotheses that questioned what makes a viral video work successful, there were some interesting points raised in relation to my essay topic.

Facts and figures about online media/advertising:

"Online video viewing is now commonplace. Data from comScore's Video Metrix service showed that US internet users watched more than 25 billion online videos in August 2009 (comScore 2009). YouTube was comfortably the largest individual site, accounting for more than 10 billion views, while Microsoft sites were a distant second with 547 million. As consumers have spent increasing amounts of time consuming online video, advertisers have sought ways to engage this audience with their branded videos" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 349)

A definition of viral video:

"Porter and Golan (2006) suggested the following definition [...] 'Viral advertising is unpaid peer-to-peer communication of [provocative] content originating from an identified sponsor using the Internet to persuade or influence an audience to pass along the content to others'" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 350).

Comments:

"On TV, ads needed to platform in an enfored exposure environment. Is a different type of ad required in this new world?" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 350)

"A well branded video is easier for consumers to find online" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 360)

"Viral videos can be placed online in ways that make them easier to forward- perhaps by placement on a branded page on YouTube or a dedicated campaign microsite" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 362)

"The propogation rate (the rate to which people are willing to pass an ad on to others) and the scale of initial seeding determine the size of the viral audience [...] most specifically the likelihood to forward 'buzz'" (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010, pg 361)


So, what this information means in terms of my research is that the internet is a powerful tool for passing on information, and the enjoyment of information. Platforms such as YouTube and specifically designed website for campaigns are easy for consumers to access and provide quick, effortless ways of consuming and sending on information. There is no denying the effectiveness of an online campaign, and the suitability of viral videos in modern day advertising, however it does leave no space for long copy ads in this media as the content has to be delivered at a faster rate.


Southgate, Westoby and Page (2010) Creative Determinants of viral video viewing. International Journal of Advertising, 29(3) pg 349-368.

Some really interesting points made by the BBC in the article 'Davos 2011: We're all hyper-connected, now what?'

For starters, forget about PCs. For every desktop computer, there are 10 mobile devices. Around the world, mobile phones outnumber toothbrushes two-to-one.

"Hyper-connectivity will change every business model and supply chain; it's at an inflection point this year... and the uptake of connectivity is accelerating ever more," says the boss of one of the companies powering the internet.

It also works at home. Connectivity is making us more powerful shoppers. We can watch the films that we want, when we want them. It connects us better to our networks of friends.

"When the railroads were built, there were people who argued that humans would suffer brain damage from seeing the landscape rush by so fast, and I ask myself, am I one of them."

Information overflow, the "abundant distractions of the internet" can change our cognitive abilities. It may be a generational thing, though.

Read the whole article here

Long Copy competition across LDN in association with Campaign's 'The Art of Long Copy' supplement.

Check the website here

"There are those who would have it that the days of long copy advertising are long gone but contrary to this bizarrely popular myth, the art of long copy is still alive and well in London. London offers advertisers one of the largest and most influential markets in the world. The right words carry a lot of weight here and to quote Craig Huey “Long copy works…the more you tell, the more you sell”. The beauty of Underground Cross Track is that it provides the ultimate setting for long copy to be read, engaged with and absorbed due to the extended dwell time consumers enjoy as they wait on the platform.

With this in mind, the challenge for creative teams was to design a Cross Track 48 Sheet for one of their clients. The design had to utilise long copy and communicate a message tailored to Londoners. The winning team will receive a 48 Sheet poster campaign worth £125,000, plus £2,000 worth of London shopping vouchers for the people behind the design."

Symposium Feedback Research

Tom suggested The New Copy Book from D&AD website. Need to log in to see the briefs, but will sign up.

Janine suggests research into the opinion that social media means that children are actually writing more now than ever before to use as a counter argument to what I have so far.
I have found the National Literary Trust's paper titled 'Young People's writing: Attitudes, behaviours and the role of technology. A study on 3001 9-16 year old school children, 75% of young people said they wrote regularly; 82% said they text messaged at least once a month, 73% wrote instant messages (such as AIM or MSN) and 63% wrote on a social networking site.

Read the study here

It's conclusion was that children who blog or use facebook have higher literacy levels.

The Implications of Baudrillard's conclusions on advertising

If everything that is created through art and design is a representation of something else, then there is no such thing as an original thought for design. So anything designed for copywriting or art direction is not original. So, when considering the use of iconography or semiology within advertising design, Baudrillard's conclusions would imply that advertising itself is merely a simulacra, not having its own reality behind it. If advertising has created a total screen over society, then society itself is screened by simulacra. In fact, if advertising has become inherent in society, and is now just a mirror image of society rather than a method of communication, then hasn't advertising become a simulation of society? So, if all the reality of society and advertising erodes away we are left with nothing but simulacra. How confusing. 

When considering how advertising is to reach a target audience, Baudrillard's conclusions imply that we should be veering more towards use to cybernetic communication to reach the public. As he states that advertising communication has been over-shadowed by the more exciting computer language communication; We should be using digital media, social media, cybernetic and internet based methods of communication to tap into the thrill the public are experiencing from the increase in technology and its simplicity of communication. 

Nevertheless, Baudrillard did also state that the public do comply to the ideal that advertising still works as communication. So as long as no one else reads Baudrillard's 'Simulacra and Simulation' then we should all be just fine.

Summary of Baudrillard

Absolute Advertising, Ground Zero Advertising


Baudrillard is of the opinion that advertising is superficial, has no depth and is a triumph of lost or misinformation. He argues that it is unarticulated, instant and instantly forgotten. However, it still holds power.
He refers to the public as a, "bewildered audience" (Baudrillard, 1994 pg 88) of advertising, as advertising is everywhere. It has imposed itself into society, enveloping it and thrives at the expense of everything else.

He also argues that advertising no longer excites the public as a form of communication, as now that cybernetic and digital communication does so much more to simplify communication for us than advertising ever did. So, the increase of computer science language is rendering advertising useless. Baudrillard suggests that, "the 'thrill' of advertising has been displaced onto computers and onto the miniaturisation of everyday life by computer science" (Baudrillard, 1994 pg 89).
To go further, he argues that advertising is in fact no longer a form of communication at all. What it once was, has been lost and now advertising lies within society in all its forms. The message it once sent out about commodity purchase is now more of a reflection or a mockery of society and culture. The message that was, "'I buy, I consume, I take pleasure' today repeats in other forms, 'I vote, I participate, I am present, I am concerned'" (Baudrillard, 1994 pg 91).

To repeat a similar argument to that of his other chapters, he concludes by saying that the absolute cover over society by advertising leads of over saturation of information, leading to confusion and eventually emission of any meaning. The language we believe to be communication, is in fact staged and so becomes a hyperreality.
Baudrillard uses the example of the city of Las Vegas; as the city appears from the desert into the bright lights of billboards and advertisments, it is not the adverts that brighten or decorate the city, but instead wipe out all things that are solid- the walls, the streets, the buildings and any depth and, "that is the empty and inescapable form of seduction" (Baudrillard, 1994 pg 92).

Baudrillard, J (1994) Simulacra and Simulation, USA: The University of Michigan.

Summary of Baudrillard

The Implosion of Meaning in the Media


"We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 79).
Baudrillard states three hypotheses to explain this statement.
1- That information produces meaning but, as a result of the loss of signification, meaning is lost and meaning cannot be put back into content before it devours itself. This is the ideology of free speech, ie pirate radio.
2- Shannon's hypothesis states there is no significant relation between more information and less meaning as information has nothing to do with signification.
3- There is a strong link between the two; information is directly destructive of meaning and signification based on the dissuasive action of the media and mass media (including advertising?)

Baudrillard believes the third hypothesis is the most interesting, because it goes against every commonly held opinion. He explains that, "whoever is under-exposed to the media is desocialised or virtually asocial" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 80). Basically an elaborated version of the metaphor 'living under a rock'.
He argues we, as a public, believe that information is there to create communication. We comply to this myth; we believe that without the media our world would collapse as as we believe information=communication, the opposite in fact occurs.

"Information devours its own content. It devours communication and the social" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 80). Baudrillard has two reasons for this:
1- Instead of information creating communication, as we believe it to, it exhausts itself by staging communication, as is all a simulation as it pretends to communicate.
2- Behind the mise-en-scene of communication, information dissolves meaning and the social in the masses. Therefore, the media are producers of the implosion of meaning in media.

Baudrillard, J (1994) Simulacra and Simulation, USA: The University of Michigan.

Summary of Baudrillard (or Baudrillard as I see it, which is probably wrong)

Hypermarket and Hypercommodity


Baudrillard is talking, once again pessimistically. This time it is about product consumption, media messages and the hyperspace of commodity, which he names the hypermarket.
He argues that our objects (or the things we own) are no longer commodities (something of use, advantage, value) but that they become something we have to answer to as they take over our lives. He also says of media message, including advertising, that it is no longer a communication or information but, "referendum, perpetual test, circular response" (Baudrillard 1994 pg 75). What I make of this, is that he is saying advertising no longer does what was intended; to inform and communicate. Instead, it becomes part of the system of the hypermarket,  a controlling power of social order and commodity culture.
Baudrillard continues to say that billboards act as CCTV systems, surveilling our lives. We are forced to look at them, and so in turn see ourselves in them (similar to film theory of 'the gaze'?). Eventually, as mirrors of the consumption of our commodity culture it "closes this world on itself" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 76). He argues that billboards are employees for the hypermarket system, and their role is to keep intact the total screen that we consider our reality, so all we can see is the products and the billboards that advertise them.
Ultimately, Baudrillard argues that the hypermarket is about more than consumption of products; it is about social relations and acculturation (a word he uses at the start of the chapter to describe the process of adopting cultural patterns and social traits of another group).
For Baudrillard, the hypermarket explains the end of modernity. During 1850-1950 there was a great increase in the amount of large, modern stores developed in both large cities and more suburban areas. He describes that as fundamental modernisation and has no real problem with it as it does not, "overthrow the urban structure" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 77). However, where the cities remain cities, the new cities- which I'm assuming to be the more suburban areas- become, "satellized by the hypermarket [...] serviced by a programmed traffic network" (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 77).
Effectively, the new shopping centres become in control of how suburbanisation moves; houses built near the new large stores, movement of people and flow of traffic towards these new stores etc.
As the hypermarket grows and takes over it loses it's qualities of a market.

Baudrillard, J (1994) Simulacra and Simulation, USA: The University of Michigan.

Definition of 'cybernetics' as I never quite understood...

cy·ber·net·ics

   [sahy-ber-net-iks]  

–noun ( used with a singular verb )

the study of human control functions and of mechanical andelectronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communication engineering.

So therefore, in the cybernetic communication theory, it it thus called as the communication from target audiences is done through new technologies, and social networking, sharing online etc. For example, the Old Spice Twitter campaign took the target audience voice and represented it through 'tweets'. 

Still Points, Turning World BBC Radio 4.

"When WH Davies wrote his celebrated poem 'Leisure' a century ago, the myriad stimuli assaulting people's senses now and the demands that sap humanity's powers of concentration in the digital age were unimaginable. But he rightly gauged the detrimental impacts to the human spirit of failing to find moments of peace in a busy world: 'a poor life this, if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare'.

In this 'composed feature', producer Alan Hall embroiders together the experiences of a range of people for whom still points and daydreaming provide an escape from the increasingly invasive nature of the turning world about us and offer a foundation for reflection, rejuvenation and creativity.

Hearing from Canon Lucy Winkett of St Paul's in the heart of the City of London, an installer of 'energy pods' that offer 'corporate fatigue solutions', an hypnotherapist, staff and pupils from a school that champions 'the Pause' and Kieran MacFeely, a singer-songwriter from the world of pop music (or 'high-end racket') who sought out the peace of the countryside.

'Still Points, Turning Worlds' relishes moments of reverie in an attempt to reclaim the powers of concentration.

Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4."

Summary of Baudrillard

The Simulacra and Simulation:


There are two key terms within this text; simulation and dissimulation. Dissimulation implies an absense, to 'pretend not to have what one has' (Baudrillard, 1994, pg 3). Whereas simulation implies a presense, but is complicated by the idea that to simulate is not to pretend. Baudrillard argues that to simulate, means to blur the boundaries of reality. The example he gives is if a man were to pretend (dissimulate) he was ill, he could just stay in bed and people would believe him. However, if he were to simulate the illness, he would infact produce in himself some of the symptoms. Given that he would have symptoms, is the simulator ill or not? Who can tell him otherwise?
(This reminds me of a psychology study by Rosenhan titled 'On being Sane in Insane places', in which he proved that when pseudo patients were admitted to a mental institution, they could actually develop psychiatric conditions themselves as an effect of labeling. If you fancy giving that a look, you can do here.)

Another example Baudrillard gives of simulation is within religion. The presence of God is conceptual, and God is represented to us through religious iconography. And so, what we perceive and believe to be real of God (religious art/icons etc), is just a representation. This is the simulacrum; simulacra are copies either of the thing they are intended to represent or stand in for. Even in recent history, as would apply to religious art, they are copies of a copy (where images of God or Jesus are recreated as religous icons for the home, or on Christmas cards etc). And so, in turn the representation (or simulacrum) takes over as our reality of God.

Baudrillard argues that we are living in a world surrounded by simulations, so reality itself is masked and distorted until it erodes away entirely, leaving us with only simulations.

This idea is explained eloquently in the film The Matrix, which I can not get a clip of due to copyright.
However, I did find this on youtube as well. Which is a bit mental.



Baudrillard, J (1994) Simulacra and Simulation, USA: The University of Michigan.

Possible reading

'Amusing ourselves to death' Neil Postman-

attention span of humans was much longer years ago, the specific example used: Lincoln Douglas debates of 1800 which were read from paper used to last for 8-10 hours and people stayed, listened and paid attention. 

'Complete guide to public speaking' Jeff Davidson-

attention span is about 7 minutes.

"People's attention spans are decreasing to all time lows. If you're in front of a group and you don't have something humourous to say at least once every seven minutes you are going to have a tough time"

What are we doing to our attention span?

Internet:

Search engines take us to the answer we want immediately.

With ability to open as many windows as we want we can skip between them as quickly and often as we want.

With knowing what warning messages, computer instructions etc are probably going to say because we have read them all before, we feel able to skip through it all without really paying attention to it.

TV:


If you grow up watching a lot of hours of TV a day, everything is presented to you in about 12 minute chunks- you'll be conditioned into only having to concentrate for that long.

BBC Article 'Turning into digital goldfish'

The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish.
"If we spend our time flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get into a habit of not concentrating," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.

With literally millions of websites at our fingertips, the attention span of the average web surfer is measured in seconds.

"When I'm on the internet, my attention span is shorter for each thing because there are so many things to choose from," said one American web browser.

read full article (here)

'The halcyon days of long-copy [ads] were the 70s and 80s- today people just don't have time to read them. It's a reflection of society really.'
'It’s for an older and more considered market. You’d be pushing to get a really young person to read a long-copy ad. It’s a more adult medium'  Saatchi + Saatchi Syndey copywriter Scot Waterhouse.


'I think they have [declined in popularity]—there seems to be a move to simpler, more visual advertising. I think it could also be a fashionable thing… it could be a move to cross cultural boundaries [because] a lot more ads are international' John Bevis copywriter Mark Sharman, did some long-copy ads for BT.

Plato and The Cave

Once I got to grips with what Plato was saying in his simile of The Cave, it was a thought I found provocative and brought up a great deal of questions for us to consider within the media.

Plato uses the metaphor of The Cave to describe the life of an accepted reality, that as 'prisoners' we would have no other choice but to believe even though what we have known to be true from birth is completely false and based on our wrong interpretations of the world that surrounds us. This is to say that the average man would not be able to tell the difference between what is true and what is false.
With this metaphor, Plato suggests that the general terms that exist in our language are not the 'names' of the physical objects we see (the reflections and shadows through the fire that we believe to be reflections of a true object from beyond the cave walls). Instead, that they are 'names' of things that are not visible to us, and that we can only grasp within our minds with use of our imagination.  We take what we see (projected on the cave wall) and what we hear (voices from behind us/behind the screen) and through our imagination we create relationships that we accept as our reality. What we see as the truth is what shapes our reality.

When a prisoner is released from the cave, and starts the journey into the light and towards the sun (a journey of enlightenment) he is forced to understand that what he previously believed to be true (projections through the fire) was actually false and that what he sees now in the light is the true and accepted form of reality. The projections he saw, were merely manipulations created by others. I think this point is especially provocative in relation to our idea of the media.
At first the prisoner, who is faced with enlightenment, might want to return to the darkness for it is easier to not challenge our perceptions, to return to his comfort zone where everything was played our for him to understand. To return to his normal belief and act upon fear of this unrecognised world. Within the text, Plato describes this process as a painful one, to which the prisoner would much object. Basically, what Plato is saying is that it would be a mistake for us to limit ourselves to conventional thought, simply because of a stubbornness towards change.
As the prisoner adjusts step by step to what he is now being presented with as real, first he would recognise shadows and reflections, as this is what he learnt to understand in the cave. Then he would recognise objects and people in their own existence. Then finally, when it did not hurt (both physically as his eyes adjusted to he light, and also mentally as he gained understanding) he would look directly up at the sun. This would be his arrival through the cognitive stages of thought to full understanding of reality and truth.
Upon his return to the cave, the prisoner would be obliged to share his new understanding as a leader of the people. This is where I think it is also very applicable to the media and to advertising. Plato suggests that when we represent the truth to others, we will not be believed until they have experienced it as well.

As advertisers, we have the power to advertise to affect in a way that is either useful and salutary, or useless and harmful. Within advertising it is up to us in which way we want to use the message we have to put across, to use it or to abuse it. This is a definition also between dictators and leaders, and can even be related to the Marxist theory of the ISA (Ideological State Apparatus) and parts of the media such as newspapers and the way that News Cooperation can be said to propagate ideology and produce willing compliance without the audience being aware.

Plato's writing can produce further questions about the media; if we can replace 'the cave' for a movie screen and so say the objects that we see are not real, but reflections from the projector behind us, to be aware of this definition must mean that we have achieved enlightenment, and by knowing that what we see on a movie screen is actors playing out character roles, then we are aware of what is true and real. It is those individuals who cannot make definition between an actor as a real person beyond the screen, and their character that we see played out for us, who are still prisoners in the cave.
How then, does reality television fit in with this? When watching reality TV, the characters we are presented are supposedly 'real' and the character we see them acting out is supposed to be the real person who exists beyond the screen as well. However, there is still space for manipulation of the message from the puppeteers by clever editing of the footage. In the situation of reality TV, it is not only the message to the audience that can be manipulated (a comment on 'real people') but also the perceptions of who each individual character is.
This clip from Charlie Brooker's 'Screenwipe' describes this perfectly.



Need to know how to reference properly here?

Plato, The Republic, p.g 316-325, Penguin Classics

Rice, B (2006) Plato's Allegory of the Cave: analysis and summary. [Online] March 2006. Available from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/22696/platos_allegory_of_the_cave_analysis.html?cat=72. [Accessed: 3rd January 2011].

Srivastava, S (N.d) Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Meaning and Interpretation. [Online] N.d. Available from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/platos-allegory-of-the-cave-meaning-and-interpretation.html [Accessed: 3rd January 2011].