Jean Baudrillard (1971) Requiem for the Media

• In ‘Requiem for the Media’ (1971), the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard discusses the emancipatory affordances of the media. Can media be used to improve society? Should social movements use new media to coordinate their activities, organise and reach out with their message? In today’s media society, it seems obvious that the answer to these questions is yes. Everyone who wants to change society - whether political movements, companies, organisations or others - adheres to a ‘media strategy’. However, Baudrillard is dismissive of the media’s possibilities to contribute to progressive social change. His text can thus provide interesting perspectives on the interaction between media and politics and on the role of the media in society in general. What is now known as ‘mediatisation’ is anticipated by Baudrillard and his structuralist analysis of the ‘symbolic exchange’, which remains valid for those who aim to analyse such mediatisation processes. With the rise of digital media, Baudrillard’s text has arguably become increasingly relevant over time, as a large part of its content revolves around the (im)possibility of dialogue and interaction via mediated communication.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

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Kritisk kulturteori

Critical and Cultural Theory

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