1. The Wire – a postmodern programme about a postmodern city? Postmodern media
2. The Wire – a postmodern programme about a postmodern city? David Simon, co-creator, talks about the programme being postmodern because: It is a a re-working of the conventions of the police procedural genre (cop show in very plain English Conventional cop shows feature cops and criminals, are a straightforward battle bettween good and bad, where the cops are good and the criminals are bad The narrative structures of conventional cop shows start with a crime being committed and end with that crime being solved and the criminals being brought to justice (e.g. Life On Mars / Whitechapel / Hawaii-Five-O) He also talks about the city where the programme is set – Baltimore – and the forces that govern it as being postmodern – because the city has changed from being an industrial city which makes things into a post-industrial city where people live, but work elsewhere (and that population is declining) – all of this is like Wolverhampton We can label this approach to postmodernism as AUTHORIAL POSTMODERNISM The job today is to work out if Simon is right
3. Theoretical approach Lyotard – the postmodern era is one marked by the decline of grand narratives Grand narratives such as religion (total explanations of life from beginning to end and beyond) are threatened by the rise of scientific knowledge We no longer worship weather gods or the Roman or Greek gods because we know that if the weather is poor - we know the weather will improve Whilst David Simon claims the programme as being postmodern, has he in fact created a grand narrative of ‘Everycity’? The programme is set in Baltimore, but could it be Wolverhampton?
4. Topic prompt questions What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)? What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern? How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation? In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?
6. The Wire It is postmodern because it reworks genre conventions and narrative structures It is postmodern because it documents the social changes of the postmodern and post-industrial era It is not postmodern because it offers a grand narrative about the problems affecting all cities in the western world It is not any more postmodern than the works of Shakespeare which also feature characters from the full range of the social hierarchy
