In John Storey Cultural Theory and Popular Culture he sets out to try explain the term postmodernism.

Storey explains that the term 'post modern' started to circulate in the 1870's, It was not until the 50's and 60's that saw the beginning of what we as a cultured world understand the term to be. It can be argued that postmodernism shows that the distiction of th high and low cultures are failing to exist in the modern society. He relates it all back to the term of popular culture.

During the reading Storey introduces us to three main thinkers of the term 'post modern'.

The first been Jean François Lyotard,

''Knowledge is no longer seen as an end in itself, but as a means to an end''

From the quote I think that Llyotard is trying to admit that because of post modernism that we are living in anything goes culture, leading to a new way of modernism.

Secondly were introduced to Jean Baudrillard who believes that there is little distinction between original and the copy. For example mass produced pop music has the same beat and rhythm but with different lyrics. Therefore been hard to distinguish been the original and the copy.

Baudrillard also introduced the word ''Hyper Realism''. This term means that the significance of fiction and reality is becoming less and less important in our culture. For example Soap Opera characters receive letters from fans with many starting campaigns when they don't agree with a story line. 

Finally we were introduced to Fredric Jameson,

''Postmodern culture is a culture of quotations that is cultural production born out of previous cultural productions''

From the quote Jameson is referring to the idea that we reuse ideas and texts from previous cultures thus making culture relate to capitalism.

Instead of my usual response in words i decided ti make a mind map using Microsoft word for something a bit different

John Storey discusses how meanings of words and their interpretations result in a cultural agreement.  He explains how the system works by making a difference and a distinction within a system of difference and relationships. (See above diagram for explanation)

Storey goes on to tell us how words can change meaning. For instance if you take the sentence '' Mary made some cakes while thinking of her lover '' and change it to '' Mary made some cakes while thinking of her holiday ''. The sentence has a total different meaning  now due to the change of a few words.

Storey is describing the importance of structure is processed through selection and combinations. He does through various thoughts of media theorists throughout the chapter. Iit suggests that ''structure makes meaning possible''.

A point to note is that the language we speak does not reflect the material world that we live in. It suggest that language constructs our sense of reality in the material world were posseions are more important than anything else.

During the chapter we are provided with images that accompany text. It suggest that even the phrase a picture says a 1000 words is uncommon as many pictures are accompanied by some form of text which allows the

So i had my iPod on shuffle and bam Gavin De Graw '' I don't want to be'' came on. There in my bedroom I stood still shocked to the core. It was only a couple of hours ago my lecture was telling us to be aspiring media people. I mean I have always had dreams and goals but they were pushed to the back of my mind as life in uni took hold.

Here I was listening to the sog and One Tree Hill popped into my head (for those who dont know it was the theme tune for all 9 seasons'' and there was always one quote from that show that always stuck out to me ''you might wanna take a long hard look in the mirror and see if the person looking back at you is the kind of person you want to be'' said by Kieth Scott. It got me thinking yes i am the person I want to be but I don't have the job I want as of yet. See I am an aspiring magazine journalist with dreams of having a number one best seller.

In 6 months time I will be entering my final year of degree scary thoughts right there people. That is where it all begins for me to start on the road to  success and my chosen path way. In the meantime I will be doing all the placements in the industry that I can.  In 2 years time I hope to be in a magazine in London doing what I love. Writing is my passion and I know I wont stop until I do it for a living.

The ultimate goal in ten years time I hope to have my own music magazine that is on all the shelves around the UK and Ireland. For that to happen I have to ''dream big young and old and Dare to fail''. Its my time to shine so watch this space because I'm coming up........

All images: Google Images