About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about Jean Baudrillard’s work on the mass media and his notions of simulation and hyperreality, focusing in particular on: (i) the concept of media-saturated societies in which social life is organised around virtual images, and Baudrillard’s claim that the consequences of this characterise postmodernity; (ii) Baudrillard’s phases in the historical evolution of the image and the different effects these have in different periods; (iii) his idea of hyperreality, the false reality created by media images, and its impacts on the way people experience the world.

About the lecturer

Dr Ross Abbinnett is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Theory at the University of Birmingham. His recent publications include The Neoliberal Imagination: Politics, Aesthetics, and Economics in the Evolution of Hyper-Industrial Capitalism (2021), The Thought of Bernard Stiegler: Capitalism, Technology and the Politics of Spirit (2018) and Marxism After Modernity: Politics, Technology and Social Transformation (2006).