This ePortfolio acts as an evaluation of a selection of slides from our group presentation regarding "SImulacra" in my Communications class CAPC001.
This quote by Jean Baudrillard was the first slide in my section of the "Simulacra in Communications" presentation.
My role in the "Simulacra" Presentation was to present the distinguishing features of Simulacra and how it relates to Communication, supporting the theories of Jean Baudrillard. As this was the main focus in the presentation, I felt it was extremely important to clearly present these ideas by utilising mordern examples. My section of the presentation followed directly after Caitlin, who presented the phases of Simulacra and Georgia, who focused on Jean Baudrillards theories of Simulacra. As they had both provided an overview of the theories of Simulacra, it was my obligation to synthesise these two points, and provide examples in order to provide clarity to the theory.
This Jean Baudrillard quote enaled me emphasises the effect of Simulacra in Communications, building a basis for my section of the presentation and allowing me to expand on this theory witht he use of various examples of Simulacra in Communication.
My role in the "Simulacra" Presentation was to present the distinguishing factors regarding Simulacra and how it relates to Communication, supporting the theories of Jean Baudrillard. As this is the main focus in the presentation, i felt it was extremely crucial to clearly present these ideas by utilising mordern examples.
The presentation did not turn out exactly how we planned as there were a few minor errors. Desipte this the overall content put into the presentation, helped to enable us to persuade and argue our concept of Simulacra to the class.
My part of the presentation was based around how simulacra relates to communication, in which i particularly focused on Advertisements and Reality Television Shows.
This was the second slide in my part of the "Simulacra in Communications" presentation.
In this slide, I refer to how advertising is a form of communication used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience with the desired result to drive consumer behavior to buy particular products. I then elabotrate on the effect in which advertisements have on society, affirming Jean Baudrillards theory of simulacra, “..a static entity, a mere image rather than something that "imitat[es] the behavior of the real thing on which it is based.” (Baudrillard, J., 1983)
The Dove Self Esteem Fund; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rSjh52fGTg
This video, which I showed, is part of the Dove Self Esteem Fund which aims at addressing theBody image dissatisfaction found in women of all ages and girls as young as nine years old. From this I expressed how society has become so lost in the want and fantasy to be thin that we ultimately take images such as these, which have been heavily photoshopped and treat them as 'reality.' But in fact it has merely become part of our constructed 'reality' through interpreting such images to suit our desires and therefore we fall into this Simulacrum.
I felt that by using this as an example, made it easy for my audience to connect with, providing clarity to the theory of Simulacra and allowing them to easily comprehend it.
This point of society becoming so attached to fulfilling our desires, interpreting advertisements to suit our desires shows how they become part of our constructed 'reality', forms a direct link to the Bacardi Limon Advertisement, with this desire of stepping into pleasures of glass. Baudrillard suggests that "It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality, but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.”
This is another example I used to portray Baudrillards theory regarding Simulacra. The concept was extremely hard to define as there are various views on the theory as well as the fact that in many of Baudrillards works he conradicts himself, I believe that with regards to this presentation, we did a very admirable job at grasping such a complex theory and reproducing our take on it.
This final slide, provides a breif overview of the entire presentation, including the three key focal points of the presentation. Knowing that my presentation was more practical encorporating videos and photographs as examples, this slide provided a nice contrast effectivly summing up the entire point and key purpose of the presentation.
The complexity of the topic of Simulacra made it extremely hard to present on, as there are various layers and aspects to consider. The presentation, like most, entailed minor hicups, which if prefected, could have made the presentation mre effective. However, considering time restraints as well as the restrictions of working in groups, I believe we were able to effectively incorporate examples of Simulacra in Communications, providing clarity to the theory, enabling the class to grasp the concept.
