Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) was a French philosopher and social and cultural theorist who contributed greatly to postmodern thinking (Kellner 2007). He was instrumental in the development of the concept of simulacra and simulation. As we all know a simulation is something that is not the real thing, or not the original thing. There are many examples of this in everyday life. We can play a computer game that simulates driving a racing car round a track or during training excessive we can simulate the result of an accident or medical emergency. Baudrillard takes the concept of the simulation much further than this though. One of his main concerns is hyperreality. Hyperreality is a state where the real and the imagined cease to have boundaries and have converged. Reality has become image and image reality (Sim 2005: p 241). It could be argued that an example of this lies in media reporting. A news reporter appears on our television screens at 6 o’clock informing us that some bad men have done some bad thing in another country and are now a threat to our national security. The priminister, our authoritative representative, confirms this in a public address; official validation. We might be shown some images of atrocities caused by the ‘bad men’, and there maybe images of suffering
civilians too. This has now built a narrative for the news consuming public. This narrative has an effect on its targeted audience. Scenes like these cause anger and outrage. The ‘bad men’ are vilified and the news consumer has a new enemy. What makes this situation hyperreal is the fact the story has been constructed. A montage of images presented as reality. There is so much omitted from the presentation of this hypothetical situation. Why did the ‘bad men’
act? What is their story? Yet the version of events that are presented to the
audience are in no way faked. Baudrillard sites an example of hyperreality in the American theme park, Disneyland. He argues,

Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order
to make us believe that the rest is real (the world outside); when in fact all
of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the
order of the hyperreal and of simulation. It is no longer a question of a false
representation of a reality (ideology), but of concealing the fact that the
real is no longer real and thus of saving the reality principle (Baudrillard
1994: p.12-13).

In other words Baudrillard suggests the America outside of Disneyland is every bit the construct as the world that Disney has created. Visitors are given the illusion that the world outside is not a construct by the exaggerated and hyperbolic world that has been created by the Disney
corporation.