Simulacra and Simulation

For a number of sociologists, media theorists, and social critics, the current era, with its global market, advanced technologies, mass media and digital information, and the all‐present marketing of goods and politics, must be seen as radically different from the industrial age of machine‐based mass production. One of the central technological innovations of the industrial era was the capturing of visual images, sounds, and later media with both sound and picture. From the earliest photos, to records, and later movies and television, we have seen and heard endless reproductions. But, today, many argue that we live in a “postmodern” age dominated by an endless number of spectacular images, most of which are…