Media Reform, Legitimation, Power
Jean-Francois Lyotard writes that metanarratives legitimate. He also explains that the metanarrative has been eradicated from Western culture and that efficiency (i.e. a fast-track to profit) is the only model left leaving the current state of legitimation in a curious position. In order to understand the process leading to legitimation, this paper works to establish the necessary flow toward the metanarrative: from knowledge, to establishing meaning, to legitimation. To compound the legitimation problem, in the current information technology condition there is a growing imbalance within this process. In the mass media (i.e. Internet) world, it is arguably true that most of what a population knows, discusses, and concerns itself with on a daily basis is narrative knowledge. At the very least, there is much more narrative knowledge to sift through with the advent of the active audience among other factors. Examples of this can be seen in the current state of American commercialism, foreign and corporate policy, and the political economy of the mass media. The paper goes further to explore the possibility of whether there is a link from legitimation to accountability. The paper concludes with the idea that, perhaps, the contemporary media consumer must consider the author's concept of a postlegitimation model as a plan for the individual to participate as a critical and informed member of society.
