Simulacra and Cultural Identity

In his paper The Precession of the Simulacra Jean Baudrillard begins by stating: "the simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth - it is the truth which conceals that there is none". His main point is that due to the proliferation of images in the modern media the image no longer portrays reality, it hides the fact that truth has disappeared; the image is the reality. One of the examples he uses is the mediatisation of history in films and in cultural myth. The only way we can know anything about the past is through images, so that first disguises the reality of history, and then replaces it. We have no image of history that is not from the media, he argues.

The same could be applied to representations of different cultures in the media. The idea that cultural stereotypes are recognised by us is proof that, unless we discover our own reality, the media controls our images, and therefore our perception, of different cultures and religions.

Sources:
http://pixabay.com/en/mask-face-pottery-22849/
Baudrillard, J. "The Precession of the Simulacra". Traverses (10) February, 1978. pp. 3-37