This paper is concerned with a critical assessment of postmodernism as an empirical phenomenon. It strives to examine the claims of postmodern theory by investigating whether it is possible to claim that postmodernism is emerging in contemporary industrial, capitalist societies and, in particular, whether it can be found in the sphere of popular media culture. To do so, it will first be apposite to give an outline of the basic features which define postmodernism, illustrate them with reference to examples from architecture, cinema, advertising, television and popular music, and give an outline of some of the reasons that have been proposed to account for the emergence of postmodernism. Some trends towards postmodernism are claimed to be apparent in the examples of popular media culture that have been selected for discussion. However, the paper should finally demonstrate why-if a specific example, i.e. cinema, is assessed more critically and studied in depth-the arguments of postmodern theory appear less novel and original and are open up to doubt and contention. It is suggested that postmodernism cannot be taken for granted nor considered in a purely conceptual manner, but rather needs to be subject to both theoretical and empirical criticism.