The truth can be an abstract concept and is often manipulated; for some, truth is just the opposite of pretence, however it is a much bigger idea than that. The truth is nearly always manipulated in some ways, or misrepresented to someone’s benefit. Working Dog Productions’ The Hollowmen, directed by Rob Sitch and 20th Century Fox Television’s The Simpsons, produced by Jeff Lynch, explore how the truth can be influenced and falsified, using a variety of film techniques and dialogue to demonstrate this notion. Both The Hollowmen and The Simpsons episode portray the truth as trivial.
‘Vulnerable to Attack’ is an episode of The Hollowmen that illustrates how appearance is more important than reality; the truth can often be hidden, because
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If something is misrepresented, a person may only view one side of a topic, or may get biased information. The media is always presenting stories to an audience, however, it is hard to tell what is biased truth or whether it has been misrepresented and taken from context. The Simpsons episode ‘Homer Badman’ illustrates, through an exaggeration, how television and the media control society. When Homer gets accused of sexual harassment everyone instantly believes it because it was on television and they believe that whatever is on the television is right; just because it is on television doesn’t mean that it is the truth. The media are offenders of manipulating the truth to their benefit, to get good views of their show. In The Simpsons episode Homer states, “Maybe TV is right, TV is always right.” (Lynch, J., 1994) This use of dialogue, accompanying a mid-shot of Homer looking downcast, shows how the media dominates society in the show, reflecting similarly to the real world, where the media can misrepresent truth,. The host of Rockbottom states, “We members of the press sometimes make mistakes…” (Lynch, J., 1994) This scene is shown as if the audience was sitting on the Simpson family’s couch watching the television. Right after the dialogue the scene displays a list of ‘mistakes’ running down the screen, that had to be corrected by the Rockbottom show. The host illustrates how the media can often manipulate the truth to their benefit and emphasises how the media can make many mistakes; thus cementing the idea of truth easily being manipulated, even the media is a
Today’s media (news) plays an enormous role in the lives of people in directing a specific perception of the world around them. Most often media conduct's a subconscious effect upon its spectators in which the upshots are deliberately or illdeliberatly towards a particular topic.
“My Pods and Broomsticks” a very controversial episode of “The Simpsons” is full of satire, concentrating in the main theme of stereotypes and the ignorance of consumers in this day and age. These are represented through the Simpsons, elements, or flaws of modern society are cleverly displayed using many devices such as humour, puns, irony and sarcasm. When analyse an episode of the Simpson it gets you thinking, does the Simpson serve a greater propose than to just entertain?
The influence of media is ubiquitous as we are all exposed to it, and influenced by the messages they attempt to sell. For example, the trope of science gone wrong is a classic plotline of science fiction that is present enough in media to give anyone a sense of paranoia. Media is indeed a force to reckon with. In a world in which the success of media is based off of its audience, the question arises to: to what extent may media alter truth to gain attention, and how may media influence society’s values?
Now I realise it seems a bit hypocritical of me to attack the media’s representation of a news event when I myself am a part of the hype-generating circus we call mass media. However, the voice of my wise, high-school English teacher echoes in my subconscious that we should always be critical of the texts we consume and conscious of the
In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)
The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that 's power. The article “Reality TV Goes Where Football Meets the Hijab”, published in the New York Times in November 2011, introduces how the media controls the minds of the masses. Media has become a major issue in our daily lives. We live in a world that we cannot have access to what is going around us, unless we refer to the media. For instance, in our daily routine we usually listen to the news in the morning or at night before we sleep. The news has already been reported and its being delivered to us that fast, but how do we know if what is being said is what is actually happening or if it has been manipulated for political/social reasons? In the beginning of the article, Porochista Khakpour the author of the article, Iranian born American reared, mentions: “If anything made me, an American, it was televisions.” TV, especially the reality TV, resembles the characters and movie stars the way they want to not the way they are. Khakpour said, "Darkness-dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin-always equaled trouble, as if it actually implied a dark side". When we watch TV, most of the movie characters are labeled, either by their gender, religion, or color. Khakpour reaches out to the "outcasts", to prove her point on reality TV shows shaping our beliefs towards each other, especially the "freaks”.
The truth has been communicated through “The Siege” and other texts, in which some does not portray its entirety, therefore becomes problematic . “The Siege” and other texts manipulates the truth in a way where portions of the complete truth are concealed. In this society, the media has a significant influence towards the manipulation of truth, whether it be, they exaggerate the issue or misguide the audience, or, reveal the truth.The truth is a matter or fact that cannot be considered entirely false, therefore can easily be altered without becoming a lie.This is portrayed through the satirical series “Frontline: The Siege Episode”, whilst some texts such as the news article about the 40 dead Somalis in Yemen, demonstrate ethical truth. These texts reveals how truth is presented by the media, therefore highlighting the differences in effect, whether problematic or informative.
“The Devils Language” by Marilyn Dumont and “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot are quite similar. They both critique their culture in the ways they see it. Nothing Is missing from each authors poem because it is critiquing the world as they have seen and learned from different experiences in their lives. Marilyn Dumont writes about “The great white way” (pg365, line 4) or white culture and the way that aboriginal culture is snuffed out or looked down upon. T.S. Eliot writes about people being too cowardly to be good or bad and also what happens after we die. Therefore, Marilyn Dumont and T.S. Eliot’s works are similar in the way that they see the wrongs in their cultures.
One problem that plagues us everyday without us even realizing it is media bias. We see it in the news. We see it on our favorite sitcoms. We read it everyday in the paper. Yet, we really don't recognize it when we hear it or see it. Media bias is evident in every aspect of the media, yet the problem is that we don't even recognize it when it is right in front of our faces. Are the impressions that we form about individuals a product of the media? Do we form certain opinions about particular types of people based solely on the things we see and hear in the media everyday without even realizing it? The problem is not only that there is media bias present, but also that we can't recognize it when we see
In the realm of politics, the media is responsible for producing versions of ‘truth’ which service
If used correctly language can change the entire context of any statement and Tara brown the reporting interviewer made full use of her extensive vocabulary to construct powerful statements all alluding to Belle Gibson’s ‘Fraud’. Tara Brown uses multiple ways of describing Gibson as a Liar. Examples of this include Brown describing some of the things Gibson stated as Questionable, Misleading, Fraudulent, Astonishing Fabrications, Elaborate Fairy-tales and even blatantly stating Belle was lying. Now in using these terms Tara Brown elicits a certain response from the audience. This response draws from the general public’s dislike for Frauds and Liars and it is common for news vendors to make this apparent only to draw from it. These terms all are used with the intention to make the viewer’s feel as though they have been personally lied to as well as to display belle’s actions in a negative manner. In using her language correctly Tara has made Gibson out to be a lair and used this to her advantage to gain this specific response from the
An important yet under-discussed issue for our time is the media bias. Everyday free speech is broadcasted across the world but with underlying agendas of communication companies. Many broadcasts engage in the assaulting of political candidates or display of tragedies to prompt viewers to believe the media states the exact truth. However, a majority of people do not decipher the tone and mood of the channels and papers which secretly distribute the opinions of the news company rather than solely the news.
In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.
The media has become so powerful in today’s society that it has come to the point of controlling our daily lives. “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re represented. It’s as simple as that”. This was said by a character in the movie, The Truman Show that was released in 1998, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Peter Weir, and includes stars such as Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Natasha McElhone and many more. There is a crucial need to criticize the media in order to explore the way something is presented and to be sure that we are thinking for ourselves because the media is not always accurate in its portrayal of facts.
The research for this article was conducted within a framework of Framing theory. The theory was first put forward by a Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. Media framing, to put it bluntly, is a term that points to a presence of a certain bias in any media outlets’ output. All choices made in a newsroom collectively form the frame through which media decides to show the world to the audiences. Everything matters: Covering one event and ignoring another, covering one event more than the other, deciding what words to use to cover an event, what photographs or video clips to include, whom to give a voice, etc. At the same time, framing theory goes far beyond newsroom policies. Framing is not necessarily a delibirate choice. Journalists themselves look at the world through frames: their education, upbringing, gender, ethnical background, knowledge of the issue, and so on. Audience members apply their own frames as well, not just to media content, but to everything they hear and see.