How Media can affect our conception of Reality

           The media constructs a vast amount of ways to keep us interested, to keep us ‘suckered in’, and the effect they have on us can be enormous. These ‘media artefacts’ are designed in a particular way to hide reality and to only show us the representations of reality.

           

           Representations of reality are what we ourselves form. Baudrillard’s rendition of the fable by Luc, a map is drawn to show an empire and it grows and decays as the empire overthrows and loses territory, until one day there is only the decayed map left. The map is the representation of reality made by the empire’s society. We make the representations so that we can break down and make sense of the things around us in the environments, therefore trying to understand reality.

           

            We can also use Baudrillard’s theory of Disneyland to emphasise the affect of the media artefacts. Baudrillard theorises that Disneyland is a construct of an ideal reality to hide the lies behind it. All illusion becomes reality. “Disneyland exists in order to hide that it is the ‘real’ country, all of ‘real’ America that it Disneyland”  (Jean Baudrillard, simulation, and simulacra).

“Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, whereas all of Los Angeles and the America that surrounds it are no longer real, but belong to the ‘hyper real’ order and to the order of simulation. It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality (ideology) but of concealing the fact that they real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.”(Jean Baudrillard, simulation, and simulacra).  

            Disneyland is used as an example to show how we take what is in front of us as reality and how far the media can take it. The whole Disneyland construct is made up of different areas including the future, fantasy, adventure, frontier and main street. Each of these areas are created to represent the Disneyland saying ‘ Where dreams come true’. Each are of Disneyland is to appeal to the different individual dreams of our society, whether we want to be an adventurer, cowboy/ cowgirl, or a princess, they can cater to all these dreams and as Baurillard points out make everything  outside of Disneyland seem real , it hides the bad things and makes us feel like we are safe in our dreams and our fabricated reality.

            These examples of Baudrillard’s theories explain how the media artefacts work and why they are there. Baudrillard once said “ All societies end up wearing masks.”.(Jean Baudrillard, simulation, and simulacra) This is exactly how the masks are created.

            In Plato’s conception of reality, Plato writes that our world is subject to change because it is a sensory world, so what we know is always changing and constantly evolving. Plato also suggests that once a person has been enlightened and is free from the lies they must return to the darkened state of reality in order to understand it. In Plato’s simile of a cave, it is suggested, that when the freed prisoner returns to the cave only to find that he feels sorry for the others and that he could never go back to how it was before he was freed. The freed prisoner understood; after he was freed, that we need to ask questions of everything and not just accept what is in front of you as real.

              Another theorist who agrees that media artefacts affect our conception reality is Slavoj Zizek, a theorist who uses popular media to explain and support his theories of the post-modern. Zizek analyses the perception of reality in the film ‘The Matrix’, and focuses on the ‘inconsistencies’ in the film and the matrix itself, suggesting ways in which ‘cyberspace’ can actually affect our own lives. ‘The matrix’ focuses on a false reality created by ‘AI’ or artificial intelligence. The human created and AI and when it started showing signs of power the humans tried to stop them. The humans realised that a source of the energy was the sun, and so set fire to the sky but the AI realised that humans were an alternative power source and started to grow their own humans in factories. The matrix is the programme, which simulates reality for every grown human; nobody in the matrix knows about the real world, the humans believe what they see.

            To Zizek ‘The matrix’ is one of those films, which can start a chain reaction, it can start people asking questions and being about a realisation about reality. Zizek also plays with the theory that ‘ The Matrix’ reduces our sense of reality insinuating that our sense are weak and so this make it easy for us to be lied to. “On the one hand, VR marks the radical reduction of the wealth of our sensory experience to – not even letters, but –the minimal digital series of 0 and 1, of passing and non-passing of the electrical sign. On the other hand, this very digital machine generates the “simulated” experience of reality which tends to become indiscernible from the “real” reality, with the consequence of undermining the very notion of “real” reality- VR is thus at the same time the most radial assertion of the seductive power of images.” (The Matrix, or, the two sides of perversion, slavoj Zizek.)

           When the characters in the film are ‘plugged in’ to ‘The Matrix’ they are completely vulnerable. Zizek uses the example of when a character called Cipher turns against the rebels and starts helping the agents who are the AI police force. “While the rebels are experiencing themselves as fully immersed into ordinary reality, they are effectively, in the ‘desert of the real,’ immobilized on their chair on which they are connected to the Matrix: Cipher has a direct physical approach to them the way they really are “ helpless creatures” just sitting on the chair as if under narcotics at he dentist, who can be mishandled in anyway the torturer wants.” (Reloaded revolutions, Slavoj Zizek )

            We as a society are exactly like these character when they are ‘plugged in’, the character of Cipher is representing the media and manipulating us any way they want to and acting as a ‘ torturer’ as Zizek suggests. Zizek also seems to be connecting the matrix with the internet or the world wide web, this is our virtual reality in which people now communicate, play, learn and work. “New agers see in the source of speculations on how our world is just a mirage generated by the global mind embodied in the world wide web.” ( reloaded revolutions, Slavoj Zizek). 

            The Internet could be our version of ‘The Matrix’; most people in society have access to it. We have introduced into our cafes, shops, and our homes, we feel safe with it, we trust it. When we need to know something we can trust it to find the answers and we can learn from it. Just like the characters in ‘The Matrix’ we can download learning programmes, the characters are able to learn fighting, driving, really anything they want just by downloading the necessary programme. In the film, Neo in the real world has almost no hair and has ‘plugs’ that are at the back of his head and down is back but that changes when he enters the matrix. Neo visualises himself without the ‘plugs’ and with hair, this, as explained in the film, is his ‘residual self image’ or his projection of his digital self; the way Neo wants to look. This is similar to how we portray ourselves on social networking sites such as Facebook, Google +, Bebo and Myspace. In order to use these sites you must first create a profile page for yourself with a profile picture. You are able to choose what you write about yourself, what picture you use as your profile picture and also what other pictures you will upload onto the site for others to look at. We start to filter out things that make us look bad or that could potential make us look less attractive to others. We only write good things about ourselves and we tend not to write anything embarrassing about ourselves. This is our own ‘residual self image’; our own projection of our digital selves. We choose what things make us look good and use them to show others who we are. This is not the truth , it is not entirely ‘fake’ and ‘unreal’ but it is controlled reality.

           We have reached a point in our society where there are now people who rarely leave their homes to stay online or ‘plugged in’, and we who use the world wide web and interact with this virtual reality constantly and according to Zizek while this happens we cannot reach the true reality, we as a society need to be ‘unplugged’. Throughout the film, there a numerous examples of how the media takes over lives. One character states that they are born into a prison as a slave, but the prison is a prison for your mind. As long as we just accept the reality that we are given, as the Truman show suggests, we will never be completely free. We will forever stay asleep to the truth. Zizek uses the matrix as a way of explaining the desert of the real and the conception of reality because throughout the film the characters explain how the ‘real’ is only signals that are interpreted by the brain and how it is all about control and who has that control. “To deny impulses is to deny everything that makes us human.”(The Matrix Trilogy(1999) The Wachowski brothers). One character states this and is representing how we must listen to our instincts and trust ourselves not just the world around us, as the film says the matrix or the media ‘cannot kill who you are’. (The Matrix Trilogy(1999) The Wachowski brothers)

            The Truman show, directed by Peter Weir, (1998) is another film which displays these media artefacts and explains how they can affect our lives. The main character Truman Burbank was adopted by a media corporation and brought up in a false reality where everything is controlled, everyone around him are actors and actresses and he does not know anything is wrong. Truman is live on Television and watched 24 hours a day by millions of people all across the world and there are thousands of people hidden from him, hiding the truth of his life and hiding the reality from him. The character ‘Kristov’, the creator of the Truman show is referred to as ‘the architect’ in the film and can be quoted saying “ We accept the reality with which we are presented’. (The Truman Show, Peter Weir, 1998),This suggests that we do in fact just accept what is in front of us and do not question it, Baudrillard’s theory of Disneyland explains this whereby the illusion becomes the reality. We do not want to see outside of the illusion; we cannot see the truth through the lies.

            The Truman show also not only reflects the media but it also reflects our current situation with the media. The outlining story of the film links with baudrillard and how lies can masquerade as the truth. The film shows us a character that “ challenges – and ultimately escapes from- a contrived world that is an invention of media.” (http://www.transparencynow.com/trusite.htm) This character represents us as a society, or as the society that we should be. We must question our reality and ultimately seek the truth; we must keep asking the unanswerable questions. “We will have to stand up to the manipulators of television and news if we want to protect ourselves from absurdity and falsehood that now surrounds us at every turn.” (http://www.transparencynow.com/trusite.htm).

            The ‘landscape’ in which the film is set and in which Truman lives represents our own world. “ The fake landscape Truman lives in is our own media landscape in which news, politics, advertising, and public affairs are increasingly made up of theatrical illusions. Like our media landscape, it is convincing in its realism.”  (Sanes, Ken. (1996 -2001). Truman as Archetype.)

            The film is a way of highlighting everything that is wrong with how we view the media. We must not take everything that they tell us as the truth and as fact. Like the freed prisoner in Plato’s ‘simile of a cave’, Truman take his chance to go to the outside world; the real word. However, both are reluctant at first to leave their own fabricated world of illusion, they are scared because they do not know what is outside of their world, they are leaving everything they know and moving into the unknown. We, in a way, are Truman; every one of us. We are reluctant to realise that the media are lying to us and we are scared to leave the mediated environment in which we live in. “His growing suspicion that what he is seeing is staged for his benefit is our own suspicions as the media – fabricated illusions around us begin to break down.” (http://www.transparencynow.com/trusite.htm)

            In our society we are starting to realise that the media are able to lie and may have been lying to us for a long time we are only now starting to ask questions. Zizek also theorizes about the Truman show, in his words he suggest that ‘The Truman show’ is about breaking free, or as Plato put it, reach enlightenment, when we are able to see what is real. “This final shot of The Truman Show may seem to enact the liberating experience of breaking out from the ideological suture of the enclosed universe into its outside, invisible from the ideological inside.” (The Matrix, or, the two sides of perversion, Slavoj Zizek.)

            Although films are more generally used to convey these questions and realisations, Television and music are also able to do this in a more discrete and sometimes more  secretive way. Television in the way of reality TV and the news and Music by a band called Laibach are just some of the examples to show this. Reality TV shows such as big brother, the only way is Essex, Keeping up with the Kardashians and the real housewives of Orange County are supposed to be ‘reality’ showing how the people involved live their day to day life, but behind the camera the producers of the how are telling tem what to do, what to talk about, who to talk to. Their own reality becomes that of the fabricated media lie. Just like how Baudrillard tells the story of the map and the empire and how it replaces the reality of the empire, the Television show replaces the reality of the real people. The Television show begins to precede reality, we do not care about the real people, they become characters on a show and we only care about what it happening to them on the show. We they are real and have real lives but we are content with seeing a life that it controlled and in a way unreal. Just like ‘The Truman show’ the character of the director and creator of the show states, “Nothing is fake, it’s controlled.” (The Matrix Trilogy(1999) The Wachowski brothers). But how can it not be fake if it is not a true representation of life? The reality shows cannot be real because the situations and the conversation that surround the people in the show are not true to the people.  The news programmes are a perfect example of how reality can become distorted when mediated. The news that we ear from the media has gone through the filters and the ‘gate keeper’ of the media. An event can happen and we will only hear part of the truth as the media ‘gate keepers’  have filtered through the information and decided what information we should be given and what parts of the story should be kept from us. In the most recent news about Fabrice  Muamba , the footballer who suddenly collapsed on the pitch during a match , the media told us what they thought we needed to know, they did not want to admit that there was something wrong with the health checks performed on footballers and so we were told that it was his heart and that he would be fine. It has always been this way; the media constructs news to keep us from knowing the truth. Take the Afghanistan war for instance, the news that we hear and have been hearing since the war began is not the full truth, either media report how bad the ‘enemy’ is or how well we are doing, the deaths our soldiers also become part of their construct sending the message that what is happening is the right thing and we are not doing anything wrong; The soldiers dies for a good cause and they will be honoured. But we are never told how bad things really are and how not everyone in the ountry is a bad person and seen as the enemy. This creates fear in our own society and changes our perception of people from the region.

            Music by Laibach, a Slovian band who represents the ‘Neue Slowenishce Kunst’ or ‘NSK’ meaning ‘ new slovian art’, a political art movement. Laibach cause controversy with the music and their style. They can be seen wearing what would be described as ‘ Nazi’ uniforms but displaying their own logo and symbols on the arms. Over this controversy and being accused of being neo-nationalist Laibach simply answered “We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter.” (http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-01-09-lillemose-en.html)

            Richard Wolfson states, “ Laibach’s method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to misinterpretation. `First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody…Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues – the west’s fear of immigrants from eastern Europe, the power games of the EU, the analogies between western democracy and totalitarianism.” (Richard Wolfson (2003) Warriros of weirdness)

            Laibach are able to take fact and what we know and present a whole new meaning to it. For the map preceding the territory’ by Jean Baudrillard , the map become the reality and Laibach uses previous symbols that precede the reality and show that they are just symbols and nothing more; the symbols meanings can change. The Nazi like  uniforms that Laibach choose to wear mean to us exactly that , Nazis. But Laibach remind us that the symbol for the Nazi reign was not created by them but previous symbols that had their meaning changed.  This means as Zizek and Baudrillard both suggest that we cannot just accept what we see as fact and reality because not every fact that we think is a fact is correct.

            “Facts change according to what we know, It was once ‘fact’ that the sun revolved around the earth, until Copernicus discovered a new mathematical proof of a different fact. So, we have been wrong, and we will be wrong again. ‘Infallibility’ is not a precondition of knowing what one does know, of firmness in one’s convictions, and of loyalty to ones values.” (Curtis Edwards, What is reality?). Edwards is able to explain clearly how we are able to understand reality. His theory can be linked to Baudrillard, Zizek, the Truman show, the matrix and Television. We take ‘fact’ to be a reality. In our society, we receive so many forms of fact, and in a way, reality is becoming interlinked with technology because of the internet and how we are linked with technology in the same way the characters are linked to the matrix and how Truman’s reality is created by technology.

            Media artefacts affect our conception of reality by parading lies and falsities in front of us and assuming that we will just accept what they call ‘facts’ as our own reality. The media will always try to hide what is real so that we never learn of their lies and use artefacts like Disneyland to do so. Therefore, we cannot base our perception of reality on the media but we must base our perception on our own experiences and the world of senses that is around us.

Bibliography

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The only way is essex (2010) Mcqueen, Mark , Lime Pictures, Essex, England , Uk.

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-      Richard Wolfson,(2003) The warriors of weirdness, The Daily Telegraph

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