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.
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