Posted by Dmitri Chekanov on January 27, 2002 at 23:01:40:
In Reply to: media's influence in novel 1984 posted by Alex on January 27, 2002 at 14:21:38:
1984 has in it alot of information pertaining to the media influence on people. As it was written in response to the Nazi regime and to the Soviet Union, it used many examples of what was seen in reality. What these could have been primarilly were posters (many were used by the Soviet Union as early as the Civil War and by Germany during the war) and which are seen in 1984 as the "Big Brother is watching you" posters, or as later in the future, the television. This is said by the use of the television in the later Soviet Union, in which the Soviet citizens were given distorted views of events.
The influence these have on people are somewhat unclear. Many pepple realize that what is shown to them may be changed stories or fictional information. Many others may take these to be truthful representations of situations. In the latter case what is given to the people is histeria or rage. After the September 11th attacks, as an example, many Americans were filled with an anti-Arabic rage that lead to assault in certain areas or a pejudiced feeling against people with turbans or or long beards or people with any other sign that might label them as being Arabic or Muslim. After seeing the events live on television Americans were swept with a patriotic sentiment as well.
Adverismentsmay also bias people to make decisions. Such may be on infomercials where on product's spokesperson tries to demote a similar product because it "harms the animals," or it "pollutes the lakes," or any other thing that pthe viewer would find inappropriate to support.