Catfish... Hook, Line, and Sinker - Media Meditation #1

Perhaps you have seen this very interesting trailer for the new movie Catfish. 

I know what you're thinking. Another movie about Facebook? Come on.

But I bet you're pretty intrigued none the less. 

When I first saw this trailer, I got angry. Really angry.  Because honestly, I'm sick and tired of movies that claim to be "true" over and over again, and even go to extremes in their production techniques  such as filming in psuedo documentary/mockumentary styles that further convince gullible audiences what they're seeing is real.  I'm not entirely sure if Catfish is legitimately true or not, but if it's anything like past movies with identical claims, it isn't. 

Remember that movie The Fourth Kind? 

It was presented in a similar fashion:

And it turned out to be 100% fabricated. 

Crazy right? The way these trailers hone right in on our limbic brain, getting us all concerned and emotionally invested about what's going on because, oh it just looks so interesting! Real footage! Wow! Great reviews! I have to go see this right now! Without ever even considering that maybe it's all a crock of shit... ?

These false claims are irritating. I mean honestly, what kind of message are film companies sending the world when they are blatantly lying to their audiences? I understand that maybe for the purposes of "theater" and "entertainment" some people might think it's okay to make false claims such as these, but in reality it's perpetuating an even bigger problem in our society.

It brings us back to the importance of always QUESTIONING the media. Reflecting back to the first chapter of our textbook, we are told that in order to create a healthy relationship between the MEDIA and the PUBLIC, "readers (or viewers, in this case) of media products must actively interpret media messages."  This idea parallels that of Neil Postman's thesis in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death - that the infiltration of the television into American families has contributed immensely to the 

downfall of American politics, as well as education, religion, and numerous other social institutions.

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

It also echoes the concept of an overall decline in the state of human intelligence as brought up by Nicholas Carr in his article Is Google Making Us Stupid?  Carr argues that the overwhelming amount of instant information available to us is quickly eroding our ability to perform even the simplest of tasks - like taking the time to read an entire book or even an entire online article without skimming along or becoming distracted.  This need for a variety of quick and constant mental stimulation is prohibiting people from critically analyzing what they are exposed to and essentially forming any thoughts of particular depth.  

(Courtesy of  Google Images)

We have to start THINKING for ourselves, and about ourselves.  A decline in individual self-reflection makes us more and more susceptible to manipulation from outside entities.   

It's pathetic. More and more of the media we are exposed to are just big lies built to expand profits at the box office and at corporate headquarters.  And as we all know it's not just the film industry that's lying to us.  Lies and misinformation are plastered all over the media, and the sad part is we don't even care... we still buy the products and pay to see the movies and believe way too much of what we hear without ever really trying to get to the bottom of it.