You may be wondering how visual art is used to influence the public and prevent the spread of misinformation among a population. In this paper, I will first address the modes of access in order to better understand how to use the same methods in art-making to counter the heighten fear grown from artificial sources and to see if progress is possible. Mirroring methods used in advertising, the media spread information as if it is packaged, a commodity. An extreme, open-ended headline invites doubt into your head. A typical headline reads, “Are you and your family at risk?”, “The Top Ten Things Women Must Know to Keep Safe”, or “Ammo on Airplanes”. The headline is accompanied by a strong visual image; emphasis and contrast as principles of design are employed. The image and the headline stay with you, especially in the current multitask-oriented culture where viewer attention is hard to obtain and keep. Combine this with the juiciest partial details and placement; the image has the power to pull the viewer into an article or a news story. We, the viewers, remember what we see more than what is said or cited. The more graphic and extreme the image, the more likely the image becomes part of our memory. We store the imagery and then can use it later on- pulling up the image as proof in our minds. This exemplifies the availability heuristic, a cognitive bias in which a person relies upon what can easily be remembered rather than complete data.
Statistics and numbers get repeated so often and numbers are presented in large, whole quantities, e.g. 800,000 children younger than 18 are missing each year, or an average of 2,000 children reported missing each day in the United States. The statistics and numbers are not broken down ...
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...ogress of the nation. Moisi addresses the role of the media in promoted and prolonging this state of fear.
Siegel, Marc. False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. Siegel emphasizes the climate of exaggerated fear found in the media, advertising, and politics. He believes that the majority of fears are manufactured and the fire they create, is stoked by the hidden (or not-so-hidden) agendas of the media and government. Siegel believes the public needs to learn to assess real threats and be able to develop a set of skills that will help the public deal with real danger. I share Siegel’s belief that the false fears need to be identified and the power returned to the public through education.
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 July 2004. Wikimedia Foundation. 10 Aug. 2004
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Everyday we are exposed to millions of different visual messages, which tell us what to eat, what to wear, what to watch and what to listen. No matter how hard we try to avoid being influenced by these directives, we can only protect ourselves to a certain point. After that, no interpretive power can be helpful. Media then leads us to a path that ends up in the same department store with our neighbour, with whom we have probably never spoken to before. Ironically, we are holding the same pair of socks or CDs, and we might never want to recall the TV commercial that had opened the gates to this path.
Terrorism, random acts of violence, politically motivated attacks, and their psychological and societal consequences are nothing new; yet still, the effects are profoundly disturbing. Attacks undermine our presumptions about the safety of engaging in public life; a presumption that is vital for individuals, society, and the economy to carry on smoothly. The terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 have personally affected my life and has had consequences for many other individuals, the United States, and the world. In the essay, “Heading into darkness once again”, Richard Rodriguez postulates that the randomness and anonymity of terrorism is its most frightening aspect. While I do not disagree that these are integral aspects of what makes
“Stat Wars” is the title of Chapter 5, and it describes the process of conflicts over such social statistics. There are debates over particular numbers, data collection, and statistics and hot-button issues. Knowing the causes of bad statistics outlined in Chapter Two will help readers in such stat wars.
Summary: This article’s main point is about how public opinion during a crisis can go overboard and cause unnecessary fear. Such as what happened during the DC snipers in 2002. People where in fear of leaving their homes even after the capture of the snipers as people thought that there could possibly be other snipers due to believing that the snipers could have been terrorists. Some examples of what people did during the crisis were: change up their usual routine such as where they got gas, they avoided going to stores near
Barry Glassner’s (2009) Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things demonstrates how fear is promoted by organizations, politicians, and media with their own complex theories. This documentary demonstrates how some of the “fears” portrayed are not even a serious epidemic. Fear is a powerful emotion, which is why people become so afraid. Society has found ways to manipulate fear to capture’s people’s attention. Glassner (2009) explains how fear is used to shape consumer decision making, and it is a powerful tool to make profit. People with power and influence, know that media is important. It is a crucial source for a democracy, and that is why organizations, politicians, and media use it to their disadvantage (Glassner 2009).
Television networks covered each and every chilling moment, providing the unbeknownst viewers a front row seat to witness an uncensored display of carnage. Radford points out that “the news media do their best to raise alarm, even when no alarm is needed ” (236). However, on September 11th, the media’s perpetual stream of updates was necessary, and even vital, to maintaining national security. Our fragile national psyche is still recovering from the ghastly acts of terror that took the lives of two thousand innocent people. Furthermore, the horrific act damaged America’s sense of normalcy by increasing our culture’s immunity to violent images. As a result, we have become apathetic towards the suffering of our fellow man, and many simply stay fearful of the unknown. I discussed this topic with my father. He explained that “stereotypes about good and evil were created to make the unfathomable more understandable.” My father said he was, “optimistic about the future,” but also expressed frustration with our generations lack of motivation. Overall, I would have to agree with the man that raised me, but I also believe that our generation’s lack of motivation was created by a culture saturated in
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, by Barry Glassner exposes Americans who contrive new ways to elicit fearful reactions from the easily impressionable public, and also profit from these such reactions. These people, or the news media, according to Glassner, are what he calls fear mongers, which are the people he holds responsible for a great deal of American’s fears (Glassner, xxxi). He proposes that Americans, as a whole, experience fear in a way unlike most emotions; we can be easily manipulated into feeling it in almost all facets of everyday life. Glassner argues that we may succumb to fears so easily because of the excessive news coverage of otherwise statistically insignificant occurrences. To support
People have always been scared of the truth, whether it is about recognizing their own or others’ flaws, or simply seeing what they received on their latest test. This fear of the unknown or of the unveiling of the truth could affect anyone, anywhere and is prominent in its impact on the news. Universally, people enjoy feeling safe and having the comfort of having someone else to share the same comfort and security. Due to this humanistic desire to find self-security, people including the media sometimes use bias to suggest danger or safety in order to invoke the interest of an audience towards a piece of information and away from the full picture. Throughout the story, Rennie explores not just her own personal psyche, but also that of some
Glassner mentions, “A scare can continue long after its rightful expiration date so long as it has two things hold for it; it has to tap into current cultural anxieties, and it has to have media-savvy advocates behind it” (p177). In order to get their news to appear more vivid and let the fear to seem more real. The media incessantly cite the previous incidents when they are reporting the similar cases; however, they would only reiterate the result of the shooting. According to the article “Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting” “The shootings instantly brought to mind episodes such as the Columbine High School massacre that killed 15 in 1999 and the July shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead” (Sandy Hook Elementary School). While the media are explaining the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting incident, they incidentally mention the previous mass shootings, “Columbine” and “Aurora.” To the media, recalling precious incidents is just like reviewing the past. Nevertheless, to the society, it is a serious warning. when previous incidents appear on the new report, it makes people recoil in terror and consider, which a fear successfully developed in the
Kids growing up in the 90’s were able to run around all over town, but today kids don’t get to have as much freedom. It’s our duty to raise kids who won’t be afraid of everything and anything. A line needs to be drawn between too much fear and not enough. The media is a main cause to why parents are more fearful of their kids today than ever before, especially if they aren’t white. Fear is important to have today in society, but it’s becoming out of hand.
Within the introduction Glassner points out that “Politicians, journalists, advocacy groups, and marketers continue to blow dangers out of proportion for votes, ratings, donations, and prof- its.” (Glassner, xxxiii) According to Glassner these organizations are advocates of fear who worry society with unnecessary and exaggerated stories in the media and waste billions of dollars in the process.
The popular culture always had its fears. Although these horrors changed in time, every era had one prominent fear. For the present time, popular culture has a large choice of horrors. Some of them are war, severe medical issues, and financial disaster. All of these horrors are issues for today’s society. Yet, the most prominent fear in popular culture is terrorist attacks. The world faces a new threat against peace all around the globe. One of the largest organization of terrorist in present days is represented by ISIS and radical Muslims.
Plato teaches that reality is to be found in universal “forms.” Images of objects are therefore pale imitations of reality: that is, at least twice removed from the truth. Nevertheless, Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice suggests that the image of a person can offer true insights that the actual person might not. In her very first meeting with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth is left “with no very cordial feelings towards him” and after spending “four days in the same house with him” she still “think[s] him very disagreeable” (9, 53).1 Even after Mr. Darcy has directly and blatantly declared his love for Elizabeth she cannot consider him favorably and exclaims “I have never desired your good opinion” (125). Just to walk with him in the park “seem[s] like willful ill‑nature or a voluntary penance” (120). However, Elizabeth’s feelings for Darcy change after she views the portrait of him at Pemberley. She develops a “more gentle sensation toward the original” after seeing the painting and may even consider Darcy’s “regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before” (162). Elizabeth needs the indirect image of Darcy in this portrait to view the man himself more accurately than she can when she faces him in person. The painting offers her time to contemplate Darcy’s true character. Furthermore, the frozen image creates a distance from which Elizabeth may consider Darcy without the interference of her intense emotions.
Propaganda takes many forms and it is essential to understand the nature of the medium chosen to properly derive the intended message. In terms of expres...
Through the aesthetics of advertising posters and campaigns, we as consumers find ourselves compelled to serve a certain cause because of the way information was presented to us. In a way, graphic design in advertisements tell us what it is that we want, before we even know that we want it. This notion echoes the idea that Steve Jobs once famously claimed, that “people don't know what they want until you show it to them” (Businessweek.com,