Monday 6 January 2014

What is the message of Black Mirror: The Nation Anthem?

Initially, the drama highlights the impact new/digital media has on the audience and changes it has made in society. Throughout the drama, there is a constant showing of individuals using smartphones to connect with others, which contrasts to old media. This is because, the development of smart phones has giving individuals easy access to communicate with others, record videos or check on social networking sites for latest updates. The fact that the princess video went viral on YouTube establishes the power of new/digital media as people around the world could access the video easily. As a result, individuals actively engage with the video by posting up comments about the video which highlights the concept of user-generate content. This is a contrast to traditional media as people would not of been able to connect with others globally. According to Pluralists, this exemplifies that the audience are no longer passive consumers of the text, as they have the freedom to post their messages virally instead of being restricted. Thus, giving consumers across the world a diversity of choice and the opportunity to create their own media products.

Furthermore, densensitiation with sexual content has made the audience no longer feel shocked with it. An example of this is when the prime minister had to have intercourse with the pig to save the princess. As a result, the audience took a different approach on this issue by finding it humorous instead of  immoral. It can be suggested that pornography is more available online and therefore it is no longer seen as a shock to watch sexual content, making it socially normal.

Moreover, the drama showed that censorship was not easy to control because of the development of new/digital media. For instance, at the beginning the priminister wanted the video to not be shown to the public by putting a D notice on its. However, it was already posted on to YouTube and went viral which could establish that the power of the heirarchy is meaningless on the internet. Notably, it can be argued that social media is more likely to be associated with the younger generation rather than the old. This is made evident when the young boy corrected his mum about the events occurring in society, by checking it on his phone. Significantly, this further reinforces the idea that new/digital media gives individuals update news coverage which would not of been available with traditional media.

It can be argued that this drama is highlighting to the audience that the development of new/digital media has empowered individuals.  This is shown by the use of Twitter, the journalist sending pictures from her smartphone and the heirarchy trying to control censorship. The fact that society satired  the government in the drama, could convey that individuals are no longer passive consumers who accept the dominate ideologies of the ruling class.

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