MediaPsyched.com

Take a look at this picture and tell me what’s wrong.

I am only speaking from experience but every bullet I have ever fired didn’t look like these afterwards. 

We are constantly bombarded with images in such a rapid fashion that there can be a tendency not to analyze what is being shown.  It is accepted at face value for what we are told it represents.

I think there is still a very strong attitude that if an image comes from a “reputable” source then the accompanying text is an accurate representation of the image’s content. Implicit trust overrides critical thinking efforts. Society as a whole is media illiterate — lacking the ability (and desire) to discern the accuracy and subliminal intents of information poured forth constantly.

But maybe the text is accurate…perhaps someone may have thrown the bullets at the house thus hitting it.  Even so…be honest. Was that the initial impression you got from the caption?

On the surface, the recently released movie “Arctic Tale” appears to be an authentic animal documentary about a baby polar bear and walrus coming of age in the Arctic.  How could this possibly be anything than a feel good movie for both adults and children?

The filmmakers have taken creative liberties with the editing and enhancing of the footage in order to make a propaganda film on global warming for children.  As stated in a review in the LATimes:

IN the age of infotainment, Ravetch and Robertson’s [the filmmakers] methods are not unique. Doctored movie moments have existed since the genre was born, when filmmaker Robert Flaherty scripted scenes for “Nanook of the North” in 1921. But Ravetch and Robertson are among a new group of filmmakers inspired by the commercial success of Michael Moore and interested in experimenting with hybrid forms of dramatized documentary (my italics).

What does “hybrid forms of dramatized documentary” insinuate? Something that isn’t really what it appears to be.

Lynn Davidson expounds on the film’s propaganda tactics in full on her blog.

Finally, the description of the children giving suggestions of how to combat global warming while the credits roll  on how to “make” their parents behave brought back to my memory an ironic moment regarding the social commentary that sometimes occurs during the credits.

Several years ago I saw the film “Dogville” in Cannes (it never really hit in the U.S.).  During the rolling of the credits, the European director had a multitude of still shots of homeless, poor people in the U.S. (which had nothing to do with the film’s storyline).  After watching the musically enhanced denunciation of the state of U.S. society, I departed from the theater and was faced with having to step across several unconscious men sprawled about on the sidewalk. The filmmaker attempted to tarnish the U.S. while ignoring the same in his own backyard.