¶ … movies influence us? Do they have the power to alter our perception of reality as Plato suggested? Do movies and television provide us with truth or illusion?
Remarkable advancements in transportation and mass communication in the last half-century have given rise to a true "global village" or "mass society." People everywhere have access to information about all that happens anywhere in the world. Mass media serves to provide us with a torrent of facts whilst simultaneously aiding us in organizing it (Sylwester). These channels of information take advantage of areas of powerful emotional stimulation and help mold one's views and knowledge -- as with society's swift media-powered growth in terrorism-related knowledge. Bin Laden was earlier an unimportant figure. Further, the 9/11 attack's many thousand fatalities were obscure office-goers until a number of newspapers across the nation printed anecdotal tribulations of them all. Nationwide firefighters and police officers, as well as the mayor of New York (who was harshly disapproved before the terror attacks) suddenly found themselves elevated in respect. A country that was already overcome by an economical dip needed to be emotionally stimulated to react. Likewise, charities cite examples...
Youngsters constitute the major societal group that is self-conscious and striving to maintain a good image. Therefore, marketers and producers largely target this group. A movie may have both a good and bad influence on people based on their individual responses to it. Modern-day youngsters are becoming desensitized to actual violence and are unable to easily distinguish between the imaginary and the real.TV and movie violence may appear real to kids. Further, society, in general, is under the wrong impression that it ought to lead the kind of life movies portray (Ayala).
Plato, in his "Allegory of the Cave," likens people to chained prisoners who lead their whole lives within a cave and start believing the reality in shadows moving across the cave's wall. They were barred from seeing the outside world and, consequently, when a prisoner got freed of his chains and exited the cave, he perceived a whole new world. As he started experiencing the real world, he understood that the shadows on the cave's wall (which he viewed as reality) were, in fact, nothing but illusions. In the end, he wondered if his life was better as a prisoner in a cave, shielded from the harsh realities of life and seeing only a fantasy, or if the real world was better as he could see reality. The former prisoner was compelled to tackle reality (Manera). Twenty-first century media offers audiences a torrent of simultaneous…
