Have You Ever Thought About the Media as a Way of Persuading People?

I read the text, Panem et Circuses, by Carrie Ryan. Translated, it means bread and circuses, but I'll get to that later. After reading this, I actually had to take a minute and breathe it all in, absorb all the information. I was taken aback at the truth, how it is always right under our noses, but we always seem to miss it. I was taken aback by the vulgarity of the human race in general. I was taken aback by how manipulative people can be, and how selfish they can be. Now, I knew about these things before, any mature person who can think critically knows that people are mean, and life is nasty. When I read The Hunger Games, I really didn't focus on the media very much. I was more concerned about Katniss' personal journey, and how her character changes. This essay brought up a topic that I wish I had dived deeper into while reading the books. I'm very glad I got the chance to reflect on it now.

The essay had several main ideas: first, that the Capitol uses the media to an extent of manipulating it's citizens. Second that both reality TV producers and the gamemakers of the Capitol are concerned with only ratings and not reality. Third, that producers of any sort are only interested in the show they put on, the story they tell, and how is it perceived rather than the truth. Fourth, that most of the media is used for propaganda, versus the true spirit of reporting, which is getting the truth out to the citizens of the country and/or world. And last, that the media often blurs the line between real and not real.

I would say the 90% or more (probably more) of our grade watches television. Probably more than half of that number have watched (and enjoyed) some sort of reality TV one time or another. That includes shows like Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and many others. Anybody who has read the Hinger Games may think that although we enjoy shows like this, we's never let it get so far as killing people! Well, how different is it really? Like Gale told Katniss, "killing people isn't that different from hunting." Honestly, how far is a leap from Survivor to the Games? The only difference is that contestants are "voted off the island" by their fellow contestants, versus being killed by their fellow tributes.  We HAVE A CHOICE TO TURN OFF THE TV, TO NOT WATCH ALL THIS TERRIBLE STUFF HAPPEN; the viewers in Panem don't.

Most of you probably don't remember 2005, it seems so long ago. Many of us were seven. Reality TV was just getting started, and it wasn't that bad. The author really emphasizes the fact that reality TV has only gotten worse since then, and this is because of our crazy desire for more interesting and compelling stories, challenges and the like, have drive reality TV to the point where it is very dangerous, and, quite frankly, almost to the point of watching live murder.  To keep their viewers, editors have to make every season fresh and new, just like the gamemakers have to make every Hunger Games fresh and new. They need to keep upping the anti, so viewers won't get board. In the Capitol's version, they do it so that they keep driving fear into the hearts and minds of their people. A boring Game means the Capitol is weak, and Panem may think it's okay to start a rebellion. For us, TV is symbolic of what our society has been reduced to, how far entertainment has gone. I think that it has gotten a little out of hand.

Like I said, the main reason the Capitol does the Hunger Games in the first place is because they need to provide Panem, "panem et circuses: bread and circuses to keep the populace entertained enough they won't consider a rebellion." I think it's more to keep them scared, but that's just me. It's funny how Collins named her country Panem (bread) and they have Games in which children starve to death. Oh, sweet irony. Reality TV, just like the Games, gets worse every year. Hollywood producers, just like the gamemakers, DO NOT CARE WHAT THEY ARE AIRING AS LONG AS IT GETS THE POINT ACROSS, MAKE VIEWERS INTERESTED (AND/OR SCARED), AND GETS THEM RATINGS.

In my text, it says that, "By the 2009-2010 television season, nine of the top twenty shows among young viewers were Reality shows." I think that says a lot about our culture. It's sad that our society has stooped so low that manipulation, particularly through media, is the only way to get people to do anything anymore.

Let me just say this for all of you who are deeply offended by my accusations against reality TV: MOST OF WHAT YOU'RE WATCHING ISN'T REAL. Sure, once in a while I like to watch Wipeout, but I plan on changing those habits. There is a huge difference between the stuff aired on reality TV and what most people would think to be the unbiased truth. People can be tricked into thinking almost anything is the truth with a little persuasion. That's why con men do so well, and why their victims can never tell they are being lied to. The editors (like the gamemakers) choose what to air. They can manipulate footage to make a contestant or tribute seem lazy, intelligent, hardworking, obnoxious, annoying-just by choosing what the populace sees. Wrong-place, wrong-time moments are utilized by the media (and the Rebels and the Capitol) to prove their point, even (especially) if it isn't true. I am pretty sure that the Games are shot live, so the gamemakers have a little less control over what happens than the editors of our time. I think, that in this way, the Games are more humane than reality TV. At least they show the truth. The truth is just naturally bad for them. For us, we have a pretty decent life, so editors PURPOSEFULLY make it bad. Something is very, very, wrong with that. What happened to the good old days, when MORALS AND ETHICS (vocabulary word :) ) still existed on TV?

Viewers tend to like TV shows where they can influence the outcome the best. Look at the success of shows like American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance?. Voters actually get to choose who they want to send home. That reminded me so much of the sponsors in the Games. They place bets on who they think will win, and send gifts to try to make that happen. Viewers also love shows with a "showmance." Katniss ans Peeta's relationship, especially towards the end of the book, is a perfect example of this. They appear to be in love on camera, but off camera, the romance evaporates. Viewers crave the very idea that they could be in love. Love and rebellion go hand and hand in this book, one always affecting the other.

This is what the gamemakers capitalized on (no pun intended) to make the Games so interesting to viewers in the Capitol, and it is what got Katniss and Peeta sponsors. The gamemakers, like the editors and producers of our generation, only care about how much ratings they get, and how scared they make people. They don't care about whether or not the image they are putting out there is really true or not. When Katniss pulls the stunt with the berries, she is in control of herself. She has control over the gamemakers for one tiny minute.  The Capitol isn't as string as they seem. They DEPEND on people DEPENDING on them, and being scared.

Now, think about how reporting can persuade people. Many people assume it's true just because it's on the news. They pick stories, and exaggerate them, or omitting important pieces of information. now imagine WAR reporting. President Snow and Rebel leaders determine what to put in their, "propos," only based on their own agenda. The more outrageous the headline, the more wrong they make the other side look, the higher the sales and support. With the Capitol, it's about controlling people and keeping them sacred (instead of ratings/sales like it is for us), in place of the truth. Propaganda is a powerful tool, more powerful than violence. The definition of propaganda is any systematic, widespread dissemination or promotion of particular ideas, doctrines, practices etc. Ideas, doctrines, or allegations so spread: now often used disparagingly to connote deception or distortion. Does it make propaganda right, at any time, if it is in the name of progress?

If you really think about, the whole Hunger Games is an entire, sick, reality TV show. Katniss and the other tributes are actors, and the gamemakersare are producers. In Mockingjay, during the war reporting, Katniss is just an actor, told to say lines. War reporting in Panem is almost like it's own sub-genre of reality TV. During the Games, Katniss was always thinking about how to outsmart her opponents, which ultimately turn out out be the Capitol.

I believe that the person who invented television had the intent of entertainment. Nowadays, it seems like the only thing it is used for is persuasion. Often times, we do not challenge what is told to us, we merely accept it. It takes so long for the people of Panem to challenge the Capitol. So long to stop accepting, and start changing. Thousands of people are brainwashed, because, I hate to say it, but people are too simple minded to do anything about it.

The whole series really leads to the bombing of the children in the City Circle of the Capitol. It is the absolute turning point for Katniss, and the war. It was edited to make people people finally end the war in favor of the Rebels. I am pretty sure the war may have turned out differently, or at the very least taken longer, if citizens of Panem had known the whole truth. Their very reality is a lie.

Which leads me to beg the question...is it better to believe a lie, or not believe a truth?

Think about this: I am sure every one of us who enjoyed the Hunger Games thought it was wrong. Unjust. Horrific. Every one of us who enjoyed the Hunger Games, and thought these things, are hypocrites. My opinion and perspective of myself and the Games have changed after reading this life-changing essay. They make it mandatory for citizens to watch the Games, or else. They hate it to watch it, but what choice do they have? WE ACTUALLY ENJOY THE SAME KIND OF STUFF! We look down upon the Capitol for their Hunger Games, the mere brutality of it all.  Yet we kept turing the page. Collins made it interesting for the reader, just another way the media influences us.

Are we really any better than the Capitol?