...Your subconscious naturally functions that way.
Mediabully PRESENT, to follow up on what our psyche is cookin’ up in terms of the influence media has upon us. Halloween is fast approaching and you know what that means… Many of us have got the popcorn popped and are ready for the scary movie marathons leading up to it. Gotta love the horror films! The suspense we get as we see the naïve girl (who doesn’t watch horror movies herself, apparently) play investigator and rummage through the haunted house alone. She opens the closet door and looks up at the secret mysterious door above her. She pushes the door open which leads to a dark, grimy attic and BAAMMM! The onomatopoeia doesn’t have as much impact as the actual movie I attempted to reference, The Grudge, does. However, the actual film or horror movies in general do have an impact on the human body and mind. Generally, your heart rate increases especially at the scary moments. You may possibly believe that the scene has no impact on you because you know it’s not real, but your subconscious, however, believes it is real.
“People who immersed in the surrogate reality of television life deal on a daily basis with the reality totally unlike any that has preceded it. The image stream is a steady mixed up stream of real, unreal and semi-real events. All of these events end up merging with each other and becoming just another set of stored imagery that have all similar reality values.” The effect can desensitize a person and create thin blur line between the real and unreal. My next post will be a real life example of this phenomenon using media violence in relationship to soldiers.
Until then… Poka!
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TV is a powerful tool. I have seen shows about "real" haunted houses but have never experienced an actual haunted house before.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not a scary movie fan, I know that those types of movies do have an affect on heart rate and other bodily functions. I have also heard that it's the music in scary movies that does most of the scaring. Without spooky noises, creaky floors, gentle whispers and loud bangs...scary movies would not have their full effect. What if peaceful and serene music were playing during a scene of intense horror? Would people still be scared?
Naturenurture it is scary because before I read your post I was going to say the exact same thing. I am not able to take scary movies either due to the fact that I don’t want to embarrass myself with random outbursts of horror…any who mediabully I am looking forward to reading your next post about media violence in relationship to soldiers!
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think that media can "blur the line" between fact and fantasy in the case of a mentally healthy person enough for it to matter. No matter how realistic the horror film, it's still just a horror film. I do think that we can be desensitized to a certain degree, yes, but that's not exactly the same thing as losing a grip on reality due to media exposure.
ReplyDeleteI am with aw and naturenurture, I am definitely the annoying girl in the movie theater who screams and gets farrrr too emotionally involved in scary movies. I have found that these fears and experiences tend to permeate my subconscious a psych me out even after I've left the theater. This shows some of the media's influence and how it shapes how we act and think (at least me). As to what ford said about "No matter how realistic the horror film, it's still just a horror film", I beg to differ. The media has introduced these ideas into our minds, the possibility of these actions taking place. Do you think that the fear these horror films instill in us is a form of semi-brainwashing?
ReplyDeleteford brings an interesting topic to the matter that, "No matter how realistic the horror film, it's still just a horror film." Interesting enough, this understanding may be the reason why the reality is blurred in the first place. Over and over we are bombarded with these images that are supposedly unreal. Our minds are most affected by it no matter what we tell ourselves in the subconscious level. This may be the reason why many of us tend to have nightmares based on films of horror genres. The younger the mind, however, the more perceptible.
ReplyDeleteNaturenuture, my blog is simply about media images but what you have captured is the full works of media involvement to create an emotion. You may be right though as different aesthetics effects people in different ways and music may be more relevant than the image viewed alone.
While I'm not sure I can classify horror films in general as semi-brainwashing because lets face it, we know they are there to entertain us. While many of them may have implicit purposes, I can't say that's their goal as opposed to a unprecedented side-effect.
Thank you all for your feedback.