Theories and media?

 No, media theories!

 

    When creating my film, I wanted to incorporate a media theory to further develop the theme of my film. As a dystopian based film, I believe the best theory I can use would be…

      

      Agenda-setting theory

     Agenda setting theory means to say that media controls what people say to be more important because of how much it’s being shown and how much attention is being given through media. it doesn’t straight up tell you what you should think but it tells you what you should be focusing more on and giving your attention to. If that still isn’t clear click here to watch a short two minute video of a professor explaining it.

 

   Ok but why?

 

     Agenda-setting theory can help my dystopian theme film to feel more realistic because this media control really happens in real life. Not just that but it helps show how important media is into shifting our beliefs and I feel like that’s really important to address because in my dystopian film opinions are everything.  Having this in mind, it can help control how I want to drive my plot into creating better interesting conflicts. For example, I can incorporate how the media that our character is surrounded by forces them to feel a certain way. I want to corporate a way were they that by always sharing news, maybe having daily announcements of how great the government is and how bad it is to be rebellious, it creates the illusion that people are being protected by the government. When we all know that’s not really the case. 

 

   How though?

     

    In dystopian films, the government or ruler I’m not sure yet, can use media to control what people think is important. There are many different ways that the government can use the media to show their successes and hide the failures.   One way that I discussed before, is that by incorporating some sort of announcement or maybe a visual medium, like TV, can illustrate how the government is trying to make it seem that the enemies are bad and that we’re being protected by them. In my film opening I can use some sort of siren and create the announcement to be like “beware, beware rebels are on the way, but don’t you worry will be able to protect you” or something of the sorts.  Or I can pre-record myself as a news reporter reporting into a crisis currently in the society of people rebelling or create my own Amber alarm and writing a message in text because of the same situation. In my opening I want to be clear that there’s another small section of society that is against governments norms, but I won’t make it as clear in my opening but create the idea that it will be further developed in the overall film. Another way I can incorporate this in my dystopian film, is that towards the end of the film when the girl realizes there’s something going on. We can do another news report on her image and description and how she is now “Wanted” for going against the government.

    Anything else?

     I’m not sure if it’s obvious but I was clearly inspired by one of the best dystopian films, “The Hunger Games”.  In “The Hunger Games” you can see Katniss’s transformation from being a survivor to becoming a revolutionary leader and is always being associated of her public and private identity. You can see that she’s always being broadcasted, and this highlights the tension between her roles that are imposed by society and creates her own individual identity of someone that’s against the government.

Resources: Agenda setting Theory (Explained in 2 minutes). (n.d.). YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LoSwuCyDqEw

Dwivedi, V. a. P. B. P. (2019, February 25). Agenda Setting Theory and the Hunger Games Trilogy: An analysis. Pallavi Dwivedi. https://thelabyrinthinmyhead.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/agenda-setting-theory-and-the-hunger-games-trilogy-an-analysis/