Thursday 31 January 2013

Black Mirror: The National Anthem

What is the message of 'Black Mirror: The National Anthem?'


(keywords highlighted in pig pink)

I think Charlie Brooker is trying to portray the vast influence of social networking websites such as Twitter where news is allowed to become viral as a result of citizen journalism which links to UGC (User Generated Content), in this case the ransom video demanding the Prime Minister have intercourse with a pig in order for the princess to be released. Although the whole idea may have been a publicity stunt in order to denote the prime ministers reputation and integrity  there was a lot of interactivity from the public as everyone had their vote on whether or not the prime minister should have intercourse with a pig. I think the sketch highlights the lack of privacy public figures have even though this sketch may have been satirical. Also showing the prime minister having intercourse with the pig raises the issue of desensitisation and how we as an audience are using to seeing explicit images such as this on a daily basis in mainstream media raising questions about our values or the lack of them. Black Mirror also portrayed 24 hour (rolling) news as still being the dominant force in confirming news first broadcast by the public using smartphones.


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