The Media’s Effect On Our Perception of Reality

1. The Media’s Effect On Our Perception of Reality How The Media Alters How We Think About The World. A Presentation By: The Least Qualified Person To talk About This, Donald-Paul William Miller *Boom*

2. You have been misinformed No offence, that’s just a fact. Nearly all of what Hollywood has taught you has been false. Far too often do we take what we see on the Silver Screen at a face value, and accept it as reality.

3. Hollywood History and Other Mishaps How may times have you seen a historical movie being touted as an “accurate depiction” of history? Take for example, Brave Heart. It was a movie with Mel Gibson as a Scottish guy stabbing Englishmen. Cool, I guess. Do you know, personally, how much of that movie was fake? Whether the historical William Wallace was ever actually the guy heading the rebellion? Or if Gibson banging the English princess, siring the next king of England, was that historically accurate? Nope. Wallace was actually the second in command, and I’m pretty sure the guy got no where near the English princess. But, what the hell does that matter? It happened, like, 700 years ago.

4. Omnomnom Look at it this way, when Jaws first came out, everyone knew it was fiction, that there aren’t actually sharks big enough to eat a boat today. Yet, when the movie came, out shark populations worldwide quickly dropped due to people going out and killing them, because a fake scientist in a fake movie told us it was the only way to keep people swimming along beaches safe. Yes, really. When Hollywood tells us something, even when the material it is found in is most certainly fiction, we cant help but take what it says as truth, because even if the movie subject is fake, ideas and facts within have to be true, right? Why would Hollywood lie to us? Because they don’t necessarily care about accuracy, they care about entertainment.

5. Thankfully with the rise of the handheld phenomenon known as smartphones, we can usually look this information up while the false stuff is being relayed. But even, then we don’t usually look things up. Vikings didn’t have horned helmets, most carnivorous dinosaurs had feathers, and America didn’t win WW2 single-handedly. All these things are often ignored because we are convinced that what we heard on TV was true.

6. Health Hazards From Going Along With It We all know how CPR is supposed to be right? A tense mouth to mouth sequence where a character loses consciousness for whatever reason and someone has to kick start their heart again. They do this by pressing the chest a bit and breathing air in through the mouth. A few seconds later and everything's alright and the person is back up on their feet. No mess, no fuss. That’s not how things work in real life. In reality, CPR is messy, dirty and is done nothing like how it is done on TV. It is not a lead up to a romantic moment, it is an attempt to save someone's life. Even after the victim is resuscitated, paramedics are always called. Even the way Hollywood presents it is wrong, CPR is not mainly the breathing-air-into-lungs thing, it’s the chest compressions that are key, as that’s what actually restarts the heart.

7. In addition: • Making flamethrowers out of aerosol cans will not work, and they will just explode and kill you. • NEVER carry an injured or unconscious person bridal style, with their neck unsupported. The neck is the most important thing to keep steady and secure, as if that thing flops around too much, the neck will snap, because heads are heavy. • Tackle-hugging people will often cause injuries to both parties. • Do not test if something is anything by sticking your finger in and tasting it. That’s should be common sense. • Clear water is not a sign that it is safe. Clear water is often clear because chemicals or toxins have entered into the water into unsafe amounts. Still water is not safe to drink either. • Drowning people do not flail around. Losing consciousness does that to a person. Drowning people are actually often unnoticed because they do not exhibit the traits seen in common media, so people think they are just holding their breath underwater. • Drinking alcohol while pregnant is not suggested for the first three months, but if you accidentally have a drink, DO NOT induce yourself to vomit. Your liver can take care of the bitty bit of alcohol, you’ll just hurt yourself retching. • Buying condoms is not embarrassing. Maybe in the 80’s it was, but not today. There are places you can get them for free as well. Buy condoms if you are in a sexual relationship. Don’t be an idiot. • Glass is not soft. Running into it with your body will just break you rather than the glass. Even if it does break, it WILL cut you. • If your only information of first aid is what you’ve seen on TV or in movies, just call 991. You are not a paramedic because you watched ER or Greys Anatomy. • Look stuff up whenever you can. Read up on a subject to better educate yourself. Drowning doesn’t look like drowning

8. Also: • Sprinklers are not connected on a whole network, each sprinkler has a separate sensor and a separate water supply. Pulling a fire alarm or tripping a fire alarm will not activate all the sprinklers in a building, just one. And the water inside that one container is also years old, is musty and dank, so have fun with that prank. • Fire hydrants do not explode into a Jetstream of water. That is giant waste of water and is considered terrible engineering. • Coughing does not indicate a certainty of terminal illness. Hollywood portrays it as such because it’s prettier and more dramatic than diarrhea. Coughing is usually from a cold or the flu. Should be common sense. • Hitting something to repair it usually only makes the problem worse, unless you know what you are doing. • Quicksand is not how you see it in media. You can easily escape quicksand through patience and natural buoyancy. Look it up on how to do it. • Modern cameras do not need to flash, and only SLRs make any actual shutter noise. The sound is just because expect it.

9. Happily Ever After…? One of the unfortunate side effects of the media is that we look at the endings to movies and assume that’s how things are going to work out. In many movies or TV episodes, like a character has a child just before the movie ends on a happy note. Aw, their dreams have come true, parents are happy, their elderly parents finally have grandchildren, the comic relief character can act as godparent to the kid, and the asshole friend’s heart is warmed by the child, and the non-believer’s faith in god has been restored by the miracle of birth. Everyone lives happily ever after. What they don’t shoe is what happens after the end. There are consequences to every action. If you think a bout it hard enough, often times you’ll find that movies with “happy” endings often really end in disaster. Your life doesn’t end or get better forever once you reach a checkpoint. That’s what movies don’t show, and that’s what young uneducated people don’t know. Luckily, the people watching this are all smart intelligent people with common sense. You know that life lasts 90 some years, not 20 or 30. But a lot of people don’t know that. Solving one problem doesn’t mean a happy ending. Sorry if that was a bit depressing. :/

10. Obligatory Videogames and Violence Bit What would a report on media affecting reality without one of these? • In short, videogames do not encourage people to commit violent acts. Neither do movies or any other media for that fact. • The thing that if causes violence is untreated and unwatched mental illness. If someone shoots up a bar screaming that they are batman, that’s not the franchises fault. It’s the guys fault, and the governments fault for not having public programs in place to detect and treat the mental illness that convinces him he’s batman. • Using guns in media is VERY different form how it is in reality. You are never prepared for the recoil. And most people don’t even know how to shoot properly. Even if a crazy person gets a gun, they have to get professional training to use it. Just because you have Prestige level 40 in CoD doesn’t mean you are a professional gunman. That’s the truth of it.

11. Told you there was cake In Closing • Anyway, that’s my presentation, I stayed up until 2:00 working on it, so I really hope you enjoyed, and I hope I didn't bore you out of your skulls. • If you want more information on the misconceptions and occasional truths of Hollywood, just look stuff up on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCoconutEffect https://www.google.ca Cheers! :D