COMM 380:  Media Criticism

We live in an age of rapidly changing technology that slowly creeps into every aspect of our lives. There are apps and devices made to help us in everything from personal relationships, education, health, finance, and much more. As we grow and change with this technology it is important to consider how this has affected our everyday lives. The series Black Mirror does just that. It is often cited as a modern Twilight Zone with each episode taking place in its own world with new characters every time. And just like The Twilight Zone, the show takes a surreal and often dark look at the current state of humanity with regards to technology and issues of morals and ethics.

 

The show’s title takes its name from the black mirror like reflection that

we see in every television, smartphone, and device screen.

While technology often takes center stage in Black Mirror, there are

always the underlying social issues that come into play.

Despite only having six episodes and a Christmas special. Black Mirror has

already received a lot of praise from critics and audience members who find

its episodes relatable in an often frightening way.  The BBC head of comedy

has called the series “a thought-provoking and gripping reflection and

extrapolation of the current social, cultural and technology inspired trends

and fears” (Endemol Shine UK, 2011).  People recognize that technology

is changing everyday life in many different ways especially with regards to

social technology and media.

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This idea that media shapes the processes of various forms of communication as well as society is known as the theory of mediatization (Roos, 2015). The show Black Mirror takes our uses for media to an extreme to show just how important it is that we address the way technology is changing our culture. Our own concerns about social media sharing, interpersonal relationships, privacy, and the impact of our online activities are reflected in this alternate reality of the show. The strange futuristic world of Black Mirror uses its warning parables of techno fears to illustrate the idea of mediatization in our everyday culture.

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Even though the show takes place is a semi futuristic world which can vary between realistic, idealistic, and dystopian, it never loses that human element that makes the stories so compelling. There are several episodes that use the futuristic technology to make a commentary on how humans cope with everything from everyday relationships to the loss of a loved one. In the episode, “Be Right Back” a grieving widow signs up for a service that allows her to have a synthetic version of her husband that has been compiled from his various social media accounts, recordings, messages, and photographs (Brooker & Jones, 2011). The episode looks at how we deal with loss in a modern world when we have access to so much of a person through their online activity and digital memories.

 

A study published in the journal Telematics and Informatics examined over 550 Facebook accounts for deceased friends and family members are being kept live as a sort of digital memorial to them (Kern, Forman, & Gil-Egui, 2013). In an interesting discovery, the researchers found that many of the comments on the deceased members’ pages were written in the first person, such as “I miss you so much” (Kern, Forman, & Gil-Egui, 2013). It was being used as a way to directly communicate rather than to just remember or grieve with other commenters. The way that we deal with death in an age of so many digital records changes our process. Black Mirror touches on how technology can make idea of digital immortality appealing but at the core of this episode, the story is about learning to let go and to move on. As tempting as it might be we can’t use technology as a way to avoid the grief of loss.

 

Another episode, “An Entire History of You” takes the issue of social media stalking to another extreme, with everyone in the world having an implant that records all moments of their lives for them to play back and share with their friends. A husband’s belief that his wife is cheating on him really displays the paranoia and relationship strain that an age of oversharing and recording can bring (Brooker & Jones, 2011).

 

Several studies including one titled Facebook Use During Relationship Termination: Uncertainty Reduction and Surveillance (2012), have examined the use of social media for the purpose of uncertainty reduction in relationship forming, but also for the purpose of surveillance of an ex-partner after a breakup. When the information is so easily available to us, it is often difficult to restrain ourselves from taking a “quick peek” into the lives of people we are forming or dissolving relationships with. But as the episode shows, too much information can sometimes be the cause of the dissolve and can also lead to more uncertainty than we had to begin with.

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On the darker side of human issues, Black Mirror also takes on the problems that come with an increasingly voyeuristic society. With cameras in every pocket, every moment of life can be used as entertainment and broadcast around the world within seconds. The mass sways in public opinion based on media portrayals can be damaging to the actual people involved in these moments and it's too often that people forget the lives of those on the screens.

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The episode that really shows the power that public opinion has in the modern world is “The National Anthem.” Of all the episodes in the series, this one has the most realistic use of technology even though the premise of the episode is extreme. There is no high tech gadgetry or dystopian universe here. The episode takes place in modern day England with the Prime Minister being forced to perform a disgusting act on live television in order to save the life of a kidnaped royal. The fickleness and often callousness of the internet audience within the episode is all too real. People make jokes over twitter, and start commenting on the issues with their own harsh judgements, and spread every bit of available information despite the delicacy of the situation (Brooker & Jones, 2011). The episode sheds a harsh light on the rapid pace of online opinion and how it often operates without consideration for anything but entertainment. Studies by recent authors such as Joel Penney (2016), have shown how Twitter can be an effective method for citizens to involve themselves in political persuasion or dialogue and it is important for us to consider the weight of our opinions online.

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There is also an episode that deals with the uses and gratifications of reality as entertainment. The episode “Fifteen Million Merits” has its characters test how much of themselves they are willing to sell in order to escape their dreary ad cluttered world. The semi realistic premise of a reality talent competition is the only escape from a grey society where people watch television and pedal on bikes all day to generate energy. The girl, Abi, is taken in by the promise of fame from the talent competition and slowly compromises more and more of herself to gain it. The episode takes a dark turn as her pursuit to stardom is twisted into something sickening while the crowd cheers on (Brooker & Jones, 2011).

 

The episode takes on the concept of schadenfreude, or taking pleasure in another’s misfortune, and this idea that the audiences of these reality shows enjoy watching the failures and humiliation of those competing. In a real life study based on the audience members of shows such as America’s Got Talent, the researchers found that this sense of schadenfreude is in fact a real gratification for its audience members (Barton, 2013).

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Overall, the message of the show is not really about the threat of technology, but rather the threat of people who use it without morals. For all of the science fiction and fantastic elements, the show’s focus remains on humanity, the way that it moves and adapts with new advancements, and how we struggle with the way we connect to the world and each other. The way we communicate and socialize is changing and the moral dilemmas presented by Black Mirror serve as cautionary tales and commentary for our new digital world.

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Works Cited
Brooker, C., & Jones, A., (Producers). (2011). Black mirror [Television series]. United Kingdom, Zeppotron

 

Endemol Shine UK. (2011, May 11). Black Mirror- A New Drama from Charlie Brooker. Retrieved April 05, 2016, from http://www.endemolshineuk.com/news/black-mirror-a- new-drama-from-charlie-brooker

 

Facebook Use During Relationship Termination: Uncertainty Reduction and Surveillance. (2012). Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-28.

 

Penney, J. (2016). Motivations for participating in 'viral politics': A qualitative case study of Twitter users and the 2012 US presidential election. Convergence: The Journal Of Research Into New Media Technologies, 22(1), 71-87. doi:10.1177/1354856514532074

 

Kern, R., Forman, A. E., & Gil-Egui, G. (2013). R.I.P.: Remain in perpetuity. Facebook memorial pages. Telematics & Informatics, 30(1), 2-10. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2012.03.002

 

Roos, C. M. (2015). Mediatization theory: What is in it for the philosophy of communication? On Stig Hjarvard’s The Mediatization of Culture and Society. Empedocles: European Journal For The Philosophy Of Communication, 6(1), 91-103. doi:10.1386/ejpc.6.1.91_3