COMM 380:  Media Criticism

 

The Amazon series, The Man in the High Castle first aired on January 15th, 2015 and has since then created a total of two seasons with the third season confirmed for release but has yet to have an official release date. In this argumentative analysis overview however, the focus will be solely on season one of the series. The Man in the High Castle is a dystopian fictional series focusing on what would have happened if Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had won World War II and how the two superpowers co-existing would rule 1960’s America and the three distinct groups of people living in the country: Japanese, Americans, and Nazi Germans. This season intertwines a multitude of various mass media theories and also has eerily similar connections to our current culture of government’s strong capability for the surveillance of the American people. The spiral of silence theory is an accurate depiction of season one of The Man in the High Castle with strong ties relating to modern day mass media.

 

 

Early on it is learned both ruling superpowers have exceedingly tight governing control over their people keeping a close watch on anyone who potentially strays from the “norm,” or have strong inner dissent for the other power, or plans to overthrow the other government.  Despite all the heavy, watchful eyes of the Japanese and Nazis, there lives a group of people called the “resistance” which has the goal of delivering secret films showing alternative historical events to a man who calls himself “the man in the high castle.” The main characters include a group of Americans living under the oppression of the Japanese and Nazi Germans: Juliana Crain, her boyfriend, Frank Frink, and Joe Blake. Joe develops a close bond with Juliana as the season progresses which causes tension between Juliana and her boyfriend. All three characters get heavily involved with the resistance for various reasons, but common goals that they have include: not getting caught by either of the two powers, successfully obtaining one of the films (either for delivering the film to the man in the high castle, or for another reason), and finally, doing everything in his or her power to keep their loved ones alive and safe. Since they are minorities in their country holding radical views and judged as committing “illegal” actions, they remain part of the “silenced” group.

 

The series fits well with the spiral of silence since the main characters “…will, therefore, remain silent if they perceive that they hold a minority opinion” (Hanson, 448). Juliana, Frank, and Joe not only hold the minority opinion but also take a minority path of action in season one because they believe, with the films they are collecting, there may be an answer and way out of the current oppressive society. While the spiral of silence is focused on remaining mute based on having an unpopular opinion for various reasons, the biggest factor as to why these three characters do not openly voice their opinions, motives, and plan of action is that this dissention will lead to painful prosecution, torment of their families, and ultimate death.

 

Spiral of silence was originally coined by German political scientist, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, in which the idea was that people with minority views hold their silence for a couple of different reasons while “majority just assumes that everybody thinks like them,” and , “and people in the minority think they’re the only ones” (Meckling, 2017). The origins of the creation of the theory trace back to “…the Jews status during World War II under Nazi’s control… Jews became silent due to the fear of isolation and separation” (Communication Theory: The Spiral of Silence Theory, n.d) due to Hitler’s complete domination of the whole society.

 

It’s interesting to note that the theory is applied (the spiral of silence) to Man in the High Castle is a theory that in fact was created during the time of  World War II and that the series created using this theory, following the ideas of majority domination versus minority submission. 

 

Relating the same concepts of the majority having voice and power versus those in the minority group having limited voice or no stand at all is quite present in modern American society. While, at least in The United States, people are not persecuted and or killed for holding dissenting views (99.9% of the time) as they would be if they lived in the world of Nazi German and Japanese rule, the idea is the same which is that people who are not in the majority are held back for taking a stand for various reasons. One recent example is from the #MeToo movement in which women who silently suffered silent years of sexual abuse before finally breaking the spiral of silence to take action against injustices done to them.

 

Oftentimes, victims of sexual assault feel as though they are a marginalized group of people who have been silenced by the majority which can arguably be called “white male supremacy.” After being afraid for so long, women living in “fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to lose,” (Zacharek, Dockterman et all, 2017), “If they raised their voices, would they be fired? Would their communities turn against them? Would they be killed?” (Zacharek, Dockterman et all, 2017), the tide within society that normally sided against women, or was at least more in favor of men, took a drastic turn when thousands of women, who finally had the courage to speak out against the injustices and terrors or sexual assault, which after coming out, discovered that they in the #MeToo movement were more in the majority than in the minority. Being suppressed to be silent creates great unrest in the minority groups and, with mass media as a platform for their voice, and with finding inner courage gives way breaking their silence and obtaining justice at last. They are no longer part of the spiral of silence.

 

While it is unknown in The Man in the High Castle who is monitoring, who is with the resistance, and who is just an average “majority” citizen, abiding by the government’s rule, publicly voicing minority views is considered to be a great threat to the nation and thought of as unpatriotic. The silence and extreme external pressure that Juliana, Frank, and Joe work under in their search for the films and finding answers is that that through the power of numbers and knowledge of truth more citizens can be aware of what truly has happened to their country and take a stand. In turn, the minority group, starting with the resistance, can grow to become the majority to choose the government they want.

 

There are multiple theories that can be applied to The Man in the High Castle, but what the spiral of silence theory is able to provide is also a direct connection to modern day American societal cultures with the idea of who has a voice and who doesn’t. Throughout history and still strongly present today, dominant groups of people will consciously or unconsciously protect their power and, in turn, suppress the weaker, unfavorable, or dissenting group of individuals. Characters in The Man in the High Castle (as many other groups of people in today’s world) work with other “undercover” allies, risking their lives and the lives of people they care about, in order to help make a better world for future generations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Hanson, R. E. (2017). Mass communication: living in a media world (6th ed.). California, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

 

Images, P. P. (2017, March 10). The 'Spiral of Silence' Explains Why People Don't Speak Up on Things That Matter. Retrieved from https://www.thecut.com/2017/03/the-spiral-of-silence-explains-why-people-dont-speak-up.html

 

In Cultural Communication, Mass Communication, Psychology, Behavioral And Social Science. (n.d.). The Spiral of Silence Theory. Retrieved from https://www.communicationtheory.org/the-spiral-of-silence-theory/

 

TIME Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/