Topic > Society under total surveillance in White Christmas, an episode of Black Mirror

IndexIntroductionMedia Models in Black MirrorMeda Models/Themes in SocietyConclusionIntroductionThe film Black Mirror begins with two men, Matt and Joe, living in a remote station in the middle of the desert full of snow. To pass some time, they tell each other about their lives. Matt is preparing Christmas dinner and talks to Joe about what brought him to that remote station in the middle of nowhere, something they've never talked about since they moved there five years ago. Joe is reluctant to answer, so Matt answers his question first by explaining why he came. Matt describes his real profession in a flashback. The technology has created a tiny chip, also called a “cookie,” that can be temporarily implanted in someone's brain to create a copy of someone's consciousness. These chips can be removed and used in an egg-shaped device to function as the original person's personal assistant. Matt helps take in a rich woman named Greta. Matt provides her with a virtual body, a clean room, and a computer desk to carry out her tasks. When she refuses to cooperate, he alters her "cookie", causing her to experience six months of boredom and isolation, which in reality last only a few seconds. His cookie becomes catatonic and finally has the will to break. Nowadays, Joe dislikes Matt's career, in which Matt later remarks that Joe is a good person. After Joe gets a little drunk, Joe finally tells Matt his story about how his girlfriend's father never liked him and explains his situation. Joe was in a serious relationship with a girl named Beth, but they broke up because Joe was an alcoholic. One day they were having dinner with their friends Time and Gita, but Joe got drunk and Beth was angry. After dinner Joe finds a pregnancy test in the trash and thinks he's going to be a dad. Beth doesn't want the baby and plans to have an abortion. Joe gets drunk and gets angry at Beth because he thinks she is selfish and guilty of hurting their unborn child. Beth places a Z-Eye "block" on Joe, meaning she cannot hear or see him, and leaves him the next day, unable to hear his apologies due to his block. He finds out that Beth quit her job at her friends Tim and Gita. He writes her letters for months, but receives no response. He knows that she spends Christmas with her father who lives near him, so he spends the next few months watching her and sees the stages of her pregnancy when she is at her father's house. When she finally has the baby, he can't take it because the blockage extended to the baby, but he can only see the outline. He finally realizes it's a girl, but then discovers it's not his. He finds this out because he discovered that Beth had died in a tragic train accident, which then had the block removed so she could now see her son. He discovers that his son is Asian, characteristics that neither he nor Beth have. He later finds out that she was having an affair with his friend Tim, who is Asian. He gets so angry that he sneaks into his father's house and bashes Beth's father in the head, which ends up killing him and he quickly leaves the cabin. This episode of Black Mirror comments on the themes of the medium is the message, particularly how Z-eye sends the social message of a society under total surveillance and fear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayMedia Models in Black MirrorThe media models in Black Mirror "White Christmas", which we have identified in this film, are the models of spectacle and the hyperreal. The media model of the show describes a technological and cultural change with therepresentation of lived experiences. Guy Debord's spectacle is explained with the words: "in societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that has been experienced directly has been transferred into a representation." The media model of the hyperreal is a world of reproduction. It is also the simulation or representation of reality. The hyperreal distorts the reality we know or sometimes does not even depict anything that has real existence. The model of the show provides many examples from the film. The show is any type of compelling visual display. The main spectacle that portrays our everyday reality is the kind that comes through our screens In “White Christmas,” the Z-eye is the screen of their eyes Although a Z-eye would be considered part of the hyperreal, the things that can do could be part of a show, there was a flashback where Matt is shown as a dating coach for single men to help them seduce women. Matt uses the Z-eye to see and hear what his clients witness and give them instructions embarrassing, Harry, who Matt ordered to attend an office Christmas party without being invited. Matt, along with many other single men sharing Harry's video stream, identifies Jennifer as a quiet and "attractive outsider" from her social media profile. Matt guides Harry to start a conversation with her. Matt controlling Harry through a screen is an example of spectacle. In the powerpoint, the example of how everyone liked the film Rocky. Sylvester Stallone, who plays Rocky in the film, is known as the real Rocky because of the film. The real Rocky gets no credit for what he did in real life, but Sylvester Stallone gets all the credit. Matt doing all the work for Harry is almost the same as Rocky's example. Harry is taking all the credit for Matt's work. Even in Powerpoint, an example of a show is television. He says television is “the most powerful force shaping our cultural discourse and the way we see the world.” Harry observes the world with Matt's help inside his Z-eyed head. There are also many examples of the hyperreal model, in the Black Mirror episode “White Christmas”. The Z-eye is an immovable augmented reality device implanted in the eye that grants access to the Internet to see and hear people. It makes possible the idea of ​​blocking not only social media, but the whole person, so that it becomes an invisible and confusing shadow for you and vice versa. An example of the Z eye in the film is when Beth blocked Joe so she couldn't see or hear him and he couldn't see or hear her. Beth had also hidden the daughter she had from Joe, who she thought was her daughter. With the Z-eye he could do whatever he wanted and he couldn't undo anything he did. So far the closest thing we have in our world today is Google. The idea of ​​blocking things is believable, but not with something implanted in your head. The example of the invisible cloak from Harry Potter comes to mind. Another example from the film is the “cookie”. “Cookie” is the concept of downloading and extracting an exact replica of yourself in digital format to act as your slave. An example of the film's biscuit is when Greta, a rich and demanding woman, refuses the breakfast in bed that a clinic serves because the toast is toasted a little more than she would like. The anesthesiologist told Greta to count backwards from ten while Greta is sedated. As she counts, she feels an out-of-body experience and is shown a tiny chip inserted into a portable electronic device. The device was returned to his home, where his consciousness is greeted byMatt. He explains what he really is, which is a digital copy of his consciousness called a "cookie". In the powerpoint we talk about the map to conquer the territory. He also says that the media is the territory, the “reality”. Matt is able to take control of people's lives via the cookie by using a replica to have as a slave. This also explains how the Z-eye can be used as a map to take control of a territory. An example provided by the Powerpoint concerns football stadiums and large screens used as a high definition map of the map that is the territory. Harry's visual map is Matt's big screen that helps direct him. Media Patterns/Themes in Society Additionally, “White Christmas” has much to say about the role of media in society now and in the future. A theme of the episode that explores this topic is that the medium is the message. In this case the medium used is the cookie and the message concerns a society under total surveillance. In a world where technology is becoming more ubiquitous, “White Christmas” speaks to the fears some may have about the future of privacy. With the introduction of the cookie into society, anyone's deepest and darkest secrets can be revealed through the hyperreal copy of themselves, also known as cookies. Additionally, the powerpoint references the damage done to privacy when discussing George Orwell's science fiction book 1984. Published in 1948, the book compares the widespread use of television to that of the Panopticon, which is also featured in the powerpoint. The Panopticon is an architectural design by Jeremy Bentham from the late 1700s. In his design, Bentham created the most “efficient” prison, in which a few prison guards are placed in the center of a circle lined with cells. Essentially, the few can observe the many, who are always under complete surveillance thanks to the design of the Panopticon. The textbook further delves into the idea of ​​total surveillance in the future when the author writes about the correlation between decreasing privacy and the growing role of social media in society. As society becomes more and more transparent, with less time for self-reflection and solitude, it is very likely that a hive mind is being created. This hive mind is created through the Internet, a constant source of information and communication. Additionally, the episode also acknowledges the theme of the memes. Along with genes and themes, there is a third replicator known as Temes. The class textbook refers to memes as Susan Blackmore's phrase used to define a type of meme regarding technological evolution and how technology continues to approve copies of itself. Since all media technology is mass-produced, this means that they are copied and replicated, similar to genes and memes. For example, according to the powerpoint lesson, television is a complement of radio and camera, a combination of the capabilities of both and therefore a further evolved version of the two devices. In another example, large computers in the mid-20th century went from desktop personal computers to laptops to what are now considered smartphones and tablets. In “White Christmas,” the Z-eyes are a meme, an improved copy of a computer. Since a computer was a device used to access the Internet to obtain information, Z-eyes are a more advanced and more portable edition of a computer. In fact, they combine the convenience of the computer with the convenience of contact lenses, being able to access the Internet at any time. Additionally, Z-eyes possess the brutal spectacle of being able to “block” another person from the wearer's life, a fact that contributes to the precautionary approach taken by the authors of “White Christmas.” The powerpoint lesson.