14 DAY TRIAL // Who pretends to be interested in media and hasn't yet seen the movie "Mad City" is obliged to watch and learn from it, as the movie is one of the most eloquent proofs of the fact that mass-media is the power that leads our lives from behind the curtains.
The movie emphasizes the way media, through its most powerful tool, the television, exploits the news, its only purpose being to raise the rating points. At the same time, it also exploits the mass spirit. When it comes to mass spirit, the conscious personality disappears, the feelings and the ideas are oriented towards the same direction and a specific transitory collective spirit appears instead. The causes that determine the appearance of a mass behavior are very diverse. First of all, when there is a "crowd", the mass spirit comes from the number of people involved that create the feeling of an invincible force, which provides people the chance to surrender to their instincts, instincts normally repressed. The second cause implies the mental contagion that leads the mass to one single thinking direction. And last, but not least, the power of suggestion is the one who determines the members of a crowd to become alike, in most of the cases to become exactly the opposite of what each individual represents separately.
The plot of the movie can be resumed in a few words. Throughout "Mad City", mass-media is disclosed to be using as much as possible the mass' hunger of sensational news and the people's need of being sympathetic or unsympathetic to other people. Max Brackett is a reporter whose presence in the museum is justified by the fact that he was supposed to do a material for a small TV network. He works for this obscure TV channel, because he's been fired from the national television network. So, by conjuncture, he gets involved in Sam's story, which he uses for rehabilitating his name and for getting back his job. So far, so good, but the situation takes a dangerous turnover because of Max's eager desire of getting back his job and also because of the national channel's intention of raising its rating, no matter what.
When Clifford Williams is accidentally shot and Sam starts feeling guilt, fear and insecurity at their maximum level, Max supports him. And even if at the beginning he presents Sam as a delinquent, later on he starts talking about him as a victim. This leads the mass to dissolving itself into two separate groups: one who sympathizes with Sam and the other who is against him. In fact, these two stands are created by media and through media. So, Clifford Williams dies because of Sam's lack of responsibility, but also because of Max, who troubles Sam even more and leads him to this unfortunate accident. Despite of the drama that this situation presents, the television people do their best to exploit it in their own best interest and they even take immoral, unethical and inhumane actions.
At the end of this dramatic movie, Max Brackett exclaims: "We've killed him!". What did he mean by that? Well, the television did quite a big fuss in order to get sensational news and this had a negative effect on Sam, who was already messed up. He became even more confused and scared, his mind was practically sabotaged by all the chaos the press created and so he accidentally shot Clifford. So media seen as an entity, having Max as its representative, carries at least half of the guilt for the guardian's death. Sam becomes a puppet in the journalists' hands, who create quite a drama show from this tragic situation. But the public is also somehow responsible for the way things happened, as it actively takes part and determines the events. The public is into the action, identifies itself with the characters, has preferences and takes stands, just like in any reality show. That is why media can easily create a system to manipulate the public opinion.
For the journalists, "good news" is equivalent to sensational news. Anything tragic, serious, dramatic draws their attention as they are only interested in exploiting human tragedy at its most exaggerate dimensions. And all this just for rating! They lost their professional integrity, their status of journalists, becoming nothing more than sensational hunters, distorting reality in their own best interest.
Media has a great potential of manipulating! And spreading rumors is one of the most efficient strategies of doing that. Rumors provide information to be discussed by the opinion leaders and the public opinion will be shaped through a transfer of influence from the opinion leaders to the mass of people. In "Mad City", Max Brackett is the opinion leader, and mass-media, represented by the national TV channel, uses him to influence the public opinion. The public opinion's definition on which this movie is based is the one that describes it as a predictable entity which reacts upon known rules and impulses.
In conclusion, mass-media is provided with a huge power over the public opinion, so it can turn minor situations into disasters and at the same time it is able to stop tragedies on occasions. The problem is that most of the time, the journalists are more interested in creating disasters than stopping or preventing them, because we all know negative news are the ones who sell the media products.