Mislead By The Media

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas - The best video clips are here

In today's society what we hear and what we can actually see can sometimes get blended together. Now with all this new media at our fingertips giving us information faster then ever we can now see it even before it is rumored, but it wasn't always like that. Some people believe that media didn't have any affect on societies up until recently, but that definitely was not the case, just because they didn't have televisions or internet doesn't mean people were not influenced. Some tend to forget that although certain technologies weren't available there was still newspapers, and more importantly newspapers with pictures. An example that comes to mind is the Holocaust, people, more specifically children believed what they saw.

A movie that was made not too long ago, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, set in World War II and told through a child's perspective, provides a perfect example that media can make the world seem like a completely different place. The main character was misguided to believe that a concentration camp was nothing more then a big playground for Jewish children. Why did he think that? Because that was what he was shown on a projector. His sister, a girl who used to play with dolls traded them in to hang up pictures of Hitler because that's all she read about.

This poster was printed by Der Strumer who specialized in anti-Semitic cartoons. He created the slogan in 1923 that the "Jews are our misfortune." This poster was designed to dehumanize the Jews who were posed in distorted and humiliating positions. Der Strumer also set out to give the impression that the Jews were different, less human and not nearly as good as the German people.

Media, no matter in what form, when or where, is vital and impacts society more than I believe people ever realize. When events are happeneing I think it is hard to take yourself out of your world and be able to see the difference of what is actually happening vs. what the media is showing you and perhaps it just isn't feasible. Is it possible that maybe it has to happen first and then we can look back and realize the damage it has caused? In the movie, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas being mislead cost the boy his life. I believe media has the power to do good and bad, it is society who needs to figure out the difference.