I’m not sure if this posted when I wrote it (I can’t seem to work this site properly). Here goes . . .
Mass media connected, in some way, to 2012 are many. I basically live in the back of a cave, but I’ve seen mention of this film in many places. Which places, you ask? Well . . .
Television
Radio
Newspapers
The internet in several places
and, obviously, cinema
If the trailer proves to be prophetic, then all mass media will be directly effected as they will be destroyed (except for those on the ships).
The trailer also gives some examples of mass communication: A television “news” report, and one on CNN, the catholic (I think) church, some sort of religious ceremony with candles, there was a radio antenna on the aircraft carrier, a short-wave antenna on the RV and a little TV inside, the kid was playing a video game thing. There was a brief shot of Times Square (I guess) with ads for Virgin Records, CNN, and some stuff I could not read, and all kinds of other silliness.
I saw an ad for 2012 in a copy of The Seattle Times that somebody had spread-out on a café table. The affect on newspapers is the expected: Something to advertise, maybe even review.
I heard it mentioned on KUOW at one point, but just in passing (thankfully). I think that 2012 will have as much affect on the radio that I listen to as whatever that last big money movie was did.
I saw ads for it in several places around the interwebs. On IMDB, Google search results, I think I even saw it on the Onion. People all over the world will continue to get excited about whatever they’re told is exciting. Currently they’re being told that 2012 is Really Exciting and that it Could Be True.
That a movie will have an affect on cinema is so painfully obvious, there’s not much to say.
Just as with other commercial media outlets, TV news people have something New and Shiny to crow about. Once this movie is gone, they will go on about the next one. No real change for the industry.
I’m not sure what affect this movie could have on CNN.
I’ve been inside a church 5 times in my life, so I cannot hazard a guess as to the affect on the church.
The affect on radio will be, I predict, the same as that on TV: Something to advertise.
As for short-wave, it’ll be something for CB owners to chat about. Unless it’s true, then short-wave will be the only way to communicate long distances.
I would contest the assertion that the Mayan calendar is a mass communication tool. The calendar itself is not “speaking to us today”. Commercial mass media are shouting at us all about the Mayan calendar, but the calendar is not doing much. A thing cannot be mass communication without distribution – a song is not mass communication if only one person hears it. Or so it seems to me.
I did a bit of reading on (ugh) Yahoo! and someplace called Gaia Community and the only controversy I could find is imagined. A movie tells people that The End Is Near, and they freak out. It’s a flippin movie! This is why I try to ignore the pubic as much as possible. Did the lemmings pee themselves when Independence Day was released? (They probably did.)
Okay, so it uses the Mayan calendar. BFD. Did anybody do any research into the Mayan calendar system? Apparently not. That would not have made good copy.
The only possible controversy I can imagine here is over using the Mayan calendar, but even that is weak. Is it sacrilege to use the calendar to entertain people? To scare the cash outta them? Is it blasphemous to use the calendar for anything other than determining the date? If it were, THEN there could be some controversy. As far as I’ve heard, there have been no Mayan demonstrations, nor protests of any sort, over using their calendar. Therefore, I can only conclude that there really IS not controversy.
Unless they make a movie about the Boogie Man. Cripes! Then he’d be REAL!
References
Gaia Community
http://groups.gaia.com/is_there_a_god/conversations/view/432826
Yahoo! Answers
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080806063143AAIyiR6
So I get to the “Rubric Checlist” and discover I needed to “accurately detail the historical background and details for all mediea.” This is requiring a tome that I don’t have the time, nor inclination, to write.
I also found that number four: “Did you craft a summary of how this cinematic event (. . .)?” made no sense.
