The image chosen is a viral picture that had been circulated around the internet so much that the original creator could not be credited. In the picture there is a man who is walking on the side walk. Next to him is a shadow figure turning his head away from a homeless man lying on the ground. In black lettering the picture reads “you” and has an arrow pointed to the visible man walking, and “media” pointing to the shadow that is turning the man’s head.
The intended audience is anybody that would be heavily informed by the media, rather it be social media, the news, or radio. The author is trying to convey a message that wakes the audience up and tells them stop letting the media distract them from the bigger problems in their society. In today’s society everybody is buried into their technology. People rely on their phones, computer, and radio to keep them entertained and informed. Society represented by the man walking along the sidewalk naive to all the problems at home.
This man is every American citizen that chooses to trust that everything that they hear and see from a box is true or way more interesting than the problems that they have going on in their own community. The man is plainly dress to tell the audience that this is your everyday person that choses to let the media control what they pay attention to. The media, symbolized by the shadow behind the man, is controlling the mind of the consumers. The obvious main focus of this picture is the shadow representing the media because people do not realize how big of a factor that the media plays on their everyday ersoective on life.
The media sets the standards of how we should live, what we should be afraid of, and what we should accept as normal. Since the shadow is black and without identity it represents everything that would turn the Americans away from an issue. This shadow is a representation of every story, viral video, or picture that has distracted society away from the true issues of today. While society has its head turned away from the problem the problem still exist. While people are worried about “what color is the dress is”, “the grumpy cat”, and where the next Ebola outbreak is, the media is turning our heads away from the problems that we as a community can fix as a whole.
The homeless man lying on the ground is the perfect representation of the problems that can be fixed by the average community. Think about the last time Ebola in America was brought up and mentioned in such fearful states. Around the time it was time for Americans to run their country and vote the Ebola outbreak was national news. This may have instilled enough fear for some people not to leave their houses and miss out on voting. When voting season was over, so was the Ebola outbreak. This is a perfect example of how the media controls the level of fear in Americans.
The artist does a really good job with making this message relatable to the reader because this is a problem that goes unseen by consumers of the media. The setting could be on any block and is relatable to your everyday American. Particularly the middle class that do not have that much power but are not completely without power. Even though they are being well informed about what is going on in other parts of the world there is nothing that they can do about the diplomacy problems half way around the world; however, they are blinded from the problems that are happening right under their noses that they can fix.
In the picture the artist choses to make the scene something that a middle citizen would see every day. How many times has someone turned the other cheek to a problem that could have been solved or improved by a simple action of any average Joe. The point that the author is attempting to get across is very effective because this opens the readers eyes to what is happening. The main focus of this picture being the personification of the media because the contrast of this is figure stands out and has no features.
After all is said and done, people choose to allow the media to control their everyday life. The media tells people what they want them to know, what to wear, how to act, and most importantly what to fear. When the media has control over a the minds of people that have the power to make change for better community, it keeps the community in a confused state and they become sitting duck. It’s time for the community to wake up and start making changes to change their community and build a better tomorrow.
Works Cited Pinkney, Danae. Unknown. Photograph. Webshots. Visual Analysis. 14 Feburary 2014. Web. 9 March 2015.