Nosedive

 

The piece of media my group and I decided to analyze was the critically acclaimed show, Black Mirror. Black Mirror is one of the most popular shows on television, and is held in such a high regard for its ability to highlight a combinations of important issues going on and challenge what are mostly considered common beliefs in society today. What is unique about Black Mirror is that there are new plot lines and different characters in every episode, and each episode brings new cultural observations to light. The episode I chose to write about is episode 1 of season 3 titled “Nosedive”. This episode follows the journey of a young woman named Lacie through her search for social power and how she spiralled into committing social suicide. Lacie lives in a fantasy world where people rate each other on everything they do using a 5-star system, and use their average rating as a social status symbol, lifeblood, and means of currency. Lacie’s story starts off with her looking for a new home after her old home was undergoing construction changes. When Lacie finds the new home she wants, she is told her star rating was not enough to be allowed to move in. She then receives a call from her childhood friend Naomi, an attractive and well-rounded person with a very high ranking. Naomi called to invite Lacie to her wedding and act as her maid of honour. Lacie was delighted to reconnect with an old friend and also thought of it as a chance to raise her rating. She thought making a heartfelt maid of honour speech and being around other high class people would help her raise her rating to the level needed to buy her new apartment. The day before the wedding, Lacie missed her flight and got into a significant altercation with Airport employees. This caused Lacie’s star rating to dropped drastically, but Lacie was still committed to get to the wedding so she chose to drive the 9 hour trip. Along the way Lacie got into other altercations which caused her rating to drop even further and affect her mental stability. As Lacie was late to the wedding, Naomi called Lacie and lashed out at her, admitting to using Lacie as the maid of honour in order to raise her star rating. Once Lacie heard this, she arrived at the wedding and attempted to sabotage it by giving a slander speech towards Naomi. Lacie is eventually taken away by security and put in jail. With all of the altercations Lacie had been part of along with being put in jail, Lacie’s rating became zero and lost everything. The story ends with Lacie in jail, arguing with her cellmate, but more interestingly both had smiles on their face. They were happy because they both made a true friend, someone they could be totally honest without jeopardizing their stars rating.

This episode of Black Mirror deals with many important social issues currently in the world. One of the most apparent issues covered was the dependence on the approval of others and the unfair treatment of people in different social classes. Throughout the episode, Lacie experienced the good of being a well-respected society member in addition to the struggles of having a lower social status. There are 2 examples which perfectly illustrate this concept. The first example comes when one of Lacie’s co-workers had bought smoothies for everyone in the office so they would give him a good rating. He was so consumed with obtaining the approval of others that he had put off his own work responsibilities to do something other people would like him more for doing. Another co-worker realized why he had done this for them so he gave him a peace of advise, “don’t try too hard, it’s impossible to respect”. This quote emphasizes the value of independence and the difference between being liked and respected, and; one can only earn respect for being true to themselves and respecting others. Another example which involves the discrepancy between social classes is when Lacie is not able to rent a reasonable rental car, her only option was to rent a very old car that could not be recharged. She was unable to get another car because her rating was too low so she was not deserving of a functional rental car. This is a prime example of one of Zinn and Dill’s basic assertions to intersectionality approaches as in this world, people are structured by status/rating and there is an interlocking correlation between inequality and oppressions As previously mentioned, there is an evident divide between social classes, and this society is contracted so that the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.

Moreover, another course concept relevant to this show was the strong influence propaganda has on society. According to Solomos and Back, propaganda is the communication of ideas from dominant groups with the interventions of receiving attitudes which only enhance the conveyed messages. In Black Mirror, social media plays a strong role in affecting peoples’ lives; there is such value placed on their digital profile which leads them vulnerable to cyberbullying/cybermobbing. People like Lacie like to share photos on social media to share their lives with people, but also in order to get positive star ratings from others. It has such a strong presence in Lacie’s life that she was visibly disappointed when her friend did not give her a perfect rating on a photo she had posted. Later on, Lacie applied the concept of decoding and encoding by Stuart Hall for her own personal gain. Lacie decided to use social media to her advantage by posting a photo she knew would catch the eye of people like Naomi. She knew Naomi would perceive a message in a favourable way and would therefore give her a positive star rating. The use of media and the toxic addiction to gaining ratings force people to use the media to manipulate their image and the way people think of them. Furthermore, the characters in Black Mirror

Lacie’s journey was full of twists and turns, but more importantly taught the viewer an valuable lesson on greed, and the true value of being true to yourself. This episode brought forth the dangers of being dependent upon others and hinted at the drastic evolution of technology is society. This show was a meaningful learning experience for me and I look forward to watching other episodes and learning other great values like those from “Nosedive”.

Ben Basian

10197463

1092 words

March 15th, 2017