Primetime Terror
In today’s world, media and entertainment companies are trying to please their following by getting the big story, putting together the most action pact show, and trying to keep the audience engaged. They are really in it for the money and the popularity and then the truth comes second. Television shows are for entertainment values, however, they should be doing a better job of getting the truth and what’s not. War, terrorism and crime that are depicted in TV shows in movies are in reality much different than what happens in the real world. Many famous TV shows that people love to watch every Tuesday night don’t really portray what really happens in everyday life or overseas. The video remix “Primetime Terror” shows how TV shows plot lines and conflicts in the story are different than what really goes on in the world. It’s really highlighting terrorism, crime and the judicial system and how it’s portrayed. It does a really good job of this and provides studies and examples from each popular show.
This video was made in 2011, so it puts an emphasis on how it’s the 10 year anniversary of the war on terror, and the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs. The video starts off with showing all the problems in America and its goal is to provide a census with its findings between reality and these popular TV shows. Some of these shows include 24, CSI, NCIS, NCIS: LA, The Good Wife, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, and many others. During the findings, clips of these shows are played back in the findings to prove as evidence for those conclusions. The video uses all these TV shows that aired in 2010 and together came up with four main findings. The first finding was about terrorist suspects and how most of the suspects in these shows were not minority but mostly white males. Even more surprisingly about 62% were U.S. citizens or residents. These shows are showing a skewed version of the war on terror and is actually depicting that white Americans as terrorists is more prevalent then people from other countries. Although stereotyping and predispositions are not good to go on, but having most of the accused terrorists as American citizens is something that may need to be changed.
The second finding that they had was about the judicial system and how it is rarely depicted. It states that there were 11 cases of forced entry but only one of the times they stated they had a warrant and another time a warrant was shown. On top of that 87% of the time lawyers were not present during the time of interrogation. Only 2 suspects in all of the episodes actually received a lawyer. Of the 56% of suspected terrorists that were taken into custody, none of them were read their Miranda rights. This is very surprising and this is what leads to American’s getting a twisted view of what the laws really are and if police and government agents can really do that. Granted the law may be boring compared to an action-packed shooting scene, but to put a more accurate spin on what should happen during an arrest or a courtroom is needed.
The third finding that they had was about how shows how these TV shows want to depict an intense pursuit of the criminal. Only one of the suspects in all the episodes was taken to trial. It seems as though gunfire and explosions get better ratings than a courtroom scene. The fourth and final finding that they had was about how primetime television depicts a surprisingly sterilized version of the war on terror. It states that 51% of Americans support racial profiling at airports and in these TV shows many of the agents are against it. Also it states that 63% of the American public supports the use of aggressive interrogation tactics to get information. In these episodes, there were only two government agents that actually used some of these tactics, one of them being waterboarding. In addition, there was one rogue interrogation that involved torcher and violence. This was surprising because torcher might get more views the way the violence, explosions and gunfire is so popular. However, in America it may be a taboo subject that some people just don’t want to watch.
Television and the real world are two really different things. Television depicts that the U.S. government has a really hard time fighting the war on terror, while in reality we are very effective with fighting it. Although America’s security might be very high in places such as airports and security, we do a good job of finding bombs or stopping terrorist’s attacks and we even killed Osama Bin Laden. This remix does a very good job of completely showing what the entertainment industry does to simply do what it is supposed to do, entertain. It really gets to the bottom of what is legitimacy in the shows and what is not. Although TV is mostly for entertainment purposes anyways, these primetime shows should be depicting more of a reality instead of just going for more of a showbiz value.
This video was made in 2011, so it puts an emphasis on how it’s the 10 year anniversary of the war on terror, and the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs. The video starts off with showing all the problems in America and its goal is to provide a census with its findings between reality and these popular TV shows. Some of these shows include 24, CSI, NCIS, NCIS: LA, The Good Wife, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, and many others. During the findings, clips of these shows are played back in the findings to prove as evidence for those conclusions. The video uses all these TV shows that aired in 2010 and together came up with four main findings. The first finding was about terrorist suspects and how most of the suspects in these shows were not minority but mostly white males. Even more surprisingly about 62% were U.S. citizens or residents. These shows are showing a skewed version of the war on terror and is actually depicting that white Americans as terrorists is more prevalent then people from other countries. Although stereotyping and predispositions are not good to go on, but having most of the accused terrorists as American citizens is something that may need to be changed.
The second finding that they had was about the judicial system and how it is rarely depicted. It states that there were 11 cases of forced entry but only one of the times they stated they had a warrant and another time a warrant was shown. On top of that 87% of the time lawyers were not present during the time of interrogation. Only 2 suspects in all of the episodes actually received a lawyer. Of the 56% of suspected terrorists that were taken into custody, none of them were read their Miranda rights. This is very surprising and this is what leads to American’s getting a twisted view of what the laws really are and if police and government agents can really do that. Granted the law may be boring compared to an action-packed shooting scene, but to put a more accurate spin on what should happen during an arrest or a courtroom is needed.
The third finding that they had was about how shows how these TV shows want to depict an intense pursuit of the criminal. Only one of the suspects in all the episodes was taken to trial. It seems as though gunfire and explosions get better ratings than a courtroom scene. The fourth and final finding that they had was about how primetime television depicts a surprisingly sterilized version of the war on terror. It states that 51% of Americans support racial profiling at airports and in these TV shows many of the agents are against it. Also it states that 63% of the American public supports the use of aggressive interrogation tactics to get information. In these episodes, there were only two government agents that actually used some of these tactics, one of them being waterboarding. In addition, there was one rogue interrogation that involved torcher and violence. This was surprising because torcher might get more views the way the violence, explosions and gunfire is so popular. However, in America it may be a taboo subject that some people just don’t want to watch.
Television and the real world are two really different things. Television depicts that the U.S. government has a really hard time fighting the war on terror, while in reality we are very effective with fighting it. Although America’s security might be very high in places such as airports and security, we do a good job of finding bombs or stopping terrorist’s attacks and we even killed Osama Bin Laden. This remix does a very good job of completely showing what the entertainment industry does to simply do what it is supposed to do, entertain. It really gets to the bottom of what is legitimacy in the shows and what is not. Although TV is mostly for entertainment purposes anyways, these primetime shows should be depicting more of a reality instead of just going for more of a showbiz value.