THE POWER OF THE MEDIA

Let’s face it. Aren’t we all a little bit pleasure-seaking? It satisfies us however other people are being exposed or expose theirselves, how they live their lives. We want to know how they handle sometimes ridiculous, sometimes serious issues. What do they do in their free time, what jobs do they have and how’s their family situation? Are they single, divorced, famous, beautiful, ugly, happy? We want to know everything about anyboy.

In reality shows we bet on people to win, we vote for them according to how far they go, how much they can stand no matter how absurd, risible, stupid or unscalable the task they have to manage is.

So how far away is our media world from the one in the Hunger Games? What differs us from the audience and the people there?

To answer this questions, I would like to compare the “Hunger Games” with “I’m a celeb, get me out of here!”.

1. The tributes/candidates

Junglecamp

• 10 candidates
• celebrities who volunteer for the show (can give up at all times by saying "I'm a celeb, get me out of here")
• 18+

Hunger Games

• 24 tributes
• unvoluntarily chosen (volunteering possible)
• some trained their whole lifes for this challenge (secretly), some thrown into the arena completely unprepared
• aged between 12-18

2. The challenge

Junglecamp

• collect stars to get food and luxury goods
• convince the audience to vote for your win by managing disgusting and dangerous tasks

Hunger Games

• convince the sponsors to get you necessary goods like medicine, food, water etc.
• kill your opponents to be the last standing tribute for winning the Games

3. The prize

Junglecamp

• people get payed for their participation
• they get a bonus if they win
• (extra) publicity

Hunger Games

• improvement of their living conditions
• money, fame, honor
• no more worries

4. The intention of the show

Junglecamp

• entertainment
• amusement

Hunger Games

• reminder of the Capitols power
• keep the people in the Capitol satisfied by entertaining them
• keep the district people under control (they can’t do anything against the governments decisions)
• punish the residents for their uprisings (things that happended long before they were even born)

5. The price

Junglecamp

• loss of privacy
• reputation (because the show is intellectually undemanding)
• dignity

Hunger Games

• psychic trauma
• emotional distress
• life

If you read the above comparisons you become aware of how much we have in common with the people in Panem. We accept the violation of other peoples minds and lives just to be entertained. We make them do things they don’t want to do.

“We are different: We don’t force people to kill each other! People volunteer for going to the junglecamp to earn money and publicity!”

So don’t some of the kids volunteer? They sign up for tesserae to facilitate their families a better life, accepting that their names will be in the reapingbox more often and the chance of being chosen increases. They try to win in the arena to make a better life for their loved ones possible. It’s their intention to improve the image of their family in their district and whole Panem, not mainly but in some kind. Like the people in the junglecamp they wanna earn something, not lose.

The biggest differences between the two shows are that the candidates in the camp are adults. who are there by choice, not kids, who are chosen without their acceptance, like the tributes in the Hunger Games.

But how long does it take until the attraction of todays tv shows dwindles away, until someone comes up with the idea to force people to do things like this in punishment? For example, that criminals have to fight against each other until death and the winner regains his freedom and independence. Just for entertainment. Live. 24 hours, 7 days a week. Will we watch?

How far will people go to be entertained, to forget their own problems, to flee from reality?

Will they be able to distinguish reality from the illusory world anymore?

And who will be untroubled by this shows, no matter whether as spectator or candidate?

We will know soon.

Let me know what you think about this comparison and how far people will go,

AA

"I'm a celeb, get me out of here" challenge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2mW5TNaevA

"The Hunger Games" final challenge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ1R8QH1Nuc

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