Forum Post: Interesting story
Posted 12 years ago on May 12, 2012, 9:04 p.m. EST by stevebol
(1269)
from Milwaukee, WI
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I'm not sure if this relates to the Occupy movement directly but this story really stuck in my mind after reading it a couple years ago. This came from a book about videography of all things.......................................... In the mid 70's a guy who worked as a film lighting man decided to make a pro-union documentary film. It was low budget and he funded it. He filmed a guy from the UAW giving a speech in the parking lot at an auto plant. When he finished the film he sent it to authorities in the former USSR and it was shown on their public television. The story goes that everyone responded the same way. The workers can afford to drive these new cars? I guess they didn't know they could afford new cars and obviously they didn't know about the philosophy of Henry Ford and many other things about the US. If this story is true maybe that was a wake up for people in the USSR just as the bailouts were a wake up for many in the US. There's no way of telling how much impact this had on the psych of people in the USSR at that time or if it even took place. Still, I have to wonder if this wasn't their breakout moment which led to the fall of the wall, end of the cold war, etc... The author of the book on videography was trying to point out that an image may have an intended effect but what is in the background, in this case the new cars can have a much bigger effect.
I had a friend who fled communist Czechoslovakia. He had seen pictures of slums in the U.S. and figured they were just propaganda. When he finally arrived in America, he was disconcerted to find out they were true.
Someone once told me there are two America's; one is very beautiful, filled with riches, a land of milk and honey. The other one is of dirty poverty, drugs, violence, and everything bad.
Having lived here most of my life, I find it to be true..
In the US there can be drastic differences from street to street and block to block. That's how north Milwaukee is where I live.
I saw a great piece years ago on Nickelodeon about the media and people's perceptions. The camera crew followed a girl around on a normal school day. Afterwards, two versions were produced, one portraying the young girl as a sweet, normal child and the other, a spoiled troublemaker. The only difference was in the editing and narration. Same girl, same day, same everything, but two completely different pictures. All in the editing and dialog. This sums up MSM in a nutshell.