Black Mirror

The series by Charlie Brooker for channel 4 is an incredibly astute insight into the realities of modern life. The episode 15 Million Merits in particular, I feel, really exhibits how the media is currently being thrown at us constantly. It is set in a world where virtuality is the new reality, everyone has a virtual self in the virtual world which they can buy new clothing, hairstyles and accessories for. People are forced to ride exercise bikes every day whilst playing virtual games in order to power some external world that is never really seen. It is their duty to do so, as well as their source of income (credits) which are charged for the most simple of tasks such as cleaning one's hands. Their rooms are cubes constructed from monitors which ceaselessly play adverts, varying from items which they can now purchase (materialism and mass marketing at its most grotesque) for their virtual self, to porn channels exploiting new young meat. Brooker’s creation is definitely worth watching and I believe illustrates Adorno’s and Baudrilard’s prophetic views that media is a malevolent controller of the masses, as well as the detrimental effects of consumerism. Full episode - Black Mirror - 15 Million Credits. The relevance of Brooker's artistic social commentary is suppported by Snipp-Walmsley's statement "Through internet chat rooms and discussion groups, we can create and remould our virtual selves, promoting an image that frequently has little basis in reality; through twenty-four hour news services we are bombarded with information to the point where the representation becomes more important than the events being represented" (Simulations and the loss of the 'real' In Waugh 2006:413).