By Jamell Quiles
Dr. Christie sits in his office pondering the effects of overpopulation, wondering if anyone is going to do anything about it. He is gifted in science and can take action, so he does. Dr. Christie and his team begin working in the lab to create a virus that would spread quickly and harm young children around the country. Dr. Christie injected little rabbits with this virus, then sends them o to several petting zoos. As children go to these petting zoos, they are exposed to the virus. They get sick, then pass on. People at home quickly catch wind of this through the news. Parents are petrified and want to know what is causing this and what is the solution. Scared mothers and fathers soon target Dr. Christie demanding answers.
Dr. Christie smiles a little and realizes his plan is falling into place perfectly. The people want a solution, they’re desperate for their children’s lives. Of course, Dr. Christie has an answer for the people, a vaccine. He goes on live television barely with FDA approval, preaching the holy vaccine and that it will save everyone’s life. Hearing Dr. Christie say he has an answer causes a brand new hysteria. Everyone demands the vaccine. But what’s in it? They don’t even know, yet they itch for it. Vaccines begin to be mass-produced. Full with chemicals to make a person infertile. They will be unable to reproduce, to save the world from overpopulation. Dr. Christie did not have to force anyone to do anything. He placed them in a situation and the people reacted accordingly. The media can be utilized to control a person’s opinions on vaccines when using the right tactics and angles.
Before Dr. Christie from Utopia could get millions of people to take his vaccine, he had to manipulate their opinion on it. Dr. Christie’s outlet for this was the news. Daniel Catalan-Matamoros et al. researched to analyze what the media is saying about vaccines and determining if they are credible. Afterward, the researchers concluded,
“Negative messages and inaccurate information are frequent in media messages about vaccines or vaccination”. The media is successful with sending out false information about vaccines, causing people to make wrong decisions about vaccines. In Utopia, Dr. Christie didn’t spread negative messages, but he talked positively about the vaccine instead. In his case, he was still effective. The media is successful with this due to the number of people that watch the news and rely on it for information. In a
survey designed to capture the media’s influence on a person, Jim Kerr finds that 49.9% of 24,041 people rely on TV for their news and information. The survey also found that 48.50% of people consider trying a product or a service that is featured on Tv. This shows that the people that rely on TV for their information are also taking action on this and doing as the media says. This is exactly how Dr. Christie got people to want the vaccine after just simply talking about it on TV. Since so many people rely on the news and TV, the media can get away with brainwashing people and their opinions.
Dr. Christie and his team didn’t want people to notice that they are the source of everyone’s opinions on the vaccine. So he used tactics through media to execute. The news strategically organizes the stories they report to get you thinking about a subject in a certain way. In a book called The Mass Media and Public by Maxwell McCombs, the tactics used by the media are discussed. The author says, “Through their day-by-day selection and display of the news, editors and news directors focus our attention and influence our perceptions of what are the most important issues of the day”. This is saying that the media is already influencing us just by the news stories they decide to report that day. For example, in Utopia, in order to get the people scared enough to take a quickly-made vaccine, he released a virus that targets children which were reported instantly. They made sure to capture the kid’s suffering and how fast it was spreading. Dr. Christie also placed an emphasis on needing a vaccine so that the people would beg for it. McCombs also says, “Over time, the issues emphasized in news reports become the issues regarded as most important among the public”. This supports how Dr. Christie placed an emphasis on finding a solution, planting that idea in people’s heads, so everyone would talk about it. Since everyone was talking about it, and almost everyone had the same opinion on it due to Dr. Christie’s media coverage, it was the most important subject that they needed a solution to and were desperate enough to want to take the vaccine. By being sneaky with the way they alter a person’s opinions, they can gain people’s trust and continue to be “reliable”.
Dr. Christie’s orchestrated pandemic had many similarities to the way the COVID-19 pandemic played out. After a panic, everyone was quick to search for answers. But where they looked is not the most reliable source. Ayesha Anwar et al created an article discussing findings on the role of the media during the pandemic. They found that after the panic, “Mass media became the major source of information about the novel coronavirus”. They say that this is consistent with prior pandemics as well such as SARS and MERS. If something is your primary source of information, odds are that you will believe everything they say. Much like in Utopia, when the outbreak started, it panned to several families gathered around the TV eager to hear what is happening now. In the aspect of making people aware of the pandemic, the media does a fine job. It is when they tell people what to do about it is when it gets tricky. For example, Trevor Thomas et al says, in an article that analyzed news during a pandemic, “These examples serve to highlight the importance of media messaging, as the implications for non-compliance can have direct effects on public health”. This quote helps to support the fact that knowing about the current pandemic is important for public health. But in Utopia, this is not true about the vaccine aspect since the vaccine was harmful.
As stated previously, Dr. Christie didn’t spread negative opinions about the vaccine, he just stated false information. In order to understand Dr. Christie’s success, we have to talk about the specific spread of opinions on vaccines. Adam G Dunn et al created a study that followed the negative opinions on social media about a vaccine. They found that “The likelihood of a user posting a negative tweet after exposure to a majority of negative opinions was 37.78% compared to 10.92% for users who were exposed to a majority of positive and neutral tweets corresponding to a relative risk of 3.46”. Essentially, a negative opinion is more likely to be reiterated than a positive. This worked in Dr. Christie’s favor. Since his opinion on the vaccine was a good one, everyone just went with the flow of getting the vaccine. If his opinion was a bad one it is fair to say that people would pass that negative opinion along. There are many
opinions on vaccines and there is plenty of information on the internet that is hard to tell which is true and which is not. Jingwen Zhang et al also studied opinions on vaccines and found that “Fact-checking labels attached to misinformation posts made vaccine attitudes more positive compared to the misinformation control condition”. This could be a solution to future public-health-related issues. But, since not many things are fact-checked, not everyone looks for that, especially in a time of hysteria.
On the other hand, in the article, “Utopia and the power of the conspiracy thriller” the author talks about the dark conspiracies about pandemics in Utopia and how this negatively aects the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, people have created opinions based on their experiences. In past pandemics, this may have also been the case. But in this day and age, we are able to express these thoughts through social media and have our ideas read by others. The text says, “Whether the issue is Covid-19, climate change or US politics, it seems like we have never lived in an age more filled with conspiracy theories, where these narratives have become a way to explain the biggest problems our planet faces”. This talks about how many “conspiracy theories” there are floating around in social media. The author says that in recent times, conspiracies have become more abundant. Although there are more theories, it is because it is easier to express them now.
While there are many new conspiracy theories throughout the world, it is hard to tell whether these theories were always there, or are just now coming to light. The availability of technology is increasing and it provides a platform to express ideas.
Although most of us may find it inevitable to have unlimited access to the internet, in some parts of the world, people are not allowed the same privileges. In both scenarios, a person’s opinions can be influenced either by control or by discrete tactics. In recent years, opinions on vaccines are widespread through the media by using tactics and angles.
Author Bio My name is Jamell Quiles. I am a freshman nursing student at Bloomfield College. I take an interest in science and I love to learn more about it. During my writing courses I have also found a way to talk about science. In my writing I have been focused on pandemics and vaccines. I am also an athlete. I play softball for Bloomfield College.
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