Rzeczywistość nie istnieje…? Media i nowoczesne technologie w społeczeństwie przyszłości na przykładzie serialu "Black Mirror"

• Main Author: Grzegorz Wójcik
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Published: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie 2016-11-01
• Series: Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia de Cultura
• Subjects: seduction by media; Black Mirror; sexualization of culture; dystopia
• Online Access: http://studiadecultura.up.krakow.pl/article/view/3356/2968

Released in 2011, the British science-fiction television series Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker, has gained viewers’ recognition across the world (confirmed by winning Best TV Movie/Mini Series at the International Emmy Awards in 2012 and the announcement of the 3rd season). Using ‘black humour’ and satire, the series in a defeatist manner portrays dark side of media development and its influence on the future society. In the article I will focus on the phenomena brought up by Black Mirror creators – characters seduced by media, which instead of making their lives happier bring only pain and humiliation; the need for constant surveillance as invoked by more and more advanced technologies; pleasure coming from spying on others’ suffering or progressing simulation of reality. To illustrate these phenomena I will apply, among others, the notions of Guy Debord, Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, and also Michel Foucault’s idea of the panopticon.