‘Akrasia’ in New Media: A Case Study on Charlie Brooker’s TV Series Black Mirror
Résumé
“The medium is the message” Marshall McLuhan. Indeed, media, as Marshall McLuhan has stated, is more important than the message it carries. It establishes the ideas, the culture and the reality we believe in and molds our minds to certain aspects of that said reality accordingly. The 21st century is the age of information and media is its vehicle. One may ask then, how does this vehicle circulate information and how does it affect us on a socio-psychological cultural level? TV Series have become the most prominent form of entertainment of the New Media in streaming platforms such as Netflix. However, similar to all media, they carry a message that requires to be deconstructed. Charlie Brooker’s TV Show Black Mirror tackles a series of independent episodes that portray a dystopian world where often, media has gone awry. Such episodes may include “The National Anthem”, which is an episode that exposes the effect of several media on individuals such as Internet, Television, YouTube and social media platforms. This article will attempt to bring an in-depth analysis of this episode to shed light on the psychological and cultural influence of media over the individual through the philosophical concept of ‘Akrasia’ as well as how media portrays and encourages this behavior.