Jane Denson, 10/15

        After reflecting on this week's readings, the correlation between Baudrillard & Zizek's ideas surrounding the desert of the real became more apparent and led me to thinking more critically about the sensationalization of news from the media, as well as how images may be manipulated in order to convey a massively impactful event in a certain way. I also remember when we discussed terrorism in the media and fake news in CMC 100, which offered me better clarity about the type of potential that the information being spread to the public has to become distorted and how easy it can be to create a false narrative. While these two theorists' words about the desert of the real, the simulacra, and the divergent types of images that exist are complex, what I came to understand from them is that in this day and age, it is hard to recognize what is truly real, since we tend to construct our realities around a series of images, usually controlled by the media. Looking at the past can help elucidate these notions presented by Baudrillard & Zizek. Take the Communist scare in Hollywood in the early 1950s for example. I'm sure the media played a vital role in relaying everything to the public, which includes making accusations of who was a Communist at the time. I have previously read about how Lucille Ball, a prominent figure in the television industry during the 1950s, was accused of being a Communist, which was completely fabricated (by the media). Was it a publicity stunt? Was it a sinister tactic by the media to place blame on a celebrity in an effort to make them look controversial? Was it to scare the public (by accusing an unsuspecting influential figure)? With that being said, it is crucial to be mindful of the images the media presents to the masses. Some display the truth, some display a twisted version of the truth, some are false, and some are completely made up.