Network Communication

The movie Don’t Look Up from 2021 relates greatly to the topic discussed in class, Network Communications. Much of the movie revolves around how people communicate and how information is passed around. Some of the parallels between the movie and the topic discussed in the text include social media platforms such as Twitter, and how they contribute to the spread of information, political activism, internet censorship, and false information.

Social Media

Social media has a large presence throughout the movie. Its biggest use in the movie is to show society’s focus on unimportant things in the media. For example, after Dr. Mindy’s and Dibiasky’s interview with the news outlet, the media focuses on their reaction to the news hosts trying to keep their viewers happy and content rather than informed.

Political Activism

The movie also shows parallels to network communications through political activism. This is shown when the current president is concerning herself with how she will look for the next election. Her image on the internet and in the eyes of voters becomes her biggest priority, so that she will be able to remain in office and hold her power.

False Information

Another similarity between the topic of network communications and the movie is the presence and spread of false information. At the start of the movie, the head of NASA, a proponent for the president, is told to come out to the media and say that Dr. Mindy's and Dibiasky's claims about the comet colliding with the earth are false. Although the president does show her support of Dr. Mindy and Dibiasky through a national announcement afterwards, a large portion of the media is still skeptical and doesn't even believe the comet exists. Later on in the movie, many people and political figures are shown trying to ignore the problem of a massive comet on its way to collide with the earth. On the internet, they actively try to make people believe that it is not a problem, using the hashtag #dontlookup on social media. The movie's portrayal of the spread of false information reflects that of the real world. A study on the spread of true and false news online from 2006 to 2017 shows that false news spreads much faster and deeper than true news [1]. 

References

[1] Vosoughi, Soroush, et al. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science.Org, 9 Mar. 2018, www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap9559. 

[2] Michael J. Quinn, Ethics for the Information Age, (Pearson, September 15 2020)