At the end of the film, the angry anchor was supposed to attack the unreasonableness of the TV system. But at the beginning, he was hijacked by so-called terrorists, and finally the protagonist of the movie of the company to which the TV station belongs appeared and saved it all. Finally, it was the anchor's turn to say something. But what he said was not to continue the previous topic of criticism of the television system and over-commercialization. Rather, American television culture has influenced terrorists, thereby protecting the American people from terrorist attacks.
This ending not only successfully diverted the previous serious topic, but also attracted attention to the funny movie promotion. The whole scene was thrilling and exciting, and naturally attracted the attention of many people. This is the result that TV bosses are most looking forward to.
Regarding TV programs, the book "Entertainment to Death" has made interesting comments. The author Bozeman believes that TV advances through continuous pictures and does not give people the opportunity to think. The dissemination of pictures and images of TV has led to the fact that in TV programs, the most attractive thing is not the quality of the content, but whether the pictures are good-looking, and entertainment programs have an advantage. At the same time, advertisements inserted in TV news programs will also dispel people's in-depth attention to an event.
Contrasted with the ending of The Onion Movie, Postman's assertion seems to illustrate the point. Such a serious topic for TV anchors is the damage to newsworthiness of over-commercialisation of TV (TV is a business). Unfortunately, this issue cannot be discussed too much at all. They made that arrangement in anticipation that the TV anchor wouldn't make the headlines about the movie's promotion.
What else can they do if they expect that the TV anchor won't do what they want? It may be to force this person to leave, to be transferred from his post, or to simply shut down the show.
At the end of the film, the audience is so nervous and excited, it also makes people reflect. Should viewers be given whatever shows they like, or is TV the medium only suited for delivering that kind of news to viewers?
This also brings to mind the current social media. An important feature of social media is that it forces people to keep refreshing. Over time, the purpose of people using social media is no longer just to see information, but to desire the feeling of refreshing information. Under the urging of this constant refresh, do we still have the patience to read those long articles with a lot of text, which may discuss very serious issues? Or is social media only suitable for posting headlines, pictures, and short videos that don’t require much brainpower?
There is a saying, called shallow TV. So can it be said now, shallow social media?
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