While reading the "Allegory of the Cave", I came across an instance where it may help us understand media and media influence. An example that stood out to me in the text was, "tell me do you think that these men would have seen anything of themselves or of one another except the shadows cast from the fire on the wall of the cave that fronted them? How could they, he said, if they were compelled to hold their heads unmoved through life?"(1963, p. 747). In my opinion, this can help us understand media and the media's influence because we often times act as though we have been compelled to hold our heads unmoved through different bias opinions. The internet, specifically, has the tendency to do this to us. With all of the factual and not so factual information out there, often times I have come across people who cannot turn their heads to another opinion because of all the *excuse my language* bullshit that is being put out there. The media can be so influential, yet it can also pose a threat to what is considered true. So many false statements are being made in our media, and unfortunately, people have the tendency to not be able to decipher a factual statement from a false one.
References:
Plato: The Allegory of the Cave, P. Shorey trans. from Plato: Collected dialogues, ed. Hamilton and Cairns, Random House, 1963.
