Week 10-
Homecoming: a starstudded psychological thriller in podcast form
in the post-Serial world, drama podcasts have been upping their game and now Homecoming (iTunes, Gimlet Media) takes the format to another level.
It’s impossible not to become immersed in the opening episode of the psychological thriller. Catherine Keener stars as Heidi Bergman, a caseworker from an experimental facility who’s helping soldiers integrate back into the community. She’s focusing on Walter Cruz (Star Wars’ Oscar Isaac), who is trying to live a normal life and keep his inner darkness at bay. It’s not easy, as he reveals his thoughts about harming himself: “I saw the desk and I just imagine leaning way back and slamming my forehead into the corner as hard as I could, over and over, into my eye,” he tells her. “But that was an extreme. It’s not like that all the time.”
Bergman is keen to take a holistic approach, which is not good news for Colin Belfast, her take-no-prisoners boss, played by David Schwimmer. He is heard rushing through the airport, tripping over a little girl’s backpack as he instructs Bergman to “get really granular with all that shit”. He even provides a moment of light relief. “This is a walkway!” he rages, incredulously. “All right. Goodbye. Good talk.”
Here's the truth: 'fake news' is not social media's fault
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, having initially denied that fake news was problematic, now wants us to believe that “we’ve been working on this problem for a long time.” Really? So it is a problem after all?
As for Google, its chiefs seem to think fake news will be strangled to death by removing advertising tools that enable sites to make money by spreading lies.
But the fake news phenomenon is not only driven by shysters seeking profit. Some of it is propagandistic (as was clear during the US presidential election) and some of it is simply mischievous.
Politicians have no right to complain. Down the years so many of them have played fast and loose with the truth. Their spin doctors turned lying into an art form.
This year’s elections on either side of the Atlantic confirmed that we may, sadly, be living in a post-truth society.
Americans have elected a lying president in Donald Trump. Britons have voted to leave the European Union in a campaign noted for abundant lies.
Mainstream media has been blindsided by the lying phenomenon. Cynics will surely say that its chiefs are upset by the rise of competing liars who appear to do the job so much better than them.
No comments:
Post a Comment