Kelley McLellan
3 / 3 / 16
Advanced Mass Communication
Blog #1: Blackfish
Social
media can make or break a person, organization, or in this case a business.
SeaWorld in the past two or so years has undergone major backlash after a
documentary was released about their business with killer whales and dolphins.
Once the documentary Blackfish was
released, people all around the world saw the horrible confinements the animals
were kept in and the continuous cover-ups SeaWorld kept putting on. Social
media has many advantages in this situation because the word about SeaWorld
spread so quickly that the world knew about it. In today’s society social media
has many advantages and disadvantages, however with the release of this
documentary, Blackfish, the use of
social networking was very affective and continues to be long lasting.
The Blackfish documentary focuses on how
SeaWorld is training killer whales to do tricks and performances for audiences.
What the public didn’t know about these orcas is that they are captured from
the wild and put into small tanks with other orcas. These large whales swim
over 100 miles per day; so putting them into small tanks gives the orcas more
incentive to be aggressive towards other whales and even the trainers. SeaWorld
has had over 70 accidents with the trainer and whale relationship, some of them
even ending in deaths. However, SeaWorld tried covering this up and blaming the
trainers for errors they did wrong, instead of blaming the killer whales.
The release
of this film was a major event because it brought upon lots of attention to
SeaWorld. Soon after it was released in 2013, SeaWorld saw profits decrease an
astonishing 84%. Customers heard the
truth behind the conditions, secrets, and misleading facts. In 2015, The Guardian released a statement
saying, “Following the
release of the documentary, attendance collapsed and the company lost more than
half of its market value on Wall Street and its former CEO was forced out.” (Neate,
2015) The article goes on about how SeaWorld has recently launched a marketing
campaign to help their crushed appearance. After this film was released,
SeaWorld then had to think of a strategic plan to recover from this dramatic
downfall.
This film that was released brings
about bigger issues in society. The film is very important to look at because
of all the attention it has gotten within the past few years. There has been
such a drastic shift in social media where big issues gain national attention.
This shift is an advantage in this particular case because the word gets out
quickly. It is an advantage because of the spreadability that happened when it
was filmed. If social media wasn’t that big of a deal in today’s society, it
wouldn’t be blown up as much as it was.
Lets create
a scenario where this film wasn’t released and people kept going on with their
daily lives at this attraction site. Trainers would apply for a job at SeaWorld
and not know the danger they are getting themselves in. They wouldn’t know that
the deaths that occurred were because of the whales being agitated and confined
for months on end. Tourists and children wouldn’t know the truth about the
safety of the whales and the people as well. Creating this image in our head of
a perfect world at SeaWorld is something that can only happen in dreams. Now
that everyone knows the truth and reality of this park, people won’t go back
there thinking it is the best place on earth.
Think for a
second, of how many documentaries you’ve seen within your lifetime so far. If
you are like me, you haven’t seen no more than two. Documentaries are not as
popular as other movies or YouTube videos, or any other source of mainstream
networking. In a video, the director of the documentary said that she hopes
people use this film as a tool. Therefore, people will use this film to inform
others about the truth and spread the word about the parks.
A journal
article that was discussing the effects of Blackfish
was saying how social media could be a double-edged sword. This documentary
could’ve been great for getting the word out there, or it could’ve hurt them.
Obviously, with the release of the film, SeaWorld lost many customers as well
as profit. “The online Blackfish
battle is a great example of how the source medium – the film itself – has
been able to reach a far bigger audience through
social media. It also
exemplifies the nature of our interaction with media: we now both expect and
demand to experience a film (or TV show, video game, etc.) as cross-platform
viewers and participants.” (Brammer, 2015) A lot of participants became
engaged with protests and activism once this film was released. People realized
that these killer whales were being held in small confinements, which in a
bigger picture made them very agitated and therefore doing acts of aggression.
When looking at this documentary,
the medium in this is “hot”, not “cold” because hot medium has low effort in
determining meaning. Examples of this are movies and television, so this film
would fit directly into this category. People can easily determine the meaning
in this film and gain an opinion and reaction while watching it. Some people
may even watch this an gain an emotional connection with the themes in the film
then share this with other people, therefore gaining a more advantage within
the social media spectrum.
This film can connect with other
issues in society because there is definitely lots of issues in our culture
that need to be addressed. A documentary like Blackfish could help start the trend of other films being made
about a certain industry. Looking at the bigger picture here we see that this
one film made a huge impact on the way people view SeaWorld.
After doing an analysis on Blackfish and seeing the affects that it
had on the public resulted in SeaWorld losing lots of its profit. The affect
social media has on society is growing more and more because of the
spreadability within the networks. People are able to share posts and talk
about certain issues online which create a new networking between people and
businesses. Blackfish has shown how
important social media can be due to the attention it has gotten with the past
two or so years. And it just goes to show what else can be brought to our
attention with networking and social media.
Works Cited
Blackfish Documentary
Brammer,
Rebekah. "Activism Antagonist: The Blackfish Effect." Screen
Education 76
(2015): 73-79. Communication & Mass Media Complete.
Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
Cowperthwaite,
Gabriela. "My Film Blackfish Plunged SeaWorld into Crisis – but It’s
Not Only Killer Whales We Must Protect." The
Guardian. 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 6
Mar. 2016.
Neate,
Rupert. "SeaWorld Sees Profits Plunge 84% as Customers Desert
Controversial Park." The Guardian. 6 Aug.
2015. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
I very much agree with you that social media can basically make or break an entire business or organization. I remember way back when I heard on the news that a Seaworld trainer was killed while working and I remember thinking that it wasn't really the trainer's fault, but rather the organization and situation as a whole. When wild animals are confined and ultimately not wild anymore, of course they are going to lash out. Humans were trained over years and years on end how to act with others and how to treat others. Whales have only been with other animals living in the wild, and that is how they are used to living. Going to Seaworld is basically a magical and unreal experience for little kids and adults alike. But now that many people know the truth about what happens behind the scenes at Seaworld, audiences will think a little bit differently. Sure, there are still visitors who will tweet and Instagram photos about their good and bad experiences at Seaworld, but those social media posts can't cover up an entire problem regarding these wild animals and how they are treated. As stated above, social media can make or break an organization, and for awhile it most definitely broke the reputation of Seaworld. I agree with you in relating to your statements about how if no one was on social media, this problem wouldn't have even problem, so in regards to this, social media is most certainly an amazing tool that we have.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Kelley! I like that you bring up the point of how if this documentary did not exist then trainers would apply for jobs at SeaWorld completely unaware of danger present. Its true that social media did play a big role in helping to spread knowledge about the documentary, and therefore about the danger and harmful conditions present at SeaWorld. I think that the Its so important to keep in mind the fact that we as consumers also have power when it comes to where we choose to go, so to see that there has been a reduction in profits of 84% just goes to show how successful the documentary was in spreading the truth about the harm caused by SeaWorld.
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