Kelley McLellan
4 / 9 / 16
Advance Mass Communication
Blog #2: Miracles from Heaven
We live in a world where bad things
happen to good people and we can’t control the outcome of it. The only thing we
can do is pray and hope that things get better for the people we love. We also
live in a world where miracles miraculously happen with no explanation for it. The
movie Miracles from Heaven is based
on a true story where a little girl, Anna, has an incurable disorder. However,
one day she falls from a tree and is somehow cured because of the fall. Her
mother wanted to share the family’s story with their church because it
definitely was a miracle and she wanted people to know never to give up hope,
even though at times she did.
This movie is focused on one family
whose lives changed forever when Anna gets better. But it also focuses on
people questioning the story of Anna and how she got better from falling from a
tree. Towards the end of the movie people started to question if she was even
sick to begin with and if she was just putting on a show to get attention. Of
course when she was better there were news reporters and television crews in
her hometown asking her about her story. Her story went viral. The media
attention that this family had received was huge. People wanted to know more
about Anna’s story and how she suddenly became cured after falling.
When something like this gets media
attention there are always people out there that may think differently of the
situation. People in Anna’s church accused her of lying and pretending, just so
that she can get popular and get media attention. However, when watching this
movie, it never crossed my mind that this little girl who was sick, was putting
on an act to get publicity. People have looked into this more in depth and
realized that, “many researchers have confined their attention to the narrower interpretation
of change (from a pro to a con position) and this has undoubtedly contributed
to the idea, still widely held in some quarters, that the media have little
influence.” (Halloran, 1970) People can think of something in a positive manner
and then all of a sudden it can change negatively. People who accused Anna of
lying were putting other thoughts into the heads of people who loved her. This
can be difficult to hear in an instance because throughout the movie you can
see that Anna was suffering a great deal.
When Anna was sick in the hospital
she met a little girl who had cancer. Ben was the father of the little girl and
he was a journalist for one of the Boston newspapers. Once he had heard the
news about Anna falling from a tree, on television, he knew that he needed to
go see this family’s hometown for himself. It is simply amazing how fast word
can get out about an accident, in a small town in Texas. But that is where
media plays an important role in telling a story. Without media people would
not be aware of news storied like this one.
Another aspect that made this movie
more remarkable is the fact that Miracles
from Heaven is based on a true story. A family went through the pain and
agony of what was shown in the movie. Anna went through a long and consistent
process of pain and seeing doctor after doctor. The making of this movie would
give hope to others who are struggling to find reasons to believe in miracles.
Christy Beam, the mother of Anna stated that she was, “so overwhelmed that our story can impact the world, can make a
difference.” (Schiffer, 2016) The family wanted to share their story to others
and what better way than making a movie. Looking at the bigger picture here,
without media and television, people would not be able to hear and see these
stories like this one. Television and films give people the opportunity to
share their story the way they want to.
This movie is based on the framing theory, which in essence is the
media focusing on certain events that take place within the story and then the
media adds in meaning to those events. The main points in Miracles from Heaven are when Anna gets sick, the family life she
has, and the fall from the tree. Each one of these events has a greater meaning
to them, which make the movie more emotional for the audience. Media is very
influential because it can put in the events people want to see and feel
connected with.
Another media influence is uses and gratification. This looks not at what
the media does to us but what we do with the media. The part in the movie where
the Beam family suddenly gets all the media attention must have been
overwhelming. But what the family had done with the media was they told their
story. Anna Beam saw God and he healed her when she fell down the tree. This
media influence is crucial to look at when analyzing this movie because it is
what the family did with the media that makes it great. Even with the negative
comments they still managed to stay strong and believe. With a story like this
there will always be a side that contradicts what actually happens, and its
unfortunate, but that’s also how life works.
Media has a huge influence on events because without the media, the
event wouldn’t be publicized and blown up. The way people deal with the media
is another important thing to look at. The Beam family became the center of all
the media when Anna’s fall into the tree went viral. Television crews were at
their house as well as news reporters, reporting on the breaking news. The way
that the family had dealt with the negative comments about how some people
thought Anna was faking the whole thing was remarkable. They pushed it aside
and just wanted to get the word out to the public on how this miracle changed
Anna’s life forever.
Halloran,
James D. The Effects of Television. HarperCollins Distribution Services,
14
May 1970. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Schiffer,
Kathy. Aleteia. Rep. 9 Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Sundar,
S. Shyam, and Anthony M. Limperos. "Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications
for New Media." Journal of Broadcasting &
Electronic Media 57.4 (2013): 504-25. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
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