Fahrenheit 451 Mass Media Analysis

Imagine that someone's knowledge is completely faked, everything they know was deliberately given to them by a government trying to stay in power. This description shows the extent of mass media in Montag’s life that is developed over the course of Fahrenheit 451. Mass Media is the distribution of information to large amounts of people. Furthermore, in Fahrenheit 451 the information they receive is either entirely useless or only a small part of the whole truth. It ties in with censorship, the government completely controls what people know and don’t know. In order to protect thoughts and opinions the government makes everything ludicrously fast, with no time to ponder information, or to even understand the information. The parts in Fahrenheit 451 that develop the theme of mass media the most are, the television walls, the seashell radios, and the end of the final chase. The idea of a television wall may really be coming true, Samsung has made a 110in. Tv, this is a very nerve-racking idea, as we approach the reality that is found in Fahrenheit 451. In many of the chapters with the walls, we learn that what is shown, doesn’t have any real meaning. We learn that the purpose of the walls are mostly to distract civilians from thinking in order to protect their fragmented society.

In Fahrenheit 451 Mildred and many other civilians use little radios that plug into their ears, much like wireless earbuds of our time. These radios have constant news and other broadcasts to keep the civillian’s minds occupied. The radios are often used by mildred to go to sleep, or at least are used instead of sleeping. They can be taken everywhere and so everyone who uses them gets a constant mind numbing source of information directly controlled by the government. Because of how many people use these earpieces, the government can broadcast media in mass with a high percent of the population hearing the