where the necessary devices are affordable, and production and
postproduction processes are accomplishable for a large portion of the
population and not just professionals, has the potential to provoke, in the
short term, the ‘democratization’ of cinema. In fact, the quality of the image
is not necessarily impoverished by a low budget film, but the technological
creation of (un)reality may well be. Thus, although the economic and
ideological influence of the film industry is still crucial in our understanding
of the world through films, today we are in a position to affirm that cinema is
not such a medium of privilege; it is (almost) accessible to anyone who wishes
to transmit ideas.
Mass media, like cinema, has been deeply influenced by the
development of technology, and, simultaneously, have contributed to the
confusion between reality and unreality. The appearance of digital media and
new ways of communication such as the Internet has provoked new means of
reaching audiences and the possibility of efficiently manipulating the message
with ‘credibility’. This is metaphorically illustrated in The Matrix which
achieves, in Morpheus’ words, a ‘world that is pulled over your eyes to blind
you from the truth’. The truth of being, allegorically speaking, a ‘slave’ in
total control is realized. Mass media does not only take advantage of the
technological evolution but also of its social repercussions and our ‘naïve’
understanding of such phenomena. Furthermore, it is essential to preserve a
certain grade of diversity of thought. Our society has always evolved thanks
to the confrontation of different perspectives, but the recent tendency to
‘unify’ society through technological media which are able to reach the
majority of the population can imply a cultural failure. We should respect and
maintain alternative attitudes and behaviours if we want to avoid the
possibility of becoming simple cogs in a machine in which our function will be
to do and consume what ‘we are being told’.
The future of our society depends on how we deal with technological
progress and the new forms of (un)reality. If we are able to have control over
the evolution and development of technology and have dominion over virtual
spaces we will succeed in the most important ‘battle’. This is indeed the
battle that humanity loses in films such as The Matrix and The Terminator
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