Summary Of Blackfish By Kennedy Postman

In the deep waters of Seaworld and the deep readings in Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neli Postman states many opinions towards his ideas about how the television impacts society and the documentary Blackfish may be one to fit under one of those categories. Blackfish, a documentary created by Manny O Productions and CNN Films, produced this film with the goal of shedding light on the treatment of orcas in captivity, specifically focusing on Tilikum’s living conditions and the incidents of aggression towards trainers at SeaWorld. Inspite of that, throughout the documentary's goal of being educational towards its viewers lies a complex interplay of entertainment and information proclamation. To fully understand the hints of the documentary Blackfish,

On top of that there are many scenes throughout the film that contribute to the film's entertainment value, overshadowing its educational intent like, sensationalized storytelling that come from past trainers that used to work at Seaworld where they are interviewed and give their story to the documentary. In Postman's words, this idea of sensationalized storytelling would be broken down to, one, the Distortion of Reality. Postman would argue that the sensationalized storytelling in Blackfishes interviews distorts the reality of Seaworld orca captivity by emphasizing the viewers emotional impact over factual accuracy behind the information. He would contend that with prioritizing gripping narratives and dramatic imagery that the film displays through the interviews. Another quote from “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that we can relate to is, "Television does not extend or amplify literate culture. It attacks it... It does so by turning serious, complex issues into entertainment." (Postman, p. 87) What Postman is saying here is that the film will sometimes turn the important and serious content and edit it to fit an entrainment and emotional standard to keep the viewer. Also, the film would often focus the camera on the audiences at the show cheering towards the orca's tricks, driving away the “serious” form of it and showing the entrainment. In Blackfish they would often always talk about the negative approaches on how Seaworld went on dealing with the orca’s. They would always focus the camera on the orca itself so the view would just keep their eyes on the “saddening” orca that was “suffering” in a pool. While this is a valid way to go about it, it is not. The documentary would rarely speak out about the ways Seaworld went about it. Even some reviews of the documentary itself would point out the “misleading” and