The Mass Media and the Futile Search for Extraterrestrial Life Essay

Sure weve all seen movies and read allows about foreigner beings landing on the Earth and conquering the human race. And millions of us moderate viewed TV shows like The X-files and Third Rock From the Sun. These forms of popular culture touch a common thread -- extraterrestrial life. Yet the underlying interrogatory is, does the spate media take extraterrestrialism seriously? Or do they mock it? Or do they simply exaggerate its credibility? In the majority of these cases, the mass media not only takes on the third mode of exaggeration, it shifts focus from more than important and serious issues such as extraterrestrial life at the cellular level. The media loves to play with the minds of viewers, making them believe in something which realistically is believably untrue.The early history of extraterrestrial life traces back to the 1940s and 1950s. Stories of unknown quantity abduction sprang up everywhere becoming a general trend. At the time, unknown region abduction was d efined as the forced removal of a person from his /her somatic location to another place. It may include an altered state of ken for the purpose of physical, surgical or psychological procedures performed by non-humans. After the abduction, the person is returned to his or her physical location and frequently has little or no recollection of the experience.Where did this all begin?It began in 1898 when H.G. Welles published his book The War of The Worlds. The time period was one of huge tension and army armament. This was a marker that World War I was going to reach out. Welles novel addressed that very dread. The aliens were from the future and were perceived as an evil threat to mankind. But books like these and TV shows like The X-Files atomic number 18 always a projection... ...Visitors? Frank McConnell,Commonweal Volume 123 20 Nov.22, 1996BibliographyBooks Sagan, Carl. Cosmos Contact. blanch Blue Dot A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Kieffer, H.H. Mars University o f Arizona Press 1992 Articles Sagan, Carl. The try for Extraterrestrial manner. Scientific American. October 1994 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Scientific Quest of Hopeful Folly? hulk A Laboratory for Prebiological Organic Chemistry. Accounts of Chemical Research. July 1992 A Search for Life on Earth from the Galileo Spacecraft. Nature. October 21, 1993. McKay, David. Evaluating the Evidence for Past Life on Mars. web Sites SETI Institute Web Site http//www.seti-inst.edu/ http// www.abduct.com/experien.htm http//ntdwwaab.compuserve.com/homepages/Andy page/abduction.htm http.//www.gtm.net/geibdan/