Fade in
The camera pans across a dark room; an unmade bed comes into view. The scene shifts downward and shows a crumpled figure, a woman, lying on the floor. Dead or sleeping? The dark puddle beside her offers a clue. The camera reveals a smaller figure (a child?) lying nearby, also apparently lifeless. In the corner, sitting in a chair, a bright light from behind illuminates a man… his head is propped up by one hand, the other holds a gun.
This man has just killed his family because his Internet start up has failed and ruined them financially. The company failed because it could not get enough precious bandwidth – because of (dramatic music wells) NET NEUTRALITY.
OK I won't quit my day job, I am not angling for a screenwriting gig. I just thought this vignette could introduce a topic I read about in the NY Times. As the article reports:
The Harmony Institute wants to change your mind — at the movies.
In the last few weeks, a little-noticed nonprofit with big ideas about
the persuasive power of movies and television shows quietly began an
initiative aimed at getting filmmakers and others to use the insights
and techniques of behavioral psychology in delivering social and
political messages through their work.
It cites movies like "China Syndrome" and (much more recently) "The Day After Tomorrow" as examples of movies that helped influence public opinion on important issues (nuclear meltdown and global warming perils, respectively). The article continues:
So far, the group has not done much, except to organize its own thinking
and to issue a recent report, with backing from the Pacific Foundation
and the advocacy group Free Press, called “FTW! Net Neutrality for the
Win: How to Use Entertainment and the Science of Influence to Save Your
Internet.”
The report suggests, mundanely enough, that people can be persuaded to
support net
neutrality if they see story lines about children who fall behind
in school because they lack access to the Web, or about small-business
owners who “risk financial ruin” when they cannot reach customers
because a site is blocked or slowed down.
Mr. Johnson said the institute focused first on net neutrality mostly
because it had interested backers in Free Press and the Pacific
Foundation, though he also finds the issue to be both important and
little understood. But the report also promises a sophisticated attempt
to change attitudes on a range of issues … by using applied behavioral science.
