Watching & Responding: DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y discusses the worldwide history of airplane hijacking. Through this film, viewers learn how the increasing media attention given to hijackers has, to an extent, led them to become more and more deadly. The film also shows how through time, hijackers and the media have relied onto each other to a point viewers are able to capture and watch every minute of the action. The screen grab I have chosen depicts the latter. The hijacked plane being discussed during this screen grab is the Sabena aircraft, in which was successfully rescued. The image features people running towards the rescued aircraft. The lack of focus shows how the media at this time has evolved to live coverage, giving outsiders a glimpse of a current tragedy, keeping them updated every second. This further expands the issue through how though live coverage has its good aspects of keeping people up to date, consumers started to rely on actual, real life tragedies for entertainment. While the entirety of the film uses various colored and black and white clips from different sources and scenarios, it seems that the Sabena aircraft hijack only featured live media coverage during the time and aftermath of the hijack.

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