How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?

Welcome back to my blog, for probably the biggest blog post I have written. This one has it all; it has explosions, television, war, culture, the Grand Canyon, and a freaky little convenience store called Omega Mart.

This project is almost a sequel to one of the first projects we did this year, all about the Manhattan Project, and the development of the nuclear bomb. As part of the trip, about half of the class went on a field study to New Mexico to visit Los Alamos and other key sites within the Manhattan Project. This time, we are focusing on the later years of the nuclear weapon development, from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki all the way through the end of the Cold War. Part of the learning for this trip involved taking the other half of the class, including myself, in another field study to Arizona and Nevada to learn about various atomic test sites and museums. I will probably end up doing a follow-up blog post going more in depth on the trip, so be sure to come back for that one.

This is maybe the longest PLP project we have done, starting all the way back before spring break, when we were assigned a book to read while school was out. The book is Hiroshima, by John Hersey, a detailed account of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima told from the perspective of 6 survivors. I’m not a huge reader but this is probably the best book we have read for PLP. Once we got back from spring break, Ms. Willemse dropped a nuclear bomb of information on us; we would be developing a second brain through a note taking system called a Zettelkasten. Zettelkasten is a German word that directly translates to note box. It’s a simple but also complex system that involves making notes in 3 categories; Fleeting Notes, notes taken while a lot of information is given to you, Literature Notes, notes that summarize the main ideas of a piece of content, and Permanent Notes, which are original and permanent thoughts on a topic. This is a system we would be fully immersed in, making a dense collection of notes throughout the project. At around this time, we started reading a second book, Fallout, by Todd Strasser, which is about a group of people living in a fallout shelter after a nuclear attack. This book is made for a younger audience which made it more entertaining to read but some of the more important ideas needed for this project weren’t really there. 

We also started watching a documentary series, Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War, a Netflix production on the Cold War and its impacts today. We ended up watching the first half of the series as a basis for the research we would do later and I really enjoyed this series. This is probably one of the best documentary series I have seen and I would really like to watch the rest.

By now, we were ready to start our main project inquiry. This was a very broad project, meaning we could research and make pretty much whatever we wanted, as long as it related back to fear. I decided to choose media and journalism as my inquiry, and I would make a documentary/video essay. I wanted to focus on how key events of the Cold War were shown on television and how this created a greater fear that nuclear war was imminent. After about a week of preproduction and research, it was time to get on site.

Like I said earlier, I plan on doing a longer blog post going more in depth on the trip, so I will just give a brief summary of each day of the trip.

April 18: We arrived at the airport at around 3:00 pm for our flight to Tuscon. We had a short layover in Seattle and we arrived in Arizona at around 11:00 pm. We were given our driving groups and I was placed in Mr Hughes’s van, which Cole DP christened as the “Tiktok Rizz Van.” After a brief drive to the prestigious Marriott Townhill Suites, we began our cycle of 4-6 hours of sleep every night.

April 19: The main activity of our first day was a visit to the Titan Missile Silo, a formerly active nuclear missile silo about a 20 minute drive from a major city. We went on a tour of the site and got to see the control centre, and I got a lot of great footage for my documentary. After a huge lunch at Manuel’s Mexican Restaurant, we went to our second highlight destination; the ASARCO Copper and Mineral Mine. It is exactly what it sounds like and it was exactly as interesting as a copper mine could be. At least our tour guide was one of the more interesting characters of the trip (shout out to Dave). Then, we went to Saguaro National Park for our first of many hikes of the trip. Mr Hughes said the hike would be about 6 kilometres, take about 90 minutes, and it would have “mild elevation.” In reality, the hike was 12 kilometres, took us 3 hours, and it felt like we went uphill both ways. After we returned, feet blistered, mouths dry, and calves cactus-pricked, we had another first; our first buffet at the Arizona classic “Sweet Tomatoes.”

April 20: Our second day began with a trip to the Sonora Desert Museum, a zoo featuring many local creatures and species. We had our first In-N-Out meal before heading to our main attraction: the Pima Air and Space Museum, a museum dedicated to the aircraft of the American military. I got a lot of valuable content here for my documentary including an interview with a volunteer at the museum. Our second buffet dinner was at Lin’s Grand Buffet, an asian buffet with suspicious authenticity but smiling faces all around our table. We topped off the night by attending the Pistoleros Wild West show, a cowboy themed comedy bonanza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 21: The first attraction of the day was Biosphere 2, one of the sites I was most excited to see. Biosphere 2 was an experimental scientific research facility, where scientists would lock themselves in a glass dome and grow their own food to practice for space colonization or an end-of-the-world scenario. After a picnic at Biosphere, we began a long drive to the Casa Grande National Monument, a Native American settlement containing a massive structure and even larger mystery surrounding it. Dinner was at Organ Stop Pizza, a famous pizza shack outside Phoenix that serenades the customers with a live organ show. We celebrated Mr Hughes’s 8th birthday before topping off the night at Rock Springs Cafe for some evening pie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 22: We got up bright and early for a long day. We started off the day with another hike at Boynton Canyon. This hike was a similar length to the previous hike, but this time we knew what to expect. After the hike, we began our main drive, with some stops for ice cream and a notable church. This was a double hiking day, with the second being at Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock, a much more casual walk around the desert scenery. We had dinner at a local diner along Route 66. We arrived at our final stop late in the night and very tired, but Mr Hughes thought it would be best to drag us to the movie theatre where we watched a movie about tomorrow’s main event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 23: There are few things I would wake up at 3:45 AM for, but I can now say sunrise at the Grand Canyon is one of them. Witnessing the sun come up into the cold desert morning was seriously one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We hiked down to a viewing point to witness the unbelievable scenery. Unfortunately, what followed was probably the lowest point of the trip: lunch. We woke up before the hotel started serving breakfast and we were running low on snacks, so I had been waiting an excruciating 9 hours for food, and unfortunately, our class experienced the worst pizza I had ever eaten. After leaving the Grand Canyon, we drove along the iconic Route 66 all the with a quick stop in the small town of Seligman, AZ. We spent the night in the origin point of Route 66, Kingman, Arizona.

April 24: We began another long day with back to back museums: the Mohave Museum and the Route 66 Museum in Kingman, before setting off north. Along the Arizona-Nevada border, we stopped to visit the Hoover Dam, were we met a second legendary tour guide (shout out to Eric). After more driving and dinner at Golden Corral, we had arrived in Sin City. Our first night in Vegas comprised of a visit to the Neon Museum, full of classic neon casino signs, and Fremont Street, to be fully immersed in the neon. We did not get to the hotel until about 1:00 AM

April 25: After our late night adventure, it was time for our first big day in Vegas. We started the day off at the National Atomic Testing Museum, which was extremely valuable for my project. After our Chick-fil-A lunch, we were set free to explore the shopping mall at The Venetian resort before our next main attraction: The Las Vegas Sphere. Before visiting The Sphere, I wasn’t entirely sure what went on there, but if you told me it was full of terrifying AI robots and a nature documentary, I would have believed you. We were set loose at another shopping mall, this time at Caesar’s Palace and given the opportunity to explore unique dining options. I convinced every single person in the class to go the Cheesecake Factory. Following our scrumptious dinner, we went to view several of the fountain shows outside the Bellagio.

April 26: This day was easily the most relaxing, but we still got a lot done. We got to sleep in this morning, and due to some surprising rain, we got some time to stay in the hotel and work on our projects. At around noon, we went to the third shopping mall, the Fashion Show Mall for lunch and shopping. We also explored the Wynn Resort and completed a scavenger hunt. Following our morning fun, we set out to explore a very unique attraction: a luxury atomic bomb shelter in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood. If you think that sounds weird, just wait till I tell you about Omega Mart. Omega Mart is in the Meow Wolf family of experiences. What seems like an ordinary convenience store hides a large and unravelling mystery and it is up to the visitor to solve it. This was supposed to be our last stop of the night, but after much complaining, we made a midnight stop at In-N-Out for some more burgers.

April 27: We started the day by leaving the city and heading back into the desert to hike Nevada’s own Valley of Fire. This took up most of our day, and once we got back, we got ready for dinner, at the AYCE buffet at the Palms Resort. This was probably my favourite meal of the entire trip (shout out to our waiter, Salvatore). After dinner was one of the most interesting events of the trip. We attended The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show, which is exactly what it sounds like. I am a more casual fan of The Beatles but it was still an amazing show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 28: This was our last day, and before we went to the airport, the teachers gave us a few hours to explore the Bellagio. Despite the scale of the building and huge amount of time, our group explored the whole place, so Max and I sat in a quiet area of the casino and had a little party with some very fitting music. It was a great send off to Las Vegas before we returned home that evening.

Once we had returned to school, I began to organize all the content I got on the trip and began to produce my video. We didn’t have a lot of time to create our final product, but I managed to create a great video essay. It might be the best documentary-style video I have made for PLP. Mr Hughes was initially worried when he saw my rough cut, as my set slightly reminded him of last year’s “toilet boy” incident, but I’m hoping it’s not so bad this time.

To answer my Inquiry Question on how does media drive fear, Media companies often directly or indirectly sensationalize important events, leave out important details, or jump to conclusions, which can mislead the audience, and create fear.