This video stems directly from my final research paper, but it touches a topic that I wish we had covered more in class. I was really interested to see how special interest groups, religious groups, or governments react to science in popular culture. We briefly did talk about the commercialization and sale of science to and for popular culture in several classes, but the only reading I found in our lectures that is closely related is âSelling the Moonâ by Michael Smith. Smith argues that the spectacle that the government had created in space technology, in response to growing interest of space exploration and frontier literature in the mid 1900âČs, had been one of the largest advertising works done to promote the ideological and nationalistic advances of society (Smith 177).
But aside from the government and space, which comes with other external factors such as nationalistic competition with the Soviets, in what other context were science themes and motifs âsoldâ to the general public for popular consumption? In what ways did special interest groups use popular science to adapt and persuade marketing their products or ideologies?
The clip above is a pretty ridiculous example. An evangelical Christian group grabs hold of a popular science phenomenon in Year 2000 bug and immediately turns the science of the computer bug into an apocalyptic âanti-prophecyâ. The scaremongering language and video clips attempts to instill fear into their audience before putting their own personal twist on the event: âThe impending world-wide panic could signal the end of this age-And Christâs glorious return!â Then the group conducts a sales pitch on a necessary âemergency videoâ for all the information on the coming apocalypse for a $24.95Â âgiftâ (more if you live in Canada!).
I feel that this video is a key example of a special interest group attempting to expand their own influence or monetary gain through the use of science in popular culture. It would be interesting to try and connect relationships between the âsaleâ of popular science and how some groups attempt to use popular science on a larger scope to explain ideologies. As the uploader of the clip sarcastically points out, not only is the group attempting to sell a video explaining why weâre all about to die, but they are also selling the idea that the Y2k happening is directly related to Christâs second coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKv563gbJbE
