Inquiry into Media - the Titanic Ship - Essay Example

? Inquiry into Media The Titanic Ship The Titanic ship left to New York from Southampton, England on April 10, 1912. It was the safest and largest ship to be constructed. The White Star Line carried the wealthiest people in its first class. They were a mixture of immigrants who wanted a life in America. The wealthiest people included American millionaire John Jacob Aston IV with his wife Madeleine Force Astor. Countess of Rothes Helen Churchill Candee also boarded the famous ship, Denver millionaires Margaret Brown, film actress Dorothy Gibson and social reformer William Thomas (Beveridge 22). It was at 11:40 pm in the night on 14 April. As usual, Frederick Fleet was on the look out when he saw the iceberg and reported immediately to the bridge. However, it was too late to steer around the iceberg because the Titanic was already struck. This caused the hull plates of the ship to buckle inwards and opened some of her watertight compartments into the freezing sea. These were five out of the sixteen watertight compartments that the ship had. The holes that were created below the waterline made the five compartments to flood with water. Titanic could not therefore survive with five compartments flooded with water. Comparison of the Movie, Radio Dramatization and Parade Talking of the Titanic Story In radio dramatization, one gets to hear the story of Titanic. Radio dramatization basically entails an audience listening keenly to a story being narrated to them, but they are not able to see the narrator not actors. This is the same with parade talking of the story. In these two narrations, a given audience can only imagine the incidences that took place before the ship began to sink. In parade talking, the audience is able to visualize the narrator, but not the actors. The narrator provides a detailed narration to the audience that motivates their thinking capability to imagine what could have been happening through relating to daily phenomenon. The visual effects that help in enhancing a given story are by a movie are not often present in these two forms of presentation and hence sometimes pose a challenge to the audience in understanding some aspects of the movie. Everything is distant and any emotions shown by players in the story cannot be seen by the audience. Audiences are left to visualize and guess everything they are listening to. In radio dramatization, is simply like bling watching of a film. A person uses his or her listening senses to formulate images of the events being narrated in his or her mind. However, this is very different with the movies. The spectators get to see the movie and what happened to the Titanic ship. A visual picture of the events, sound, characters are all included in a movie making it more interesting to see than radio dramatization and parade talking. Everything is clear plus the spectators can see the emotions exhibited by the characters. Hearing a radio dramatization and listening to a parade talking enhances imagination unlike watching a Titanic movie. The vivid descriptions done in radio dramatization and parade talking make its audiences to broaden their mind by thinking. Watching a Titanic movie is more entertaining than hearing it in a radio dramatization or listening to it in a parade talking (Butler 45). Spectators are actively involved in the story of the titanic because they can see and hear it. It is more entertaining to see than hear only. Listening to a radio dramatization and hearing requires total concentration. Telling a story through these medium requires an environment that is free of noise. This is because the audience is only relying on the sound to know what is happening in a story. It is not the same with watching a movie. Spectators can follow the movie in a noisy environment because they are watching it (Butler 45). Advantages and Disadvantages of the Mediums Watching a movie is advantageous over listening to a radio dramatization and a parade talking. The spectators have a chance of seeing the titanic movie. They can see the people that boarded the ship, the various luxurious cabins that were in the ship plus the powerful engines that operated it. Everything is clear in a movie. Various emotions like distress and joy can be seen unlike in radio dramatization and parade talking where audiences are left only to imagine what happened before the ship sank (Butler 45). Movies provide the rightful suspense expected in a given narration through using sound effects and foreshadowing making the audience more captivated. Everything is always distant in the mediums of listening and its audiences are left to visualize and guess. Watching a movie does not build the skills of imagination, thinking and visualizing. These are the only advantages of listening to a radio dramatization and a parade talking. Moreover, these mediums increase the concentration and improve the memory of audiences. The vivid descriptions enhance these skills of imagination, visualizing and thinking (Howells 77). A movie can be recycled again. This means that people can watch a movie severally times and whenever they want. This is not the same with radio dramatization and a parade talking. Its audiences get to hear it once. There is no repetition for clarification or for future use. Seeing a picture motion is what a thousand words in the mind when compared to radio dramatization and parade talking. Conclusion The Titanic story was unique because there was a massive loss of people despite the Titanic ship being large, luxurious and safe. It is because of this that it attracted various composers to use different mediums to tell its story. Various mediums have been used and they include movies and theater dramatization (Butler 45). Composers chose to tell their stories through movies because people can relate with what happened to the famous ship. Spectators continue to see how people were excited to board the ship. They can see that the ship was destined to New York from England and it carried high class people with other class of people but in different cabins. Movies enable its spectators to see how luxurious the cabins were and the magnitude of the hit that was caused by the iceberg. Other future mediums for the Titanic story are books, articles, online movies, blogs, music and poems Works Cited Beveridge, Bruce. Titanic—The Ship Magnificient Volume One: Design & Construction. Stroud: The History Press, 2008. Print Butler, Daniel. Unsinkable: the full story of the RMS Titanic. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998. Howells, Richard. The Myth of the Titanic. United Kingdom: MacMillan Press, 1999. Print Read More