1. Dystopia
Friday - 3/3/2017

2. Friday – 3/3/17
Objective: Students will be able to create a presentation or essay that compares a form of dystopian control to a contemporary media example.
Please take a copy of the Dystopia in the Media Project
Complete through Question 12 of the Bell Ringer
Once you have completed the Bell Ringer, please get out a writing utensil and your notes

3. Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control.
Seen through the lens of an exaggerated worst-case scenario
Making criticism about current trend, societal norm, or political system

4. what are we looking for and how do we know we’ve found it?
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society:
Propaganda used to control the citizens of society
Information, independent thought, and freedom restricted
A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizen of society
Citizens
are perceived to be under constant surveillance
have a fear of the outside world
live in a dehumanized state
conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad
Natural World is banished and distrusted
The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world

5. What is being used to oppress the people and Maintain the illusion of perfection?
Types of Dystopian Controls:
Corporate control: one or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media
Resident Evil, Robocop, Minority Report, Running Man
Bureaucratic control: society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials
V for Vendetta, Anthem, The Hunger Games, Brazil

6. What is being used to oppress the people and Maintain the illusion of perfection?
Types of Dystopian Controls
Technological control: society is controlled by technology – through computers, robots, and/or scientific means.
Terminator, The Matrix, I, Robot
Philosophical/religious control: society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government
Delirium, Divergent, Unwind

7. The Dystopian Protagonist
Often feels trapped and is struggling to escape
Questions the existing social and political systems
Believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which they live
Helps the audience recognize the negative aspects of the dystopian world through their perspective

8. More Examples of Dystopian Media
Avatar
The Island
Blade Runner
Elysium
The Maze Runner
In Time
V for Vendetta
Dredd
Children of Men
Repo Men
Equilibrium
The Giver
Total Recall
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Idiocrasy
Even more can be found in your project description!
Robocop