Why "The Social Network" in the First Place?

Why "The Social Network" in the First Place?

The movie “the social network” was produced in 2010. The movie was produced from a book titled “Accidental billionaires by Ben Mezrich”. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. He was a student at Harvard University.  The context of this movie is followed by the themes of innovation, ambition, betrayal and trust and so on. The social network was also following how social media impacted the world after the rise of Facebook. This movie was following the story of Mark Zuckerberg and how Facebook was found and the story behind it.

Using the Stuart Halls Model to read the social network, we understand that the encoder [producers] is trying to pass across a message that the decoders are meant to decode in three ways. The dominant narrative of the movie is Mark is successful, and he faced challenges while trying to achieve something in life.

The producer of the social network who is the encoder is David Fincher. Mis-en-scene was used to pass messages to the audience using the settings, costume and makeup, actor positioning and so on to encode the idea of vision, power and Ambition. Looking at the setting to encode vision. For instance, his small dorm room at Harvard, with laptops in his room, and the process of the idea [Facebook] coming into reality this can be confirmed in the time duration of 31:36-31:50. According to the movie, Vision for Facebook was in preparation as of December 15, 2003.  It was a way of telling the audience about Mark’s idea and the process he took to make it worth it. Aside from the dorm room, we see the big offices for Facebook, showing that the vision he had was already accomplished. In the time duration of 1:41:57. The use of costume and makeup to encode the idea of power was achievable in the movie, looking at mark Zuckerberg and him always on hoodie and palm slippers and the Winklevoss twins on suit, which shows that the twins had power in terms of wealth than that of Mark. This is where Costume and Makeup comes in. The Actor’s positioning also encodes ambition and power, For instance, Mark’s transformation. The former Mark was awkward, and it showed how reluctant he was with life and how it showed his low social status. But then as he gains power and control over Facebook, he shows a sense of authority, and then his gaze is more focused.

To analyze the Narrative Structure of this movie “The Social Network”. The movie did not start exactly with the equilibrium stage, but of the disruption stage, for instance, where he broke up with Erica and insulted erica on his blogpost, then faced the school authorities for creating Face mash. Then the lawsuit against him from the Winklevoss twins. Also, in the movie there was the recognition of this disruption in the movie, an instance is when he saw Erica in the bar and he wanted to say something, but Erica refused. The moment when Eduardo broke his MacBook, he realized the weight of his betrayal. It did not end there, there was an attempt to repair disruption also in the movie. Where? When he sent a friend request to Erica, his ex-girlfriend, his continuous reloading of the page to see if she accepted. Although the scenes were not shown, when he paid the Winklevoss twins, they signed a non-disclosure agreement and then he made Eduardo the co-founder of Facebook. This shows that there is a return of equilibrium as encoded by the producer. This narrative structure do help us to analyze fully a movie and know how the encoder is thinking.

 Aside from the encoded meaning, how did the audience decode the message passed across in the movie? There is the dominant, negotiated and oppositional decoded reading. I would be using the three decoding models.

The dominant reading of the social network, this reading is in full support of everything the encoder was trying to pass across to his audience. Zuckerberg in the movie was a genius and despite various personal obstacles, he was able to still build of great effect that brought revolution to the world. In the movie, whatever steps taken by Mark was thoughtful and how he fought through his way to owning up to his creative skill, even there was a lawsuit against him by the Winklevoss twins. For instance, in the movie, Divya Narendra said to Mark in the time duration of 34:28-34:38, He said “I can’t wait to ride over your shoulders when you write us a cheque”. But did this stop Mark? No. Rather after they were paid 65 million dollars, we see that Mark still became the youngest billionaire in the world. The rise of Facebook was a symbol of Innovation and the social impact on relationships.

The negotiated reading would support the intended meaning of the producer but question some parts in the movie. Negotiable parts is when Eduardo is treated wrongly and it was not fully acceptable, but he was restored to being part the co-founder of Facebook. The betrayal he faced had destroyed what he had built with Mark Zuckerberg. Also, Zuckerberg was smart and a tech genius, but he lacked empathy for others due to his despising character, he had to face the consequences of he not valuing relationships. So, the negotiated reading is to allow the audience to understand how success is achieved, but in a different way of betraying people to reach the top. It helps to critically analyze the difference of success being achieved and how it was achieved.

The oppositional reading is totally against whatever the producer is passing across to the audience. This type of audience sees Mark as someone who was successful due to manipulating people, betraying his own best friend and Facebook was born due to these processes. If the Winklevoss twins did not come about Harvard.Edu, he would have not had the idea of Facebook in the first place. If his best friend did not give him the idea to monetize the app, it would not have spread like it did. Mark only possessed the skills. Therefore, Mark success is questionable, because it was not gotten on a base of deep meditation, but of a stolen idea and manipulation to create something big.

To close this chapter, what would you have to say about ‘The Social Network’? What reading model would you choose even after watching the movie itself. Would you support or question or even oppose the whole idea of the social network. In your opinion, would you say you were able to decode what the encoder was trying to pass across, through its editing and mis-en-scene. The social Network is a documentary video created by David Fincher in 2010. It was produced on the basis to allow the audience to have a pictorial image of how Facebook was born and how much impact it brought to the world.