Putt-Putt Quanpadung

English F Block
Ms. Hunt
December 13, 2016
The Crucible Essay
Mass Media and The Crucible
In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts found itself stuck in a situation where lies, finger pointing
and hatred led hundreds of people in jail and later executed. The Crucible written by Arthur
Miller is a play about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. The Salem Witch Trial was based in
Salem, Massachusetts where people were accused of witch craft. Because the digital age
connects people, provides a platform for persuasion, and is an unlimited source of information,
The Crucible is more relevant than ever.
The digital age connects people all around the world. Because of new technology it
allows people to be connected virtually from any regions of the world. Anything personal that it
posted on the internet would most likely become public. In the play, the court acts just like social
media. It connects people around the town both positively and negatively, while just like in
todays social media connects people around the world in both ways too. Anything that the court
knows, everyone in the town knows it too. The Crucible becomes more relevant because it
started from a small problem about a little girl, Betty, who her family thought was possessed.
People started to find out about it, then it spread through the whole town. The people in this play
acted like all the gossip sites online spreading both rumors and facts around the world. Once
something is posted online, the number of people knowing about it increase at an exponential
rate. If this situation was contained and kept between their family, the Salem Witch Trials could

have been avoided. In our society, rumors act like an epidemic that causes unnecessary problems
by wrongfully accusing innocent people.
The internet and social media provides a platform for persuasion. Mass Hysteria is an
event that transmit collective illusions of threats, whether it is real or fake, through a large group
of people in society that is a result of fear and rumors. Nowadays in our society, individuals are a
lot more nave and are more prone to believing false rumors. This also shows the ignorance and
selfishness. The Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible is an example of a mass hysteria because
everyone in the town agree upon believing that the Devil is seeking revenge and taking over the
town. In society today, an example of a mass hysteria was the Crazy Clown Sighting where
men dressed as clowns tried to lure children into the woods. More than a dozen states reported
sightings of these clowns lurking outside schools or shops, armed clowns driving in a van or
clowns prowling around the neighborhoods at night. This event spread around the world in the
fall of 2016 after police were called to investigate the first sighting of the clowns. One school in
Ohio was shut down over security concerns after a woman claimed that she was attacked by a
man dressed as a clown. Because of this going viral, people started to dress up as clowns and
walk the streets at night scaring people. Ignorance and selfishness is shown in both The
Crucible and our society today because of how easily people would believe an accusation, and
with social media being around, it is easier to gather a following for certain topics due to people
being nave and believing in almost everything that they see online, which could result
negatively.
The digital age is an unlimited source of information. With the internet and social media
being around it is a lot easier to send out information and obtain them. Because information is
much easier to acquire in todays society, more people are aware of what is going on around

them and the world. News on TV, online databases and articles, and social media provides a large
amount of information, whether it is real or fake. The spread of information is shown in The
Crucible when people started to find out and talk about witchcraft. It traveled from house to
house, until everyone is losing their mind and falsely accusing people. Another disadvantage of
information being spread so easily is a small problem could be blown up into a larger one.
The Crucible is becoming more relevant in todays digital age because technology
makes it easier to connects people, provides a platform for persuasion, and is an unlimited source
of information.