A Damaged Reputation: Nuclear Depictions in Entertainment Media

This paper, originally written for Dr. Adamus Liotta in an honors chemistry class, explores the possibility of a significant influence over public common sense found in the depictions of entertainment media. Through careful analysis and interpretation of Godzilla, The Simpsons, Fallout, and Call of Duty, this paper finds a synergy throughout this diverse range of audience, medium and historical origin, which culminates in an effect much greater than the sum of its parts. This effect frames nuclear science, of any kind, in a hyperbolically catastrophic and horrific light, reinforcing an excessively cautious, pessimistic public perspective on nuclear technology in any form. This potent and repeated exposure to the idea that nuclear science is dangerous, and that humans are unfit to control it, is further corroborated by connections to real world events such as those meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima found in such media