This issue could be considered a catalyst of the paranoia during the 1970s due to the fact that the public knew little to nothing about what actually goes on in the nuclear power plants. The film displays this issue through the character Bill Gibson, the human relations representative of the power plant. Throughout the movie Bill is portrayed as the yes man and fall guy of the company, only saying what the higher ups of the company want him to say. This means that not all of the truth about of the power plant never actually gets released to the public. Also, Bill is somewhat a mediator for the company as he is seen in the news station talking to Don Jacovich (one of Kimberly’s superiors) regarding the tapes of the incident that Richard taped, hinting at the overall conspiracy of the film. This again shows corporations trying to hide things from the public. These particular incidents of company/public relations were also evident during the accident of Three Mile Island in March of 1979, a couple of weeks after this film premiered. One of the major controversies surrounding this event was the miscommunications and conflicting reports from the company to the public. An example can be seen through Willam Scraton III in the documentary titled Meltdown at Three Mile Island, the company told Scranton that the radiation was contained inside the plant, leading to Scraton informing the public of this news. Moments later, he was informed that there was an offsite release of radiation, which was the beginning of distrust towards the company. Furthermore, others commented on how nonchalant the company was during initial interviews the day of the incident, creating more distrust towards them. All in all, the film and the Three Mile Incident go hand in hand in trying to convey that in order to fix this trust and paranoia brought towards nuclear power plants, the companies need to
This issue could be considered a catalyst of the paranoia during the 1970s due to the fact that the public knew little to nothing about what actually goes on in the nuclear power plants. The film displays this issue through the character Bill Gibson, the human relations representative of the power plant. Throughout the movie Bill is portrayed as the yes man and fall guy of the company, only saying what the higher ups of the company want him to say. This means that not all of the truth about of the power plant never actually gets released to the public. Also, Bill is somewhat a mediator for the company as he is seen in the news station talking to Don Jacovich (one of Kimberly’s superiors) regarding the tapes of the incident that Richard taped, hinting at the overall conspiracy of the film. This again shows corporations trying to hide things from the public. These particular incidents of company/public relations were also evident during the accident of Three Mile Island in March of 1979, a couple of weeks after this film premiered. One of the major controversies surrounding this event was the miscommunications and conflicting reports from the company to the public. An example can be seen through Willam Scraton III in the documentary titled Meltdown at Three Mile Island, the company told Scranton that the radiation was contained inside the plant, leading to Scraton informing the public of this news. Moments later, he was informed that there was an offsite release of radiation, which was the beginning of distrust towards the company. Furthermore, others commented on how nonchalant the company was during initial interviews the day of the incident, creating more distrust towards them. All in all, the film and the Three Mile Incident go hand in hand in trying to convey that in order to fix this trust and paranoia brought towards nuclear power plants, the companies need to