Rashomon Effect
The Rashomon
effect is contradictory interpretations of the same event by different
people. The phrase derives from the film Rashomon, where the accounts of the
witnesses, suspects, and victims of a rape and murder are all different.
The idea of
contradicting interpretations has been around for a long time. It is studied in
the context of understanding the nature of truth(s) and truth-telling in
journalism. Valerie Alia has used the term "Rashomon effect"
extensively since the late 1970s. She first published the term in an essay on
the politics of journalism for Theaterwork Magazine in 1982. She further
developed and used the term in her books, Media Ethics and Social Change, and
in a chapter of Deadlines and Diversity: Journalism Ethics in a Changing
World, which she authored; the book was co-edited by Valerie Alia, Brian
Brennan and Barry Hoffmaster.
Etymology and a phrase developed
after movie release
The
name of the film refers to the enormous, former city gate "between modern day Kyoto
and Nara", on Suzaka Avenue's end to the
South.[3]
The
characters it's written with literally mean 'the castle gate'.
The
term Rashomon effect
refers to real-world situations in which multiple eye-witness testimonies of an
event contain conflicting information.
So, what quantum physics seems to be
telling us is that there is no objective material reality. As observers we do
not observe what’s outside us; we observe what we and the probability waves all
around us, collaboratively co-create – spheres of reality.
Human Beings as Spheres of Reality
In some sense it’s as if the
material objects and the relationships that make up our lives are an ongoing Rashomon Effect, only
we mostly fail to realize it. In moviemaking, a director who chooses a Rashomon
perspective, presents an emotionally charged incident – an assault or murder, a
terrorist attack – from the various viewpoints of several central characters.
What the audience discovers is that each person’s take on the same experience
is profoundly different, filtered as it is through personal history and a
unique, dynamic neurophysiology
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