Abstract

There has recently been an increase in the number and variety of environmental catastrophes. As the field of disaster studies increases in scope and breadth, North American and Western European mass media continue to depict disastrous events by way of dichotomous representations (good/evil; heroic/villainous). To this ends, media technologies play a vital role in the construction of culturally coherent, albeit formulaic, narratives. This thesis unpacks and explores myth generation over time through the work of semiotic cultural theorists such as Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard. The purpose is to better understand the mechanisms through which mass media produce and perpetuate myths. Mythologies relating to shipwrecks are investigated using two case studies (RMS Titanic and CC Costa Concordia). Ancient mythological narratives are found to have been deployed consistently—and persistently--throughout history. In the concluding section, the capacity of mythologies to produce simulacra or simulated versions of reality is briefly explored.