Media is the communication outlets and/or tools used to store and deliver information or data.
Background[]
Pre-War media is any multimedia material produced before the Great War. The components of the mass media communications industry, such as print media, publishing, photography, motion pictures, broadcasting (radio and television), and advertising, make up media as a whole. Holographic cinematography saw widespread popularity until the Great War. Media of any kind could be recorded and sold on holotapes, including video games.
Media was often utilized by governments and their affiliated organizations to distribute propaganda, as with the United States government's Project Brainstorm. The Vault-Tec Corporation openly owned and operated at least one television channel.[1] News reporting, entertainment products, and public service announcements worked in tandem to perpetuate specific ideas. Additionally, pre-War media was dense with advertisements, and gaudy billboard advertisements were common.
The Great War of 2077 represented the termination of mass media, and ended widespread information accessibility. However, the cultural impact of pre-War pop culture was felt for centuries afterward. Shelf-stable pre-War media materials, such as books and recordings, are consumed by people for entertainment purposes, enough that some of it still qualifies as current pop culture. Those without access to proper media may turn to the consumption of personal recordings or non-entertainment media in search of stimulation.[2]
People also continued to create and connect in the wake of the War, taking up abandoned equipment and producing new media, including newspapers, instructional texts, novels, films, pornography, and music. Certain radio frequencies are maintained by post-War groups or individuals. Major regional radio broadcasts may air live or looping shows with consistent hosts, and often play music. Others air pre-War radio plays with intact advertisements.[3] Radio stations with hosts may also read advertisements for post-War businesses. Some looping recordings also serve as radar beacons, or contain encrypted data masked in the waveform.
News and radio[]
Pre-War[]
Post-War[]
Motion pictures, television, and plays[]
Motion pictures, television, and plays were used as a means of entertainment and propaganda.
Genres[]
- Anime: Hand-drawn/computer animated television originating from Japan.[4]
- Documentaries: Nonfictional motion pictures intended to document reality for the purposes of education or historical records. One documentary was a record of the drying Texas oil fields, referenced in the Fallout Bible timeline.[Non-game 1]
Television[]
- The Adventures of Captain Cosmos: A science fiction television program and comic book by Hubris Comics.
- Armor Ace and the Power Patrol: An animated television series portraying a cartoon depiction of the Sino-American War.
- The Silver Shroud television show: A television series being developed shortly before the Great War.[5]
- Pro-Hubology programs: Hubologist programs promoting Hubology, seeking to expose government lies about Hubology.[6]
- RALPHIE the Robot's Incredible Odyssey!: A Vault-Tec Corporation television series.
- The Matrix, which included a technology that enabled power generation from the human body, is referenced ostensibly as a "documentary" in Fallout Shelter Online.[Non-canon 1]
- The Atomic Chronicles of K.D. Inkwell
- Fallout - A Special LIVE Report from Galaxy News: A sponsored news broadcast of the official opening of Vault 33. However, the broadcast was plagued with technical difficulties forcing the increasingly frustrated news anchor to fill for time for an entire hour.
- A TV series which included a famous butler character named Bartholomew Codsworth, played by Sebastian Leslie. General Atomics International bought the rights to the character, and based the voice and personality of their Mister Handy robots off it.
Television channels[]
- Channel 6[7]
- Vault-Tec Channel 9
- Channel 314[8]
Print[]
Print media covers a wide field of physical publications ranging from novels, autobiographies, and textbooks to comics, trade magazines, and tabloids.
Periodicals[]
Pre-War[]
- Acting Age[9]
- Astoundingly Awesome Tales
- Backwoodsman
- Boxing Times
- Cat's Paw
- Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual
- D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine
- Drake Tungsten, Chrono Cowboy
- Duck and Cover!
- El Periódico de las Aburridas
- Fixin' Things
- Future Weapons Today
- Grognak the Barbarian
- Guns and Bullets
- Hell's Chain Gang
- Hot Rodder
- I, Dog
- The Inspector
- Kid Wacky's Zany Hi-Jinks
- ¡La Fantoma!
- La Coiffe
- Lad's Life
- Live & Love
- Locksmith's Reader
- Lying, Congressional Style
- Manta Man
- Massachusetts Surgical Journal
- Meeting People
- Milsurp Review
- Nikola Tesla and You
- Patriot's Cookbook
- Picket Fences
- Programmer's Digest
- Pugilism Illustrated
- RobCo Fun
- Salesman Weekly
- Scout Handbook
- Scouts' Life
- Tæles of Chivalrie
- Taboo Tattoos
- Tales from the Front
- Tales from the West Virginia Hills
- Tesla Science Magazine
- The Adventures of Captain Cosmos
- Today's Physician
- Total Hack
- True Police Stories
- Tumblers Today
- U.S. Covert Operations Manual
- Underground Life
- Unstoppables
Post-War[]
Books[]
- Big Book of Science
- First Aid Book
- DCTA Employee Handbook
- Paradise Lost - John Milton
- Commentarii de Bello Gallico - Gaius Julius Caesar
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon
- The Lavender Flower - Dorothy Rixon
- Laser Pistol User's Manual
- Encyclopedia Atomica, Volume VIII, Radiology-Saskatchewan
- Pretty Pretty Horsies: A History of the Mongol Empire
- Tiny, Tiny Babies: All You Need to Know About Pediatric Medicine
- Stress and the Modern Refugee: A Primer
- Scientific Spirituality - Dick Hubbell[6]
- Battleground Quetzel - Dick Hubbell[6]
- Star Father Above - Dick Hubbell[6]
- Collected Shopping Lists - Dick Hubbell[6]
- Notes and Musings - Dick Hubbell[6]
- How to Sue Your Enemies Effectively - Dick Hubbell[6]
- How to Create a Cult - Dick Hubbell[6]
- Future Books to be Written When I'm Dead - Dick Hubbell[6]
- So, You Want to be a Doctor.[10]
- Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley[11]
- Benefits of Corporate Chants[12]
- Making it to the Top![12]
- Enduring Individuals[12]
- Money Money Money[12]
- The Robotics of Then and Now - Dr. Clara Song, PhD[13]
- Cryptic Cryptids: The Puzzle of Procreation - Garrison Foggarty (unpublished)[14]
- Be Better Than Your Worst Self - Dr. Bryce Jayhart[15]
- Walden; or, Life in the Woods - Henry David Thoreau
- The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe
- War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
- A book series by Robin Zabrinski that served as the basis for Heart of Steel: A Dread Island Tale.
Pamphlets[]
- The Armageddon Rag
- Holy water pamphlet
- The New Plague and YOU! - 2059[16]
Posters[]
Posters are intended to be eye-catching and to convey information. They are often used to advertise a product or service, or by political parties and protestors as a form of propaganda. They are found commonly in the wastelands, usually pasted on walls, above or near roadways, or inside of buildings. They are often used as propaganda and advertisements.
Games[]
Forms of play or sport to pass the time, competitive and cooperative, physical and digital, played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.
Behind the scenes[]
- In the Fallout setting, pop culture seemed to stagnate in the mid-twentieth century and did not significantly progress via counterculture until the world ended a century later.[17] Some small countercultural movements like hippies existed,[18][19] but had little impact on the dominant mass-media culture of America.
- In a terminal entry at the Charleston Capitol Building, a pre-War man named Jamison deployed a vertical emoticon: "=^..^=".[20] This may imply the existence of furry culture and some kind of usenet culture or zine culture in the Fallout setting.
- Correspondingly, Vault-Tec is said to have managed to patent the thumbs-up emoji.[21]
References[]
- ↑ Vault-Tec Channel 9
- ↑ Bleeding Kate's Grindhouse terminal entries
- ↑ Pirate Radio
- ↑ New Reno prostitute: "{850}{}{I think I saw this same situation in an Anime video once.}"
(New Reno prostitutes' dialogue) - ↑ A Vault Dweller: "[Perception] You read comics back... before all this, right?"
Sofia Daguerre: "Yeah, of course! The Unstoppables, Silver Shroud, all of that. Mistress of Mystery was my favorite, of course. I was hoping that the new television show for the Mistress of Mystery would be out when I returned, but... I guess not."
(Sofia Daguerre's dialogue) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Hubologist teachings
- ↑ The Courier: "Pleased to meetcha."
Festus: "New in town, pardner? Well, let ol' Festus give you the lay of the land. If you're here to redeem your Sunset Sarsaparilla Stars, dump 'em into the slot in the barrel below and I'll count 'em up. If you don't know what Sunset Sarsaparilla Stars are and think ol' Festus is just shooting his mouth off, say "Star Info". If you're here to challenge ol' Festus to a game of Lucky Horseshoes, say "I feel lucky". Lastly, if you're here about the health advisory that aired on channel 6 recently, say "Silly Ol' Advisory.""
The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
Festus: "I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Could you repeat it?"
The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
Festus: "I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Could you repeat it?"
The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
Festus: "While Sunset Sarsaparilla is perfectly safe, a recent independent study - whose validity is currently being challenged - revealed the following: Excessive ingestion of sarsaparilla can lead to deleterious effects including, but not limited to: kidney damage, nausea, digital numbness, anxiety, loss of visual acuity, dizziness, occasional nosebleeds, joint inflammation, tooth decay, sore throat, bronchitis, organ rupture, and halitosis. Note that you'd have to drink a heap of Sunset Sarsaparilla to match the quantities used in the study. How much, you ask? A lot. A whole helluva lot. In fact, you'd have to get full as a tick on Sunset Sarsaparilla to even come close. Anyway, thanks for stopping by, partner! And keep drinking Sunset Sarsaparilla!"
(Festus' dialogue) - ↑ File:FO4 Silver Shroud poster radio (1).png
- ↑ Riverside Manor terminal entries; study terminal, The 'Mistress' Must Go
- ↑ Jones' character description: "{102}{}{You see a short man with a book called "So, You Want to be a Doctor."}"
(Jones' dialogue) - ↑ "Frankenstein" is used as a common derogatory term to refer to super mutants in Fallout 3 and Fallout 76.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Reading list
- ↑ Clara Song: "Welcome to the RobCo Research Center, where we do things little children definitely don't need to know about! I, the eminent Dr. Clara Song, PhD, will be your guide. Dr. Song? You mean the award-winning researcher? The author of The Robotics of Then and Now? She's our tour guide? That's right! And since you Scouts are such trustworthy young citizens, I can show you all kinds of interesting things the public doesn't know about. Now off we go! Meet me at the first tour stop and maybe try to learn something for once."
(Clara Song's dialogue) - ↑ C.H. Monthly, August
- ↑ Ward's journal
- ↑ Disaster relief outpost terminal entries; terminal, New Plague Public Information
- ↑ Pre-War music was almost universally produced around the middle of the twentieth century and was effectively a century old when the Great War occurred. Additionally, consumer aesthetics, political rhetoric, and the general American lifestyle appear much closer to mid-twentieth century America than modern times.
- ↑ Third Street Municipal Building terminal entries
- ↑ Sunshine Tidings co-op terminal entries
- ↑ Charleston Capitol Building terminal entries#Donuts in the lounge
- ↑ Fallout - A Special LIVE Report from Galaxy News
- Non-game
- ↑ Fallout Bible 0: "2052 A television documentary into the withered husk of the Texas oil fields brings the oil shortage into the American households, and reveals how deep the energy crisis runs."
- Non-canon
- ↑ Fallout Shelter Online dweller conversations: "It's said that before the great war there was a technology which enables power generating from human body. I saw it from a Documentary called The Matrix."