Mind and Media : The brain in a vat

When we started talking in class about the relationship between mind and body, and the influence of media over the human mind, automatically the first image that came into my mind was of a brain being manipulated somehow, and Descartes theory of the brain in a vat.

Descartes theory of the mind-body dualism is an aspect that can be linked very closely to this modern issue of media-mind discussion. Descartes believed that the brain and the mind were two completely separate entities, as opposed to a single entity or one dependent from the other. His theory of "The brain in a vat" consists of the notion that our minds are in fact a brain that is being manipulated by an "evil scientist" who administers all the information that goes in and what we perceive to be the "real" or "tactile" world.

Having this in mind, I found it interesting to discuss in class how this idea may be applied to media vs mind as well; where the evil scientist is in fact the media, manipulating our way of viewing reality, and to an extent distorting it to a point where we cannot tell real from unreal anymore.
It's not to say that I believe or agree with this theory, I feel that to an extent although we are exposed to the influences of media, we as human beings still have free will to choose what we believe, as difficult as it may be to grow out of that mindset, it's still possible. However I thought it was an interesting analogy to make as to how the media vs mind relates to the mind vs body and vice versa; and how this image although satirical is quite accurate towards how we as humans are starting to feel towards our own realities illustrated by our surrounding media.