The fact that most people express their negative attitudes to some insects is culturally and historically predetermined. Most of the fears that people experience are associated with insects and the consequences of dealing with these creatures. However, these biases are premised on the images and experiences of previous cases of encountering insects.
In fact, many insects are considered the carriers of dangerous diseases and infections that can put human life under the threat. At the same time, some of insects are used in cuisine of certain cultures.
The existence of many meanings and contexts in which insects are represented relates to the images in medical journals, mass media representations, or rituals of certain tribes. These shifts are especially important because they outline two features of insects – representation of insects as monstrous taboo and that of eating insects for survival.
In some cultures, humans consume insects because they are nutritious and they help them to survive. In modern Western society, insects are consumed for entertainment and for the spectacle. As a result, people face their fears while eating insects, but their fears are imposed by the media images that consider this species a threat to human life.
The changes in perception of entomophagy demonstrate the promotion of new contextual meanings of consuming insects that play a crucial role in representing the concept of fear in cinematography.
Many thrilling and horror movies are premised on the human disgust of insects that are now represented as catalysts of panic and trepidation. In fact, cinematography has become the trigger of new perceptions, and viewers perceive insects not as gustatory experiences, but also as the entertaining ones.
The modern concept of entomophagy involves both nutrition meaning, as well as the function of horrifying or pleasing the spectators. The evolution of this discipline also relates to the constantly changing patterns of communication and social interaction. Consuming insects is not only a physical act of food intake.
Rather, it is an experience of eating that is accompanied by communication, audience, and rich experiences. Therefore, the emphasis placed on experience and image introduced by popular culture changes the initial meaning of the ritual of consuming insects.
More importantly, it produces new connotations and discourses in which entomophagy embodies new paradigms and transgressions. The tacit meaning can differ due to the diverse cultural orientations and emergence of visual and textual contexts. The spectacle does not only alter the interpretation of entomophagy, but also introduces new dimensions of research.
Mass media promotes destructive and thrilling images and imposes passive influence on audience’s experiences. On the one hand, the created images may either provoke disgust while viewing insects as food or human can become more curious about the insects as objects of fear.
On the other hand, stimulating a range of new emotions plays an important role in creating new meanings and dimensions of entomophagy.
In conclusion, media images of insects promoted in the past century and at the beginning of twenty-first century have had a potent impact on shifts in understanding science of entomophagy.
In particular, insects have now been perceived not only as objects of nutrition and tribal rituals, but also as the objects of entertainment. Emergence of horror pictures of spiders and bugs in cinema industry passively influences human consciousness and makes people create new contextual meanings and roles of insects in a contemporary life.