Videodrome

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. a hallucinogenic television signal or broadcast designed to manipulate and corrupt viewers by blending extreme imagery with psychological distortion until reality becomes indistinguishable from the screen
2. an immersive media phenomenon that uses graphic visual content and subliminal techniques to erode viewers' ability to distinguish between transmitted fiction and actual existence
3. a fictional concept representing a powerful media influence that merges the violent imagery of television with psychological effects, blurring the line between reality and fiction

Etymology: "Videodrome" is a compound built from "video-" and "-drome," and its most famous life is as the title of David Cronenberg's 1983 film, in which a television signal drives viewers into hallucinations and bodily transformation. The "video-" part comes from Latin "videre," "to see," and has been attached to English words since the mid-twentieth century to mean something relating to television or recorded moving images. The "-drome" element is the more unusual piece. It comes from Greek "dromos," meaning "running" or "course," and it appears in older English words such as "hippodrome," a racecourse or arena for horses, and "aerodrome," an airfield. In each case the suffix marks a place or track where something runs or moves. Joined to "video-," it names a kind of course or arena through which screened images flow, which suits a word coined to describe a medium that seems to pull its audience in.