Movies Society Industry
Influence of Movies on Society and Vise Versa
Since its birth in the early 1900's, the film industry has been growing rapidly and gaining much attention from every culture around the world. With the help and fame of Hollywood, the film industry has become so popular. With such a major cash flow industry, one has to wonder about its impacts to those around us. There is great power from the film industry to transform or sway its viewers one way or another. As a form of mass communication, one can see how the film industry has been and is continuing to shape individuals, groups, and even cultures. The idea of movies having such a huge impact on people is very uneasy to digest. However, such a possible impact could also be used as a great tool when used properly or for the right reasons.
It was around the 1920's that 5 major movie studios from the Hollywood area became notorious for their well produced major motion pictures, making popularity of the film industry continue to boom. These studios included Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and RKO Radio. With the rise of these and other studios, there was an extreme jump in movie viewings and the overall popularity of this form of entertainment.
The question at hand, however, is whether or not such a sudden rise and large popularity of movies has a huge impact on its viewers around the world. Also there is the question as to why movies are considered to be a mass communication medium and in what ways. Thinking about this, there are a couple areas to take a look at.
Understanding and breaking down the term ‘mass communication' is first needed to get some what of an idea as to what it actually means. The term 'mass' is suggestive of great volume, range or the extent and reception of messages/communication. The communication aspect is where movies come into play. The communication would be the aspect of understanding the meaning and the aspect of receiving the message itself. Put together, mass communication is the idea of some sort of message or information being distributed in some form, and this form is widely available for people to receive and digest. (Mass Communication)
Movies fit perfectly into this description. Just look at the aspect of how popular movies are around the world and how it clearly makes them a form of mass communication. Looking at an online source www.the-numbers.com, you can look specifically at the international records section and see just how much money a movie made. Interesting enough, the Titanic is listed as the top record holder with an estimated total box office amount of almost 2 billion dollars. Underneath, there are many more movies in or close to the 1 billion mark. Just seeing how much money these movies made world wide in the box office, goes to show how wide of an audience it had.
Movies do have an impact on people. The tricky part is for people to understand why and how a movie does and can have an impact on them. One way of looking at movies as a medium of mass communication and its effect on society, is looking at how it is used in the informative aspect of things. Mass communication itself is the form of an individual or group that is trying to relay information to a mass populous. Movies do this very well and we see this in a couple ways.
There is the aspect of movies that portray historical eras and events. Such movies are almost like a history lesson to its audience as the movie is showing you something you were not able to witness or have been a part of. Take for example many war movies, such as The Tuskegee Airmen and Memphis Belle. Both movies, though not a hundred percent accurate, portrayed actual events of previous wars fought in history. Such an example shows how movies can actually be used for good in the sense of teaching newer generations about what their distant relatives did for their country.
Also on the informative side of things, we have movies that portray other cultures and societies around the world. Movies such as City of God are a prime example of this. Such movies show countries that are poverty stricken. These movies are also showing the horrible things people have to go through just to survive a normal day. The movie might not be based off of an actual true event, but it will show people what it would be like in other areas of the world. It's not anywhere near the same as here in America.
Again, these are just two simple examples of how movies can be informative to a mass audience and be used as a learning tool to some extent. Of course you can have the exact opposite, and this normally tends to be the case with movies. You will have so-called ‘informative' movies that are skewed by the director and will totally blow things of out proportion. The bad aspect of this however is the idea that some people might not understand that or see it right away. This can easily lead to someone or many to take information the wrong way and have the wrong view of something due to a movie.
Movies are also used as a mass communication medium by its use of advertising. You see advertisements posted everywhere within movies. Companies will pay huge amounts of money to get their product names put into big production movies. This form of advertisement is very popular and really does work as people will see actors using these products and want to mimic them too. It doesn't take much to know that people will follow their idols and what to dress, eat, even act exactly like them. These companies know this and will pay out big amounts to have it be their own product an actor is going to use on screen.
Looking at a different aspect of how movies influence American culture, we look at the idea of violence used in movies. As time has gone on, we see violence appearing more often and more graphically within movies. This can have a huge influence on people in a couple different ways.
One way it influences American culture is the aspect of people acting out what they see. Take for example the story of a boy who had his friends bury him head first in a sand box, imitating something he saw on an anime show. (McNerthney) This is a perfect example of how people, especially younger children, will act out things they see on the big screen. There have been other numerous stories of children acting out violence they see on TV or on movies and it ends up turning deadly.
Also on the idea of violence having an influence on people, would be the aspect of how it desensitizes us. “As violence in the media spikes across the world, children become more aggressive and desensitized to the images they see. Each year the media industry raises the bar of gore, abuse, and gun violence to keep viewers shocked.” (London) When we see lots of violence it can desensitize us to it. Violence becomes expected and common.
Both of these aspects of violence influences are very negative influences that can happen to people, but still give a great example of how movies will and do influence people that watch them. Negative or not, movies will have an influence on people whether they believe it or not.
These are just a couple aspects on how films can and do influence American society and the global society itself. However, there is the other side of this where we see movies being influenced by things such as cultural, ethical, social and aesthetic values.
Taking a look at movies, you can actually see a lot of influences due to society. Take for example the teen movie scene. A lot of these movies are directed towards teenagers or made to be of that age group. “Teen movies typically contain features such as conversations at the school lockers ("Dazed and Confused"), the prom ("Carrie") cheerleaders ("Porky's"), the shopping mall ("Mall Rats") the juvenile delinquent gang ("Rebel without a Cause") and the sensitive, alienated teenage hero (Jim, in "Rebel").” (Julian)
Film makers were making these movies to reach out and attract the teenager generations of that current time. The movies would need to be influenced by the current culture of teenagers and how they acted, what they did for fun, etc. This would then allow for the movie to be bigger hits of this age group. If the movie depicted something teenagers could not relate to, then their sales may be drastically different. If kids are not looking for something to ‘dream' about, then they definitely are looking for something they can relate to and this is why such teen movies were very much affected by the current teen culture and society.
Another place we see influence in how movies are made is by that of movies trying to depict foreign cultures. Take for considering the movie “City of God”. The film makers of this movie were trying to show a story of a lower class section of Rio de Janeiro. The cultural values and the way people lived played a huge part of how this movie was created. This part of Rio de Janeiro had a totally different view on cultural values than people within America. This needed to be portrayed so that the viewers could be emotionally tied to the movie, and honestly they did a great job at it.
Even ethical values came into play with the movie “City of God”. How the police and government system was corrupt, as well as how the citizens dealt with day to day activities all showed a huge difference when compared to American ethical values. The people within this area grew up knowing that at any point you could die. It could have been from diseases, gun fights, or any other numerous things. They lived in a fear that we just do not understand.
Another example of how movies are influenced by ethical values is by looking at the object of greed or just money in general. Everyone wants money and will do anything for it. Film makers allow their movies to be influenced by this as they go for what people want to see. Take for example the movie “Richie Rich”. People want to see movies where someone is making a lot of money or has a lot of money. Movies where the characters are just living the ‘perfect life'. Film makers know people love the idea of having a lot of money. They will then allow this to influence their movie hoping it will appeal to those that like to dream of such things. On the other side, you will also have movies influenced by people's greed that ends up turning deadly, such like in the movie “No Country For Old Men” in which the main character lets greed take a toll on not only himself but his own family.
Overall, movies really do make an impact on society, both in America and globally as well. We see how movies both have an influence on people, as well as vise versa. Society itself, its trends and how people react to things will have an influence on a movie and how the film maker directs their movie. With movies having an influence on society and society having an influence on movies as well, both can be viewed as a positive and negative thing.
Works Cited
Julian, Robin. "Teen Movies." Professional Teachers Coucil NSW. Society & Culture Association. 02 Jun 2008 <http://www.ptc.nsw.edu.au/scansw/teen.html>.
London, Casandra. "How violence in entertainment affects our society." Helium. 02 Jun 2008 <http://www.helium.com/items/281970-how-violence-in-entertainment-affects-our-society>.
"Mass Communication." Wikipedia. 02 Jun 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_communication>.
McNerthney , Casey. "Boy, 10, buried in sandbox game, dies." Seattle PI. 10 MAR 2008. 02 Jun 2008 <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354479_sandbox11.html>.