Media culture focuses on investigating factors or processes that shape today’s world. With the rapidly evolving technology and the changing times, media culture plays a significant role in addressing some global emergencies such as climate, health, and structural inequalities. The reason is that the media can reach a broad audience and is instant. Today, the climate is a big global crisis that significantly affects political, economic, and social lives worldwide. More so, the media is also playing a big role in addressing structural inequality.
Structural inequality refers to the situation where certain privileges are not provided equally to all social groups or all institutions. Allocation of resources such as health is biased, which means that some groups or some institutions have more advantages than other groups.
Another factor that the media has had an impact on is the health sector. The World Health Organization has highlighted several health emergencies that should be prioritized and insists on the importance of public health (Anderson et al., 2012). This paper will focus on these three factors and evaluate how media culture has helped address these emergencies.
The media has greatly helped in sensitization on matters of climate change. This has affected the public’s opinion on the climate crisis that the global continent is facing. Without a doubt, the media is at the center of fighting climate change. It has helped raise awareness and bring to an understanding of the environment or climatic changes encouraging friendly environmental behavior (Anderson, 2017). With the media providing informative information about climate change, policymakers can make the right decisions and take the appropriate steps to handle this emergency.
Additionally, media culture helps provide a translation of information given by scientists and activists to the general public in a more understandable way. On the other hand, the media has helped people understand their rights by holding the people in power accountable for the climate crisis. This has led to media personalities interviewing government officials on what they have done in order to combat the crisis.
Such questions or interviews with politicians allow the public to evaluate the government’s initiatives and decide whether they chose the right leaders. Finally, the media emphasizes and airs the impacts of climate change and how they affect human beings. For example, by covering news of areas in which people have been swept away by floods, the media sensitizes people on the need to be more cautious and take more care of the environment to reduce climate change impacts
Media Culture and Society
The significant role of media in the health sector cannot be disputed. The media has played a huge role in ensuring that the public is well-educated on health issues. Media has been the biggest catalyst to help promote healthcare. For example, during the Coronavirus, pandemic media has been the Primary educator on rules and regulations that need to be followed to avoid contracting the disease.
Besides, it also helps bring together different partnerships, private sectors, non-governmental organizations, volunteers, and professional organizations worldwide to solve a certain health crisis (Moorhead et al., 2013). For example, it has brought together different stakeholders from different countries in an effort to find a vaccine for coronavirus disease.
Media Culture and Society
Additionally, the media has also helped health workers reach disadvantaged groups in rural areas. Health workers can also keep the public updated about certain immunizations or offer guidance on measures that should be taken on emergency health complications. Apart from just education, the media also informs the public about the general health situation worldwide
It is the media’s role to provide correct statistics and correct information on the number of people infected by a certain disease or the people who are more vulnerable to infection. The media should also inform the public about geographical areas that have been affected or are more likely to be affected by a certain disease.
The fairly widespread inequalities have posed a question and need for concern as they are a potential threat for social disruption. As a result, the media has come up to play a crucial part in making the public aware of their rights and addressing inequality issues. Search inequalities include education inequality, health inequalities, ethnic inequalities, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and employment discrimination (Childress & Nault, 2019). Such discrimination has led to conflict and violence in the past few years. Entertainment, politics, and news media all influence the public’s opinion on inequality.
Awareness of Media Culture
However, while the media has been used to promote awareness about inequalities, it has also been at the center in promoting inequality. This is majorly because most of these media channels are owned by private individuals. The channels mostly release news based on their customers or where they are located, which means that they will definitely want to give their consumers what they like to hear.
Sometimes political members even bribe the media to hide relevant information that could have been useful to the public. For example, in the case of employment, employers may employ only their family members and collaborate with the media to avoid exposing the employed list to the public. This is clear evidence that rich people or relatively high-class people have the power to manipulate information that is released to the media.
In conclusion, it is without a doubt that media plays an integral part in emergency response. On the media, it is easy to influence the public, mobilize the public, raise funds, and hold campaigns to manage an emergency. This is because it reaches information fast to the people who need it most. With advanced technology, media culture has the ability to manage emergencies, unlike in ancient times when there was no internet or technology. Nevertheless, government and media organizations deem to improve the dissemination of information. It is their role to ensure that the news released is accurate, responsible, and reliable.
References
Anderson, A. A. (2017). Effects of social media culture use on climate change opinion, knowledge, and behavior. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.
Anderson, P. D., Suter, R. E., Mulligan, T., Bodiwala, G., Razzak, J. A., Mock, C., & International Federation for Emergency Medicine. (2012). World Health Assembly Resolution 60.22 and its importance as a health care policy tool for improving emergency care access and availability globally. Annals of emergency medicine, 60(1), 35-44.
Childress, C., & Nault, J. F. (2019). Encultured Biases: The Role of Products in Pathways to Inequality. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 115-141.
Moorhead, S. A., Hazlett, D. E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J. K., Irwin, A., & Hoving, C. (2013). A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(4), e85.
Did you find any useful knowledge relating to media culture and society in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
Paparazzi, is the term refers to the annoying and persistent photographers who take embarrassing pictures of celebrities to earn some money. These people, not only target these celebrities, but also their other family members including their minor children who are often harassed as well. This madness should come to be considered a criminal activity as well and regulations should be enacted to place limits on their activities. The purpose of writing this research paper is to analyse the term Paparazzi, why they should be their behaviour should be considered wrong, and what should be done to limit their improper activities.
The term paparazzi was introduced into the public lexicon by the globally admired film ‘La Dolce Vita,’ which was directed by Federico Fellini, it concentrates on the life of a washed-up journalist, Marcello and his colleague who is a photographer, whose name is Paparazzo (Celant, 1994). As described by Fellini in his interview with Time magazine Paparazzo is an Italian word that refers to the irritating noise made by a buzzing insect, darting, stinging, and hovering. This character in the film is given a human-like bone structure, and somehow looks like a “vampirish insectile” (Celant, 1994). This image of the paparazzi in the film looks like a parasite, a mosquito as depicted from the following picture. By the end of 60s, the term paparazzi had entered into the public usage as a generic term in English language that simply meant an intrusive or interfering photographer (Wilton, 2007) and the individual being photographed is known as being ‘papped’.
According to Sonenshine (1997), Paparazzi refer probably to an independent contractor and are typically not affiliated with mainstream media companies. They take advantage of opportunities by taking pictures of the high-profile famous people they are observing constantly, whenever they get any sightings of them (Sonenshine, 1997). According to Wilton (2007), a paparazzo is a local clam, which is used as an implied comparison to the paparazzo that opens and closes the lens of camera (Wilton, 2007). Many of the experts consider the behaviour of these paparazzi to be similar to stalking (CNN, 2006), which is an act of obsessive or unwanted pursuit given by one person towards another.
Why Paparazzi is Considered Wrong?
Certain celebrities and high-profile public figures have expressed their concerns regarding their privacy and personal space and the extent to which these paparazzi try to interfere in their personal space (Dakss, 2005). According to Carnahan (2014), these insistent photographers (paparazzi) continuously stalk high-profile people and celebrities and bother them while they are eating, or shopping, etc. (Carnahan, 2014).
Some publicists believe that the paparazzi are just going out of control with their outlandish job of collecting most embarrassing pictures; they are making it difficult for their high-profile targets to live in their own personal space and have a normal life. Not just in films, but they live with the constant threat that they will have a camera always in their face (Papasmear, 2013). Sometimes, the extreme behaviour of these insane photographers has led to serious accidents faced by celebrities. As an instance, Lindsay Lohan’s famous accident in the year 2005 in which the actress was almost killed because the paparazzo intentionally drove into her car (Dakss, 2005). This shows that the extreme behaviour of the paparazzi has rapidly transformed into criminal activities.
paparazzi essay
Instead of this, they do not only target these celebrities, but also their family members that also include their minor children. Some celebrities complained about paparazzi harassing them by focusing on their minor children Furthermore, there must be some level of privacy given to them, particularly when it is the case of their family and most importantly, their minor children and their family (Papasmear, 2013). A survey by fanpop.com, also illustrates that 58% of the total population are against these annoying activities by the paparazzi (Fanpop). They can do practically anything to get a picture since they earn a lot of money for these photos. Just for the sake of earning some money (Nastec International, 2011), these people are stealing the right of privacy and freedom from these high-profile people and celebrities.
Carnahan (2014) further stated that celebrities and other high-profile people are also human beings and they deserve respect; and therefore, it is necessary to apply certain limitations to the paparazzi.
What Limitations Should Apply to Paparazzi?
The majority of people are against the paparazzi and since they are citizens who deserve the right to privacy and freedom just like everyone else, some countries are applying legal regulations, like anti-stalking bills to resolve the harassment issues faced by the high-profile people and celebrities. Some countries also restrict their activities by imposing curfews on them. For instance, California has approved a law in 2014, which will help in preventing these extreme people from misusing the privacy and from taking embarrassing photographs of the celebrities (Business Insider, 2014). Even after all such laws have been enacted, Nastec International (2011), noted that even after hard pressing the paparazzi with privacy laws for years, their activities are still on the rampage.
In order to limit these Paparazzi according to Nastec International (2001), a videotape or surveillance must be used to undercover such activity and these surveillance videotapes can later be provided as a proof in court against these annoying intrusive individuals.
These people can also be prevented to some extent by restricting them only to staged events. Although, it is not possible always to restrict them, because they can enter secretly as they are able to creep into the private places, like the homes of celebrities, but privacy can be maintained by only providing admission rights to celebrities and their families or the extremely important people and restricting rest of the people including, journalists, photographers, etc. One remedy to this can be that during the events special cards can be issued only for those are extremely important for the celebrities and to whom they personally want to invite to the event.
Moreover, celebrities can also limit improper activities of the Paparazzi through campaigning. If all celebrities would unite and do social media campaigning against the paparazzi, they can also do public campaigning programs to prevent these intrusive photographers and to get back their right of freedom and privacy.
References
Business Insider. (2014, September 30) California bans paparazzi drones.
Carnahan, S. (2014, April 3) Should Limitations Be Applied to the Paparazzi?
Celant, G. (1994) The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications.
CNN. (2006, May 14) Why paparazzi are wrong.
Dakss, B. (2005, June 10) Paparazzi Going Too Far?
Nastec International. (2011) FIGHTING THE PAPARAZZI.
Papasmear. (2013, May 15) Top Reasons Why the Paparazzi Are Wrong!
Sonenshine, T. (1997, October) Is Everyone a Journalist?
Similarities and Differences between the Media Systems of India and China
Media Systems – China and India are the two most populated countries in the world with over 30% of the entire world’s population. Both countries are currently undergoing massive transformations due to the implementation of liberal economic policies (O’Connor, 2007). The GDP growth rate in 2007 rose by 8.5% in India and 11.4% in China (CIA, 2008). “Nicholas D. Kristof, Beijing bureau chief (1988–93) of The New York Times, predicted in 1993 that ‘the rise of China, if it continues, may be the most important trend in the world for the next century’. Only five years into the new millennium, China has become the fourth largest economy in the world. Many believe China will eventually overtake the US around the mid-21st century” (Kristof, 1993, p. 59 cited in Cao, 2007, p. 431). India is projected by McKinsey “to become the world’s fifth-biggest consuming nation by 2025” (O’Connor, 2007). Both countries also have very long historical and cultural traditions that span thousands of years but the actual nation-states of both countries are quite young (Pashupati, K. et al, 2003).
The media landscapes of both countries are not immune to the effects of commercialization. There has been a shift away from state-run media towards private ownership. This process is currently more prevalent in India than in China because not all of India’s media is state-run. Another trend is the use of advertising by state-run monopolistic media. According to India-based researcher A. Joseph, “Media systems and structures have undergone dramatic transformations at both the global and the national level since the mid-1980’s” (Joseph, 2006, p. 18). The countries are also affected by technological changes including the shift to cable and satellite television broadcasting and the growth of the internet. British Media Researcher Margaret Gallagher wrote, “In Asia the media in many countries have recently seen a spectacular transformation with the arrival of new commercial cable and satellite channels, and the privatization of old state-run media has led to new market-oriented content” (Gallagher, 2000, quoted in Joseph, 2006).
This essay will outline and discuss the similarities and differences in the media systems of China and India. The first section will focus on the basic demographics of the countries and how they impact the media system. The research will then shift to the state’s control of the media. Then, the media’s role in the two countries will be compared. The next section will discuss the impact of modernization theory and globalization and the final section will be the conclusion.
Media Systems Demographics
First of all, it is important to consider the demographics of the countries in order to make a reasonable comparison between the two. China and India are the only two countries which have a population greater than a billion people. According to a July 2008 estimate by the CIA World Fact Book, India’s population will reach 1,147,995,898 and China’s population will reach 1,330,044,605 (CIA, 2008). India is made of 28 states and 7 union territories and China is made of 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 4 municipalities (CIA, 2008).
The government style is very important because the political economy of the country directly impacts the media system. India’s formal name is the Republic of India and it is a federal republic (CIA, 2008). The country became independent from British control in 1947 (Pashupati, K. et al, 2003). China is a Communist State and the formal name is the People’s Republic of China (CIA, 2008). The Chinese republic was founded in 1949 (Pashupati, K. et al, 2003).
Both countries have the difficult task of integrating diverse populations into one united nation-state. An example is the amount of languages spoken in both countries. Hindi and English are the two most popular languages in India. There are 15 other languages recognized in the constitution and also hundreds of different dialects (Pashupati, K. et al, 2003). According to the CIA World Factbook:
“English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 21 other official languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanscrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language” (CIA, 2008).
Media Systems Dissertation
In China, the major languages include “Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages (see Ethnic groups entry)” (CIA, 2008).
The State’s Control of Media Systems
Because China and India have two different government styles, their approach to media regulation is not the same. India has a ‘mixed economy’ which means that it is a mixture of public (state-run) and private ownership of media. Telecommunication and broadcasting is state-owned and the print media and film industry are private (Pashupati, et al, 2003). “The prerogative of investing in certain ‘core industries’, including telecommunication and broadcasting, was reserved exclusively for the state sector. On the other hand, ownership of the print media, as well as the film industry, remained largely in private hands, and the press in India has enjoyed considerable freedom from state control throughout the history of the republic” (Pashupati, et al, 2003, p. 256).
Because the Chinese government is Communist, all of the media is controlled by the state. The Chinese Communist Party controls all 358 television channels and over 2,000 newspapers (Esarey, 2006). The largest television network in mainland China is called CCTV which stands for Chinese Central Television and is a government agency controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (About CCTV International, 2005).
The Chinese press has developed into a distinctive pattern of a two-tier system after two decades of reform: the propaganda focused Party press and the market-oriented press as the commercial arm of the Party press. The former consists of the ‘traditional’ morning dailies run by the CCP propaganda departments, serving principally as the authoritative voice of the Party-state. The latter are largely reader-centered, fully commercialized newspapers controlled and sponsored by their parent Party organ press (Cao, 2007, p. 442).
The Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party is in charge of keeping an eye on members of the media workforce and restricting the content of television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and film (Esarey, 2006). The most widely read newspaper in China is the People’s Daily which is “a key vehicle through which major government policies and Party ideological guidelines are promulgated” (Cao, 2007, p. 432).
The advertising industry has had an impact on both countries and originally initially both countries did not allow advertising at all. This changed in the late 1970’s-mid 1980’s. India’s Doordarshan network allowed soap operas which were sponsored by companies like Nestle and Colgate (Singhal and Rogers, 1989). The soap operas were a huge success and were very profitable and it became very common for the networks to accept advertising.
Although the media is technically owned by the state in China, the government has become much more relaxed about allowing commercial advertising. In the past, the communist party funded all of the media. China’s CCTV began allowing paid advertising in 1979 and now almost all state media does not receive government subsidies and relies on commercial advertising for funding. Now, the funding comes from advertising and indirect ownership by private and collective businesses.
Media’s Function in Society
Both India and China are similar because the media serves a specific function in society which was originally set out by the governments of both countries. Because the Chinese Communist Party controls the media personnel and the content of the media, it is used as propaganda for the party and as a form of political communication (Esarey, 2006). “As an authoritarian society, China is characterized by a largely linear pattern of political communication.
The political elite rules on the one hand with a centralized administrative machine with all its associated penal power; and on the other, a pervasive discursive campaign of propaganda to condition the public for uniform thinking” (Cao, 2007, p. 433). This is very clear in the four main tasks of the Chinese Television Industry:
To have a positive function for society by publicizing and explaining the policies of the Party and the government;
To offer a set of socio-moral standards based on Marxism-Leninism and Maoism and to encourage and educate the people of the entire nation to strive to create a socialist civilization that is both materially and culturally rich;
To help the Party and the government in the smooth running of the country and maintaining established social order and stability; and
To follow the Party’s and the government’s guidelines, and to prevent anti-Party and anti-government coverage” (Peng, 1987 quoted in Pashupati, K. et al, 2003, p. 258).
Also, the Chinese Communist Party closely monitors all internet usage by Chinese citizens and “access to politically threatening Internet sites and web logs is blocked; uncensored satellite television is not legally available to the general public; foreign radio broadcasts are scrambled; and the sale of publications” (Esarey, 2006, p. 2). The media in India does not seem to serve the same function at all. Instead, it is used to achieve the goal of improving the nation and educating and entertaining Indian citizens. According to the Doordarshan’s Citizen Charter, the India public service network agrees to do the following;
Inform freely, truthfully and objectively the citizens of India on all matters of public interest, national and international.
Promote social justice, national consciousness, national integration, communal harmony, and the upliftment of women.
Provide adequate coverage to sports and games.
Cater to the special needs of the youth.
Pay special attention to the fields of education, and spread of literacy, agriculture, rural development, environment, health and family welfare and science and technology. (Doordarshan, 2006)
Modernization and Globalization
The belief that the media can be used to educate citizens in order to improve a nation is embedded in Modernization Theory. Basically, Modernization theory believes that a country must become ‘modernized’ in order to achieve economic growth (Melkote, 1991). “Critics have argued that there is a pro-western bias inherent in the assumptions of this theory, because the notion of what is ‘modern’, and therefore ‘good’, is dictated primarily by western nations and values” (Pashupati, K. et al, 2003, p. 253). Globalization is very closely linked with modernization and is generally associated with “an acceleration of the spread of ‘Western-style’ modernization” (Thomas, 2005, p. 54).
The theory ignores centuries of historical change and is used to describe the situations of massive economic growth in India and China while overlooking the fact that both countries were once massive, wealthy empires. Signs and symptoms of globalization process are very much in evidence within the Indian media context today: early stages of media concentration (including cross-media ownership), growing ascendancy of the profit motive, dilution of the public service role of the media, abuse of market power, translation of economic power into political power, promotion of certain ideologies and values (and devaluation of others), supremacy of ‘mainstream’ content, increase in formulaic content, neglect of the interests and concerns of individuals, communities and groups who do not figure in the priorities of the market, absence of ‘minority’ voices and views from public debates and discussions, decline in public discourse in terms of both seriousness and plurality, spread of a ‘culture of entertainment’, and so on. Commercial interests have apparently become the driving force of much of the country’s media, both public and private” (Joseph, 2006, p. 19).
Media critics McQuail and Siune believe that when the number of television channels increase that the channels become less public-service oriented and more concerned with profits because they are owned by large privately owned media conglomerates. Siune wrote “Public service monopolies, with national obligations, have disappeared, and the content has increasingly become internationalized and commercialized” (1998, p. 4-5).
Conclusion
India and China are very highly populated countries which both share the interesting combination of having long historical traditions and being young nation-states at the same time. Also, both countries are undergoing massive transformations due to implementations of liberal economic policies. India and China’s citizens all speak a variety of languages which can make it difficult to reach everyone in the nation.
Both countries use their media systems in order to have a direct social impact on its citizens although they have different goals. China’s Communist government directly controls all of the media and also uses it to spread propaganda. India is a federal republic and has a mixed system whereby telecommunication and broadcasting is state owned and the print media and film industry are privately owned.
India’s media seems to serve the function of improving the nation, and educating and entertaining its citizens. The television broadcasting systems in both countries were previously all state-controlled and no commercial advertising was allowed but now they have relaxed their rules and allow commercial advertising.
References
About CCTV International. (2005)
CIA. (2008, May 01). The World Factbook
Cao, Q. (2007). Confucian Vision of a New World Order?: Culturalist Discourse, Foreign Policy and the Press in Contemporary China. The International Communication Gazette, 69 (5), 431–450.
Doordarshan. (2006). Citizen Charter
Esarey, F. (2006, February). Speak No Evil: Mass Media Control in Contemporary China.
Joseph, A., & Sharma, K. (2006). Whose News? The Media and Women’s Issues. New Delhi: SAGE.
McQuail, D. & Siune, K. (1998). Media Policy: Convergence, Concentration and Commerce. London: SAGE Publications.
Melkote, S. (1991) Media Systems and Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice.London: Sage.
O’Connor, A. (2007, December 01). Sharp-Eyed L’Oréal Gets Head Start in India. Media Systems – The Sunday Times.
Pashupati, K., Sun, H. L., and McDowell, S. D. (2003). Guardians of Culture, Development Communicators, or State Capitalists? Media Systems A comparative analysis of Indian and Chinese policy responses to Broadcast, Cable, and Satellite Television. Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies, 65 (3), 251-271.
Singhal, A. and E.M. Rogers (1989) India’s Information Revolution. Media Systems New Delhi: Sage.
Thomas, A. O. (2005). Media Systems, Imagi-nations and borderless television: Media, Culture and Politics Across Asia. London: SAGE.
With the advent of television sets in our rooms, computers, smart phones and tablets the media has become omnipresent. Often termed as the fifth estate, importance of media in our lives has steadily risen. According to Internet World Stats, there are over 2 billion internet users in the world and the number with an access to a television is even higher (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2012).
Social networking sites (referred to as Social Media) such as Facebook and Twitter had started as a mode through which individuals could communicate with each other. Today, it has evolved to a phenomenon through which important information can be communicated across millions of users in a fraction of a minute. Consequently, this new media has become a critical element in emergency and crisis response. Nielsen and NM Incite report that Social Media sites and blogs reach 80% of all active US Internet users. The figure for global users is not too different (Laad & Lewis, 2012). The role played by the media during Hurricane Katrina, Russian shootouts, earthquake in Japan, political unrest in the Middle East is proof to the fact that the media cannot be ignored today (Constitutional Rights Foundation, n.d.).
Role of Media in Disaster Management
The role of media is the dissemination of information (Excerpts from the Davide Commission Report, n.d.). Primarily the media uncovers and distributes / spread the information that is connected to a disaster. Answers to questions such as the number of causalities suffered from the earthquake or war? The number of displaced people and those that need refugee status are all answered by the media. Also, one can get an impression of the disaster magnitude, how to rise above the situation as well as information regarding the type of aid required, in so doing aiding in fundraising.
Media Crisis
“You need to be prepared for today’s media culture, in which a tweet can become newsworthy and a news interview can become tweet-worthy” (Concina, 2013). Acknowledging the rising importance of print and digital media, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) became the first International NGO to implement humanitarian mass communication program in all of its covering areas to amass firsthand and authentic information (IOM, 2012). Furthermore, many of the disaster management organizations have formulated their own mass communication programs such as International Rescue Committee, Red Cross International, Oxfam International, US AID and UK AID.
Disadvantages of the media in a crisis
A Congressional research service report by the Federation of American Scientists illustrates that false, inaccurate or outdated information, has been circulated through social media in disasters (Lipowicz, 2011). During the Japanese tsunami, several appeals for help were repeatedly retweeted although the victims had already been rescued. An additional concern is that certain organizations or individuals may on purpose give information that is inaccurate so as to disrupt, confuse, or frustrate response efforts (Lipowicz, 2011). This can be a result of a terrorist activity or a prank. Concerns also arise on the security and privacy of personal information that is collected during a disaster response through social media (Lipowicz, 2011).
Conclusion
In conclusion, media plays a significant part in relaying information more so during moments of crisis, particularly social media with its ability to reach a mass audience within minutes. The media has a key role as well as a moral responsibility to relay information in an accurate and timely manner during a crisis.
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Films are designed to be heard and seen, to appeal to our aural and visual senses. Just like any art form, films are also designed to be understood and felt, to appeal to our minds and emotions. The best measure of a film’s credibility is determined through assessing the elements that comprise the whole process. This is achieved through a film study, this post discusses how to write a film studies essay.
Film study essays require more work than movie reviews. This is because they entail that you engage on a level further than storytelling. The essays offer a critical analysis of a complete film. Analyzing a film gives rise to a variety of topics, including the role of propaganda with respect to political and social issues, the influence of cinema on your culture, as well as the emergence of auteur paradigm. The topics are fascinating and they enhance the insight and inspiration of film students. This is a crucial ingredient in the course of writing film studies essays.
The initial step when writing a film studies essay involves narrowing the scope of interest to a specific area. This stage calls for extensive investigation from a wide variety of sources to enhance insight into the area of study. An individual should provide key details and thematic issues under the scope of the study. This enables you to maintain the focus of the film analysis of a scene or sequence that may have escaped the audience’s attention during past viewings. This section also focuses on presenting crucial details on the formalism, genre, historical implications, national background, auteur, and the ideology behind the film. In the course of writing the film analysis, you should pay attention to length, source, and style requirements.
When writing about a specific film, it is always assumed that the targeted audience is familiar with the film under analysis. Such an analysis is always introduced by presenting the major topics of interest while avoiding getting into lengthy details. Special focus should feature while investigating the style and structure of a particular film. This section focuses on the screen events and ignores other outside factors like the historical context, the life history of the director and others. A good film essay should provide the most fascinating and crucial features of the style and structure of the film. Details like sound, lighting, and cinematography contributing to the meaning of the film should also feature.
A good film study essay should also consider the common sequences of form and content. This includes editing, lighting, cinematography, narrative, characterization, thematic concerns and others. This enables the target audience to ascertain how a film diverges or conforms from a genre category. A film study essay writer should consider a film’s historical moment as genre varies with time. At this point, it is important to emphasize the common structures, techniques, and themes associated with the genre of the film. If the genre conforms to expectations, it is necessary to make that acknowledgement.
Analyzing the historical features of a film is an important requirement in writing a film study essay. This approach investigates and positions the unique historical flash of the film’s content, as well as its production or release. You should inquire whether the historical moments /events are depicted in a particular film. Having a historical background enhances the understanding of the narrative or techniques employed in the film. An objective argument should be provided as it will help clarify the film’s place in history. The argument should show how the film relates to the evolutions resulted by technological advancements in the film industry. A film study essay writer should compare the subject matter of specific films to their unique historical moments. A documentation of the reception of a film by a certain audience will come in handy.
Some film studies have theoretical content in their analysis. This form in general requires the writer to have a good comprehension of film history, film technicalities, or film theory. Generally, the essay presents some of the complex and larger structures of the cinema, as well as how the audience understands them. The analysis should center on the national arena,auteur, and the ideology of the film.
Film Studies Essay
An analysis of the national cinema assesses a film through considering each country’s unique mode of studying the cultural implications resulted by these effects. This also helps the audience create the distinction between local and foreign films. It is crucial to determine whether the meaning of the film is changed when a film is observed outside of its culture. After identifying the dominating culture in the film, a cultural research should be carried out to enable a deeper understanding of the themes.
A film’s auteur reflects a director’s individual creative vision and it makes him appear as the film’s author. This is always achieved by a filmmaker who exercises creative management over his works and possesses a strong personal style. Auteur theory is one of the most persistent theoretical forms. This analysis focuses on how directors and other dominant figures like actors and producers employ pervasive themes and styles in their volume of work. Though a director rarely has total control over a film, it is important to establish the degree of influence. This will help to ascertain how the historical circumstances of a film’s production promote or discourage the unity of the director’s work. This section should also show the most distinguishing indicators of the director’s control over the film.
The political and social implications of a film are captured in its ideological analysis. Every film has an objective to pass a particular message to the society. An ample film study essay should have a clear underlying message that the film is trying to pass to the society. An analysis of culture, gender, characterization and other tenets help reveal the main message(s) in the film. Ideology can also be broken down into Hollywood Hegemony (observes how classical film designs distort and dominate people’s perception), class analysis( investigates how economic and social arrangements are represented in and surrounding a film influence and reflect the distribution of social command), feminist analysis ( investigates the level of women representation in front and behind the camera both positively and negatively), race studies( determines how various races have been positively or negatively embodied behind and in front of the camera, post colonial analysis ( from an international perception, how the subjugation and subsequent reemergence of native culture is revealed and represented in a particular film.
Before writing a film studies essay, one should offer a brief overview of the narration. However, care should be taken to avoid coming up with a synopsis of the film’s story as it is more of an analysis. The author should reveal plot complications or the film’s ending only if they relay directly to the analysis. If possible, a writer should write the film analysis with the movie at hand. A sufficient understanding of the films sould be reflected by the writer before embarking on writing the analysis. If the analysis is about a part of the movie shot from the point of view of one of the actors, one should write about the subjective camera task. A proper utilization of a film making terms will strengthen the command of the film studies essay.
