Politics and media relationship
Politics influences all kinds of media, the values expressed by the media, the level of violence in games, the characters in movies and so on. And the wide spread of media will affect politics in turn. For example, the South Korean film Hope has made the South Korean Parliament raise the sentencing standard for child sexual assault crimes through its realistic content. So politics and the media are close, and today, they are more closely related.
What politics affect media?
I think basically, it often influenced the values, like most movies are good over evil, or they have a happy ending. Of course, there are also some influences of social concepts, such as violence or cigarettes, etc. Most films or online streaming and TV will express views that are more in line with public concepts, and generally will not encourage violent behaviors or smoking.
How do politics shape what is being made in media?
In class, Luke mentioned a scene in The Avengers 4: The End Game where all the female superheroes fight together. Nowadays, the society pays more and more attention to the rights and interests of women. The addition of this plot in the movie also echoes the reality.
For films, games, online streaming and so on, the influence of politics on them is mainly reflected in plot design, lens language, and in deeper aspects, which may affect the content they want to express.
- Game
When it comes to politics affect games, it’s often associated with violence, such as how bloody the game is. In Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2, there’s a level called “No Rassian”, which has a bloody reminder that might be uncomfortable for the player to jump through.
And I also noticed another thing, some of the early games will try to make the female characters more sexy to attract the players, but now there is a view that this is materialized women, it ‘s disrespectful. On the other hand, it also ignores a lot of female players. So now some game makers will avoid too sexy female character design, Laura of Tomb Raider is a good example.
- Film
In class, we mainly discussed the placement of advertisements in some movies, and how these affect people’s consumption concepts.
What impressed me most was the Transformers series, which was made to show cars, and I still remember my excitement when I first saw bumblebee become Comero on the screen. A nd Comero is so cool!
In fact, product placement has existed since the birth of movies. In the spring of 1896, when the Lumiere brothers, the fathers of motion pictures, were still practising in various “micro-films”, a Swiss businessman named Henri Lavange saw a business opportunity and asked for a bar of soap to be implanted in the short film, promising to help them release it. So here’s the shining sun brand soap in the Parade of the 8th Battalion.
But not all ads fit into the movie so naturally. I want to focus on Transformers: Age of Extinction. There are too many ads for this movie. And I don’t know if it’s because the story takes place in China, there are too many Chinese products in the movie, and the story doesn’t fit that well, especially for a Chinese milk brand, which appears repeatedly.
“Can I finish my Shuhua milk first?” It’s embarrassing to say. It’s like saying that we’ve received an investment from Shuhua Milk. We can see a lot of other product placements in this movie. Like the Beats speakers and Oreo crackers. Of course, it’s easy to understand when you consider the huge amount of money needed to make a sci-fi blockbuster. But I have to say these ads are so embarrassing, and it’s hard to get into the story.
- TV & Advertising
In TV media, whether news or TV programs, the topics and opinions discussed are closely related to politics or public opinion.For example, the attitude towards cigarettes, which are harmful to human health, has basically become a common sense. Therefore, international restrictions are usually imposed on cigarette advertising. Before the public realizes the harm of cigarettes, cigarette advertising is quite common.
(Advertisements for Winston, a cigarette, appear in the American animated series The Flintstones)
The lack of cigarette advertising on television is also justified by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first global treaty to come into force under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), which came into force on 27 February 2005.Under the Convention, all cigarette packages are required to carry health warnings that “smoking is harmful to health” on at least 30 percent of the surface area, and all tobacco advertising, including all forms of image advertising, promotion and sponsorship, must be banned for a certain period of time.Widespread prohibition of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in radio, television, print and, where appropriate, other media, such as the Internet.
In my opinion, this is the positive influence of Politics on media, which has a positive effect on people’s physical health and concept.
- Online Streaming
I think online streaming is similar to film, game, TV and so on in many aspects, and they are also influenced by politics.And some plot design, to some extent, is more influenced by culture.There is a point here that, regarding the protection of children, in the American film rating system, there are corresponding regulations for every level, while works rated below PG are prohibited from the death or serious injury of children.And this is in some eastern works, sometimes the death of a child is used to reflect on the war or to warn people.
For example, Japanese director Isao Takahata’s “Grave of the Fireflies” features the death of a child.
I think there is no right or wrong, but in different cultures, people’s different ideas and policies have different influences on media.
In my opinion, the influence of politics on the media reflects the development of society, the change of people’s ideas and the diversification of their thinking.A lot of influences that didn’t exist before, not only are people not paying attention to such problems, but also new solutions are emerging.The media is always a reflection of The Times.
As for the political issues of the current era, I think maybe two topics can be mentioned for discussion of future politically related animations.One is the current cultural integration and conflict, or cultural invasion.Another thing I would like to explore is the influence of political opinions carried by various media on individuals.