Politics in Media

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Politics in Media

Media Platforms that have Potential to Influence or Persuade an Audience:

  • Broadcasts
  • Print Media
  • Mainstream Film and Animation
  • Independent Film and Animation
  • Games
  • Podcasts
  • Social Media/ Internet Profile

How Messages in Moving Image are Used

  • Subliminal or Masked Content
  • Overt/ Protagonists Intentions
  • Persuasive/ Commercial Targets
  • Documentary/ Investigatiive
  • Independent/ Personal Struggle, observation or experience

Under the Topic of Politics in Film and Media in Key areas Include

  • Political Persuasion
  • Commercial Persuasion
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Equality
  • Disability
  • Ethics
  • Sexuality

How do Politics Shape what is being Made in Media

  • Documentary Film
  • Cinema
  • Television
  • Games
  • Advertising

Politics in Film

Case Studies of Politics in Film

  • Milk– The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California’s first openly gay elected official.
  • The Darkest Hour – 1940, World War 2, Winston Churchill must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
  • Loving – `In 1960’s Virginia, a couple had to fight, with the Supreme Court, for the right to be marriage because it is a interracial marriage.
  • On the Basis of Sex – Ruth Ginsburg struggles for equal rights, and the early cases of a historic career that lead to her nomination and conformation as U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice.

The Political Message in Media

Directing a political message at the audience can influence the point of view of the audience. This point can be supported by the ‘Hypodermic Needle media’ theory. To explain, the Hypodermic Needle theory (Chandler and Munday, 2020) concludes that mass media influences audiences, ‘injecting’ media messages directly into the brains of the passive audience. Although this theory was developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s after observing the effect of WW1 propaganda, I still feel that this can be applicable to today’s media.

Many mainstream media do not intentionally push a political agenda, but because they don’t want to limit their audience they include them, even slightly. The audience do not want to think about how the events of the real world are impacting the story behind the film (any media entertainment in general). Furthermore, they do not want modern politics to impact the story, instead, already created context and allure of the fictional universe should be the only things to dictate the stories told within it. Fictional or not, the audience desire a self-contained source of entertainment, independent of reality. Otherwise the illusion of the story being real is shattered.

Subtle Political Messages in Film: The Story vs the Message

While the political message within the film may not be the focus of the film but they are present more often than you expect. Some may say that there is no place for politics in entertainment anymore, or that it should be kept out of the spotlight, especially in escapism films where the gratification of entertainment aims to be received (not a film where you need to think heavily about the context or narrative messages). While others will say that politics are ever present in movies. This all depends on when the film was released, film will most commonly reflect the politics of their year of release.

Politics in Advertising

All adverts must be “legal, decent, honest and truthful”.

(Conway, 2019)

Politics in Animation

Politics in comics/cartoons:

References

Chandler, D. and Munday, R., 2020. A Dictionary of Media and Communication. OUP Oxford.

Conway, L., 2019. Who regulates political advertising?. [online] House of Commons Library. Available at: <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/who-regulates-political-advertising/> [Accessed 24 October 2021].

Who regulates political advertising?
Who regulates political advertising?