Movies on Media

By Derek Boles, York Region Board of Education

Of all the media texts that are available for repeated consumption by those concerned with media literacy, movies are the most easily accessible. Video tapes are readily available for classroom and individual viewing and school boards can negotiate for public performance rights allowing unlimited access for classroom viewing. When movies are used for independent study purposes and students and teachers view these films at home, no negotiation or financial settlement of any kind is required since there is no violation of any existing or contemplated copyright legislation.

With the exception of books and magazines, the mass media have never been very good at holding a mirror up to themselves and revealing their own transgressions and peccadilloes to the public. Television investigative programs like 60 Minutes and The Fifth Estate aggressively and gleefully report on corruption in government, institutions and industry yet seldom have much to say about similar goings-on in the media business. In the past several years, only a handful of television productions have taken a good, hard look at the television medium itself and most of these have been British programs. A monumental work on the global impact of the medium was heavily re-edited and sanitized before being presented on public television in the U.S.

The track record for movies is somewhat better. Several films have explored the absurdity of a media-dominated world, the best of these in a satirical vein. Beginning in this issue of Mediacy, and in an ongoing series of articles, I will profile a number of movies that comment in some way on society's relationship with the mass media.

Movies in the English Classroom: A Historical Background

Historically movies were used by teachers long before the current media literacy thrust became fashionable but it was never nearly as convenient as it is now. Prior to the proliferation of video cassettes, the major Hollywood studios made their releases available in a 16 mm format. In order to utilize this resource, teachers were hopefully adept (and most weren't! ) at the required technological expertise such as threading antique projectors, setting up an adequate sound system and hoping that the equipment didn't malfunction during the several reel changes required to show the average Hollywood feature film. Interestingly, in the non-academic world of profitable film exhibition, these functions were almost always performed by a union projectionist whose hourly wage would , at the time, have made most teachers envious.

In addition to these daunting challenges, teachers who wanted to show movies were faced with the unenvied task of raising enough money to rent the film since school budgets seldom allowed for this expense.

Fifteen years ago the rates were over a hundred dollars for one showing. The necessary funds were usually raised with a collection among the students viewing the film and, almost always, the teacher would make up the inevitable shortfall out of his or her own pocket.

Movies were usually shown in classrooms for one of three purposes:

  1. To illustrate a literary theme (i.e. teenage alienation in Rebel Without a Cause)
  2. To create interest in the study of a literary work (i.e. Romeo and Juliet)
  3. In the rare cases where media literacy was part of the educational agenda, movies would be shown to illustrate film techniques. The availability of National Film Board shorts made them enormously appealing for this purpose (i.e. the use of slow motion in Dream of Wild Horses).
All of us who have been teaching media studies for several years can recall utilizing movies in the classroom for such purposes. Such techniques were particularly valuable when English teachers were forced to justify the use of film in the classroom as part of traditionally conservative programs of study in English literature. Many of us still utilize these techniques.

Movies and Media Literacy: a Contemporary Overview

In recent years, other more subtle and sophisticated uses of films reflecting a growing awareness of media literacy issues have begun to emerge and find acceptance. For example:
  1. What happens to a literary work when it is transferred from page to screen? This involves an analysis of the nature of each of these media and the economic forces that shape them.
  2. How movies are shaped by political, ideological, and social conditions. These issues are beginning to occupy a central position in media studies.
  3. An analysis of those few movies which actually attempt to deal with the nature and social effects of the mass media.
It is this last category on which I will focus in this series. At the time of the writing of this preface (October, 1991), there are 17 movies on my list. They span a period from 1941 to 1989, with a significant gap during the 1960's, and include a number of film genres, though drama and comedy seem to predominate. Coincidentally, there is one film for each year that I have taught media studies in a high school classroom though I will cheerfully abandon this irony as readers may suggest films that I have overlooked or as new films suitable for inclusion are released. I have used all of these films with varying degrees of success. Each warrants its own study guide and several are already available through a variety of sources.

In this introductory article, the films are listed in chronological order. In subsequent articles the movies will be presented thematically.
 

Citizen Kane 1941
Sunset Boulevard 1950
A Face in the Crowd 1957
The Candidate 1972
The Day of the Locust 1975
Network 1976
Being There 1979
King of Comedy 1983
Zelig 1983
This Is Spinal Tap 1984
Purple Rose of Cairo 1985
Power 1986
Radio Days 1987
Broadcast News 1987
The Running Man 1987
Cinema Paradiso  1988
The Big Picture  1989