Does the documentaries affect society on a larger scale and how?
Answers
Answer:
Yes, as documentaries are totally based on reality and the ongoing problems of the world or any society.Documentaries are detailed explanation of anything.Now a days,many film documentaries are made which is based on reality.
Answer:
Throughout history, many leaders have used the power of film to help achieve their goals. During WWII, for example, both Hitler and Stalin used movies as propaganda and did so very successfully. Cinema can easily change people’s opinions and their outlooks on life. Good films almost always impact the viewer; just how much varies by movie and person. Individually, people are bound to get affected by movies given that a main goal the cinematic art form has is exactly to impact and send a message. There are also numerous ways in which movies affect society and the modern world we live in: some of them negative, some of them positive. Since the cinema industry is so big and because films have become such a big part of our lives, the overall impact and influence that cinema has on our society is immense.
One of the ways in which films affect society is by expanding our knowledge of history and culture.
Some movies are like history lessons to the viewers, since they show real life past events. An example of this is the Academy Award winner for best picture in 2001 “Gladiator”. Winner of five Oscars and the nominee for seven more, “Gladiator” is a very well-made production and as close to perfect as few other get. Even though most of the plot in “Gladiator” is fictional, for example the love story and the revenge tale, the film does depict real life past situations. It shows life of gladiators, the political situation of Rome at the time, and the overall state at which the world was. People who have seen “Gladiator” surely gained some knowledge from the film and expanded their current understanding of Roman culture.
Films also describe and explore different cultures around the world. A perfect example of this is the four Oscar nominee “City of God” which takes place in the underground world of Rio de Janeiro. The film surely impacts the viewer since it shows certain situations and truths about life in Rio de Janeiro that most people don’t know.
Another huge, and often rather ignored, way that movies affect society is through advertisement of different products.
Often, companies will pay studios to include their products in movies; when so many people watch the production, surely some of them will want to buy the can of Coca-Cola that their favorite character was drinking all throughout. A recent example of this that comes to mind is in the movie “Nerve” starring Dave Franco and Emma Roberts. It’s fairly obvious the film is a huge advertisement for Apple. Millions of people went to see that movie; some of them probably had the desire to buy the new Apple product because they saw how well it was working in the hands of the characters. Unlike ‘Nerve’, however, some productions have found ways to advertise products without shoving them in people’s faces. Research has shown that people want to mimic their idols, so productions will often cast famous actors for the sole purpose of advertisement. If someone’s favorite actor was Johnny Depp, for example, they would subconsciously try to mimic him. If Johnny Depp took only one sip from a Coca-Cola can, fans would subconsciously want to buy a Coca-Cola can to be like their favorite actor, even though it’s a role they are playing and even though it was, after all, just one sip.
People try to mimic things they’ve seen in cinema constantly and in numerous different ways. For example, violence in films can be very influential to many young viewers. People may subconsciously try to be like a character they see in a film they very much like, even if that character has wicked intentions. In 2012 in Aurora, Colorado James Holmes killed twelve people and injured seventy others during the midnight projection of “The Dark Knight Rises”. James Holmes was a long time superhero fan and especially liked Batman. Psychologists still aren’t sure what exactly provoked him to do the shooting, but one of the theories is that he was enraged by the making of “The Dark Knight Rises” as it defiles his favorite comic book. Another well-known theory is that he was inspired to be like the Joker, the villain of the prequel “The Dark Knight”, who wanted to spread chaos and terror through violence. The Joker does not think of ordinary people as real people and James Holmes has said exactly that ‘these were not real people’. Although this is a very exaggerated example, it’s a fact that the violence teenagers all around the world watch in movies makes them want to cause violence. For example, in 1971, the same year the classic “A Clockwork Orrange” came out, the crime rate in America rose. It’s speculated that some people were influenced by the psychopaths in “A Clockwork Orange” and the awful things they were doing and that affected them in a way that they no longer suppressed their desire to do criminal activity.
I hope this helps.