The Audience Betrayed

This is the semi-final draft of my Junior Research Paper (I say semi-final because I still have some more proofing to do before turning it in). Since I hadn't posted anything in a while...if there's anyone out there that still comes here... you now have something to read. =)
I also didn't want to go through and take out the pahrentheticals, so please bear with me, lol. As I said... it isn't in the exact format in which I'm turning it in.
Enjoy!

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The verb entertain can be defined as “to provide (someone) with amusement or enjoyment.” The Herald-Tribune records that on average, in a home the TV provides this enjoyment for about 6.2 hours every day ([1]). Per hour, there is an estimated 26 violent acts in children’s programming alone, as well as a large number of sexual innuendos ([1]). Almost that entire time, these programs will be Hollywood produced. As being shown in numberless homes, airplanes, theaters, stores, and many more sites, its influence has become inescapable. Unfortunately, this control of the big screen will not turn out to be a positive one. Hollywood seeks to promote immorality rather than clean entertainment through television and movies.

Hollywood attempts to teach certain philosophies in subtle ways through movies. Moreover, the assessment that they are doing it intentionally can be proved. Many companies within the Hollywood realm, especially Disney, present an unstained record to the audience rather than how things really are. In the well-beloved Disneyland for instance, much goes on behind the scenes at which the American public would be horrified. But, “Disney is concerned about their squeaky clean image….Without their image they would have nothing” (Schweizer 177). Even with all that goes on, all that we hear about is what Disney itself wants us to hear about, and they have the power to pick and choose as seen fit. Without their image, they would not be able to capture the attention which they are given by millions of Americans. Now having that attention, they’re going to play with it.

Hollywood has become the moral teacher. Since children and young adults especially tend to be ignorant to the lies it has to offer, they have become the prime targets. “Disney viewed the film ‘not just as entertainment, but as an attempt to convey things in which we truly believe’” (Schweizer 161)--every film is an attempt to obscure our view of life and “what it really should be like” (as according to Hollywood). The values influence us, causing us to become softer to “family dysfunction and divorce, while television programs broadcast the deadly message that the kids know better than their doltish and irrelevant parents” (Medved 96). There is hardly an intended family-oriented program to be found anymore that doesn’t contain these factors. When the stages of rebellion started showing themselves after World War II, divorce rates have gone up as well as juvenile delinquency. The viewers are being taught discontent in the home by Hollywood. They are listening to those principles and applying them.

Reality is twisted, and what Hollywood wants the viewers to believe is depicted as truth. In other words, fact and fiction are switched. This problem can be seen first in how the roles of heroes and their antagonists have been distorted. The ‘good guy’ is illustrated as being naive while the villain is being sympathized with for being a victim of circumstances. As Medved so profoundly states in his work entitled Hollywood vs. America, “The inclination to turn murderous monsters into popular heroes is no longer an aberration; in the media culture it has become the order of the day” (212-3). Furthermore, what is presented to be “history” is no longer historically accurate. This can best be referred to by using the example of Disney’s film, Pocahontas. “Of course, this is a Hollywood rewrite of history that bleaches colonialism of its genocidal legacy” Rowman states in his book The Mouse that Roared (101). Not only are the main female and male protagonists’ characters faultily “in love,” but the groups (Indians and colonists) are presented backwards, in that they both are depicted as savages out to get one other.

Those who choose to believe these contortions can be affected. Even back in 1933, Blumer connected the villain sympathy to real life. He states, “It seems quite clear from our material that the depiction of criminal activity in motion pictures has led some people to form a more tolerant and favorable attitude toward crime” (136). Seventy-some years later, tolerance has done anything but subside. Besides that, “Psychologists have claimed… that when someone lives in the realm of fantasy for an extended length of time, the lines dividing reality and fantasy become distorted, fuzzy” (Phillips 125). Taken into consideration the film Pocahontas, plus countless other history wanna-be movies, the view of the America public has shifted. They are now not only believing in the historical inaccuracy of other cultures, but also are proud in the American history which they don’t even have.

Finally, profit is involved when Hollywood chooses to exploit that which should be condemned. When banking is involved, quantity is emphasized over quality. Over the years the qualitative characteristics of films have increasingly suffered because of the desire to sell as opposed to please. Walt Disney stated as his motto “If we do it right, then the money will come”(Emmons [1]). That statement, however, has been molded to fit today’s standards. It could probably be interpreted with the word right being definitive of “whatever needs to be done within the boundaries of both morality or immorality.” Eisner, the former president over all Disney corporations, said that certain films needed to be completed by a certain deadline (for the profit on their side), no matter what it would cost (on the film side). Schweizer noted that “Walt himself would have never worked under such deadlines” (174), because he was more concerned about the quality than quantity.

The audience’s well-being is not in the interest of Hollywood--only their cash. “Our goal is to increase wealth for our shareholders” (Ward 37) is yet another misuse of the goals that the early founders of television had in mind. But, especially with Disney within Hollywood, the pockets of producers can never be allowed to suffer. Disney is described as a “corporate giant, whose annual revenues [in 1997] exceeded $22 billion as a result of its ability to manufacture, sell, and distribute culture on a global scale, making it the world’s most powerful leisure icon” (Giroux 26). With Disney at Hollywood’s disposal (and with the big numbers in mind), its pressure increases to get as much sold as possible. Also, children are large targets of this capitalism. Eisner and many other big names in Hollywood have observed that “Kids, especially those under fourteen years old, have become a hot item for corporations”(Giroux 23).

Morality is not being promoted by what Hollywood produces. Over 2,200 hours a year are spent in front television in the average home; 3 months are spent staring at a screen; one-fourth of lives are being wasted under Hollywood’s influence. Viewers are fast losing the battle for ethics, yet the right actions are not being taken concerning it. As long as the people continue to believe what they are wanted to believe on the silver screen, they will continue to be impacted and directionally changed. Meanwhile, the producers at Hollywood will sit back and count all their profit. The audience has been betrayed.


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Boy oh boy how I hope my teacher likes it.................... >_>.


pieces,

~chris~