I heard that people don’t read academic journals. When I was doing an undergraduate degree in film and French, I read different journals. Security, history, literary, and of course, film. I continued to read these after I graduated.
(I didn’t always find the works on the reading list as interesting as those that I found on my own. I am curious, and also an autonomous learner.)
I don’t know if what I read is true, there were mistakes. One PhD paper claimed that the United States, unlike Britain, had no Public Broadcasting. I found that funny, because PBS literally stands for Public Broadcasting Station. Now that PBS has received cuts, and a lot of good programs are in jeopardy, perhaps the writer of that paper is blushing.
Another thing that I found intersting, going through academic papers and books, is the claim how different countries had media literacy.
Perhaps if I read fewer books and journals, then I’d remember where I got all my information from. But, I remember seeing that Chinese audiences, allegedly, had less media literacy than American and British audiences. In China, I read, if someone entered a room, you’d have to show that person holding the door knob on the way in.
Well, I’d seen a lot of Chinese television shows recently, and I do not see that at all. What I do see is a lot of visual shows where you can often tell through the acting and cinematography roughly what is going on. That doesn’t mean subtitles (or better yet, learning the language) wouldn’t help, there are definitely additional subtle pieces of information in the dialogue. But, Chinese shows are great for learning Chinese, as the actors clearly enuciate their words, the sound people clearly record them.
American television, on the other hand, has been in a downward spiral since the 1990s. The quality of acting, cinematography, directing, and writing has all fallen. Only special effects have gone up. Now films look slicker, but they are not as fun to watch. They are like caviar, we can tell they are expensive, but most of us would prefer something less expensive and of better quality.
That’s not to say that all films of this century have been bad. Nor are all old films good. (Anyone remember the Masters of the Universe film from the 80s? I’d rather forget it.) But, generally, films made before 1992 are better than those after.
Of course, there are people who would rather stare at a lump of gold on a royal’s head for two hours than watch real actors act. To some people, just knowing how expensive a film is, how much the “stars” got paid, makes it worth watching. They like staring at famous people and at luxury.
We see Chinese films these days really care about the audience. They don’t waste time with tiny details, like showing every detail of someone opening a door. I wonder if they ever did. (Of course, if it is comprehensible input meant to teach us language, then go ahead and open the door. Explain every element to me so I learn the words.)
If we look at the media stereotypes of different countries from the 1990s, we see that the world has changed. Shows have gotten better in some countries, and worse in others.
Those countries that consider getting on Netflix to be “making it” tend to make the worst media. They lack the ambition to make films for the cinema, or to go viral on YouTube, and so they set a very low standard for their work.
Worse still are those who aim only to get followers on Instagram, and end up flogging all kinds of products rather than making films that are worth making it. Remember, true artists don’t want their art interrupted by advertisements. It’s one thing if your distributors put those in, but when you put them in yourself, it makes your art look like a “product.”
We now live in an age when Chinese audiences have more media literacy than American or British audiences. Perhaps that won’t last forever, but that’s the point we are at. And so, Chinese programs are more interesting to watch, for those of us who are media literate, even if we don’t understand the language. Because Chinese filmmakers, unlike those of some other countries, understand the language of film.