Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In the relatively short time since their invention at the end of the nineteenth century, movies have rapidly evolved from a temporary novelty to the most dominant visual form of modern popular culture worldwide. Unlike the print mass media (→  Book ; Newspaper ; Magazine ), which require literate audiences, or even →  Radio , which requires audiences who understand the originating language, film is an almost universal language of moving visuals that was immediately embraced and popularized not only in the US, but also around the world. In →  Marshall McLuhan's “global village,” twenty-first-century films are made by a kaleidoscope of countries and cultures. Virtually every developed culture in the world produces or presents films for theatrical release or home-viewing. In addition, movies specifically made for →  Internet distribution can be accessed from every part of the wired world. Using digital video technology on personal computers, even amateurs can be filmmakers (→  Amateur Photography and Movies ). If popular culture is indeed “the culture of the people,” then such worldwide popularity justifies the consideration of film as perhaps the iconic media form of popular culture. Although film is an art form and a political tool as well as a medium for →  news and documentary reporting (→  Documentary Film ), movies are the dominant form of entertaining and educating audiences ... log in or subscribe to read full text