The Truthfulness of the Story on a Screen for a Certain Period - Case Study Example

Going to Movies: a Uses and Gratifications Theory by Introduction In the beginning of the film era viewers were fascinated by motion pictures and big screens where people and objects could move. Cinema started to serve as an important source of information and entertainment at the same time. In the XXI century, however, with appearance of television, the functions of cinema as a place where a person can watch new films have changed. As everyone is able to watch the same film at home, the purpose of going to the cinema seems illogical. However, people do go to multiplexes still. In the course of research and group survey it was revealed that cinema provides with a number of which home film watching cannot substitute. Thus, the uses and gratification of cinema going turned out to be numerous. Firstly, cinema serves as a great mood regulator as people aim to feel emotions which they cannot achieve in real life. As cinema allows being absorbed by the movie almost entirely, the viewer can flow forgetting about himself and the environment. It helps to get rid of burden of daily life with its troubles and worries. Secondly, cinema apart from its first hedonistic function remains an influential source of new ideas, inspirational thoughts and images, and insights. It helps forming positive morals and reconsidering existing values. Thirdly, it was also revealed that people go to the cinema in order to share common social experience, thus sense of belonging to a group serves as a driving force. Therefore, it is possible to admit that cinema going underpins uses and gratifications theory to the full extent. Methodology Uses and gratifications theory was elaborated in attempt to understand how people choose particular media in order to meet their expectation and satisfy their needs. It is a social theory of mass communication which explores the role of auditory in the content choice and consumption. Apologists of this theory consider that individual psychological peculiarities of the media consumers define the influence of media to the same extent as the media itself. McQuail formulated five major functions of media: educational or informative, socio-involving (identifying with a character), entertaining, socially interactive, and relaxing (escaping from daily stresses) (2010). Results and Discussions When a person goes to the multiplex and gets lost in a film, his mind starts working in extraordinary way. Since he is absorbed by motion picture and does not want to do anything about it, his mind closes down its frameworks for activities. A person disregards his surroundings and even his own body. Since he is not going to follow up on what he is seeing, he will probably not test its existence. The doubt is suspended. The film moves subcortical emotional frameworks that the brain cannot inhibit. So a person starts thinking about the creatures, people, and circumstances he is seeing. That is, a person`s mind does these things if he is transported by the movie, not pushing the buttons on his laptop, playing with the DVD player or viewing the motion picture in any modern personal devices which allow watching film at home. Since the times of cinema invention films have served as the source of information about the world. In the beginning of the movie era they performed this function directly by demonstrating viewers the world which they otherwise could not see. Movies shed light on the way of life of people in different regions and countries. They permitted to see how people generally cope with difficult mundane problems and which emotions they feel in various situations. However, soon films expanded their functions to hedonistic- they helped viewers to feel gratification by getting emotional involvement (Oliver & Bartsch, 2000). However, cinema consumers according to the survey mark that entertainment is not the primary motive of going to multiplex. Most viewers are prone to look for insights, fresh ideas, and morals watching new films. In this case much depends on the director and genre. People can also try to expand the perception of the real world by viewing the world with other person`s eyes. Thus, cinema can offer deeper meanings of familiar things to cinema-goers (54-59). Thus, cinema is a source of numerous beautifully composed visual images which stimulate imagination and creative thinking. Most films raise important moral questions or show people in difficult situation which allow viewers receive certain life experience (Tesser et al., 1988). Among the most obvious movie gratifications most respondents distinguish mood influence. Students prefer going to movie in a company of friends when they feel bored, lack positive emotions in real life, feel sad and frustrated, and want to laugh. It is possible to suggest that cinema performs an eternal function of “comedy and tragedy” started long ago in ancient Greece. All in all, cinema allows managing person`s mood with the help of bright visual images and captivating events. Comedies which are the most popular among students allow alleviating mood easily and distracting people from their daily problems fast. Cinema is able to reduce stress or arousal, experience certain catharsis and splash out negative emotions (Zillman, 2000). Moreover, people experience certain excitement while empathizing to the character which they have chosen as moral, good or favorite. Sensations’ seeking is another motive of going to cinema especially if it allows feeling strong emotions along with heroes without personal involvement. Moreover viewers even find certain pleasure in feeling worried about the hero, having emotions which help them to relax more in real life (Zuckerman, 1979). According to psychologists’ research when a person gets lost in a movie, he loses contact with his body. If he feels pain, has a headache, a viewer can absolutely forget about his body reactions. A viewer also ceases to be aware of the environment around him and starts believing in unreal things and phenomena. The viewer does not doubt fictional worlds and characters. He feels real emotions and empathizes to characters no matter how magic and unreal they may look (Holland, 2012). It is evident that most viewers tend to identify themselves with the characters on the screen that is why they feel pleasure when positive characters are rewarded while negative characters are punished for their immoral deeds. This option allows reinventing personal life and watching it from a new perspective. Identifying with a character also helps reducing emotional tension and even learning certain behavioral patterns in some similar situations (Bartsch & Reinhold, 2000). Female respondents marked that watching positive romantic movies help tuning into romantic mood and believe in love in real life. Women associate themselves with heroines easily and live through eternal myths. The mechanism of movie absorbing is not studied well yet. It is known that when a person is involved in the process of movie watching he stops planning and thinking about the future. One of the most developed parts of the brain, prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for plans creation, is activated in this moment. However, the film allows not make any predictions about the future, and that is why a viewer “gets lost in the movie” totally forgetting about himself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Moreover, when a person is totally captivated by a film, the state of mind reminds certain trance. Surrounding and his own body are perceived as non-relevant any more. Brain in most cases tries to save its energy whenever possible, and as it is involved in believing the truth of the story, it loses contact with the present reality. According to the Gerrig experiments, the students actually believed the truthfulness of the story till the end, and then it took them some time to compare it with the facts from their memory and disbelieve it (1998). The power of cinema is built around Kant`s concept of “disinterestedness”. People usually evaluate the reality only if they have intention to react about certain stimulus from it. But watching the movie people do not need to make any plans, and when a person stops comparing what he sees to the previous experience that is when the process of cognition ceases and the “flow” into imaginary world whatever dubious it is (Clarck, 1997). People stop doubting what they see, however, they do not stop feeling certain emotions that is why movies as fictional stories are so impressive. People get angry together with main character that faces injustice, feel pity for the woman who loses her beloved one, and feel happy for the fictional team victory after numerous struggles. The reason why viewers do not stop feeling emotions despite understanding that the world they see does not exist because emotions arouse in a less developed part of the brain, sub-cortial (Normann, 2012). People enjoy living through various emotions if they do not require further reactions and do not have any consequences. Thus, felling anger, aggression, disgust, and horror may also give pleasure since it does not require real response on it. As for now, the mechanism is not explored to a decent extent however ancient it may seem. Supposedly, this is one of the evolutionary mechanisms which allows people to extend emotional diapason without real consequences. Norman suggests that this helps to regulate our emotions in normal life better and have more prepared children (2012). Cinema brings people closer to the world of unreal; make them “disinterested” because the process cannot be stopped. If they watch something on their own DVD it is more likely that they will distract, stop the video which is impossible in a theatre (Normann, 2012). According to the survey performed, cinema gong is a perfect chance to feel a sense of belonging to a certain group. Some respondents said that the sense of belonging which appears when people share common film in a multiplex is one of the motives to go there. People prefer going to cinema in companies in order to discuss this experience later and to feel themselves as a part of a union. Going to cinema is also a form of social experience and cannot be perceived solely as an act of watching film. All the media today such as television, the Internet, printed media, divide people further and close them in their personal space (The Quest for Identity, 1996). However, psychologists claim that sense of identity is achieved only with the help of society because a person cannot fully recognize self without involvement into social experience. Therefore, when all the media are designed for personal consumption cinema-going offers absolutely opposite experience of social union. Human beings are social creatures and in order to remain physiologically and emotionally stable people need to interact with each other (The Quest for Identity, 1996). Sense of belonging is a very powerful driving force in a people`s world. It makes people join meetings, seek friendship, and even participate in war. In each group the sense of self diminishes and people try to find as much common as possible. Moreover, people are afraid being alone, and this serves as the fundament) for American cinema monopoly. People seek cooperation, and it can be explained by simple instincts, as soon as human beings found out that it is more productive to seek food in groups they strive to become a part of a union. For example, there exists Locarno film festival in Switzerland where different films are shown every day. More than 9000 people gather on the Piazza no matter which film is demonstrated on the screen. People go there in order share common experience, discuss something, and feel the sense of belonging (The Quest for Identity, 1996).Therefore, the idea of a union is as old as the world itself and has solid psychological explanation of human development needs. To conclude, uses and gratifications theory if applied to watching movies in multiplex gives fruitful results. People find films useful in the sense that they provide them new information about the world. Movies allow seeing the reality from different perspective and trying this perspective to their daily life. Cinema serves as an optimal source of powerful insights, ideas, and moral values. An old psychological mechanism of identifying with a character allows experiencing his/her emotions to the full extent without consequences. Research suggests that viewers are able to feel all the emotions, such as anger, fear, joy, happiness, watching movies as the brain center which is involved into emotional feedback is not connected to cognition processes. Getting lost in a film which means ceasing to make plans and comparing the achieved facts to personal experience allows believing in the truthfulness of the story in a screen for a certain period. That makes a viewer forget about his own body and environment. Respondents claim that emotional management is one of the most accessible gratifications from the movie. Moreover, cinema gives possibility to experience sense of belonging to a group which is absolutely essential in the ear of technologies which divide people and encourage lonely time spending. References Bartsch, A., & Viehoff, R. (2010). The Use of Media Entertainment and Emotional Gratification, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 2247–2255. Clark, A. (1997). Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow : The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row. Gerrig, R. (1998). Experiencing narrative worlds: On the psychological activities of reading. New Haven: Westview Press, Yale University Press McQuail, D. (2010). Mass communication theory: an introduction. London: Sage Publications. Norman, N. (2012). Your brain on movies. Glimpse Journal: The art +  science of seeing, 9. Oliver, M., & Bartsch, A. (2010). Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment gratifications beyond hedonism, Human Communication Research, 36, 53–81 Tesser, A., Millar, K., & Wu, C. (1988). On the perceived functions of movies, Journal of Psychology, 122, 441–449. The quest for cultural identity: Why do people go to cinema? (1996). Kinema Journal, Retrieved from: http://kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=249&feature Zillman, D. (2000). Mood Management in the context of selective exposure theory,  Communication Yearbook, 23, 103–123. Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation Seeking: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. New York: Wiley. . Read More