Silent Film and American Class Structure

Silent Film and American Class Structure

Ross, Steven J. Working-class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998)

        The book I am discussing in this paper is Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America, by Steven J. Ross.  The book examines the relationship between the fledgling American silent film industry and its primary audience of working-class laborers throughout the first three decades of the twentieth century and beyond.

        Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America explored the connection between the pro and anti-labor imagery, as well as social, economic, and political propaganda distributed through silent films and the effect it had on an impressionable, working class public.  Motion pictures were among the least expensive means of entertainment in the United States during the post-WWI years and became very popular with the “middle” and “lower” classes due to their affordability.  These groups included many recent immigrants unfamiliar with American culture who were particularly susceptible to messages spread through this form of entertainment. 

        Ross’ book gives a detailed account of the history of the American silent film industry and the effect it had on shaping the class structures and opinions of people in the U.S. during the early twentieth century.  The book explains the motives behind many of the different types of propaganda, opinions, and ideas that appeared in early motion pictures and were projected upon audiences of the day by various political parties, businesses, and commercial organizations, as well as the overall effect these messages and their interpretations had on the nation as a whole.

        Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America is largely divided into four chronologically ordered sections that explain how the silent film industry helped shape early American class structures. The book explores the beginning attempts of the commercial motion picture industry to depict working laborers in films, the rise and eventual fall of the first “worker” movie movement, the ways in which silent films helped create the modern class identity, and the effect that the emerging “Hollywood” studio system had on the examples listed above.

        Ross also cites in this work six basic themes as being centrally important in his research of the silent film industry and how it helped shape the American class system. To begin his book, Ross states as his prime example that the depiction of class was a major concept in early silent films, and working-class audiences could expect to see hundreds of movies dealing with strikes, labor unions, and the attempts of everyday workers to overthrow capitalism in America. Next, he points out that many of the early silent movies revolved around the efforts of those workers to challenge the ideas of well-established political parties of the day and to find ways to improve democracy in the country.  Third, Ross explains that the government and censors during this time were afraid that the radicalism depicted in silent films might possibly carry over into real life, and tried to prohibit movies with radical imagery from being shown in theaters. Fourth, the movie industry and the films themselves were shaped by social, economic, and political pressures that directly influenced the content of the films. Ross also asserts that these pressures were responsible for the evolutionary course the film industry would take during the decades to come.  Finally, Ross explains that the silent film industry played an extremely influential role in helping to shape the predominate social identity in the United States that would eventually become known as the “Middle Class”.

        In the early years of the twentieth century, well-paid skilled workers were quickly being replaced by non-skilled laborers and factory workers who worked for fewer wages than had ever been the case before. Life for these factory workers was hard and bleak, and many had few options when it came to entertaining themselves due to their poor wages.  Vaudeville acts became popular in the years prior to the advent of the silent film industry because the cheap price of admission was affordable to the common worker and the acts themselves were a well needed escape from their everyday lives. When silent films began to become more widespread and commonplace in the 1910s, Americans flocked by the thousands to movie theaters all over the country, particularly in the nation’s larger cities. For the price of just a nickel or dime, the average worker could expect to be entertained by these films for several hours a day, perhaps never stopping to think that his or her opinions, ideals, or political associations might, over time, become shaped and influenced by the images shown on the screen. The typical American moviegoer during the early years of the motion picture industry was usually of the immigrant and working classes, and filmmakers began to steer the messages of their movies toward this demographic.

        Immigrants made up a large percentage of urban moviegoers in the silent film era and as a result many of the films from that time dealt with the hardships and obstacles this population group had to overcome in the United States, as well as “success stories” about those who had grown wealthy and prosperous after moving to America.  A large portion of silent films that were produced during World War One centered on the issue of immigrant nationalism during the War, and attempted to project a pro-American ideology onto that target audience through the use of propaganda films.  Many of these films also attempted to determine whether those immigrants would remain loyal to their homelands or align with the United States during the war effort.

        Another central theme of silent films directed at both immigrants and naturalized working class citizens was the issue of acculturation and the commodification of culture between groups that had previously been culturally segregated from each other.  Movies from this era attempted to portray the struggles and successes of immigrants as they tried to adjust to and adopt American cultural practices and values. Films such as “Irish Rose” (1929) celebrated intercultural marriages as a way to help immigrants acclimate into American society. Another popular film, “The Jazz Singer” (1927) used a different tactic, praising immigrants who resisted outside cultural pressures and remained true to their native lands while living and working in the United States[1].  Working and home life was equally difficulty for the American farming and ranching families that had become settled in the nation’s Southern and Western regions by the early 1900s and filmmakers began to produce Westerns (movies that brought attention to the hardships of rural life), as well.  Films like these helped create an image of sameness for Americans despite their cultural differences and established an idea of tolerance and acceptance between American workers and laborers that would eventually enable them to view themselves as one united “class”, rather than many.       

        However, during the years between 1900 and 1930, a bitter feud existed between the “worker” filmmakers who sympathized with the efforts of labor unions and workers’ rights organizations and the personnel within the Hollywood studio system, federal agencies, and film censors who did not share their views.  Hollywood films, in an attempt to gain a broader viewing audience, began instead to focus on themes of capitalistic monetary spending as well as “cross-class harmony” films that depicted (greatly falsified) positive personal or romantic relationships between members of the upper class and those of the working and middle classes.  Worker filmmakers struggled against the opposition they faced from these parties by attempting to control what imagery and political ideas audiences were able to view in “Hollywood” type working industry films (those which used the common laborer as protagonist or romantic interest of a person belonging to a higher class), with only partial success. For the most part, the Hollywood movie industry would continue to exploit the working class laborer in its films and create a false sense of “class harmony” between wealthy and poor citizens, all the while keeping the actual worker filmmakers and film crew unions confined largely on the outskirts of the movie business.

        Political parties and politicians also began to recognize the value of the mass popularity of silent films as a potential medium to spread their agendas and ideologies to an enormous percentage of the United States’ population.  Prior to the advent of silent films, entertainment mediums such as the Vaudeville act and the nickelodeon had not been considered to be effective platforms for political messages. However, because a single, somewhat inexpensively produced silent film was able to be screened in numerous cities across the country and was likely to be viewed by thousands of Americans, a new way for political groups to spread their messages was created. 

        Many luxury theaters began to emerge after silent films began to gain a significant following in the 1910s and throughout the 1920s.  These expensive movie theaters were as luxurious as their nickel and dime counterparts were drab, and catered to a predominantly wealthy clientele. Despite the cost of admission and their luxurious decorations, many of these opulent movie houses screened the same films that were being seen by members of the lower classes in their own theaters. Because of their accessibility and entertainment value, silent films became a medium that both the wealthiest and most impoverished Americans could enjoy equally, although in many cases, separately from one another.  According to New York Socialist Assemblyman Samuel Orr, theaters in the early twentieth century were the one place that all people could go and see how much they had in common with each other, despite their social and economic differences[2]. 

        What greater democratic institution exists than the movie theater? It is there where rich and poor, young and old, men, women and children gather by the millions everyday throughout the land to laugh together and cry together.

         

            Working-class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America defines the role of the silent film as an extremely important one regarding the shaping of class structures in the United States during the early part of the twentieth century and continues to influence the way Americans view class structure and society even today.  I agree with Ross’ assessment of the motion picture industry as an important influence on American society because the medium reached an enormous amount of people during its heyday of the 1910s through the 1930s because of its widespread availability and general popularity with the American public of all social, political, and economic types. I believe that silent films were in many cases vehicles for propaganda distribution and were successful in influencing the beliefs and opinions of their viewing audiences about a variety of subjects.

            In conclusion, Working-class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America author Steven Ross gives many convincing examples of the ways in which class structure in the United States was created and shaped by the early silent film industry from the turn of the century throughout the Great Depression era.  Silent films and the pastime of movie going became something that the vast majority of the American public could relate to from their working and home lives, and, through this widespread and wildly popular medium, were also able to indirectly relate to others of the same and different socioeconomic classes. This not only helped groups such as the laborers and working classes draw together and view themselves as one shared identity, but also created the illusion that the wealthy, aristocratic upper class could possibly also relate to those in the lower classes, both because of Hollywood films that depicted the two existing together in a sense of class harmony and also because they shared the same popular hobby: watching films.

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[1]Digital History, “Immigration and the Movies” (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_movies.cfm) Accessed April 3, 2011

[2] Ross, S. Working-class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998) p. 175

Cultivation Theory, Commodification of Culture, and the Acculturation Process

Melanie Yoes

Texas State University - San Marcos

ABSTRACT

            This research paper will explore the application of cultivation analysis theory and its impact on cultural commodification among audiences consisting of several different nationalities.  Cultivation analysis is a theory that certain mediums, such as television, “cultivate” or create world views that, while not always accurate, become reality to their audience members because people believe them to be true.  A prime focus will be the widespread use of American media messages and mediums, and the effect of these messages upon a non-Western audience.  The goal of this research paper is to determine the effect that cultivation theory and mass media broadcasting have on commodification of culture in a global environment, with an emphasis on the acculturation process of Non-Western native cultures when faced with an onslaught of Western media programming.      

Cultivation Theory, Commodification of Culture, and the Acculturation Process

            Cultivation analysis is a mass communication theory that was developed by George Gerbner in the 1970s and 1980s in order to answer questions about the role media plays in society.  A central theme in Gerbner’s 1982 research study was an analysis of the amount of violent content present in a random sampling of a television primetime broadcast, known as the Violence Index.  Gerbner and his colleagues found that the amount of televised violence was grossly disproportionate when compared to the amount of violence actually occurring in the United States; while more than 64 percent of all major prime-time television characters were involved in some form of violence, less than 0.41 violent crimes were actually occurring per every one hundred Americans (1982, p. 106).  These findings were significant, due to the fact that although the researchers could find no link between the massive amount of violent behavior broadcast via television and increased aggressive behavior on the part of its audience, most viewers believed the violent crime rate in America to be much higher than it actually was.  Gerbner and his team then became involved in the Cultural Indicators Project, which sought to examine the “conceptions of social reality that viewing cultivates in child and adult audiences” (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p. 174).  Gerbner and his colleagues found that because of television’s widespread availability and usage in the United States, with approximately ninety eight percent of households owning a set, it was the “central arm” of American society, and as such was the chief creator of synthetic social and cultural patterns (Gerbner et al., 1978, p. 178).

            Cultivation analysis researchers often rely on a four-step system in order to measure television’s influence on culture.  The first step is message system analysis, a system by which television programming is analyzed to determine its most recurring broadcasts of images, themes, portrayals, and values.  Next, questions are formulated about the audiences’ social realities, what they expect to view in a televised broadcast versus their actual lives.  The researchers then survey the audience about their amount of television consumption, and finally compare the social realities of light and heavy viewers.  These studies found that heavy viewers of television programming were more likely to become involved in the mainstreaming process, cultivating a stronger association with the content shown, and tended to have either a positive or negative outlook on certain aspects of society based on the nature of the programming (Morgan & Signorelli, 1990, p. 20).

            Gerbner found that, from a cultural standpoint, television was indeed a major factor in influencing peoples’ perceptions and social actions (1990).  He termed his findings “The Three B’s of Television”, an idea that television blurs traditional distinctions of world views, blends traditional realities into mainstream, and in turn blends that mainstream to support the institutional interests of television and its sponsors, rendering the programming that is shown “artificial” or “abnormal”.  When there is an instance of cultural imperialism, or when culture is mass produced by a powerful controlling interest and is distributed in competition with less powerful local cultures, a commodification of culture is likely to occur in some form. Because of the near monopolization of television broadcasting by Western nations, viewers of this programming in other regions of the world tend to associate the populace of these nations as a whole with the television shows that are being broadcast to them, and may be likely to emulate many superficial actions or ideas that they are being shown.  For example, based on the type of programming that is broadcast to individuals of foreign cultures, Westerners may generally be seen either as part of a society that is wealthy and happier than most (due to scenes of home ownership, shopping sprees, family outings, birthday parties, etc.) or, conversely, as an unhappy group of people who have a high rate of divorce, adultery, and violence (as shown in soap operas, daytime talk shows, crime dramas, and similar programming) (Ugochukwu, 2008). These perceptions generally occur with greater frequency when viewers have a difficult time understanding Western culture, difficulty in learning the language of their host country, or have little to no direct contact with the culture itself (Dominick & Woo, 2001).

While cultural commodification does appear to take place to some degree through mass media broadcasts, research has found that although several superficial aspects of a culture may change in response to media exposure, ingrained beliefs such as religious practices or familial hierarchy structure are unlikely to be affected in any direct fashion.  A recent study conducted by Chioma Ugochukwu applied the ideas of cultural-imperialism theory to a framework of cultivation analysis theory in order to measure the amount of significant cultural change present among a group of native Nigerians through their exposure to imported American television programming.  Research showed that although rural native Nigerian populations exposed to American television programs may eventually form opinions regarding American ideas and cultural habits or adopt certain aspects of Western society such as clothing fashion, footwear, or slang terms, their longstanding cultural beliefs and values are unlikely to change (Ugochukwu, 2008, p.7).  

Ugochukwu developed a content analysis of all television programming broadcast in an area of rural Nigeria over a period of a week to determine what nations were represented in the broadcasts and to measure the amount of programming time allotted to them.  Results of the content analysis showed that privately operated television stations’ weekly broadcasts were comprised of around forty percent foreign programming, while state and federally controlled stations broadcasted significantly less foreign content. A control-test experiment was also conducted, using a total of five hundred sixteen male and female students between the ages of fifteen and twenty selected from a total of six different high schools in three different Nigerian cities. The participants of the study represented the most prevalent religious groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultural ideologies in Nigeria, and were split into two groups: A test group, the subjects of which were shown only American programming, and a control group, who were screened only Nigerian television broadcasts. The study found that although the test subjects’ ideas and perceptions of Americans might be slightly altered by viewing American television broadcasts over a short period of time, their traditional cultural values, behaviors, and norms did not (Ugochuckwu, 2008, p.12). This suggests that these findings indicate the presence of an “active-audience” model.  In the active-audience model, the Nigerian viewing audience maintains the capacity to “think for themselves” or “make their own decisions” regarding cultural and personal lifestyle changes and are not significantly influenced by foreign television programming just because it has been shown to them. The findings of this experimental study would seem to support a theory of limited effects due to the relatively minor impact on the ingrained habits, attitudes, cultural values and beliefs of the participants exposed to imported American television programming. Ugochukwu maintains that a great deal of cultural immersion and a significant amount of time learning the culture through television broadcasts would have to occur in order for this to happen, and may in fact be almost impossible.

            Another recent study applied a framework of cultivation theory to an experimental research study involving non-American born graduate and undergraduate students of Asian Indian descent enrolled in a large, southwestern university, in an attempt to determine the predictability and levels of acculturation they experienced based on exposure to American media (Harwood & Raman, 2008).  Acculturation is the shifting of traditional values, behaviors, and attitudes as a result of cross-cultural contact. In the study conducted by Raman and Harwood, traditional Asian Indian media were also analyzed, and it was found that generally speaking, Asian Indian media was accessible to the participants, but was usually more expensive and harder to locate, perhaps explaining why many chose American media as a main source of information and entertainment (2008). The participants in the study were largely recruited through responses to an announcement posted on the university’s Asian Indian Students listserv asking for volunteers, as well as emailed responses received by Raman. The participant sample consisted of 114 college-age students who were given a questionnaire by Raman to complete at their convenience, in order to measure their weekly amount of American and Asian Indian media usage (Harwood & Raman, 2008). The questionnaire was separated into three sections: questions about media use, acculturation, and mediator variables.            

            The mediator variables used in the experiment included perceived realism of American television, filial (or family) attachment, intimacy of host and ethnic relationships, and acculturation needs. Research indicated that the participants who did not believe primetime television programming to be an accurate depiction of everyday American life were more likely to have become acculturated previously, and possibly held this belief because of a familiarity with American society, as compared to the participants who believed it to be accurate. Raman and Harwood was also found that “heavy” television viewers were more likely to give a “TV” type answer to the researchers’ questions (2008, p. 2).

            Filial attachment is the degree to which parents are influential in the participants’ lives, and was found to play a significant role in the acculturation process. Participants with a greater attachment to their parents and their parents’ beliefs were found to be less likely to acculturate, or change any fundamental ideologies due to a fear of appearing defiant and alienating their families. Based on the uses and gratifications theory, individuals will actively seek media that will meet their social, emotional, and cognitive needs. A previous research study found that people who use media with a goal to learn about a host society are more likely to be influenced by host media. However, Raman and Harwood’s study found that participants with a strong filial attachment were less likely to become acculturated, possibly due to a desire to, upon graduation, return to their families, home country, and traditional culture. The intimacy of host and ethnic relationships was thought to play a part in the acculturation process as well. Participants who had direct contact with Americans were theorized to become more acculturated through the watching of American television programming, but no effect was shown in the analysis. In the experiment that involved alternate media, however, there was a direct effect linking higher intimacy with Americans with greater levels of acculturation.  Raman and Harwood found that, in contrast to their hypotheses, television viewing did not predict acculturation levels in any of their analyses. However, greater amounts of time spent on alternate forms of American media such as movies, newspapers, and the Internet, were associated with higher levels of acculturation among the participants.  Conversely, considerable association with alternate forms of Indian media was found to generate higher levels of negative acculturation (2008)

            Along with television, radio broadcasts and print advertising also play a part in the commodification of culture and the acculturation process in areas where access to television may be scarce or nonexistent.  A recent experimental research survey (Moon & Nelson, 2008) attempted to determine the effectiveness of American versus Asian advertising among first generation immigrants in “Koreatown”, a primarily Korean neighborhood located in downtown Chicago where traditional Korean and Western cultural values coexist.   Moon and Nelson had the study participants rank human models of several different ethnicities, to determine the amount of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and honesty each was felt to possess by the participant.  This study found that previously ingrained cultural values had a direct effect on the immigrants’ responses to the models shown in print advertising, despite the number of years the immigrants had resided in the United States and their having been continuously exposed to Western culture. The study also found that American mass media messages had a direct effect on the Korean immigrants’ acceptance of American cultural values, and exposure to American mass media was indirectly related (through acceptance of American cultural values) to the Korean immigrants’ positive attitudes towards Caucasian models. However, the Korean participants retained an affinity for their own traditional cultural values, and when exposed to Korean mass media messages they displayed negative attitudes towards Caucasian models. Moon and Nelson (2008) found that while previous research indicates that consumers have tended to identify more positively with human models in advertising that physically resembled themselves, new research is thought to indicate that the traditional cultural values and beliefs of consumers and their exposure to traditional mass media messages in are the major influences in individuals’ reactions to product advertisements in foreign markets. Moon and Nelson found through their research that consumers located in foreign markets in fact tend to form their opinions about the models used in advertisements based on shared cultural values and ideals rather than on physical appearance alone (2008). The study also found that, while the immigrants were likely to accept and adopt certain aspects of Western culture after being exposed to it for many years, they were unlikely to change any of their traditional beliefs.

Along with print advertisements and other forms of media, radio broadcasts have also been shown to aid in the acculturation process, though only in trivial matters. A study conducted by Clark and Christie in 2005 detailed the ways in which the United States government has attempted to influence a young Middle Eastern audience by utilizing an international radio broadcasting campaign known as Radio Sawa (an Arabic translation meaning “Radio Together”). Through these broadcasts, the United States government hoped to cultivate a pro-American ideology within an audience of young, impressionable Middle Eastern men, in the hopes that having a more positive image of the United States might act as a deterrent for would-be terrorists.  For the Radio Sawa project, the use of facilitative communication through international broadcasting was created solely to bring about “a friendly atmosphere, or, as a psychologist might put it, a favorable affect” (Christie & Clark, 2005, p. 3). Radio Sawa broadcasts were essentially used to cultivate and promote a positive ideology of the United States within their target audience of Middle Eastern men under the age of 25, in an area where television, while arguably a slightly more effective medium, was not readily available. However, previous cultivation analysis research has shown that, while many superficial aspects of a dominant culture such as clothing or slang terms may be adopted by less powerful cultures, traditional values and beliefs are generally left unchanged. Because of this, the Radio Sawa project may not be as successful as was once thought.

In conclusion, the theory of cultivation has been shown to play a part in both the commodification of culture and the acculturation process. Media exposure is thought to be an important factor in the ways in which less dominant cultures form ideas and opinions about their host culture. Other important factors in determining the amount of acculturation taking place include filial (or family) attachment, intimacy of host and ethnic relationships, and the acculturation needs of the weaker culture. Research studies by Moon and Nelson (2008), Clark and Christie (2005), Harwood and Raman (2008), Ugochukwu (2008), and Gerbner (1992) have found that although prolonged exposure to mass communication mediums does influence the commodification of culture and the acculturation process, it does not necessarily influence an established culture to the degree that it will cause a major shift in traditional beliefs, values, or ideals.