Politics and Persuasion in Entertainment
In week 5, we explored the complex relationship between politics and persuasion within entertainment and how these elements manifest in film, animation, and other media. One significant aspect of this topic is understanding the mechanisms through which media platforms can shape, influence, and persuade audiences on both conscious and subconscious levels.
Broadly, audiences can be influenced through various outlets, such as social media, broadcast news, film and animation, and television. Each of these mediums carries a unique potential to embed persuasive messages. For instance, broadcasts and print media maintain an authoritative presence that can sway public opinion, while independent film and animation often provide a platform for personal stories and critical commentary on societal issues.
We analysed how media platforms—from mainstream and independent film to games, podcasts, and social media—hold the power to direct, challenge, and reinforce specific narratives. The potential of these platforms to deliver impactful messages stems from their ability to reach diverse audiences and evoke emotional responses.
A key part of this exploration was understanding how messages within moving images can be presented. These can range from subliminal or masked content, which subtly embeds messages, to overtly propagandist intentions that are clear and direct. Persuasive content might serve commercial purposes, aiming to promote products or ideologies, while documentary or investigative approaches seek to inform or provoke thought.
Under the broad umbrella of politics in media, key areas of focus include political and commercial persuasion, and how subjects like race, gender, equality, disability, ethics, and ecology are depicted. The way these themes are approached can vary widely across documentary films, mainstream cinema, television, games, and advertising. Each of these formats can either challenge existing social norms or reinforce them, depending on the underlying political context.
In addition to my reflections on political persuasion in entertainment, I also explored the concept of animated documentaries and the unique role animation plays in non-fiction contexts. Animated documentaries, which are recorded frame by frame, represent the real world rather than an imagined one. They are presented as documentaries by their producers or accepted as such by audiences, festivals, or critics. Animation in these contexts is often used to clarify, explain, illustrate, and emphasise certain points.
A key question in this field is what the use of animation means as a representational strategy in documentary. Animation can be a powerful tool for presenting subjective experiences, offering insights into mental states and providing alternative ways of seeing the world. While some critics argue that animation destabilises the documentary’s claim to represent reality, Annabelle Honess Roe suggests the opposite—that animation broadens our ability to depict reality in non-conventional ways, allowing us to explore the world from unique perspectives.
The issue of authenticity in documentary also arises with animated documentaries. Bill Nichols argues that documentary images are often linked to the reality they represent, but animation’s departure from traditional documentary realism raises questions about how authenticity is conveyed. Honess Roe notes that animated documentaries do not easily fit into the traditional documentary mold. This challenges the widely held belief that documentaries should be objective and factual, with their authenticity dependent on their realism.
Furthermore, some critics, like Paul Wells, argue that animation’s inherent subjectivity makes it difficult to achieve objectivity, which is a cornerstone of traditional documentary. However, animation’s ability to present subjective experiences can enhance the understanding of complex, personal narratives. For example, animated works like Waltz with Bashir and the Animated Minds series use animation to convey first-person accounts of trauma and mental health, adding layers to the storytelling that live-action documentary may not easily achieve.
Animated documentaries challenge the notion of what a documentary “should” be, which leads to debates about their place within the genre. As animation becomes more commonplace in documentaries, some worry it may become a “layer” that distances the audience from the real experiences being portrayed, while others express concern about its potential for lazy storytelling, where animation is simply used to illustrate an existing narrative.
Overall, I’ve come to see animated documentaries as a unique and evolving form of storytelling, one that pushes the boundaries of what can be represented in non-fiction and challenges traditional notions of authenticity and objectivity. The evolving role of animation in documentary reflects broader changes in how we define reality and truth in visual media.