Source Evaluation

(Info below extracted form 2 seperate articles!)

Method of Research - Secondary

Type of Source - Popular Critisim

Title - "Censorship? How strict should it be?"/ "Drugs, Sex and Violence"

Author - Stephen Hill (Head of Media)/Ahlam Said (Film Student)

Location of Source - Media Magazine (April 2007/April 2008)

Main Points Raised:

• Should the films concerned have been censored for viewing purposes?
• These type of films do not either influence or not influence a viewer in such a black and white manner, but are asking the viewer to question their own humanity
• "neither Stone nor Kubrick are celebrating these atrocities but are asking the viewer to question there own response"
• The fact that the Director will never have control over how there film is perceived by the public.
• People will perceive events shown in films, such as crime and violence in different ways and therefor will be influenced in different ways
• A lot of films these days tend to stray from there subject matter to allow glamourisation, to fit into the hollywood mainstream expectations 
• Crime and violence in film can often be "Highly Stylised"
• Crime and Violence can often have a softened impact when surrounded by slap stick humor in films such as Snatch or Rock n Rolla

Strengths

• Written by someone with extended knowledge of modern and past media texts
• Other Article written by a film student also with extended knowledge of film
• In a well known media magazine
• Giving points from both sides of their argument
• Topics are related to my subject matter
• only written this year and last so it is not out dated

Weaknesses

• Many of the films concerned are older than the ones i am looking at
• 2 of the 3 films concerned are American productions and i am looking at British films
• Information was extracted from small parts of a much larger article so may be brief or watered down information

Summary

I think that the information i have gained from these 2 articles has been very useful and has helped move my research along just that little bit further. The points raised have helped me reflect on my views of the theories and reactions of our modern day society and also the main point that i found extremely interesting was that of the viewer questioning their own reaction. I agree with this outlook and intend to research it more with primary research.