When Perception Becomes Reality

Paper Summary:

This paper uses the Chinese film, "Once Upon a Time in China", the American television program, "Kung Fu", and the writings of renown journalist ,Walter Lippman, to demonstrate how cinema and television reflect trends in public opinion and policy. It shows how an informative, in-depth, and insightful analysis of each text results in an extremely convincing argument about what cinema and television can tell us about nationalism, public opinion, and policy.

Outline
Chapter One: History and Representation
Chapter Two: Reclaiming the Past
Chapter Three: The Tao of Caine
Conclusion: Reflection and Representation

From the Paper:

"Theorist Hayden White offers a great deal of insight into the representations of history constructed by cinema and television. In his article, "The Modernist Event" White argues that events, which happen in a specific time and place, cannot be directly observed (though images of the incident may be circulated on TV or in print media). These events must then be placed into a narrative context in order for the public to fully comprehend them. This tendency is illustrated, for example, in the barrage of poorly produced TV movies that inevitably assail viewers following any high profile "media event" (e.g. Saving Private Lynch or The Pennsylvania Miners' Story) as well as historical epics like Pearl Harbor and Oliver Stone's JFK."

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