The Moving Image as Data: Using Film to Deduce Political Trends and Culture.

Popular culture, particularly motion pictures, offer a view into a society's norms, beliefs and political culture. While that view might be skewed from time to time, it is still a useful way to discern "proper behavior" and accepted norms. This paper argues that artifacts from popular culture can be used as data, open to interpretation and analysis. To demonstrate this, the paper utilizes a case study approach to illustrate how film can be useful in identifying political traits and culture. By analyzing films about international events and situations as examples, the paper identifies how American films have portrayed other countries and cultures to better understand the evolution of American political culture. Using a case study approach to the topic, the paper demonstrates there has been a change in political culture with regards to the "other," and film and popular culture help to illustrate and evaluate that change. It concludes by arguing that the analyses of the messages and lessons contained in national cinemas can be transferred to the classroom to help students improve media literacy as well understand political issues from different perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]