12 Angry Men Sociology

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Media have taken a very special place in our society. We all human are very fond of movies and the television shows, news, and films that TV projects for our entertainment, which has a direct or indirect effect on our lives, whether we realize it or not. Consciously and subconsciously everything we watch and the information we consume has smaller or bigger effect on our brain (does watching television affect, 2014). Media and films primary goal are to attract the audience, and they are careless of how damaging the effect of the movie content is on public perceptions. To attract more audience of all ages, “the more outlandish, more violent, and more antiestablishment the content of the film is better (Holzer, Slater, 1995)”. In the movie, …show more content…

This automatic negativity towards government administrators can be expected to persist and “its further intensification can probably be expected in the years and decades ahead” (Goodsell, 2000, p. 130).”
Also, the earlier movies give us the perspective of the culture in the olden days. The movie 12 Angry Men is the most realistic to me. The jury room in 1957, all the male jurors, smoking, was allowed everywhere. Knife has been authorized to be carried and was used to prove a point! Also, no presence of a woman in a jury room makes me believe that this film portrayed the most realistic picture of that time. The characters of the jurors’ matches with their portrayed personalities (stereotyping the images of characters) are also additional evidence of the film being more realistic than fictional.
I do agree with the overall image of the government portrayed in the films may not represent the realistic picture of the government in the real times. However, the images of individual public servants and government officers do present close to the realistic characters (Paultz & Michelle, …show more content…

Moreover, some evidence of how films create the perception of the viewers, the publics. There are studies done on how the films influence the public opinion of the government with some reliable results. One of the studies has found that 25% of the viewers of Argo and Zero Dark Thirty changed their views about the government after watching these two films. It is significant influence given that people look at the films only for 2 hours and their opinion about changed in a positive direction. The interesting factor is that both of the movies, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty improvised a lot from the actual events.
Films are certainly medium for the society to learn about the government in particular where we have no direct access to the Washington nor our local government. We only see how our government fully functions thru the films or televisions shows. Though the films might be fictional or inspired by real events, it represents the reality for the most of our audience due to our lack of personal experience with the government officials and day to day decision-making process. As per many scholars’ agreement films represent reality for our public despite being fictional (Pautz,

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