Media culture and communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Media culture and communication - Essay Example Narrated by Walter Huston and Dana Andrews, the film is 60 minutes long. It was shown to allied soldiers serving in the Pacific region during that time. Directed by Frank Capra on behalf of the US War Department, it was produced to inform the allied soldiers about the last enemy that remained in the war after the fall of Italy and Germany: Japan. The idea was that increased knowledge about the history and culture of Japan would create an understanding of the current situation that would cause a positive effect on the allied war effort. Every chance to condemn the Japanese and their ideologies were used in the course of the film. As this propaganda film was designed for army personnel being sent to fight the Japanese, it contains generalisations and stereotypical caricatures of the Japanese people and culture. Expected to have deliberate propagandistic content, this paper looks into the techniques of persuasion used. Embedding history and culture. Much of the film is devoted to the life of the average Japanese, Japanese religion and the part religion played in the rise of Hirohito as the Emperor of Japan. There is an explanation of how the warlords, reviving and misusing the old Shinto religion created a Japan that became a belligerent world power rather than a peaceful one. Japanese citizens are portrayed as being raised from a very young age to be soldiers, thought to be the â€Å"highest human achievement† in their society. Japanese values such as the collective-versus -individual character, and the willingness to die for one’s master, among others, are exploited to show the negative side of the Japanese. In reality, however, these are issues irrelevant as to why Japan should be fought. To the Japanese, these values have proven positive to them. Brooding sound and visual effects. There are animated sequences in the film. Clips from Japanese samurai films of the 1930s lend a brooding visual effect. Made up