Self-study
P1
As one of the most pervasive and influential popular arts, the movies feed into and off of the rest of the culture in various ways. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Movies and pop culture
Historical Context ·
Mutually beneficial relationship between Hollywood and the press
Hollywood makes the movies. The press promotes them. Both benefit but author claims that benefit to the press is more important.
P2
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Present Day ·
Interdependent mass-media entertainment industry
Mass media does most of the promotional work for Hollywood because they are economically incentivized to do so.
P3
Problem ·
Mass media affects creation of new films
Why is this a problem?
Problem ·
Narrow focus on profit
The suits are more frequently making the artistic choices that the artists should be making.
(New) Problem ·
Profit is based on publicity, not on whether the movie connects with audience
Consequence / Prediction ·
Emotionally powerful movies will be increasingly rare
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
26.
The author's position in
a
Many Hollywood studio ██████████ ██ ████████ █ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████████████
This doesn’t weaken as much as the correct answer does. “Many” executives might consider emotional satisfaction, but this doesn’t mean “most” of the decisions made by executives contribute to emotional satisfaction. That’s why (D) is better.
b
Many Hollywood studio ██████████ ████████ █████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████████████
This doesn’t undermine the author’s position, because how the executives got into their positions doesn’t relate to what the mass-media promotional relationship causes executives to consider when making movies.
c
Most writers, producers, ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████████
This doesn’t undermine the author’s position, because the author never says only studio executives make decisions about casting and content. The author says that executives make these decisions “more and more frequently.”
d
The decisions made ██ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████████████
This undermines the position by showing that even though most decisions by executives are made for profit reasons, this actually increases the likelihood of creating emotionally engaging films.
e
Often the U.S. ████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████████
This doesn’t undermine the position, because even if mass media can make the public interested in certain performers or subjects, we have no reason to think that this increases the likelihood of emotionally engaging films.