Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NOVEMBER 1940 11 some part in producing the twelve volumes of research results. But these were concerned exclusively with children, and there is nowhere adult data for comparison. The method used in the survey was almost entirely that of direct questionnaires to children, probing hundreds of problems, such as the most popular film scene, film attendances, the effect on conduct and emotional life, relation of films and crime. It was found that, sometimes, even a single picture had the effect of altering children's attitudes, e.g., Birth of a Nation caused antagonism towards negroes ; All Quiet on llie Western Front, objection to war. A high proportion (66 per cent) of children imitated their favourite film stars in emotional and sexual circumstances. Children who went frequently to the cinema were found to be less favourably disposed to school, home and other normal environments than those who went only occasionally. In brief, it was established that the film exerted an immense influence on American children. From these investigations it has generally been assumed that the eff'ect on adults is similarly immense. But no scientific evidence on this subject exists. In a small way. Mass Observation has attempted to assess the influence of the film on several occasions. While we would not, under any circumstances, claim a general validity for our results, several diff'erent studies, separate in time, place, subject and method, have given pretty similar results. For instance, in March, 1939, we made a study of one thousand voluntary A.R.P. wardens in a typical borough, and among other things sought to discover what propaganda had influenced them to join A.R.P. In their view, the following was the relative importance of the diff"erent propaganda channels in determining their attitude to A.R.P. :— per cent Press 26 Talk and friends 24 Posters and displays 19 Radio 11 Leaflets, pamphlets and books 10 Meetings 3 Films 1 Miscellaneous 6 Shortly after the declaration of war, we asked our nation-wide panel of voluntary observers {not a typical cross-section of Britain) to ballot on what they considered the main influence in determining their general attitude to the war and their understanding of the events leading up to it, with the following result: — in importance Friends and "own opinion" 1st Press 2nd Radio 3rd Leaflets, pamphlets, etc. 4th Posters and displays 5th Films 6th The numerous subtle indirect impacts of the film probably add up to an important total ; in a fashion survey a couple of years ago we found Joan Crawford was fourth most important factor in determining the headwear of Cockney and Lancashire girls. But the f///cr/ effect of films, specifically presented as propaganda or with the object of producing an immediate eff'ect, would seem to be small when compared with the generalisations often made by interested parties. Further research into this subject is clearly of importance. It is easier to make continuous studies of newsreels than of documentary films, and we have watched what we believe to be a pretty steady decline in the prestige, never high, of newsreels, in the past year. At the end of 1939 just under two-thirds of all persons asked said they liked newsreels, and expressed sentiments distinctly favourable to them; by August, 1940, only just a quarter of those questioned held this point of view. In 1939, 12 per cent spontaneously criticised newsreels for having no news; in 1940, 35 per cent spontaneously made this criticism. These results have no absolute validity, but a comparative value. The investigators, the question, the areas and class proportions were the same each time; and the questioning was spread over several weeks in order to avoid the dominant influence of any one newsreel. A whole wealth of criticism was revealed, some of it very unfair to the Newsreel Companies. At the same time, we have found repeated cases where the newsreels have alienated people by their political bias, by their treatment of emotional topics, by the commentaries (which are often unsympathetic to ordinary people), and have shown by numerous indications that they are sometimes out of touch with the feeling of the moment and even, sometimes, with the permanent feelings of housewives or labourers. A newsreel at the beginning of the present blitz preceded pictures of bombed London (presented in a manner hardly calculated to elevate the provinces) with : Britain's Day of Prayer. More Canadian troops arrive. "Dead" Guards V.C. is prisoner-of-war. New Zealand band plays popular airs for London. U.S. ambulances for Great Britain. Duchess of Kent visits a hospital. The prestige of newsreels seems to have fallen most sharply among middle-class people and among men ; there is some parallel evidence that the prestige of Ministry shorts has not risen lately, and that they are more appreciated among the middle-classes than among the working classes (the greater part of the population). Incidentally, people who see favourable reviews of Ministry shorts often find difficulty in locating the cinemas where they are showing, and our own investigators have wasted much time and energy in this way. So far we have been dealing mainly with verbal responses, public opinion. If we are to understand fundamental attitudes, to the film or anything else, we must penetrate below the superficial words. The film, in its environment, the cinema, offers almost ideal material for the student of private opinion. The large numbers of people provide adequate quantities of types, of all classes, ages and sexes. The darkness provides the privacy in which people can react as individuals and even perhaps hiss a Minister they would only dare glare at in the flesh. Moreover, films provide an immense range of human situation, and present to the audience a great variety of emotional problems. Watching audience responses in cinemas gives the same sort of information about what is really going on in people's minds as we get from intimate war diaries, or dream studies. For instance, while public opinion polls and press letterbags showed a heavy increase in Chamberlain's popularity after the beginning of the war, and while this popularity was superficially maintained until within a few days of his resignation, newsreel observation showed a steady and accelerating decline in favourable audience response whenever he appeared on the screen, though it is the "done thing" to be loyal to your Prime Minister in public, especially in wartime. Similarly, direct opinion testing would always show a big hand for the King. But in the early months of the war newsreel (and other) studies showed that his popularity was at a low ebb. Since the bombing of Buckingham Palace the King's popularity has risen, as instanced by oneseventh of appearances applauded at the outbreak of war to over one-third of appearances applauded since the blitz. The Duke of Windsor, who is not often seen, has the highest score of all, maintained throughout the war. Before the Dakar incident General de Gaulle had a 100 per cent favourable response and, in more than half of our observations, was clapped for over five seconds; mass-observers await with interest his next newsreel appearance. Clearly, much depends on the methods of measuring audience response. We have devoted a good deal of eff"ort to developing an accurate measure; but as well as being accurate, it must also be practicable under the special conditions for observation, which are far from a laboratory. Observer variation, the rapid sequence of film events, the difficulty of getting scripts as a check on observation, and the darkness in which the observer must write and record, are all difficulties. We have tended, therefore, to observe a few films in detail, rather than many films in brief. Six main types of audience response are observed, each response graded into categories according to the approximate extent of response amongst the audience, and the duration is stated in seconds. Testing with different investigators has shown that this method provides information which is reasonably reliable for practical purposes. In studying Let George Do It, for instance, with six investigators working separately, recording audience response to fifty sequences in the film, the degree of consistency was striking. Moreover, in this as in many other investigations, we found a striking similarity in the responses of widely different audiences. The emotional background for laughter seems, on our detailed studies of films, music hall and pantomime, to be remarkably stable, but the detail of treatment for successful jokes on familiar themes is very changeable, especially under contemporary conditions. The living stage comedian is immediately sensitive to this and can modify his jokes accordingly from evening to evening. The film comedian, or the documentary film producer who wants to make the point