Westernization: movies and TV series

From the invention of the kinetoscope to the birth of cinematography

In 1877, American inventor Thomas Edison developed a technology that enabled to record and reproduce sounds. The first phonographs were in great demand among his contemporaries. Amid the success, in 1888 Edison, along with his assistant William Dickson, invented a device that could play back a sequence of photographs captured on film. The massive apparatus was called a kinetoscope, it weighed 453 kilograms and ran on batteries.

In Europe, kinetoscopes were bought in huge quantities by local aristocrats and wealthy citizens. Very soon entrepreneurs from major cities of the Old World began to actively modernize and technically improve the American development. Thus, the exhibition of kinetoscopes held in Paris in 1894 inspired French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumière to invent the first commercially viable projector, which allowed to capture a static image on film, resulting in a moving picture. The device was called a cinématographе, it was hand powered, and weighed 9 kilograms. Its relative portability allowed for filming in open terrain. The Lumière inventors demonstrated the results of their work to the general public in 1895: the people were presented with several 50-second long videos, which showed an approach of a train, a panorama of Lyon and a view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower. Later, cameramen working for the Lumière brothers started traveling around the world in search of exotic subjects to show to the sophisticated French public for a fee.

In 1896, the former phonograph importer Charles Pathé founded the Pathé Frères company in Paris, which acquired the Lumière brothers' patent and commissioned an improved studio camera. The new invention soon occupied a dominant position on the European and American markets. In addition, the company owned a production facility on the outskirts of Paris where short films were produced. At the end of the 19th century, France ranked first in the world in terms of motion picture production.

Rise of American cinematography

In the United States, the birth of the film industry was a product of the unification of patent rights. For a long time, it was very popular among American workers to frequent the Nickelodeon movie theater, which opened in 1905 in the converted storefronts of Pittsburgh, where for an entrance fee of 10 cents it was possible to watch various films for an hour. After movies with more sophisticated storylines began to gain popularity among the general public, theater chain executives began targeting mostly middle-class consumers.

By 1908, there were 20 motion picture production companies in the country. Representatives of these organizations entered into a collusive trade agreement with each other to ensure their continued dominance on the motion picture production and distribution market. Thus, the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) was founded. And on its basis a licensing system was created.

In 1909, independent distributors set up their own trade association – the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance, and a year later founded the American Film Manufacturing Company (AFMC), which was engaged in the production and distribution of motion pictures.  In 1912, on the foundation of the AFMC conglomerate two other studios were created – Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Mutual Film Corporation, which famously cooperated with Charlie Chaplin. This British actor received an official salary of $670 thousand a year, which was an absolute world record for an entertainer. In 1918, Mutual Film Corporation was absorbed by larger film studios and eventually became part of Radio-Keith-Orpheum Radio Pictures (RKO Radio Pictures). It was through RKO that the first works of such American directors as Frank Capra and Walt Disney were released nationwide.

Projects of American animation studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), founded in 1923, is the oldest animation studio in the world. Since its founding, the studio's animators have produced 61 feature-length animated films, the most popular of which are remade every seven years to reflect the changes that take place in society. Thus, in 2017 WDAS, which traditionally targets children's and family audiences, released a full-length feature film "Beauty and the Beast". What is particularly noteworthy about this film is that one of its storylines is devoted to the depiction of a homosexual relationship.  In the animated series "Star vs. the Forces of Evil", which primarily focuses on prepubescent children, one of the main characters, a boy named Marco, disguises himself as Princess Turinda in order to save his schoolmates from the evil principal. Moreover, the episode is accompanied by a narrative that a person's identity is not determined by the biological sex and can be chosen freely. In the popular teen series “Andi Mack” by Disney Studios, one of the storylines shows the trials and tribulations of a homosexual teenager who seeks the attention of a heterosexual boy.  

The impact of American TV series

The talents of Western screenwriters, intricate plots, and the fact that English is the native language of around 1.6 billion people, help American media to effectively promote their products among the audience of billions of viewers, form universal standards of behavior and shape attitudes towards the events taking place in the world. This strategy of applying "soft power" to promote one’s national and political interests is actively used by the West. One of the leaders in the creation of high-quality media projects is the HBO television service. The series "Game of Thrones" became the studio's highest-grossing project. Each episode is abundant in explicit scenes of sexual violence, including incest, as well as in examples of deviant behavior and mental peculiarities.

HBO is part of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc, which, in turn, is part of the world's largest transnational telecommunications conglomerate American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T Inc). By the way, this international holding does not solely cooperate with studios specializing in entertainment. Among the main partners of the organization is also the U.S. Department of Defense. This can explain the interest of American scriptwriters in the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the creation of the mini-series "Chernobyl", which seeks to warn of the terrible consequences of using uranium. What is very concerning is that uranium is not only used to power nuclear reactors but also to create modern technologies and advanced weapons. Despite the fact that the U.S. authorities are making huge efforts to replenish their uranium deposits, they still cannot even remotely approach the level of uranium reserves of Russia, China and Kazakhstan, where the largest deposits of this metal are concentrated. With uranium prices on the rise, U.S. strategists have decided to take advantage of the mass media resources available to them.

The scriptwriters of the American cable and satellite TV channel Showtime, which is also part of the international media conglomerate Paramount, worked on the plot of the TV series "Homeland" for nine years. In the first seasons, the main characters of the show fight Islamic terrorists in the Middle East and prevent acts of aggression of various gangs in Europe and the United States. After the escalation of the crisis between Russia and the countries of the collective West, American intelligence agents began to fight against Russian hackers and spies.

Moreover, popular Showtime series expose a number of social problems and make viewers believe that it is acceptable to live in an antisocial environment. Take for example the show "Shameless", which for ten years told a story about representatives of the antisocial segment of the population, whose lives are accompanied by alcoholism, incest, drug addiction and sexual promiscuity. In fact, transnational corporations, with the support of Western governments, exercise indirect control not only over their own people but also over those who live in developing countries, shaping their inclinations to deviant behavior, sexual perversion and the use of illegal substances.

Prospects for the development of Russian media products

For three decades the world market of audiovisual products has been dominated by American producers who offer to the audience mass culture products that promote the values of the Western world.

The Russian authorities are currently faced with the need to adapt their traditional culture to the ongoing globalization. Therefore, conditions are being created in the country to increase the competitiveness of domestic media products, which will make it possible to shield children and adolescents with fragile psyches from the harmful influence of the Western mass culture. In order to fully meet the demand for high-quality movies and TV series among Russian and international consumers, it is necessary to increase the funding of the film industry.

In addition, it is necessary to enter into international agreements with foreign film and television studios to make joint programs and films, as well as to create favorable conditions for potential foreign buyers of the content produced in Russian studios.

In 2018, a total of 495 original scripts for films and TV series were drawn up in the U.S. Most of them went into production. By the end of 2022, this figure had increased to 600. This means that the impact of American movies, TV series and cartoons on the behavioral norms and attitudes of consumers increases exponentially every year. The overwhelming number of viewers of popular shows are children and teenagers, who are not always able to critically evaluate the information before them. By painting a colorful universe for their viewers, leading American scriptwriters, controlled by the U.S. authorities, indirectly influence political and social processes around the world.