Political Economy of Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Political Economy of Communications - Essay Example Herein, it should be noted that the major distributors of 19th and 20th century Nickelodeon era were pioneers of motion pictures namely Thomas Edison, George Eastman and more. It was the moment in the history of film developmental era that distributors like Thomas Edison monopolized the market of motion pictures. This paper is a clear understanding of the readings that have been selected for undertaking political economic analysis. Investors in the US film industry were one of the major cultural shifts that were noted in the 19th century. With the advancement of technology, the field developed to the extent in 20th century when motion pictures were being broadcasted with the help of celluloid. This further provided recognition to the filmed entertainment. However, the pioneers were the ones who had control over the equities (Litman 15). In order to gain capital, more and more innovation was needed in this newly born economic sector. It is for this reason that Thomas Edison used all h is engaging resources in order to sell motion pictures. The fact remains that capital that was being received by filmed entertainment did not exceed much until the nickel arcades spurted up. In order to gather larger groups of consumers, an arena was needed where people could experience entrainment resulting in buying products from the distributors (Bettig and Hall 110). The invention of Kinestoscope and camera stands allowed the filmmakers to record films more than a minute duration. A penny was the minimal cost for viewing the motion films. It was much needed that the hold of the industry was divided among more people because the filmed entertainment was merely being provided to the upper classes only (Meehan 48). The domestic companies such as Bio-graph and Vita-graphs helped in taking the films to middle class as well. As discussed in Meehan’s study, these domestic companies joined hands with the international companies as well that were focusing distributing of films acr oss borders in order to gain the hold of international markets. By this time, it was evident that motion films were now out of pioneer control i.e. Thomas Edison and George Eastman. Films were no longer limited to the premises of penny arcades, parlors etc. as more and more people ushered to experience filmed entertainment within exhibitions (Meehan 52) At this point of the film development, exhibition criterion became a new way to earn money. This rather made film industry became a serious economic contributor for which increased entrepreneurs joined the field as filmmakers and distributors. According to Betting and Hall, the increase in filmmakers and points of exhibitions, there was an avid need of increasing the crowd for viewing the films (Litman). It was for this reason that the rate of per viewing was kept flat. One viewing cost remained one penny for a long time for which films were made from ten minutes to sixty minutes. The change in films was increased so that the Nickelo deon (penny theatres) could have stayed flocked. At this point, films were made a regular entertainment as an accepted culture (Bettig and Hall 62). This helps us understand that the economic model that was applied at the origination of the film was to keep the cost minimal by making sure that the production was limited as well. It is one of the reasons behind film duration to be no more than sixty minutes (Bettig