is drama a medium for conveying social messages?

Question

are the dramas and movies are best suitable for spreading social issues and other related information?

Answer 1

Yeah sure. In India you have this kind of thing all the time... Movies do spread the message but dramas are also powerful.. as a medium. Thing is, they don't have as wide an audience as the movies do.

Answer 2

Converying social messages can be done in a number of ways and mediums. Using film Drama's can be used effectively, but one of the problems with trying to right a social wrong using a Drama is there sometimes is not a complete understanding of the message as its delivered. People focus on the acting, the story line, whether it is riveting, so the overall performance gets reviewed but the message gets lost.

Documentary/Docudrama can be more effective given people understand a documentary is an exposure of a problem. Not to tout good or bad but you can see lately the explosion of documentary type films which have broken into mainstream culture and become popular while still retaining the original message.

March of the Penguins was one, Soon is a Global warming by the former vice president who created the internet. Bowling for Columbine was well done, farenheit 911 was not as well done.

In the end any medium can provide a social message, the main difficulty is delivering it in such a manner where it holds interest, yet the message is not diluted by the performances.

Answer 3

Absolutely! This could be traced back through the plays of Eugene O'Neil and Clifford Odets to Shakespear and the Greeks beyond, but let's just look at a small number of great movies with a serious (although sometimes presented through comic) message:
"Sullivan's Travels"
"Brazil"
"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"A Raisin in the Sun"
"The Grapes of Wrath"
"The Last Detail"
"The 400 Blows"
"Boyz in the Hood"
"The Parallax View"
"Ragtime"
"Duck Soup"
"Network"
"Little Big Man"
"The Thin Red Line"
"Do the Right Thing"
"Good Night and Good Luck"
These are just a fraction of the motion pictures which make great statements about societal mores, politics, right and wrong, etc. Movies are a superb medium to convey one's thoughts, as they can acomplish in two hours an awakening in the viewer, a window into the mind of the filmmaker, all the while providing laughter, tears or both.

Answer 4

Not all movies aim to bring up some social injustice. It really depends on the goals of the screenwriter and the director. Most producers would rather make a movie with only a small moral message, if any, as people truly desire surface level entertainment (excluding independent films which, of course, are heavily laden with social issues).

Answer 5

Yes, that's one of their main roles, although they often do it as a side effect, not as something intended.