Social realism a level media Research no 1

1. Social Realism
Realism or ‘realisms’
1: The phrasal term ‘Social Realism’ is thrown around by a lot of people, the majority of these
people do not even know the meaning of the term. If you have a ‘social realism’ film about a
group of black teenagers who live on an estate and they aren’t the nicest of people, you will
then associate any black people with the people in that film. This is not the case, so the fact that
whoever made this thinks it is ‘social realism’ is wrong. The fact is that any single film that is
meant to be ‘social realism’ isn’t actually ‘social realism’, only when you are living your own life
will you be in realism.
2: The critical consensus of realism is that it is a deranged view of the Western World. Which it
is. Social realism came about at the time of the jump between country life to city life.
3: Philosophers and Artists, were some of the factors that helped continue the context of social
realism throughout the nineteenth century.
4: The outbreak of cinema was a major part of the development of realism in the nineteenth
century. A quote from film theorist ‘Siegfried Kracauer’ was that he believed that films were able
to uniquely presenting real life. Zola, has stated that fictional representations of natural life
should observe, study and record peoples actions in a similar manner to re create something
‘real’.
5: The suggestion is that the term should only be used with a prefix attached.

2. Realism in the Cinema
1: Film and photography, emerged during the nineteenth century. This gave everyone a totally new
perspective of what social realism is. Especially in films, which aren’t always accurate!
2: Photography brought a new dimension to capturing life as it comes. The fact that people were able to
keep proof of times in life was extraordinary.
3: To make life seem as raw and gritty as possible.
4: There is no such this as truth in the media, everything is twisted to be made out to be more
interesting than it actually is, especially in films.
5: Kracauer believed that film was uniquely capable of representing real life. Also Kracauer and Zola
believed in an extreme form of realism in the media.
6: Gerhardie believed that the goal of naturalism was to ‘resurrect the complete illusion of real life,
using this characteristic of real life’.
7: Bazin argued that realism should provide room enough for audiences to find their own realities inside
a realist film.
8: All of the approaches in the third paragraph seek to represent the truth through codes and
conventions that have become associated with realism.
9: Branston and Stafford think that the difference is that things that come out of Hollywood are
different as they are overdone and too much sometimes.

3. Defining Social Realism
1: The term ‘Social Realism’ is so hard to describe as no body really knows what it is. There are so many
different ideologies of what social realism is that no body knows what to believe.
2: Hill states that all current texts are linked to the past based on tradition.
3: