Study On Movie Star From The Perspective Of Media Ecology

Shanghai,regarded as the starting point of modern China,played an important role in early film development.The age of 1930s has witnessed the extraordinary prosperity of Shanghai and was also seen as "the first golden age in Chinese cinema".As a result,Shanghai has become the birthplace and the trial ground for Chinese movies and film journals.Movie Star,founded in Shanghai in 1935,one of the most widely read film publications in China,played a very important role in this critical time and city.This paper takes "media ecology" as the theoretical perspective and methodology principle to analyze the content of the 48 issues of Movie Star.Through the analysis of the content,the paper aims to see through and present objectively the development of early Chinese film art in the 1930s,and to further understand the role and function of Movie Star in the art,economic,and political fields,so as to give an all-round view of early Shanghai film ecology,as well as offering historical reference for today’s film and television art practice and development of publications.The paper consists of three parts:the Introduction,the Body and the Conclusion.The Introduction is divided into "Research Background and Methodology","Literature Review and Innovation" and "Research Framework and Methods".The author proposes the thesis statement,demonstrates the research value,gives a literature review,and puts forward the research framework,methods and ideas.The "Research Background and Methodology" part discusses that Media Ecology Study refers to a study that regard the media as a sort of environment with a conclusion that studying Movie Star with Media Ecology needs to connect the periodical with the elements and resources of its background and to explore the its relations with the social politics,economics,culture and education,etc.."Literature Review and Innovation" part puts forward the research outline,which is based on the theory of Media Ecology,taking an overall study on Movie Star with comprehensive perspectives in art,economic and politic fields.The body of the paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter is "Movie Star,A New Voice for Shanghai Movie Stars".Starting with the media environment prior to Movie Star,the author describes the movie environment in Shanghai,the change of print media and the development of Mingxing Film Company on which Movie Star depended in the early 1930s,so as to paint a picture of media environment at the beginning of Movie Star.Through the combination of quantitative research and qualitative analysis,the author systematically sorted out the text content of Movie Star for the first time in the field of media ecology.Based on the study of the early film environment in Shanghai,the Mingxing Film Company,its editorial team and content of Movie Star,this paper holds that Movie Star can be regarded as a model of "serious,popular but not vulgar" film magazine in the 1930s,which could serve as a new voice for Shanghai film industry and Mingxing Film Company.The second chapter is "Movie Star and the Construction of Art Field in Shanghai films".From the perspective of the interaction and coexistence of media and art in media ecology,the author makes a diagram on the interactions in "Movie Star in construction of art field in Shanghai films",and analyzes the media function of periodicals in film ecology.Besides,this part borrows "the Lasswell Model of Communication"(Who?Said what?In which channel?To Whom?With what effect?)to analyze the media function of Movie Star in movie ecology.By categorizing the 48 film articles into three main themes,this author summarizes the change of China’s early film concepts in the 1930s,that is,the concept of "non-drama films" from "drama-like films",which emphasizes the subjectivity of the film.On this basis,the essay explores the interactions among the authors,the editors and the readers by discussing the case of "surveys on Movie Star readers that has been preserved completely" through film theories.On the one hand,Movie Star shows the characteristic construction on its own and breakthrough in collision with others in the film art field in the 1930s by means of delivering news and giving comments.On the other hand,through publishing film criticism together with professional writers,the magazine participated in and led the discourse production of Shanghai film art field in the 1930s,demonstrating the value-leading function of a professional film magazine for target readers.The third chapter,based on the previous discussion on the construction of the art field,focuses on the production relationship between the magazine and fashion culture in the modern city of Shanghai.Being typical to printed media derived from Shanghai’s film industry in the "economic field" of the 1930s,Movie Star held the nature of boosting consumption.In the field of celebrity culture consumption,the most typical representative is the production of fashion culture.This chapter examines how celebrities were made in Movie Star,interprets the images of cover girls from content,and studies female star as the fashion spokesperson.These lead to a conclusion that fashion culture production by the magazine is realized through selling out roles of female stars under the illusion of "liberating" them.To prove this,this chapter illustrates the appearance features of the cover girls and researches on the fashion spokespersons with a conclusion that the images of the cover girls were made by mixed arts and techniques of hairstyles,clothing,postures,backgrounds and so on,so as to making illusion images of the celebrities.This reveals the true status of stars,especially female stars,in the production of fashion culture in modern Shanghai,with a purpose to restore to a certain extent the historical picture of the fashion economic field in Shanghai in the 1930s.The fourth chapter "Movie Star and the Political Stand of Left-wing Films" analyzes the most forward-looking and experimental left-wing film movement in the 1930s,and restates the media ecology of early Chinese films in the political field from the perspective of "cultural leadership".Mingxing Film Company was crucial to many significant moments in China’s early film history.It had close relations with the left-wing film movement,producing and distributing 30 left-wing films such as Street Angel and Crossroads,becoming one of the most important platforms for the movement to speak out and practice.As the last self-published propaganda publication of the company,Movie Star actively attracted left-wing filmmakers and got involved in the film culture movement.Leftwing intellectuals were invited to join the team of professional writers,publishing several pieces of criticism on hot issues,planning the joint anti-Japanese special issue,and advocating the shooting of national defense films.The part mainly shows that how Movie Star participated in the historical course of the Leftwing Film Campaign.Diversified strategies such as advocating revolution by pictures,attracting audience with cartoons,seeking recognition through songs are adopted to express political stand,enlighten public,and compete for the leading position in film culture.The conclusion analyses the role and function that Movie Star played in the art fields of the early Shanghai movie ecology,and reflects on the impacts of the study on contemporary movie industries.