The Unity Of Opposites Of Commercial Interests And Humanism Value In Documentary

Culture as a kind of "soft power" is one of the important standards to evaluate the comprehensive force of a nation.After the reform and opening up,China attaches great importance to the development of cultural industry.With its faithfully recording of history and reality as well as searching for the truth of the world and its humanistic care to the mankind,documentary,as a branch of cultural industry,plays an important role in cultural exchange in the world and enhances the cultural quality of our country. The social influence of documentary comes from its implications of humanistic care.In various forms of artistic expression in film and television,documentaries are considered even to be "the spirit of true nobility".Since the commercialism is so prevalent in nowadays,the fact that culture has been a sort of capital becomes more obvious.Meanwhile,the commercial interest of documentary is considered more important than ever before.It is criticized by Frankfurt School that "once it becomes wealth and is used for consumption,the spirit will wither away".With the perspective of the Frankfurt School' s critical theory of mass culture,this dissertation will study the impact of commercialism on documentary as well as the correlation between the humanism and commercialism within the documentary,and explore the future development of documentary in China.The main idea of this dissertation is as follows:Beginning with the motivation and main concern of this dissertation,Chapter One gives an introduction of situations faced by documentary in China where the commercialism is becoming prevalent,and puts forward a theoretical basis for this study.At the same time,it describes the main research contents of this dissertation:(1) the documentary's value of the humanism and how it is presented technically;(2) with the perspective of "Uses and Gratifications Approach",explore the intrinsic value of the documentary as commodity,analyze the impact of commercialism on documentary and give an interpretation of the characteristics of documentary as a commodity;(3) inquire into the inherent relationship between the humanism and commercialism of documentary, find out some solutions to overcome the restrictions of documentary resulted from commercialism and put forward feasible measures to help opening up the domestic market as well as international market for documentary's future development.Along with reviewing the development of documentary in all phases in China on the basis of previous studies and summarizing the history of the documentary,Chapter Two points out that humanism and commercialism are two basic attributes of documentary in the age of cultural industry,according to which,it then comes up with the theoretical basis of this dissertation called Frankfurt School's critical theory of mass culture.Chapter Three first comes the analysis of the humane care of the documentary with anthropological view,and then discusses the humanistic care that documentary showed through interpretation of history,as well as respect for life and restoration of the human nature.Finally,analyze the techniques employed by documentary in showing humanistic care.According to the audiences' motivation of seeking truth and knowledge,Chapter Four analyze the intrinsic value of documentary which can explain the documentary's attractiveness to the market.By analyzing the commercial features of the documentary, it discusses the limitations of commercialism which would reduce the qualities of the documentary and prevent its development.By analyzing the successful product of documentary production institutions both at home and abroad,Chapter Five discusses and interprets the unity of opposites between commercialism and humanistic care within documentary in the age of cultural industry.At last,based on all the analysis and interpretations,it comes to the conclusion and feasible proposals for future development of documentary in China.Finally,based on the study of this dissertation,a conclusion can be drawn that Frankfurt School's critical theory of mass culture shows too much anxiety and pessimism on cultural industry.This research shows that since cultural industry has become inevitable,documentary as cultural commodity can be commercialized,at the same time,it can also maintain its spirit of exploration,the qualities of pursuing truth and humanistic care.By striking a balance between the two attributes of humanism and commercialism,documentary could achieve a "win-win" ending.This dissertation also gives a reflection on the road to the balance in the final part.