GMAT Essays (AWA)

Popular Entertainment is overly influenced by commercial interest. Superficiality obscenity and violence characterize films and television today because those qualities are commercially successful


The issue about what factors motivate popular entertainment is a topic of much debate. The argument presented above implies that many movies and television shows have a lot of violent and obscene context because those qualities are commercially successful. One may argue that many movies are not necessarily commercially motivated because they are based on a true story, however even historically based movies tend to focus more on the violent and obscene aspects of history. Therefore, the authors conclusion that popular entertainment is motivated by commercial interests is valid.

For instance, a recent article in the economist, listed the top grossing movies for the year of 2011. The movie Batman Dark night was the top grossing film. This film contained many more graphic violent scenes than any other movie in 2011. Although this does not necessarily mean that the movie was popular because of the violent scenes it does show that violence is commercially appealing to the public.

In addition, multiple surveys within the past 5 years suggest that action movies are the most popular films in the United states. It is a known fact that violent scenes are more abundant in action movies than any other type of movie. Here once again, we can see how media incorporates violence in order to achieve commercial success.

Some may argue that films and television shows are not necessarily motivated by commercial success because many films are based off of true stories. However, it is important to note that even most historically based movies tend to focus on love affairs and wars. For example a"Schindlers list" a popular movie that focused on a German Business man saving Jewish people from the Holocaust, was historically accurate but also graphically violent showing many scenes or rape and murder. Here once again one can see how scenes of graphic violence are also used in many historically motivated films.

In sum, today's media does disproportionally focus on violent and obscene context in order to achieve commercial success, and while some media may be based on historical events these events usually revolve around the violent and obscene historical moments rather than those that.