Ideology and The New Deal ‘Fact Film’ Power and The Land  

Oleh:

Kline, Ronald R.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Public Understanding of Science vol. 6 no. 1 (Jan. 1997), page 19-30.
Fulltext: 19PUS61.pdf (64.34KB)

Isi artikel

This paper examines the making of the US goverment documentary film, Power and the Land (1940), in terms of how views about science and technology are communicated to the public. The paper argues that the film was shaped by a complex ideology of technical progress shared by the film’s maker and sponsors (the Rural Electrification Administration; the short-lived US Film Service, headed by the award-winning director, Pare Lorentz; and Joris Ivens, an internationally acclaimed Dutch director and leftist), tensions between goals of producing a ‘factual’ and ‘propagandistic’ film, and perceptions of the rural audiences’ response. This paper thus argues against the view that science and technology communication is simply the mediated diffusion of knowledge from scientists and engineers to the public (in this case, knowledge about the social and economic aspects of rural electrification) and supports an interactive model. The paper also compares Power and the Land with the better known documentaries by Lorentz, The Plow that Broke the Plains and The River, and with other ‘fact films’ of the New Deal era that portray a relationship between technology and social change.

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