Critics reviews and Film Interest and Whether it Altar’s a Persons Interest in the Film
...est alter or as the critics review. In 1983, MGM/ United Artists along with Warner Brothers decided to withhold the screening privileges from film critics to coming feature films due to fear that negative reviews would make attendance suffer (Wyatt and Badger, 1984). Interest is, the major mass media variable reviewers can effectively manipulate, since they cannot directly control interpersonal, tactical and economic aspects involved in a decision to consume an art form (Wyatt and Badger, 1989). Wyatt and Badger argued that, most reviews in the mass media are not intended to affect attitudes that function as filters for the whole of the experience. Rather, they are intended to provided information and evaluation about whether to attend a movie or an event (Wyatt and Badger, 1988). Travis stated that, in a typical review, the critics appraisal may be accompanied by specific factual examples to support the evaluation, however readers of the review can only confirm or dispute the evaluation by experiencing the film themselves (Travis, 1990). This research study, will attempt to find out whether or not film reviews alter a persons interest of a film. The experiment will be conducted in two stages. The effect of reading the synopsis of the movie itself then pretest, and the effect of reading either a positive, negative or a mixed review of the film, and posttest. Hypothesis H: Reading reviews after reading synopsis will alter interest of film Participants Eighty-one upper division students (three groups of mixed 27 men and women, age ranges from 18-25) will volunteer to participate. All volunteers will be paid for their participation and will be treated in accordance with the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (American Psychological Association, 1992). Materials Three synopses that will have been copied in adva...