Cinema Lives: Film Criticism in the Digital Age

Abstract

Critics have been a vital part of the film industry for more than a century. As narrative films grew more complicated in the 1910s and 1920s, film reviews became more detailed, enabling writers to find a distinct voice and style. In the United States, newspapers and magazines had become the leading platforms for film critics to share their ideas. With the mainstream popularity of television in the 1950s and cable channels in the 1970s, audio/visual commentary was introduced to reviewers. A change in style, structure and voice begins to emerge with audio/visual film criticism, introducing new sets of standards and expectations. Film criticism in print was further challenged by the introduction of the Internet in the mid- 1990s, where blogging became a popular activity among writers and film enthusiasts. By 2020, online blogs, YouTube and social media channels such as Twitter have become the leading publishing platforms for film critics of different skill levels. The significant presence of technological innovations in our personal and social lives has introduced a re-thinking of everyday life, profoundly affecting cultural activities such as film criticism and the relation of criticism to film viewing. With the growing popularity of the Internet from the late 1990s to 2020, technological and cultural changes have affected the profession of film criticism. Authority and value have been redistributed away from print and broadcast media towards online platforms. Online media introduces an entirely new form of critical practice, one whose values, methods, insights and ethics – by 2020 - have not been examined by academic scholarship. This thesis aims to introduce and analyse the key channels and platforms for online film criticism and propose standards and expectations that could bring order to the chaotic state of online film criticism in 2020. It begins with conversations about what film criticism is, and concludes with an analysis on social media and YouTube film critics. The following chapters argue that film criticism is not dead; it is experiencing an evolution due to technological changes, making the practice adapt to new requirements and possibilities. The thesis aims to provide a detailed study of film criticism in a world often described by digital innovations that welcome change. As a disclaimer, it needs to be noted that the main timeline in this thesis is from 2016 to 2019, which is when the chapters were written. Due to some demanded corrections done in late 2020, the events during this year, including the COVID-19 pandemic, are not mentioned or analysed in relation to the thesis topic.