Ugh I'm finding this one difficult. Do you mean "what...done correctly...lends itself towards contemporary mass consumption?" Or do you mean "what makes popular media actually good?"
That word "popular" is what's confusing me about the question.
I'll answer both, for my view.
For mass consumption: Setting, characters, and genre. People often seem to make decisions to consume new media based upon these things. The superhero movie craze is a good example.
For "good:" Characters, conflict, plot, and theme. These are what keep you coming back. The original Star Wars trilogy is a good exercise in this, put into basic elements. The characters are enjoyable, the conflict is driving and clear, the plot is well formatted and engaging although simple, and the themes make it timeless.
I want to throw in dialogue somewhere because I do find dialogue important, but am unsure where to put it. I don't really think the moral is terribly significant. It used to be before mass entertainment.
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We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society - Alan Watts
18 Jun 2019, 11:55 am
