Movie 42 Analysis

‘42’ is a movie about a professional American Baseball player Jackie Robinson, how he dealt with racism and how he broke baseball’s colour line in the 1940s. As the movie progresses, it also shows how the media had shaped society’s perception of the integration of coloured baseball players in society and how it was a success. In this movie analysis, the three topic discussions are racism towards African Americans, Diffusion of Innovation and the role of opinion leaders through various media effects.
Racism towards African Americans was evidently portrayed in ‘42’. The theory to support this would be agenda setting. Based on agenda setting, the media does not tell people what to think but rather what to think about (Vivian 351). An agenda is
They eventually gained popularity through the trend of taking selfies and posting them on social media. It was first adopted by teenagers and gained popularity as people were curious about it. It gained more momentum after celebrities started using it and they were featured in news/magazine articles. Quickly, middle aged to elderly people started to use it. And following the diffusion of innovation model, they have decreased in popularity.
Diffusion of Innovation can be applied as at the end of the movie the Whites had adopted a new behavior and perception that the integration of Blacks into a White baseball team was a good idea. This impacted the Dodgers positively as they achieved the public’s full support. It was published in the newspapers “hail to the Brooklyn Bums”, with the name being spread with
The role of opinion leaders is derived from the Two Step Flow of Communication. The opinion leader is an active media user, who interprets the meaning of media messages for lower-end media users. The opinion leadership implies a high level of acceptance of his or her opinions (Lazarsfeld, Katz). Thus, Lazarsfeld found that information was disseminated in a “two-step flow.” In the first step, the media transmits information to the opinion leaders. In the second step, these opinion leaders disseminate information to the people in their interpersonal networks (Potter 244).
In his article "The Two Step Flow of Communication" by Elihu Katz, he found opinion leaders to have more influence on people's opinions, actions, and behaviors than the media. Opinion leaders are seen to have more influence than the media for a number of reasons. Opinion leaders are seen as trustworthy and non-purposive. However, the media can be seen as forcing a concept on the public thus, opinion leaders have a more changing or determining role in an individual’s opinion or