understanding media

i thought the examination of differences in cultural perception of film was eye-opening. as someone who was raised with movies with sound, i never considered that different cultures would not understand the style of our movies. the most interesting notion was that of illiterate (or even less literate) cultures wanting to see everything explain. the piece about a character disappearing off the side of a frame causing viewers to wonder "what happened to him?" was very thought-provoking about how Westerners really do just "roll with the punches." It seems to take much more to get us as viewers to question the structure of film. the example of African viewers believing Europeans were "magical" really forces you to see that everyone in the world is not as connected to various forms of media as we sometimes assume. personally, i feel that sound in movies is critical. however, the author reminds us that in some cultures in interferes with their traditional viewing behaviors and preferences. very interesting.