CAUGHT IN THE WEB
I decided to go on a hunt and try to track down something interesting. To hunt in the web. Why did I feel such a need? In a newsletter sent by wirtualnynadawca.pl web portal I read that "the Internet crushes the press". Of course, it is not any great discovery, but apparently, people more and more often and readily read news on the Internet instead of in newspapers. There were some percentage calculations shown of how many middle-aged and young people do not look through newspapers because they have their noses in the Internet. The web has a great majority, hence the headline of the news. A few days later, this time in a newspaper, I have read that even gossiping is moving to the virtual reality. Who knows, maybe magazines, which gather readers mainly due to the gossip column, will disappear... I would not care about the death of the tabloids. I would not be also upset if top shelf magazines for women and men disappeared; in my opinion, they come in useful only at hairdresser's or in the waiting room at the dentist’s. Maybe they would start to put there social and cultural magazines? Let's imagine "Przegląd Polityczny" (Political Review) at the dentist’s in the waiting room, "Czas Kultury" (Time of Culture) at haidresser's, "FA-art" at eating places... ah, it would be... unreal. So I get back down to the earth and go on a hunt. If it is thought that news and knowledge should be searched for in the Web, let's look at its sources.
To avoid attacking World Wide Web, I decided to focus on what interests me and to narrow the range of search to movies. I asked myself a question „What do movie magazines look like? Do they have their websites? What do these websites contain? How much do they differ from their paper versions as far as their content is concerned? And what can we find in www movie magazines?” And so came the first thing to consider. How should we treat vortals such as filmweb.pl or stopklatka.pl? Should I consider them movie magazines? In fact – yes. Apart from the fact, that they gather movie data, they develop title-base and they are information services as well. They publish agency reports, movie events announcements, conversations with film-makers and reviews. These vortals have their own editorial section and publisher – the same things which characterize newspapers. According to law, any website is a press title, which should be registered at appropriate court. Dependently on the frequency of appearance of new articles, periodicity is determined: weekly, fortnightly or monthly. But it’s still difficult for me to think about filmweb.pl, stopklatka.pl or any other similar vortals as magazines. It is probably because I am used to subsequent editions, marked with a particular number. It can be so because articles are more than what I have mentioned: detailed review, a draft, a feature article or editorial discussion. Let us call such vortals as stopklatka or filmweb news bulletins and use word „magazine” to describe other titles.
And so I look at movie websites and I am disappointed because I can’t find anything interesting. „Kwartalnik Filmowy” (Film Quarterly) fortunately has its website, but it is treated as a place where basic information can be given. Even if you want to find a table of contents of the newest issue or archival issues of the magazine, you have to search for a while – you have to go to the bookshop, then – click a few times – and you will find a particular issue and its content. There are no full articles (only their fragments), no comments considering current cinema events. I am not surprised by such attitude, because „Kwartalnik” is meant to look at film events with reserve, not to comment live things which happen in X Muse world. I would rather expect such attitude of „Kino” (Cinema) or „Film”, but neither of them take the advantage of every possibility on the Internet. „Kino”, present in the Web via Onet.pl web portal, comes out delayed and it does not look like a well-thought-out strategy of editorial section; first, readers buy the new issue and then its content can be read in the Web; there is not even a cover of this newest issue. We will not also find more content than it is in the paper edition. „Film” website is much worse. Not only it disappeared for a while, but its reappearance does not delights us and it does not contain much information (there is no table of contents, no archive, poor test version). And it would seem that magazine which so readily presents gossips about celebrities, the latest news from the world of film, should move to the Internet with readiness, because it would make it possible to publish such news without waiting for a printing press will do its own thing. And in fact, it is pitiful and dull. Admittedly, in the preface the editorial stuff encourages people to surf the Internet (now, there is only shoal) and to develop the script for the new web bulletin, but for me it did not seem very friendly and it did not encouraged me to such action. So I can only hope that the website will start working with full steam and become an attractive place.
Searching for something interesting, I looked at „Esensja” website. And I found. „Esensja” is a pop culture magazine concerning not only cinema, but also literature, comic books, games and all things which are connected somehow with popular culture. Apart from the presentation of unique works (short stories, excerpts of novels), in every issue we can find many book, film, games and cartoon reviews. The editorial stuff also makes an effort to maintain detachment from pop culture, and it devotes an editorial discussion or a block of texts. In the newest, May (4/2007) number we can read about „Star Wars” phenomenon, which celebrate the thirtieth anniversary. „Esensja” more and more often goes beyond subjects connected with pop culture. It is interested in cultural landscape, that is why they published reports from the Fourth World Festival of Documentary Film ‘Planete Doc Review’ or from exhibitions of paintings. In May issue I also found Kamil Witek’s text titled „Filmu” kwietniowe przy(w)padki (’Film’s’ April (by) accident). The author comments on the review of „300” movie published in April issue of „Film”. He accuses it of negligent treatment of movie matter and of the comic books, on which the movie was based. „300” is the adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel with the same title. I would not want to talk about what Witek accuses „Film” reviewer of, because it can be read on „Esensja” pages. I would rather draw attention on some sentences from this text which provoke reflection. At first, Witek brings up the issue of writing about pop culture by people, who do not know it but also treat it as second-class thing. He quotes from „Esensja’s” editor-in-chief, Konrad Wągrowski, who in one of his feature articles wrote: „rubbish about the popular cinema is still rubbish and it is also as absolute as rubbish about the artistic cinema. It also deprecates the author.” Amen to that! Times when we could laugh, complain or ignore pop culture passed. Nowadays it is difficult not to see it influences other cultural circles. The division into high culture and pop culture is anachronistic and calling high culture „so-called culture” shows its fragility. More and more works on subjects connected with pop culture are coming into being, discussions are organized, pop culture is in cultural and artistic magazines. It is a part of our lives, and we are a part of this culture. Another sentence which interested me concerns the fact that probably critic from „Film” will not read this polemical article of Kamil Witek. And it seemed sad to me. Obviously, he is not obliged to keep up with everything which appears on the Internet. What is more, I am sure that reviewers do not read their colleagues’ articles, but I can feel misery in „Esensja” author’s confession. It is like web magazines were stuck in some kind of niche, doomed to decrease in interest, like apart from a handful of fans, nobody reads them (and definitely not critics from magazines published on paper). I hope it will change. I hope that we will all be eager to read web magazines and that the Internet will offer not only news of one-day usefulness, gossips and reviews based on press-rubbish from distributors and publishers, but also interesting and quality texts. In short, I hope that we could hunt down something big!
Agnieszka Kozłowska
Translated by Karolina Klica
Discussed journals: Esensja