The perception of acting among people up to 35 years old

Abstract

Aim. The aim of the study was to examine how young people below 35, perceive acting — understood as artistic activities undertaken by artists while acting in a film, theater or television.

Method. A questionnaire was constructed in which Osgood's semantic differential (1952) was used. In relation to each of the 20 bipolar scales, the respondents decided which of the opposing pairs of terms better describes acting. Respondents defined their attitude to the given statements by selecting one of the numerical values on a six-point Likert scale.

Results. The dimensions that obtained the highest agreement among the respondents were: creative - imitative, carefree - stressful, accessible to some few - available to everyone, easy - hard, boring - interesting, artistic - craft, ordinary - unique, socially significant - socially irrelevant. More than 50% of the respondents believed that acting is better or much better described by terms such as: creative, stressful, accessible to some few, hard, interesting, artistic, unique, socially significant. Other dimensions were characterized by a greater divergence of results.

Conclusions. Nowadays, the culture, in which mass media such as television and streaming platforms are widely present, creates new spaces for acting. Among the studies on acting in Poland, there is no data that would show what social status the work of actresses and actors currently has. The study presented here is the first attempt to discover and present the image of acting work among young people living in Poland.