Agents of Socialisation : The Mass Media
In the present day, the media is incorporated into our daily lives. Every day, through newspapers, radio, television, email, the internet and social media, are we sucked into an electronic world, which changes many of our beliefs and values about how we live our lives. It plays such a large role in almost every person’s life compared to 50 years ago, when the internet did not exist. It effects things such as our political views, tastes in music, views of men, women, gay and coloured people. Media is very powerful in that it is accessible by almost every human being in the world. Over the decades, there has been a significant increase in the amount of technological advancements, especially in the way of mobile devices and computers. The mass media, being an agent of socialisation, means that it has a significant influence on our lives, primarily in the way we interact with each other and learn social and cultural behaviours from others.
Media is most powerful when the individual using the agent is young, and when it can educate, inform and change people’s opinions. The effectiveness can be very positive or very negative, for example, it can educate people of a social disaster and can bring people together. With things such as Facebook, where people can hide behind a computer screen and say nasty things to people, or pretend to be people they aren’t, it emits a negative vibe. However, Facebook can be used in an effective way, to
Due to rapid advances in technology and the effects of globalization we have facilitated the emergence of a media saturated world. While the media’s consistent presence has provided us with countless advantages, many negatives have also emerged.
Mass media is the technology through which people communicate. As the society changes, various aspects change including mass media communication. Traditionally, people used to communicate using various means like sending messengers. However, the way people send and receive messages has changed in the last century and the process has improved. (Turner, 2015). One can identify that various communities have changed communication techniques because of the options available. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the mass media development in the last century.
The evolution of mass media has affected our social institutions: family, religion, morality and education, on an unprecedented scale. For most of us in the American culture, the new forms of mass media are entwined with both of our personal and professional lifestyles. Understanding how the development of these forms of mass media has been and continues to influence our American culture is vital. It will help us appreciate the role media plays in our life and will also help us to be more informed as citizens, consumers, and employees. Barnett, 2004 noted that “The Internet is the decisive technology of the Information Age, and with the explosion of wireless communication in the early
In today’s society, media is present in our lives 24/7 allowing it to have a major influence on our culture in both positive and negative ways.
With the invention of the printing press, during the middle ages, media has become the driving force of our society. With the printing press, books and newspapers became readily available to the common folk. Although, many people were not able to read Latin during the time, the printing press soon paved the way to translated version of texts into common language. This was a huge factor in the enlightenment period, where people moved away from the church and began to use science in their lives. Today the media has grown to such an extent that it controls almost every aspect our lives.
Media has been changing drastically since its inception. While print was the main form of media for the longest time, when radio and television became major forms of media they brought something with them that words could not do. People who were tuning in to the radio and watching television were now exposed to marketing campaigns, visual violence, sexuality, suffering and relief, and the start of celebrity idolization. As technology expanded and matured, the electronic age began. Since that time mass media has multiplied exponentially, information can be accessed faster and faster, more and more information could be circulated and accessed. As well as information circulating, marketing
At the gym, there’s a TV with the news playing; in the tube there are now media players and screens streaming the day’s news; as society logs into their phones, their screens are immediately filled with stories and news feeds and other media. In today’s world, media is everywhere we go. This rise in media has led to media having a stronger hold on how society views the world around it.
According to our sociology book Our Social World Condensed it states, " Agents of socialization are the transmitters of culture the people, organizations, and institutions that help us define our identity and teach us how to thrive in our social world". Throughout all of our lives, we all at some point had a experiences from the media that has shaped the way think about our social world. For instance if you were to go into any type market there will be some form of a printed page that may contain news around your area. Many of these news articles may in fact influence a possibly reaction towards the reader. When I was in my pre teen I rememeber reading a printed news article that dealt with the past issue of Kony army. But this army was composed of young childeren
The article “Mass Over Mass Media” is written by Steven Pinker. Pinker is a professor in Psychology at Harvard University who focusses on visual cognation and psychology in language. He is well known for The Language Instinct & How the Mind Works. He was also listed as one of the most influential people out of 100 in the world. Also, he is known for his ongoing debate over how the internet has affected our world. Furthermore, author Steven Pinker, states his thesis in a peculiar way by stating that people often react in a rash way and make negative assumptions when it comes to inventions and their impacts. All forms of media have the power to draw a person in but that person must control themselves by using the information without abusing it. Consequently, social media and the internet have had a major impact on our daily lives from the way we work to the way we learn and socialize.
Socialization takes place every day as we interact with each other. It is “the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group” (Henslin p.71). This sociological concept is easily identifiably in the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation because they use religion as an agent of socialization. In this paper, I am going to cover how our textbook describes the use of religion as an agent of socialization, then I will apply this concept to meditation, and the function this ritual provides, and conclude with the pros and cons of using this sociological concept.
government. The policy of non-recognition is reinforced through this form of education because schools are a very important agent of socialization in the lives of the young. The information that they receive in school is often what they believe throughout their lives. It is because schools are such a crucial way in which whole generations are socialized, it can be said that the topic of the Armenian Genocide will remain taboo for as long as it is misrepresented in textbooks and in schools.
Media is always an alternative story. Media is no longer being a part of the culture, but it creates cultures. In "Convergence Culture", Jenkins’s claim that “when people take media into their hands, the results can be wonderfully creative; they can also be bad news for all involved” (para. 39). Indeed, media brought human so many benefits and profit. However, like what Jenkin said, they can be the problem for the society. For me, if put two sides of the media’s outcome in the balance it would always be equal. Due to the development of technology, from first black-white television to the smart phone with many functions. With the phone on hand, people can connect to everyone, watch, listen, and learn. So who would control our activities on
The media has always had a strong hold on community and social life. It allows information from each part of the world to travel within seconds, and it supports advancement in product recognition. From different types of food, to the consistent upgrades of technology, media promotes a sense of selfishness and pride on his hold on
Media influence is the force by which ideas are injected into people’s lives shaping the very culture of society. This influence is masqueraded through hidden media message, resulting in a change in its audience which can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short term or long term. Although mass media’s influential effect can reach a wide ranged audience as an agent of socialization the responsibility to contain what it releases has not been of importance. “The media’s socially significant obligations are formally ignored.” (A.S. Zapesotskii, 2011, p 9). Media messages can be exerted through many different outlets such as TV shows, music, movies, commercials, news, magazines, games which are all gravitated to entertain audiences ultimately offering personal gratification that can sometimes blur the lines between reality and
The worth of media is a very controversial topic. Media has given us the ability to do things in new and creative ways such as how we learn and accomplish our everyday tasks. However, we do not always know how to interpurate this information. The technology available today is constantly impacting and influencing society in tremendous ways. Many of the impacts that are accocated with media are addressed in negative ways, but can be seen from a positive perspective as well. In the current generation, media and its influences can be found everywhere. These influences widely impact today’s adolescents and maturing teenagers because they are still developing into adults. Medias purpose is not only to inform us, but to allow us to mold ourselves in how we want to be perceived online. Also, it allows us easy access to unbelievable amounts of information. Living in an era known as the “information age” is riveting, but what are we suppose to do with all of this new technology and information?