The Media as an Agent in Socialization
According to the reading, “Socialization and Culture” from the book
“Interdisciplinary English” by Loretta F. Kasper, socialization is the
process in which a child learns how to behave in life and participate
in a group in society. Socialization has four basic agents: family,
school, peers and the mass media. Each one of these agents plays a
role in our lives. However, in my opinion, the most important agent of
socialization for the development of the child is the mass media.
The Mass Media are the different processes that facilitate
communication between the sender of a message and the receiver of that
message. It plays an important role in the socialization of children.
In fact, there are many types of media; these include newspapers,
magazines, radio, films, CDs, Internet, and television. These kinds of
media, especially television, affect children’s and adult’s behavior
in different ways. According to the article, “Socialization: From
Infancy to Old Age”, “The average family in the United States has at
least one television turned on for at least seven hours a day.”
Television is the biggest mass media in this country and has positive
and negative aspects.
There are
some programs which are very helpful with lots of information for the
children. For example; on channel thirty-three, there is a good
program called “Dora the explorer”. Children can learn to speak
Spanish and also do things such as singing, standing up and
pronouncing words in English. On the same channel, there is also a
program called “Blue’s Clues”. In this program, children learn how to
think, sing and discover clues. When children watch these programs,
they are not the same people anymore because they can become more
The effect of television on children’s behavior is a topic that has continued to evoke interest in psychologists. In the investigations educators suggest that television has replaced other forms of socialization such as school and family, reason being that children spend more time in watching television as compared to time spent in school.
When it comes to mass media there is no personal contact between us and the people send the information. Out of all the mass media television has the most influence on socialization because just about everyone has one or more televisions in their home. There is a lot of violence in our media now a day which can have an adverse effect on people. For example children see violence on television and they might think its ok, they might show aggressive behavior towards others because they learned this from television. The agents of socialization thus have a very profound effect on our personal and conceptual development. They help us interact and communicate with society and also to understand our social roles. However, the impact these agents have on our lives, and consequently on society, also depends largely on the parameters of time and space. For instance, these agents, though performing similar functions worldwide, may have contradicting impact on the mindset of the people of a country at war, as opposed to the one at peace (Baxamusa, B. (2012, November 22). Agents of
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
The powerful media is considered a leading influence in our society both directly and indirectly. Media is available and readily accessible today more easily than ever. Printed materials, television, sound recordings, internet, and radio all fall under the umbrella of the big bad – or seemingly bad word – media. Is media bad? How is it controlled? And where does this all stem from…? These are some of the major concerns parents are faced with in raising children in today’s times.
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
Research showed that children by the age of sixteen, have spent more time and energy watching the TV than going to school. (Levine & Munsch, 2011). Television is perhaps the most significant form of media in shaping ideas of culture. The bias and stereotypes behaviors and attitudes about a culture that television portrays in films and advertisement affect the children perception. Research has shown that pre-school children spend an average of thirty hours per week watching television. Therefore, it is not surprising that children gain particular perception and ideas from this television experience concerning different cultures (Levine & Munsch , 2011).
Of the various social and cultural forces in our society, the mass media is arguably the most influential in molding public consciousness. Americans spend an average twenty-eight hours per week watching television. They also spend an undetermined number of hours reading periodicals, listening to the radio, and going to the movies (Gregory Mantsios, 386). These form of entertainment promote products, moods, attitudes, beauty ideals, and all that is considered important. Media has become a dynamic influence on our distorted perception of our bodies, minds, and spirits. The constant exposure of media portrayals is a significant force in modern culture. Individuals are frequently being bombarded with images and messages from media sources such as TV, Billboards, and Magazines instructing them on what it means to be and feel inclusive to our society. Socialization based upon influential portrayals of media can lead to misinformation that contributes to racism, sexism, and class oppression (Affects of Media on Society Research Paper). A major concern for society, today, is that media controls the vast amount of our daily lives. Within this research paper, I critically examine the influence media has had within our society and demonstrate the importance in recognizing how everyday media transmit ideologies that oppress certain populations while privileging others.
Television allows the viewer to leave their everyday life and enter into a world full of fun, adventure, and even love. Television is now used by many children for educational purposes. Everyone has seen at least a little of Barney, a show that helps kids learn the alphabet and many life lessons as well. There are now tens if not hundreds of shows that are like Barney broadcast all over the world. These shows help a child develop the social skills that one needs at such a young age. Television can be argued to have brought families together. It may not be good that dinner is served in front of the television every so often, but at least the family is together. In this world of fast paced activity, it is hard to find a family that actually sits down to dinner more than once a week. Television is arguably the best form of media and current information that can be found. Everyday of the week, 24 hours a day a person can find current news b...
Most people’s lives in the 21 century are in some way affected by media and it is affecting the way individuals preform daily tasks. Television shows are a great example of this; they show the development of characters over a period and display how greater social forces shape what they have become. C. Wright mills uses a term the sociological imagination, it is the theory that people’s lives are shaped essentially by greater social forces and society’s expectations rather than biology and genetics. The show Modern Family is a good example of the sociological imagination because it has a diverse cast and the characters have many personalities, wants, and desires. Modern Family is a television show that has stories of separate individual families who are related. Claire and Mitch are siblings and Jay is their father. The families are Claire, Phil, Alex, Hailey and Luke. Mitch, Cam and Lilly and Jay, Gloria and Mani.
Many people don’t believe that viewing some violent acts in the media doesn't really influence the way a person acts. Children learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors by themselves, which are greatly influenced by the media (Clark 1). Children learn very easily. They spend many of their free time in front of the T.V. Parents tend to use T.V. as a babysitter for kids. Televisions are colorful and fun! Most human are drawn into the mysterious world of the media, starting since they were a little baby. "When television debut in the 1990's, two-third of television sets were owned by families with children less than twelve years of age". Children are theoretically more susceptible to behavioral
It's clear to see the media focuses on various reports, television shows, and even sitcoms regarding all forms of psychology. While watching television one can say media basically relies on psychology. The media of psychology views psychology through means of common sense versus an actual science. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processed. Behavior is anything you do that can be observed. In the media we can observe people through the television screen. Through our observations we learn from their behavior. For example in a famous experiment conducted by Albert Bandura called, "Bobo Doll Experiment," a preschool child is working on a drawing. An adult in another part of the room is building with Tinkertoys. The child is watching this adult through a television screen and watches as the adult gets up and for nearly ten minutes pounds, kicks, and throws around the room a large inflated Bobo doll, while yelling hurtful sayings such as, "Sock him in the nose" or "Hit him down" and even "Kick him". After the adult was done, the child was taken to another room and demonstrated the same actions as they have seen through the television screen to the Bobo Doll. It's clear to see from the experiment the media teaches society many aspects of psychology. From a psychological aspect we see a child observing violent behavior from what the media has presented. Humans learn through observation and in a world where technology is advancing, the media plays a large role.
The increasing popularity of television and the internet has allowed the mass media to influence its users, especially the juvenile population. As stated in Media Violence and Youth, “99% of homes in America have at least one television giving children the opportunity to view unsupervised television” (Beresin, 1999). Bradley Okdie reported that the average person spent over 3,515 hours using media in 2012 (Okdie, et al. 2014). A study done by Friedrich and Stein found that “the average 2-5 year-old views about 28 hours per week of television”, while Lyle and Hoffman found that “by the age of three, three-quarters of the children can name their favorite television program” (Meltzoff, 1988). With ratings as the driving force of the mass media,
In this paper I will discuss the results I found on How media affects socialization about gender roles. The way the media affects gender socialization is by showering individuals with ideas and images of what men and women are supposed to act and be in society. Since there are several types of media in today’s world breaking down each media source and how they have an affect on gender socialization. To name the different types of media that I will be talking about throughout this paper is print media, which consists of newspaper and magazines, electronic media, which consists of different type of things that viewed on television, video games, and radio. I will also discuss which one of these medias has the biggest impact on gender roles in
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.