Socialization plays in important part in the passing on of culture from generation to generation. It is defined as the lifelong process of social interaction through which we acquire a self-identity and the skills needed for survival. The agents of socialization provide the necessary social interactions to teach culture to individuals in a society. The four primary agents of socialization include parents, education, peers, and media. The most pervasive one, media, has a major role in teaching messages about the norms in culture. The purpose of this project was to observe the subtle messages that a TV series, like The Simpsons, send about gender, class, disability/ability, and age. In the episode, Dancin ' Homer, we observe the subtle messages …show more content…
Within the beginning of the episode, there are some subtle hints of ageism present. For example, there is a scene in which one of the older players attempts to throw a pitch only, but creates a weak throw. This prompts some of the characters to deem these players as "washed up", suggesting that they are not as good as they were when they were younger. Later on in the episode, it is mentioned that Homer has a chance to be a mascot for a major league team of a nearby city. He is initially concerned as he states that there is already a mascot for that team. The owner informs him that that mascot is getting too old for this position and a newer and better mascot must take his place. …show more content…
The episode begins with the introduction of the new computer coding teacher in the school, who is female. Immediately, the boys in the class dismiss her abilities to competently teach coding. She ultimately decides to belittle the coding abilities of the males of the class. However, when she notices Lisa as the sole female in the room she immediately gives her special attention. When Lisa ultimately decides to create a world-changing app, her teacher gives her utmost support by helping her create the app with the help of an almost all-female coding group. Here her teacher ultimately tells her the lesson of that the ability of a woman achieving any kind of success in a male-dominated field stems from the fact that she must be at least twice as good has a man would be, even if it means having to step on them in order to progress. Lisa makes the decision to go with her teachers ' idea, but it creates conflict when she ultimately decides to terminate the app. Her teacher begs her not to in order to show the world that girl coders can do extraordinary things and questions whether or not she 's tough enough to stand out. Lisa states that she is being tough, but in her own way and ultimately sticks to her own
The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
According to Poverty & Prejudice: Media and Race, co-authored by Yurii Horton, Raagen Price, and Eric Brown, the media sets the tone for the morals, values and images of our culture. Many whites in American society, some of whom have never encoun...
their culture. Television over the years has molded the minds of its viewers – young and
The Stickiness Factor says that the messenger matters, but so does the quality of that message. It needs, what Gladwell calls, “stickiness.” Gladwell explains how two children’s television shows started a social epidemic by using factors of “stickiness.” Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues used different m...
As a group, we believe that popular culture does in fact perpetuates stereotypes. Television is a main source of information of popular culture. Television has forever changed how humans have interacted with another and introduce a world of diversity and knowledge. But with this profit, television has also harbored negative aspects. As a group, we studied how racial stereotypes are portrayed in television. In the history of television, different racial and ethnic groups have been widely underrepresented and television itself has been overwhelming represented by white figures. And when racial groups are presented on TV, the characters are often played in limited roles based on stereotypes. A stereotype isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is an assumption based on an incomplete and complex ideas that are oversimplified into something that isn’t what it meant to be, and it’s usually negative. For example, African Americans are often depicted as violent or involved in some kind of criminal activity. Their characters often portrays a person who is always sassy and angry or that isn’t intelligent and won’t succeed in life and inferior to whites in some manner. Asian characters are
Dines, Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. Print.
Technology has become a ubiquitous presence in today’s society. Media plays a considerable role in influencing elementary aged students view on culture, acceptable behaviors, and gender roles. The two TV series, Jessie and Lab Rats are examples of popular shows that elementary students enjoy watching. Both shows target ages 9-16 and air on the popular Disney Channel. This paper will discuss the culture and stereotypes present in each of these shows.
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show, Everybody Hates Chris, season one, episode four entitled “Everybody Hates Sausage”, the stereotypes that continue to fuel racism are examined in a satirical motif, and class is presented in a comical way, but carries serious undertones which present a somewhat realistic view of the different social strata within the United States.
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
Rice (1990) found that parental mediation had a great impact on the message a child will take from a tv show. After observing children watch ‘sesame street’, he found that those watching it with a parent and later discussing the pro social message in the show were influenced more.
In their pieces on the Smurfette principle, Pollitt and Ellis both discuss the idea that gender representations have intense effects on the children who absorb certain types of popular entertainment. Although we are hesitant to accept it, we are all influenced by the media in a very powerful way. Whether it be through TV shows, billboards, movies or the news. One thing that we commonly wonder about is if the adult female population is as influenced by the stereotyped gender roles present on TV or are we shaped at a young age and carry that perspective with us throughout our lives. This Smurfette principle has been around for almost two decades. It was introduced by Katha Pollitt and is unfortunately still present in our current 21st century.
Given the existence of modern technology, individuals are immersed in the mass media now more than ever before. Media, especially television, is a source of entertain for adults, adolescents, and also young children. According to research, children reportedly spend approximately 2.5 hours a day watching television (Larson, 2001). However, there has been increasing awareness of the potentially problematic implicit messages that may be communicating to children through media consumption (Smolak & Murnen, 2001; Freeman, 2007; Levine & Murnen, 2009). Disney, one of the most successful establishments in the film industry with a target audience consisting mainly of children, should not exception to this scrutiny. Though a majority of its movies are
From a very early age, children experience many different stages of life until they become fully-functioning adults with distinguished personalities. Throughout each stage of a child’s life, different socialization agents play a pivotal role in his or her development and transition into adulthood. Throughout this essay, I will discuss what socialization is, as well as implying socialization in terms of the connection between biological development of the individual and individuals learning the norms and customs of society. Furthermore, to accomplish this task, I will describe the four key agents of socialization (family, school, peers, and mass media). I then aim for the audience to comprehend the difference between socialization during other