Our Socialization Process is Assumed through the Media

Our Socialization Process is Assumed through the Media

In America, women are known as the breadwinners of the family. They go off to work in the morning while their husbands spend the day cleaning and cooking, some may even have a part-time job. Employed or not, the husband always makes sure their woman is fed after a hard days work. Do these statements sound ridiculous to you as an American? Are they even feasible? Not in this country, here things are the complete opposite. How do we know that? Because we have been socialized since day one of our existence to believe in gender separation, as well as all other aspects of American society. So who does this to us? Family, friends, schools, and churches are a few. However, in this day in age, a lot of our socialization process is assumed through the media. Commercials, cartoons, printed words, spoken words, pictures, movies and videos are all part of that socializing agent: the media.(Davis & Pallodino,1997)

As an adult you have more of a choice in whether or not to believe what you see and hear. As a child though, you do not. "…if an audience is naïve and unaware that the message is intended to persuade…the message is more likely to succeed." (Davis & Pallodino,1997) The minds of children are like blank slates just waiting to be permeated with the ways of the world. A way in which this process works is vicarious learning. This is a method "whereby people acquire new…attitudes and corresponding behaviors through observation rather than through direct experience… (Cafferata & Tybout,1989) Children are constantly subjected, therefore socialized, by the media, that they are unable to form their own opinions and biases to attach to their cle...

... middle of paper ...

...e feelings. The effect of this classical conditioning is that viewers, who can now be considered potential consumers, will have consciously, or subconsciously acquired a more favorable brand. (Cafferata & Tybout,1989) In this instance, the latent effect is focused more on women, as they are thought to be the shoppers in the family.

By graduation, it is estimated that students will have watched 25,000 hours of television, and 356,000 commercials. (Davis & Pallodino,1997) All these hours result in learning through observation and conditioning. They, along with other agents, make us who we are. Advertisers and the media achieve their goal by sneaking into the viewers mind and showing things that are comfortable and familiar and they can especially invade the minds of children whose are completely innocent. Essentially, they have a job to do, and know how to do it.