Mass Communication and Socialization Process: Bangladesh Perspective

Introduction
Socialization is a process across the life span through which individuals acquire and interact
with the values and social standards of a specific society and culture. Media are considered a
powerful agent of socialization, responsible for shaping an individual’s socialization process.
Mass media, as a significant agent of socialization, have enormous effects on our attitudes, and
behavior which makes it an important contributor to the socialization process. Many people
think that the media does not play a role in the socialization process as much as family, peers,
and education. But in fact, the media plays a strong role in the socialization process.

The amount of impact each agent has on an individual depends on the individual’s stage of life,
personality, and experiences. Socialization is about becoming a member of society and is
characterized by milieus, psychosocial developmental tasks, societal adaptation processes, and
they wish to belong to one or several specific social groups. Ultimately, socialization processes
take time: repeated exposure to specific social standards, rules, and values is required before
these become individually engrained.

Bangladesh is currently in a condition of media development. Countless individuals here rely

upon papers and communication media for diversion. Be that as it may, the media likewise has
a significant job in socialization: Students from rural territories can take exercise from viewing
certain TV programs. They additionally can get familiar with plenty of things tuning in to the
radio. Furthermore, pretty much every national day by day, both Bangla and English, has its
training page; they distributed both institutional and general information-based reports for
understudies. This article endeavored to investigate the job or effect of mass media in
improving the socialization procedure in Bangladesh.

Mass Communication

Mass communication is a process of transmitting to a large number of scattered audiences.

Mass communication is done through radio, television, newspaper, magazine, etc.
According to Metha,

“Mass communication is concerned with transmitting information, thoughts, and opinions,

entertainments, etc. At a time to a large number of heterogeneous audiences.”

According to R.P Molo,

“Mass communication is a process through which an individual, organization, or govt.

communicates with the general people.”[ CITATION Stu \l 1033 ]

Process of Mass Communication

The process of mass communication figure is represented below-

Socialization

Socialization is a process with the help of which a living organism is changed into a social being.
It is a process through which the younger generation learns the adult role which it has to play
subsequently.

According to MacIver,

“Socialization is the process by which social beings establish wider and profound relationships
with one another, in which they become more bound up with, and perceptive of the personality
of themselves and others and build up the complex structure of the nearer and wider
association.”

According to Ogburn,

“Socialization is the process by which the individual learns to conform to the norms of the
group.” Ross defined socialization as “the development of we feeling in associates and their
growth in capacity and will to act together.”[ CITATION vkm \l 1033 ]

Socialization as Media Effect in Bangladesh

Media socialization is mostly an implicit learning and cultivation process. Media—as well as
conditioning by family, peers, and cultural context—allow for observational learning, which is a
process of encoding lasting behavioral scripts and cognitions simply as a consequence of
observing others. The role of media in socialization processes in Bangladesh is hardly
quantifiable, as it depends on the interplay of a wide range of influences such as content,
context, family, peers, personality, motivation, educational and cultural background. Let us
closely analyze the impacts of mass media in the socialization process on Bangladeshi society-

 Television

Television is a tool where a child fits in the best way during a certain time, and the television
little by little takes time from other activities, that could be quite necessary for a child.
Television unequivocally has positive and negative influences on young children. Television is a
media that has more impact on people's lives. In Bangladesh, the time that children spend in
front of screens is greater than the time they spend in school. The impact of television on
children depends on many factors, such as the number of hours spent in front of the small
screen, their age, their personality, the fact of watching TV alone or with adult and finally the
discussion they do or not with their parents about the content of what they have seen. in
today's families, parents want to meet every desire of their children, and so they leave them for
a long time in front of the television. Children are being, that if they want to watch something,
they want to possess it.

For example, In the cases of developing countries, like Bangladesh, implementation of

education fully depends on the appropriate use of broadcasting media technology. And the
government as well as private organizations are using television for meeting these demands. A
significant result has already been achieved in the field of mass education of Bangladesh by
using broadcasting media. All the TV channels present various educational programs for the
students. These programs have become very popular in the country. [ CITATION dig \l 1033 ]

 Print Media

The media play a dominant role in the lives of young people. Comprehensive media presence
and mediatization of society primarily affect the formation of their identity. Being aware of the
role of the media, young people need to have some skill or what is called media competence.
Here enters knowledge and ways of using technical means and media language and the ability
to make distinctions between different media.

Print media in our country is very powerful. People, especially, the students read newspapers
for learning different aspects of life, art, culture, and science of both home and abroad.
Almost every newspaper has its education page. On the page, they published educational
articles written by teachers, trainers, students, and experts. It also publishes different difficult
explanations, questions, and answers of secondary and higher secondary levels. Some English
dailies publish the techniques of teaching English language and grammar, while some scientific
magazines scientific explanations and new inventions. Some dailies publish 'weekly magazines',
which focuses mainly on higher education. Besides, they publish the prospectus of different
educational institutions. [ CITATION The1 \l 1033 ]

 Social Media

Social media provide the opportunity for people to recommunicate with their old school or
college or university friends, making new friends, sharing post and pictures and so many other
activities. Users can communicate locally or globally. They can share personal opinions. One
user communicates to other global friends when they know about culture in society. Students
can participate with their peers to improve their academic proficiency and communication
skills. So, the interaction between the students and teachers are good. Suppose we face one
problem in late-night then we knock to others via social networks, they can have suggested to
some few possible solutions. Several users use social networks for different purposes. LinkedIn
is used for creating to enhance a professional's career and business purpose. In Bangladesh,
using social networking sites increasing tremendously. Every day a lot of new users open an
account on social networking sites. [ CITATION ivy \l 1033 ] There are few positive and negative
impacts on social media in socialization that are as follows-

 Promoting and aid communication

 Sharing knowledge and e-learning
 Effect on child and teenager
 Damaging mental & physical health
  Losing revenue via illegal use of social networking sites
 Losing privacy when sharing or status on personal information
 Effects on relationships via social networking sites

Figure: Impact of Social Media on Socialization in Bangladesh

Source: Internetlivestats.com

Conclusion

TV, press, the Internet, and other media are evaluated to majorly affect the improvement of
human character and their process of socialization. With the hint of current broad
communications, Bangladesh is getting digitalized step by step. Thus, the general public of
Bangladesh is quickly evolving. As it clear to everyone that without online life or broad
communications digitalization is beyond the realm of imagination in any way. Along these lines,
the standard key is to work continually with individuals. The phenomenon of socialization
shows that the individual is associated with the duration of life. The more society develops, the
free and more democratic it is, the better people will socialize. If anybody needs to change
society, he should persuade individuals for the prevalence of its thoughts, he may make
conviction and trust in them. Such a job alongside numerous different operators is played by
the media. On the off chance that they will be free and popularity based, the target will be to
reflect social reality. In this setting better orientate people in the future to be better situated in
the following life.

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