Socialization is the process in which a child learns how to behave in life and participate in a group in society.

- Socialization and Culture from the book Interdisciplinary English by Loretta F. Kasper

Mass Media is a significant force in modern culture. Sociologists refer to this as a mediated culture where media reflects and creates the culture.
-CliffsNotes.com

Mass Media - Forms of communication designed to reach a vast audience without any personal contact between the senders and receivers.
Definition
-socialsciencedictionary.com

Mass Media
0 Communication designed to reach the general population. 0 Examples: T.V., magazines, news papers, radio, movies, internet, tapes, discs 0 Images of achievement and success, activity and work, equality and democracy

Influence of Media
0 By the age of 20 you will have seen 1 million commercial messages. 0 You will spend and entire year of your life watching TV. 0 By age sixteen the average American will have seen 20,000 homicides on TV. 0 Is data out-dated?

Three Main Sociological Perspectives on the Role of Media.

What role does mass media play?

The limited-effects theory argues that because people generally choose what to watch or read based on what they already believe, media exerts a negligible influence.
-CliffsNotes.com

This theory originated and was tested in the 1940s and 1950s.
-the ability of media to influence voting

Criticisms
0 -It ignores the media's role in framing and limiting the discussion and debate of issues. 0 This theory came into existence when the availability and dominance of media was far less widespread.

The class-dominant theory argues that the media reflects and projects the view of a minority elite, which controls it.
-CliffsNotes.com

0 Elites own and control the corporations that produce media. 0 When ownership [of media corporations] is restricted, a few people have the ability to manipulate what can people hear and see.

0 Advertising dollars fund most media. 0 News organizations may shy away from negative stories about corporations (especially parent corporations) that finance large advertising campaigns in their newspaper or on their stations.

Criticisms
0 Critics say that local control of news media largely lies beyond the reach of large corporate offices elsewhere, and that the quality of news depends upon good journalists. 0 They contend that those less powerful and not in control of media have often received full media coverage and subsequent support.

Criticisms
0 While most people argue that a corporate elite controls media, a variation on this approach argues that a politically liberal elite controls media. 0 Journalists, being more highly educated than the general population, hold more liberal political views, and consider themselves left of center.

Criticisms
0 Predominantly conservative political issues have yet to gain prominent media attention, or have been opposed by the media.

The culturalist theory combines the other two theories and claims that people interact with media to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive.
-CliffsNotes.com

Culturalist Theory
0 Sees audiences as playing an active rather than passive role in relation to mass media. 0 Focuses on the audiences and how they interact with media. 0 Focuses on those who produce the media, particularly the news.

Culturalist Theory

0 Audiences can choose: - what to watch among a wide range of options, - how much to watch, - click the mute button over the programming selected by the network or cable station.

Culturalist Theory

0 When people approach material, whether written text or media images and messages, they interpret that material based on their knowledge, experience, age, gender, ethnicity, and religious background.

Culturalist theorists claim that while a few elite in large corporations may exert significant control over what information media produces and distributes, personal perspective plays a more powerful role in how the audience members interpret those messages.
-CliffsNotes.com

Views and Influence of Mass Media on Socialization

Three Major Perspectives in Sociology

Three Major Perspectives in Sociology

Sociological Perspectives

Sociological Perspective 1. Symbolic Interactionism 2. Functionalism

Level of Analysis Micro Macro

Focus Use of symbols; Face-toface interactions Relationship between the parts of society; How aspects of society are functional (adaptive) Competition for scarce resources; How the elite control the poor and weak

3. Conflict Theory

Macro

Functionalist
View on Socialization
- Stresses how socialization contributes to a stable society

Influence on Socialization
-Network programs encourage social integration by exposing the entire society to shared beliefs, values, and norms

Conflict
View on Socialization
-Socialization is a way for the powerful to keep things the same

Influence on Socialization
-Newspapers owners and editors exercise power by setting the political agenda for a community

Symbolic Interaction
View on Socialization
-Socialization is the major determinant of human nature

Influence on Socialization
-Through words, pictures, children s book we expose the young to the meaning of manners, love, parenthood

Sources
CliffsNotes.com. Three Major Perspectives in Sociology. 29 Jan 2012 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArti cleId-26957,articleId-26837.html CliffsNotes.com. The Role and Influence of Mass Media. 29 Jan 2012 <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArticleId -26957,articleId-26946.html>. SlideShare.net. Socialization and Mass Media. 29 Jan 2012 http://www.slideshare.net/Jackson/socialization-andmass-media