what exactly are we talking about when we talk about mass media
well we're talking about the dissemination of information or how
information is transmitted within a culture and this can include print media
like books newspapers magazines as well as digital media like TV movies radio
and the internet exactly how this media is consumed changes across cultures &
age groups for example my grandmother gets a lot of her information about
current events through TV and newspapers but I primarily get this information
online and when we look at mass media we can look at the role it plays in our
society through different sociological perspectives so according to the
functionalist view one of the most important functions of mass media is to
provide entertainment so it's meant to occupy our leisure time but the
functionalist you also says that mass media can also act as an agent of
socialization and enforcer of social norms it presents a standardized view of
society and provides a collective experience for members of that society
think about the shared experience of watching the olympics on television or
being with a group of people to see a movie on opening night mass media also
functions to bring people together and their entire internet based communities
that are focused on things like LGBT rights or childcare for fans of music
groups that sing songs about harry potter but that's mean you can also tell
us about what society expects of us through what it rewards and punishes so
when we hear something about criminal behavior from the mass media it is often
talked about in terms of bringing criminals to justice which reinforces
the idea that criminal behaviors are bad and should be avoided
however the media can sometimes also glorified behaviors that society as a
whole would deem to be wrong things like intense physical violence mass media
also functions as a promoter of consumer culture at the turn of the century the
average u.s. childs had 20,000 commercials a year on TV and that
doesn't include ads on the way or billboards or science in front of stores
announcing fifty percent of sales and it's only increased from there and it's
not necessarily clear what kind
an impact this might have on the next generation the conflict view focuses on
how the media reflects and portrays and may even exacerbate divisions that
exists within our society like divisions based on race ethnicity gender or social
class conflict there uses the term date keeping to describe the process by which
a small number of people and corporations control what material is
being presented on the media it describes how information so the things
that appear in our newspapers the stories that are made into movies
what TV shows are turned into pilots it describes how these things move through
a series of gates before they can reach the public in some countries this might
be controlled primarily by the government but for others it's decided
primarily by large immediate corporations gatekeeping can also have
more of an effect on some media than others for example a lot of control is
put on what big-budget movies are made but there's very little overhead control
of what gets posted online the conflict theory also describes how mass media
often reflects the dominant ideology giving time in space or privileges
certain social economical and political interests while sometimes actively
limiting other views the people who make the choices about what media is produced
the gatekeepers are predominantly white male and wealthy and as a result stories
representing the views of racial minority groups women LGBT individuals
and working-class people are typically under represented and because of this
divided for trails minority groups can often be stereotyped or guided by
unrealistic generalizations about a certain group of people and while some
corporations have taken the steps to try to improve this they sometimes taken the
wrong direction which results in tokenism instead of actual diversity or
cases where a single minority members added to a TV show or movie as a
stand-in for that entire group feminist theories understanding of mass media is
similar to what we would see in conflict theory and then it also holds that mass
media stereotypes and misrepresent society towards the dominant eye
geology specifically it focuses on the way that messages about men and women
are represented in the media and notice that women are often under represented
in media content that men are often considered normal while women are
considered to be other think about ads for products we have razors and razors
for women pens and pens for her depictions of men and women are often
highly stereotyped and forcing freak gender roles and emphasizing traditional
sex roles so women are more often portrayed as victims and Men as
aggressors and women are much more likely to be depicted a shallower being
obsessed with looks which also makes it more likely that they'll be sexualized
and objectified the interactions perspective looks at mass media on the
micro-level to see how it shapes day-to-day behavior
it looks at how mass media blurs the line between solitary and group
activities so think of the act of seeing a movie you may be watching it with
other people but because of societal norms or even theater rules you are
actually forbidden from talking about the movie with the people you're with
it also looks at the fact that how we connect with other people using media
tends to change over time so whereas before I might have called my
grandparents to keep in touch with them now I can talk with them via email or
even text message the rate at which people meet romantic partners online has
also increased which is something that probably would have seen very confusing
to just a few generations before ours