Response Paper #3
Although I was sick in bed with a stomach virus this week, I was still able to be exposed to some definite media. On Friday I went to work, so I only listened to my IPod on the way to work. When I got to work, the only media I was exposed to was the internet. Then that night, I went out to the movies to see Straw Dogs. I came home and got into bed; my fiancé put on the TV to help us fall asleep and that was all. Then on Saturday, I ran errands with my fiancé. We had the radio on in the car, but we weren’t really paying attention to it. You could say that we were exposed to billboard advertisements more so. I then went over to my Mom’s house and ended up watching old episodes of Friends and Criminal Minds with her. I then went home and the same thing happened as the night before; my fiancé and I put on the TV to go to sleep and that was all.
All of this media around us socializes us as human beings by “showing” us what is “normal” and the right way to act and do things. This is the process of socialization. Without the outside influences of media, we would have no idea what was popular or likeable, and we would just look/act/do what we wanted to for ourselves. We begin socialization at our birth. We learn through our parents, family, media, friends, daily life, and everything else around us. This shapes who we are, what we believe, what we like, and what we do until we are old enough to decide for ourselves. Even then the influence of society still wears on us. Even advertisements tell us what we “should” buy and like. There is no escaping the influence of mass media on your daily life.
The norms and values of society are all connected within socialization. Norms are standards of behavior maintained by a society. They also “show” what are normal things and proper. Norms are widespread throughout a culture. Values are collective conceptions of what is considered “good” or “bad” within a society. These shape who are as a people. Many different cultures value different things. Example, we eat cows while other cultures the cow is the God and worshipped. Some may think what others believe is strange, but to every culture there are always norms and values.
These shows that I watched are about moral “goodness” and they reflect the values of society. Obviously a show like Criminal Minds is going to penalize robbers and murderers, and put the heroes on a pedestal. They portray these values of America. These should obviously be norms as well for our society, but there are always exceptions to every rule. The movie I saw also valued the hero; the bad guys lose out in the end. The same thing goes with the news; most of what you read is all negative about crime and whatnot.
Our culture really embraces and values the hero. Mass media really proves this time and time again; our culture does not like the bad guy. Socialization teaches us what laws there are, and how to properly behave in society. It is integrated into our lives from the minute we are born; it is something we can never escape. Without ever realizing it, we are exposed to thousands of ads a day. There is never a free moment from mass media.
No comments:
Post a Comment