Jessica Zammett (FGCU): Media’s Role

Obviously, the media has a very big role in socialization. Between television, magazines, radio, newspapers, and tabloids, the media use their techniques to manipulate the public, and use skills that appeal to certain age groups, such as teenagers. Commercials can display the newest iPod, or the most high-tech cell phone. As people buy these products, then others jump on the bandwagon and think “everyone else has one, I’ve gotta get one too”, just until something better comes out. And then they go crazy for that product too.

I think that the media can sometimes be a very powerful agent, but I think that some people give the media more credit than it’s due. By this, I mean that I think the media has a power on the general public, to a certain extent. I don’t believe that the media and their influence could really sway someone away from their personal and moral beliefs. For example, if someone sees a violent scene in a movie with shooting guns, I don’t think that someone would say, “That was cool! Now I need to go out and shoot something!” Seeing a scene from a movie is not going to influence me in that kind of way…I still know what is right and what is wrong. Companies use commercials on television in order to get word of their product out into the public. And I’m sure that everyone’s gone out to the store, at one time or another, and picked up something that they saw a funny commerical for. Even if the product is as small as a bag of chips.

The media use very smart marketing techniques and skills in order to appeal to consumers. But sometimes, I think people believe that the media brings more damage to society than it actually does.

This entry was posted on 26. April 2009 at 04:15 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.