Impact of Media in Socialization, Research Paper Example

The media has played such a large role on socialization for many, many years. It plays a role in the socialization of children, adolescents, and even adults. All forms of media portray a certain type of persona for each of these sets of individuals. Sometimes the media can portray positive things to these individuals, but media also has the tendency to portray positive things if given the chance. The concerns of parents, teachers, and professionals in relation to mass media and socialization issues is not new. These concerns have been around as long as people have been able to write, read, and listen. “Increases in research have accompanied increases in concerns, and the outcomes of even the very early research tended to validate society’s concerns” (Dubow, Huesmann, and Greenwood, 2006, p. 404). Socialization is a touchy subject for some as many believe that there are things that play positive roles on socialization and things that play negative roles. Persell (1990) states the following to define the idea of socialization in the early years:

In the early years of American sociology, socialization was equated with civilization. The issue was one of taming fierce individualists so they would willingly cooperate with others on common endeavors. An unruly human nature was assumed to exist prior to an individual’s encounter with society. This nature had to be shaped to conform to socially acceptable ways of behaving (p. 98).

That is just the key to socialization. If one retreats from acceptable ways of behaving, he or she is considered someone who is being impacted by something or someone. Most of the time, this is the media. However, things have changed since those early days of civilization to some extent. There are ways in which media impacts the socialization of children and youth, child violence, and gender roles just to name a few.

The impacts of media on the socialization of our children and youth are of utmost concern in our world today. We have more forms of media to be concerned with such as the television,video games, the internet, radio, photography,and art.. Many parents want to shelter their children from these forms of media because they are afraid of what these will do to their children. According to Dubow et al (2006), youth watch more television at younger ages than they do as they get older. They explain this in the following quote:

There are strong age-related viewing trends (Comstock & Paik, 1991) with viewing hours peaking at age 11-13 and declining slightly thereafter. Twelve-year-olds average about 28 hours per week of viewing, and 25% of 12-year-olds watch 40 or more hours per week… On a typical day, 59% of infants (ages 0-2 years) and 73% of 0- to 6 year-olds watch TV (p. 405).

These numbers are astronomical and many would be able to see why television is such an influential piece of media on a child’s mind. Children are now exposed to so much more by the use of the television and socialize based on the things they watch and the things they see. Video games are another source of media that impact socialization. They are a key factor in 83% of homes and many children spend more than a half hour a day playing them (Dubow et al., 2006). Most importantly, “action, adventure, and sports games were the most popular choices, with role-play games increasing in interest for the 14-18-year-olds” (Dubow et al., 2006, p. 406). The more children play these video games, the more likely they are liable to socialize themselves with the characters in the games. Many believe that this is what causes children to be so violent; however, that will be discussed later. Also, computers and online access are other forms of media that impact socialization in our world today. More and more children and young adults spend time on the Internet and on computers than ever before. Youth can be influenced severely by the use of the Internet these days and socialization takes a toll on this. Many youth socialize even through the media these days and sometimes that is even their only form of socialization to some. The biggest problem with some of these forms of media is what they take away from the children that pursue so much time wanting and needing them in their lives; these are the biggest of parent’s concerns. Dubow states this quite nicely in the following paragraph:

Many have investigated what activities diminish when children devote more and more time to the mass media (Comstock & Paik, 1991). The overarching principle to describe what happens has been called the replacement of “functionally similar” activities. As children watch more television, their reading time, study time, and library time, for example, all decrease, where this is little change in their time spent in sports and socialization (Comstock & Paik, 1991). In other words, the mass media substitutes for what might be called functionally similar activities (p. 407).

In this aspect, a child’s socialization abilities are hindered or decrease due to the mass media. However, that is not all that the mass media does to these children. Many believe that it creates violence in children.

Many parents and researchers believe that many forms of social media such as video games, music and television create violence in children due to the aggression that they experience while playing, listening to, and watching these forms of media. For definition purposes, L. Rowell Huesmann (2007) states that “most researchers define media violence as visual portrayals of acts of physical aggression by one human or human-like character against another” (p. 2). The video games, music and television are not what cause the violent behavior, but the learning from these forms of media is what causes it. The long-term effects explain this a little more simply as it is clear that these affect the brain and how it receives specific information. Huessman (2007) states the following to explain this: “long term content effects, on the other hand, seem to be due to 1) more lasting observational learning of cognition and behaviors (i.e., imitation of behaviors), and 2) activation and desensitization of emotional processes” (p. 3). In addition to video games and television, music is a form of mass media that tends to create aggression in children. According to the editor of the book Violent Children, Bryan J. Grapes (2000), the words used in gangsta rap create the glamorization of violence in these children. For instance, “several students verified that the theme and message of this music is that killing and being on death row are cool” (B. Grapes (ED), 2000, p. 10). Their socialization with this type of media creates in them a specific aggression or rage that makes them believe that the lyrics are necessary for them to be cool. It is important to note that media violence harms children in more ways than one. It causes them to be antisocial and damages their social and psychological development. The chapter “Media Violence Harms Children” in the book Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints states the following to emphasize this:

Media violence contributes to the youth crime rate by providing encouragement and instruction in antisocial and violent behavior. Media company executives, she concludes, are failing to meet their social responsibility to provide America’s youth with a healthy culture (Dudley, W. (ED), 1999, p. 28).

The more we allow our children to socialize themselves with the mass media, the more the aggression will become part of their social, psychological and cognitive development. However, media violence is not the only thing that impacts the socialization of children these days. Another thing that the media does is impact how youth view gender roles.

The article entitled “Examining Media’s Socialization of Gender Roles” by the Huffington Post defines gender roles by stating that “gender roles” (sometimes called “sex roles”) include the set of socially defined roles and behaviors assigned to the sex assigned to us at birth” (n.p.). Our society distinguishes gender roles on an everyday basis and much of the television, photography, art, and music that youth entertain themselves with on a daily basis skews their socialization skills. It also makes them view men and women as objects rather than people. They are more concerned with looks and how a person is perceived rather than who the person is or what they are like. Many forms of mass media inform youth that a male should be masculine and a female should be feminine. The worst part about this is that stereotypes come into play. In addition, women are looked at as objects in many forms including sexually. Men are looked at as the providers, the masculine and strong individuals that they are perceived to be based on socialization. However, this is not always the case. Many females play many different roles as do males, but the media tends to skew society’s ideas of what these gender roles entail.

In conclusion, the impact of mass media on socialization is extreme. More and more children are becoming antisocial, learning violence, and accepting specific gender roles based on the things that the mass media portray throughout its distribution. The mass media has an effect on children and young adults that many other things are not able to accomplish in life. The more positive influences that mass media has on youth, the more likely youth are going to be able to learn to socialize in positive ways. However, there is much to consider and much to be accomplished before this is to ever happen.

References

Dubow, E., Huesmann, L. R., & Greenwood, D. (2006). Media and youth socialization: Underlying processes and moderators of effects. Retrieved from http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/aggr/articles/Huesmann/2006.Dubow_etal.Media&YouthSocialization.inHandbkofSocialization.pdf

Examining media’s socialization of gender roles. (2013, August 08). Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-j-blumenfeld/examining-medias-socializ_b_3721982.html

Huesmann, L. R. (2007). The impact of electronic media violence: Scientific theory and research. National Institute of Health, 41(6), 2-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.09.005

Media violence harms children. In (1999). Dudley, W. (Ed.), Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc.

Persell, C. H. (1990). Becoming a member of society through socialization. (3rd Ed.). New York: NY: Harper & Row, Publishers Inc. Retrieved from http://www.asanet.org/introtosociology/Documents/PersellSocializationReading37.htm

Violent song lyrics encourage aggressive behavior in children. In (2000). B. Grapes (Ed.), Violent Children, San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc.