Theory of Mass Media and Socialization

Mass Media and Socialization (Theoretical perspective).
Theory on Mass media.
How mass media influence on socialization.

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Abstract
Human infants are born without any culture. They must be transformed by their
parents, teachers, and others into cultural and socially adept animals. The general
process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization. Socialization is known as the
process of inducting the individual into the social world. The term socialization refers to
the process of interaction through which the growing individual learns the habits,
attitudes, values and beliefs of the social group into which he has been born.
The influence of mass media has an effect on many aspects of the human life. This can
include: voting a certain way, individual views and beliefs, or even false information that
can skew a person's knowledge of a specific topic. Media is an ever-changing field and
is being critiqued now more than ever by the general public. The overall influence of
mass media has increased drastically over the years, and will continue to do so as the
media self improves. Media influence is the actual force exerted by a media message,
resulting in either a change or reinforcement in audience or individual beliefs. Media
effects are measurable effects that result from media influence or a media message.
Whether that media message has an effect on any of its audience members is
contingent on many factors, including audience demographics and psychological
characteristics. These effects can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short-term
or long-lasting. Not all effects result in change: some media messages reinforce an
existing belief. Researchers examine an audience after media exposure for changes in
cognition, belief systems, and attitudes, as well as emotional, physiological and
behavioral effects.
Introduction
Socialization is the process by which human infants begin to acquire the skills
necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society, and is the most
influential learning process one can experience. Unlike many other living species,
whose behavior is biologically set, humans need social experiences to learn their
culture and to survive. . Many scientists say socialization essentially represents the
whole process of learning throughout the life course and is a central influence on the
behavior, beliefs, and actions of adults as well as of children.
The mass media are the means for delivering impersonal communications directed to a
vast audience. The term media comes from Latin meaning, “middle,” suggesting that the
media’s function is to connect people. Television shows, movies, popular music,
magazines, Web sites, and other aspects of the mass media influence our political
views; our tastes in popular culture; our views of women, people of color, and gays; and
many other beliefs and practices

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Mass Media
The mass media are the means for delivering impersonal communications directed to a
vast audience. The term media comes from Latin meaning, “middle,” suggesting that the
media’s function is to connect people.
The mass media include many forms of communication–such as books, magazines,
radio, television, and movies–that reach large numbers of people without personal
contact between senders and receivers. Since mass media has enormous effects on
our attitudes and behavior, notably in regards to aggression, it is an important
contributor to the socialization process.
The mass media of communication, particularly television, play an important role in the
process of socialization. The mass media of communication transmit information’s and
messages which influence the personality of an individual to a great extent. In the last
few decades, children have been dramatically socialized by one source in particular:
television. Studies have found that children spend more time watching TV than they
spend in school. Television is an influence on children from a very young age and
affects their cognitive and social development.
Children also learn about current themes and issues, both from newscasts and
dramas—issue such as kidnapping, the homeless, and the spread of AIDS. Most of
these issues and themes are not happy ones, and many are very frightening, especially
when children watch programs that are intended for adults.
In addition to this, communication media has an important effect in encouraging
individuals to support the existing norms and values or oppose or change them. They
are the instrument of social power. They influence us with their messages.
Direct Effects Theory
The results of the People’s Choice Study challenged this model. Conducted in 1940, the
study attempted to gauge the effects of political campaigns on voter choice.
Researchers found that voters who consumed the most media had generally already
decided for which candidate to vote, while undecided voters generally turned to family
and community members to help them decide. The study thus discredited the direct
effects model and influenced a host of other media theories. These theories do not
necessarily give an all-encompassing picture of media effects but rather work to
illuminate a particular aspect of media influence.

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Marshall McLuhan’s Influence on Media Studies
During the early 1960s, English professor Marshall McLuhan wrote two books that had
an enormous effect on the history of media studies. Published in 1962 and 1964,
respectively, the Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media both traced the history of
media technology and illustrated the ways these innovations had changed both
individual behavior and the wider culture. Understanding Media introduced a phrase that
McLuhan has become known for: “The medium is the message.” This notion
represented a novel take on attitudes toward media that the media themselves are
instrumental in shaping human and cultural experience.
His bold statements about media gained McLuhan a great deal of attention as both his
supporters and critics responded to his utopian views about the ways media could
transform 20th-century life. McLuhan spoke of a media-inspired “global village” at a time
when Cold War paranoia was at its peak and the Vietnam War was a hotly debated
subject. Although 1960s-era utopians received these statements positively, social
realists found them cause for scorn. Despite or perhaps because of these controversies,
McLuhan became a pop culture icon, mentioned frequently in the television sketch-
comedy program Laugh In and appearing as himself in Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall.
The Internet and its accompanying cultural revolution have made McLuhan’s bold
utopian visions seem like prophecies. Indeed, his work has received a great deal of
attention in recent years. Analysis of McLuhan’s work has, interestingly, not changed
very much since his works were published. His supporters point to the hopes and
achievements of digital technology and the utopian state that such innovations promise.
The current critique of McLuhan, however, is a bit more revealing of the state of modern
media studies. Media scholars are much more numerous now than they were during the
1960s, and many of these scholars criticize McLuhan’s lack of methodology and
theoretical framework.
Despite his lack of scholarly diligence, McLuhan had a great deal of influence on media
studies. Professors at Fordham University have formed an association of McLuhan-
influenced scholars. McLuhan’s other great achievement is the popularization of the
concept of media studies. His work brought the idea of media effects into the public
arena and created a new way for the public to consider the influence of media on
culture.

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Agenda-Setting Theory
In contrast to the extreme views of the direct effects model, the agenda-setting theory of
media stated that mass media determine the issues that concern the public rather than
the public’s views. Under this theory, the issues that receive the most attention from
media become the issues that the public discusses, debates, and demands action on.
This means that the media is determining what issues and stories the public thinks
about. Therefore, when the media fails to address a particular issue, it becomes
marginalized in the minds of the public.
When critics claim that a particular media outlet has an agenda, they are drawing on
this theory. Agendas can range from a perceived liberal bias in the news media to the
propagation of cutthroat capitalist ethics in films. For example, the agenda-setting
theory explains such phenomena as the rise of public opinion against smoking. Before
the mass media began taking an antismoking stance, smoking was considered a
personal health issue. By promoting antismoking sentiments through advertisements,
public relations campaigns, and a variety of media outlets, the mass media moved
smoking into the public arena, making it a public health issue rather than a personal
health issue. More recently, coverage of natural disasters has been prominent in the
news. However, as news coverage wanes, so does the general public’s interest.
Gratifications Theory
Practitioners of the uses and gratifications theory study the ways the public consumes
media. This theory states that consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs or
desires. For example, you may enjoy watching a show like Dancing with the Stars while
simultaneously tweeting about it on Twitter with your friends. Many people use the
Internet to seek out entertainment, to find information, to communicate with like-minded
individuals, or to pursue self-expression. Each of these uses gratifies a particular need,
and the needs determine the way in which media is used. By examining factors of
different groups’ media choices, researchers can determine the motivations behind
media use.
A typical uses and gratifications study explores the motives for media consumption and
the consequences associated with use of that media. In the case of Dancing with the
Stars and Twitter, you are using the Internet as a way to be entertained and to connect
with your friends. Researchers have identified a number of common motives for media
consumption. These include relaxation, social interaction, entertainment, arousal,
escape, and a host of interpersonal and social needs. By examining the motives behind
the consumption of a particular form of media, researchers can better understand both
the reasons for that medium’s popularity and the roles that the medium fills in society. A

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study of the motives behind a given user’s interaction with Facebook, for example, could
explain the role Facebook takes in society and the reasons for its appeal.
Uses and gratifications theories of media are often applied to contemporary media
issues. The analysis of the relationship between media and violence that you read
about in preceding sections exemplifies this. Researchers employed the uses and
gratifications theory in this case to reveal a nuanced set of circumstances surrounding
violent media consumption, as individuals with aggressive tendencies were drawn to
violent media.
Symbolic Interactionism
Another commonly used media theory, symbolic interactionism, states that the self is
derived from and develops through human interaction. This means the way you act
toward someone or something is based on the meaning you have for a person or thing.
To effectively communicate, people use symbols with shared cultural meanings.
Symbols can be constructed from just about anything, including material goods,
education, or even the way people talk. Consequentially, these symbols are
instrumental in the development of the self.
This theory helps media researchers better understand the field because of the
important role the media plays in creating and propagating shared symbols. Because of
the media’s power, it can construct symbols on its own. By using symbolic
interactionism theory, researchers can look at the ways media affects a society’s shared
symbols and, in turn, the influence of those symbols on the individual.
One of the ways the media creates and uses cultural symbols to affect an individual’s
sense of self is advertising. Advertisers work to give certain products a shared cultural
meaning to make them desirable. For example, when you see someone driving a BMW,
what do you think about that person? You may assume the person is successful or
powerful because of the car he or she is driving. Ownership of luxury automobiles
signifies membership in a certain socioeconomic class. Equally, technology company
Apple has used advertising and public relations to attempt to become a symbol of
innovation and nonconformity. Use of an Apple product, therefore, may have a symbolic
meaning and may send a particular message about the product’s owner.
Media also propagate other noncommercial symbols. National and state flags, religious
images, and celebrities gain shared symbolic meanings through their representation in
the media.

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Media Logic Theory
The media logic theory states that common media formats and styles serve as a means
of perceiving the world. Today, the deep rooting of media in the cultural consciousness
means that media consumers need engage for only a few moments with a particular
television program to understand that it is a news show, a comedy, or a reality show.
The pervasiveness of these formats means that our culture uses the style and content
of these shows as ways to interpret reality. For example, think about a TV news
program that frequently shows heated debates between opposing sides on public policy
issues. This style of debate has become a template for handling disagreement to those
who consistently watch this type of program.
Media logic affects institutions as well as individuals. The modern televangelist has
evolved from the adoption of television-style promotion by religious figures, while the
utilization of television in political campaigns has led candidates to consider their
physical image as an important part of a campaign.
Cultivation Analysis
The cultivation analysis theory states that heavy exposure to media causes individuals
to develop an illusory perception of reality based on the most repetitive and consistent
messages of a particular medium. This theory most commonly applies to analyses of
television because of that medium’s uniquely pervasive, repetitive nature. Under this
theory, someone who watches a great deal of television may form a picture of reality
that does not correspond to actual life. Televised violent acts, whether those reported
on news programs or portrayed on television dramas, for example, greatly outnumber
violent acts that most people encounter in their daily lives. Thus, an individual who
watches a great deal of television may come to view the world as more violent and
dangerous than it actually is.
Cultivation analysis projects involve a number of different areas for research, such as
the differences in perception between heavy and light users of media. To apply this
theory, the media content that an individual normally watches must be analyzed for
various types of messages. Then, researchers must consider the given media
consumer’s cultural background of individuals to correctly determine other factors that
are involved in his or her perception of reality. For example, the socially stabilizing
influences of family and peer groups influence children’s television viewing and the way
they process media messages. If an individual’s family or social life plays a major part in
her life, the social messages that she receives from these groups may compete with the
messages she receives from television.

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Socialization
Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists,
political scientists, and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and
disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills
and habits necessary for participating within their own society. Socialization is thus “the
means by which social and cultural continuity are attained”.
According to MacIver, “Socialization is the process by which social beings establish
wider and profounder relationships with one another, in which they become more bound
up with, and perceptive of the personality of themselves and of others and build up the
complex structure of nearer and wider association.”
Kimball Young writes, “Socialization will mean the process of inducting the individual
into the social and cultural world; of making him a particular member in society and its
various groups and inducting him to accept the norms and values of that society….
Socialization is definitely a matter of learning and not of biological inheritance.”
According to Ogburn, “Socialization is the process by which the individual learns to
conform to the norms of the group.” Ross defined socialization as “the development of
the we feeling in associates and their growth in capacity and will to act together.”
Through the process of socialization the individual becomes a social person and attains
personality.
In short, socialization is the process that prepares humans to function in social life. It
should be re-iterated here that socialization is culturally relative – people in different
cultures and people that occupy different racial, classed, gendered, sexual and religious
social locations are socialized differently. This distinction does not and should not
inherently force an evaluative judgment. Socialization, because it is the adoption of
culture, is going to be different in every culture and within different subcultures.
Socialization, as both process and an outcome, is not better or worse in any particular
culture or subculture.
The Media Influence on Socialization
Media socialization is mostly an implicit learning and cultivation process. Media as well
as conditioning by family, peers, and cultural context allow for observational learning,
which is a process of encoding lasting behavioral scripts and cognitions simply as a
consequence of observing others. Technological determinism describes the assumption
that technology dictates social structures and processes. However, numerous studies
have refuted early media effect theories, stating that media consumption affects
everyone in the same way. In order to understand media, taken collectively, as an agent

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of socialization sui generis, it is essential to consider how other agents of socialization
interact with the media. The role of media in socialization processes is hardly
quantifiable, as it depends on the interplay of a wide range of influences such as
content, context, family, peers, personality, and motivational, educational and cultural
background.
Family is usually considered the agent with the greatest impact on the socialization
process. As infants, individuals receive from the family their first system of norms,
values, and beliefs. The value system reflects a family’s social status, religion, and
cultural or ethnic background. School, another important agent of socialization in
childhood, is about knowledge transfer and skills. Additionally, schools shape an
individual’s behavior implicitly, by providing a system of norms and values such as
teamwork, discipline, or the imperative to follow directions. Peer groups help people
develop social skills still further, for example by making them accept differences, resolve
conflicts, or help others. An individual’s media use and communication behavior are
linked to corresponding family habits, the media and communication practices of peers,
and the way media use gets promoted during that individual’s education or in his/her
professional environment. Various agents of socialization shape an individual’s
approach to media in terms of habits, his/her assessment of the quality of media
content, or the way s/he is receptive to specific stereotypes portrayed in media.
Socialization is closely interconnected with sharing the norms, the values, and the
language of a specific culture. Culture can be defined as “the software of the mind” or “a
collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or
category of people from others”. Diversities and commonalities in media cultures around
the globe are challenging to assess. Nonetheless, there is empirical evidence that the
role of media and Internet use in various countries is significantly linked to cultural
dimensions, for example plurality of the press, press freedom, movie genre preferences,
Internet penetration, or social media behavior. Culture shapes access to media and
their role in society. Conversely, media structure cultural habits and rituals tend to
reinforce social and cultural stereotypes, and are at the center of specific youth cultures.
Effects of media on socialization processes have traditionally focused on mass media
such as television, radio, and printed media (books, newspapers, and magazines).
Additionally, music and fan cultures around specific music groups or music genres have
been the subject of research on media effects. The advent of a variety of digital and
mobile media devices and the abundance of digital media content have transformed
research on media effects correspondingly. Given the increasingly blurred lines
between media producers and users (“producers”) and between personal and public
communication, recent research in the field has largely focused on how digital media
impact social behavior.

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Positive Media Effects
The positive impact of media on social behavior has received much less research
attention than negative effects of media. But, there is a growing research base, much by
the same research teams that study violent media effects. Existing studies show
consistent effects across research study types and media types; exposure to social
media can lead to increases in social behavior in both the short- and long-term.
Media without social messages:
Interestingly, media do not need to have a social message to promote social behavior.
Media that create a positive mood may facilitate helping behaviors without providing any
sort of overt guidance. In particular, music without lyrics can create or enhance desired
mood states or to counteract undesired ones and can imbue such feelings as tranquility,
peacefulness and happiness as well as other positive emotions. When music induces a
positive mood, it can have a number of positive effects, including increases in helping
behavior and decreases in anger, aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors.
Similarly, a recent experiment by Whitaker and Bushman found that participants who
played a relaxing video game behaved less aggressively and more helpfully than those
who had just played violent or neutral games.
Media with social messages:
Most social effects research has looked at media that either provides social messages
or model social behavior. Early television studies found that for children watching social
television was positively associated with helpful behavior and social attitudes.
Furthermore, one longitudinal study found that children who regularly watched the social
television show Blue’s Clues had greater increases in social behavior over time than
children who did not watch it.
Video games:
Several recent studies have examined the impact of playing social characters in
nonviolent video games. For example, playing a social video game can lead to
significant decreases in hurtful behavior and increases in helpful behaviors. Other social
game effects found in experimental studies include: increasing the player's likelihood of
helping an experimenter with a mundane task, coming to the aid of a female
experimenter being harassed by an ex -boyfriend, increasing positive emotions,
increasing empathy, increasing social thinking, and reducing hostility-related thoughts
and emotion.
Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of social video games are fewer in number, but
yield findings consistent with theory and the experimental studies. Social video game

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play is positively correlated with cooperation, helping and sharing, even when other
factors that can affect social behavior are taken into account. Importantly, recent studies
have tracked such changes over time. For example, found that increases in social
behavior were linked with social game playing over a 3-4 month period.
Music:
Experiments using music with social lyrics have yielded similar results. Social lyrics also
have been shown to reduce aggression-related thoughts and feelings and to reduce
aggressive behavior, primarily through reductions in aggression-related feelings and
increased empathy.
Overall findings, Regardless of media type or study type, recent evidence converges to
show that nonviolent media with social content have a positive effect on behaviors that
help others. The behavioral effects appear to be mediated changes in thoughts and
feelings.
Educational Media:
Even though time with entertainment media can harm school performance, educational
media can improve a variety of academic skills. Longitudinal studies have shown that
educational television can have long-term educational benefits. Educational program
viewing predicts development of reading competencies in early and middle childhood.
Viewing educational programs at a preschool age is associated with better grades and
reading more books in adolescence. Interestingly, interactive shows that prompt
children to actively engage, such as Blue’s Clues and Dora the Explorer, may be
especially effective teachers.
Educational video games also can have significant educational benefits. Video games
have several characteristics that make them effective teachers: they require active
participation, provide clear goals, give immediate feedback, adapt to the student’s level,
and encourage distributed learning. Educational video games have been used to teach
children and adolescents a range of school subjects such as mathematics, reading, and
biology. Educational games can also be used to teach youth about specific health
conditions and encourage health-promoting behaviors.
In addition, numerous studies demonstrate that media can be purposefully used as a
positive socializing influence. For example, researchers have found that watching the
television show Barney & Friends can teach children norms of polite social behavior.
Findings from several studies indicate that responsible sexual behavior can be
promoted through music and television shows.

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Positive Effects on Ethnic Stereotypes and Gender Socialization:
Just as stereotypes in the media increase stereotype thinking by consumers of those
media, exposure to counter stereotypical media exemplars can reduce stereotypical
attitude. However, note that even a very positive portrayal may contribute to
misconceptions. For example, some White viewers of The Cosby Show cited the Hu
tables as examples of why affirmative action is no longer necessary. Media also can
have positive effects on gender role socialization and gender stereotyping. Repeated
TV appearances of women in traditionally male occupations can lead to more open
attitudes in preteen girls towards considering these occupations. Listening to music with
prequalify lyrics leads to more positive attitudes and behavior toward women.
Parental Involvement in Media Use:
Parental involvement in media use can act as a protective factor that promotes positive
effects of media and mitigates negative effects. However, the type of parental
involvement matters. Three types of parental involvement in media use have been
identified: active mediation, restrictive monitoring, and coveting.
Active mediation consists of conversations parents have with children in which they
explain or discuss media content. Active mediation predicts several positive outcomes,
such as enhanced learning from television and skepticism toward televised news. Active
mediation has also been linked with reduced negative effects of advertising, news, and
violent media content.
Restrictive monitoring involves posing explicit rules about media content and media
time. Restrictions on time use yields both lower media consumption and better school
performance. Having rules restricting violent media content may mitigate media violence
effects, beyond the direct effect on reducing time spent on violent media, perhaps by
conveying family antiviolence attitudes.
Coveting involves watching television or playing videogames together with children.
Several studies suggest that coveting may enhance effects of both positive and
negative media content. Coveting educational television has been shown to enhance
children's learning. On the other hand, Coveting of violent television can exacerbate
media violence effects. Given the significant effects of parental involvement in media
use, it is worrying that many parents do not monitor their children's media consumption.

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Negative Media Effects
Violent Media Effects:
Media violence effects on aggression and related outcomes have received a huge
amount of attention and are well-understood. Experimental, correlational, and
longitudinal studies, even experimental intervention studies confirm that violent media
exposure is a causal risk factor for aggression. Such effects have been found for
movies, television shows, video games, music, even violent comic books. They have
been replicated across age, culture and research teams.
Experimental research renders a clear picture of the immediate causal influence of
media violence exposure on aggression. Many experiments show that even brief violent
media exposure can lead to immediate increases in aggressive thoughts, hostile affect,
and aggressive behavior. Such effects have been found using a variety of different
aggression measures, including delivery of aversive noise blasts, administration of
painful electric shocks, increases in pushing, hitting, and kicking observed during free
play, and forcing hot sauce on a person who is known to dislike spicy foods.
Risk-glorifying media:
Media often glorify risk-taking behaviors, such as reckless driving, smoking, binge
drinking, and having unprotected sex. To give a few examples, the television show
Jackass features young men engaging in a series of dangerous stunts such as pole
vaulting over a sewage pit, and getting tattooed on a buggy ride. Several recent studies
show that exposure to such risk-glorifying media impacts both risk-taking inclinations
and actual risk taking behaviors. These effects have been shown for different types of
visual media, including advertisements, movies, and video games. In this section,
special attention will be paid to two types of risk-taking behaviors that are influenced by
media use: substance use and risky sexual behaviors.
Substance use:
Positive portrayals of substance use that do not show negative consequences are
frequent in the media. Some examples include alcohol advertisements and portrayals of
alcohol use in movies and television shows.
Experimental studies have found significant short-term effects of media that glorify
substance use. For example, viewing movies that portray drinking in a positive light
causes an increase in participants’ expectations that drinking alcohol will lead to positive
outcomes, such as camaraderie. After viewing film sequences that include smoking,
people report greater likelihood of smoking in the future. Correlational studies, including

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some prospective studies, have found significant associations between exposure to
risk-glorifying media and substance use in real life.
For example, exposure to alcohol use in movies is related to early onset and to binge
drinking among adolescents. Longitudinal studies yield similar effects. For example,
early exposure to alcohol marketing predicts underage drinking. Tobacco industry
advertising predicts adolescent smoking onset. Adolescents’ exposure to alcohol use in
movies predicts increased alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems measured
years later. Similar longitudinal effects have been shown for smoking.
Sexual content:
Learning about sexuality is a normative maturational achievement in adolescence.
Unfortunately, a substantial number of adolescents report that they do not get adequate
information about sexuality from parents and schools. This is one reason why mass
media play a major role in the sexual socialization of most adolescents. Indeed,
research has shown that half of all adolescents actively seek sexual content when
choosing media.
Sexual content is frequent in the media, especially in movies, sitcoms, and music.
However, portrayals of sexuality in the media often are unrealistic. Although over 75%
of prime-time television shows have sexual content, they address the risks and
responsibilities of sexual activity in only 14% of cases. Frequent viewing of sexual
content on television leads adolescents to overestimate the number of their peers who
are sexually active. Exposure to sexual content also changes teens’ sexual
expectations, attitudes, and intentions. For example, males who view more sexual
content in television shows are more likely to expect a broad range of sexual activities in
relationships, whereas females who view a lot of sexual content in television shows are
more likely to expect to initiate sex earlier in relationships. Some research suggests that
the impact of the media on sex-related "knowledge" is higher than the impact of family,
peers, and school.
It is important to note that not all sexual media content has such negative effects. When
media convey accurate information about sexuality and include socially responsible
messages, they can effectively educate people about sexuality and promote responsible
sexual behaviors.
Media and Stereotypes:
Stereotypes are sets of socially shared beliefs about traits that are characteristic of
members of a social category. From a social-cognitive view, stereotypes are a part of a
person’s schema about a social category. Like other elements of an individual’s world
schema, race and gender stereotypes are influenced by what an individual observes

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across contexts in the family, in the peer group, in the mass media. Social-cognitive
models explain how observations of media can influence an individuals’ understanding
of the social world. Specifically, media are powerful socializing agents that provide initial
or reinforcing information to create cognitive structures and associations between social
groups and certain shared characteristics. Through repeated media exposure,
individuals form associative links between a social group and the stereotypic
characteristics. Eventually these associations become automatized; when the social
group category is activated, the associated stereotypes are automatically activated as
well. Media-based ethnic stereotypes are especially influential for individuals who do not
have direct contact with depicted minority members.
Media and gender stereotypes:
Media depictions of gender are also problematic. Content analyses of video games
reveal that the majority of characters are males (70%), and female characters are often
presented as highly sexualized. The Screen Actors Guild noted that male actors
represent the majority of TV roles, especially in the supporting category, with about two
roles for every female role. Content analyses of popular films reveal similar trends.
Additionally, women hold only 34.4% of all jobs in prime-time programs as opposed to
47% of the actual labor force in 2011.
In one experimental study, men were exposed to media-based stereotypical portrayals
of women gave lower credibility to victims of sexual harassment and rape cases than
men who exposed to non-stereotypic portrayals of women. A meta-analysis of 31
studies found a positive correlation between exposure to media-based gender
stereotypes and gender stereotypic attitudes and behaviors. Furthermore, exposure to
physical appearance ideals in the media is associated with poor body image and self-
destructive behaviors such as pathogenic dieting practices. For example, researchers
have found that media variables accounted for 15-33% of the variance in measures of
adolescent girls’ drives for thinness, body dissatisfaction, bulimic behaviors, and thin
ideal endorsements
Criticism
There have been a lot of criticisms of the mass media in relation to their contents and
behaviors of their reporters. Some people suggest that there should be stricter control
over the media. Others think that freedom of press is of the greatest importance to the
society.
When the study of mass media began the media was compiled of only mass media
which is a very different media system than the social media empire of the 21st-century
experiences. With this in mind, there are critiques that mass media no longer exists, or

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at least that it doesn't exist in the same form as it once did. This original form of mass
media put filters on what the general public would be exposed to in regards to "news"
something that is harder to do in a society of social media.
Theorist Lance Bennett explains that excluding a few major events in recent history, it is
uncommon for a group big enough to be labeled a mass, to be watching the same news
via the same medium of mass production. Bennett's critique of 21st Century mass
media argues that today it is more common for a group of people to be receiving
different news stories, from completely different sources, and thus, mass media has
been re-invented. As discussed above, filters would have been applied to original mass
Medias when the journalists decided what would or wouldn't be printed.
Social Media is a large contributor to the change from mass media to a new paradigm
because through social media what is mass communication and what is interpersonal
communication is confused. Interpersonal/niche communication is an exchange of
information and information in a specific genre. In this form of communication, smaller
groups of people are consuming news/information/opinions. In contrast, mass media in
its original form is not restricted by genre and it is being consumed by the masses.
Furthermore, while the press is checking the society, the public is, at the same time,
checking over the press. The climate of opinion has many a time to bring its power into
full play in criticizing improper behavior of mass media. It is believed that the majority of
the public have the sense and wisdom to supervise the press. The sales of magazines
which published photos of Chen might apparently disprove it but it was the quick
response of the public and some reporters who did not identify themselves with those
magazines that showed the fact that morality and professional integrity are still working
effectively in checking improper behavior of mass media.
To conclude, as the morality and wisdom of the public and the professional integrity are
recognized and respected, there need not be any stricter control over mass media. It
should, instead, be the governing body’s responsibility to oversee the mass media and
their behavior.

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CONCLUSION
The rapid expansion of research on media effects has increased our understanding of
the roles media play in the socialization process. Media have significant socializing
influences across a wide range of domains, such as aggression, stereotyping, helping,
sexual behaviors, education, social networking and identity development. The findings
can be understood within the framework of the GLM, which delineates the processes
through which media can affect social behavior in short-term and long-term contexts.
The GLM emphasizes the fact that media effects are complex and depend on content,
structure, time, and context. Media effects can be harmful; Media effects can also be
beneficial, such as the effects of social media use on helping. Parental involvement can
be a protective factor that can help foster positive media effects and ameliorate negative
media effects. .
A large proportion of studies on socializing influences of mass media have been
conducted on college-aged adolescent and young adult populations, both for practical
reasons and because of ethical concerns. More studies on children are needed to
elucidate developmental differences in specific media effects. Further research also is
needed on the neural bases of media effects. Finally, additional studies examining the
impact of new technologies on socialization are needed.
In sum, a broad research literature demonstrates that media are powerful socializing
agents that can lead to numerous positive and negative outcomes. Given the
extraordinary amount of time of children and adolescents spend interacting with media;
increasing our understanding of both positive and negative media effects is an important
research goal for practical reasons. Findings concerning the socializing influences of
mass media have implications for theory development, for public policy decisions and
for developing interventions that can promote healthier media habits among youth.