Critics often charge that television's portrayal of violent and sexual themes powerfully affects its viewers, especially children. How much of a role do you think TV plays in the socialization process? Does it affect everyone to the same extent? Post your positions in your blog and defend your positions.
I think TV plays an enormous part in the socialization process. It plays an important part in how children and adolescents learn to relate with one another, and society. Television helps to shape their ideas for games and fantasies, and directs them to products, books, or movies. Ever since World War II, television has become the primary communicator of pop culture and mass media to everyone with a television set. Children, adolescents, and young adults can bond over shared tv shows, characters, reality stars, etc. People judge each other by what shows they watch. I think TV affects everyone to the extent they watch it. If you don’t watch it as much, you aren’t as affected, although you will still see its influence. We are educated by TV, whether for product placement, or political goings-on, the weather, community activities, etc. Children are very impressionable, and imitate what they see around them, playing out the dynamics and roles they observe. This includes roleplaying, including ‘house’, ‘teacher’, ‘fireman’, and various heroes and villains. Usually from stories they’ve read or seen. They really identify, and transpose the characters onto themselves, feeling it is absolutely real. They also observe their parents and other adults around them reacting to what’s on TV. It’s how we learn what is funny, inappropriate, smart, or sarcastic. Our opinions are formed by what we see our social group responding to.
I remember watching a documentary segment in class about young girls’ responses to Disney heroines, and trying to imitate their costumes, voices, movements, and situations. One mother was very concerned that her daughter kept pulling the straps of her swimsuit down around her shoulders because it was ‘pretty like Jasmine’ in the movie Aladdin. With many concerned about “age compression”, or a “hurried childhood”, and the fashion industry’s increased focus on younger children, it’s no wonder that parents and others express concerns about kids becoming older, younger. Television plays an important role here, as well. Advertisements and celebrity endorsements introduce watchers to the latest trends, and create hype around the most fashionable “it” items. (Macionis 112-124)
There is a lot of research on this topic, and I would love to investigate this topic more a later time. What do YOU think?
2 comments:
Anna,
I also agree that television affects everyone in different degrees. For example, I hardly ever watch television (probably zero to one hour max a week). However, I still can see it's influence on people and society. In the hospital where I work, patients are assigned private rooms each equipped with a bathroom, a bed, and a television set. A lot of my interactions with my patients involves what they just heard or saw on TV since their activities are limited in the hospital.
I think that with most of the media, including television, can be seen in a negative or positive light. In my opinion, it is up to each individual to let it impact them in either direction. Thus, parents must be vigilant about what their children are watching and help guide them away from aggressive or violent behavior by being good role-models.
Thank you Maryam! I appreciate your comment. I'm curious to know what you think about how children socialize using television as a way to bond socially. Is it something that parents can really control? Is it something they should control? If parents deprive children of a way to bond with their peers, are they causing more harm than good?
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Please keep it clean and relevant to class material. Thanks!