Mass Media and Socialization

The mass media is considered to be one of many factors that influence the population. Sociologists believe that the media has the power to dictate how we learn about what is going on in the world, as well as how to appropriately interact with one another. Many researchers have started to conduct studies to determine exactly how children interpret media messages and incorporate them into their daily lives and peer groups. One such study examined how Taiwanese children in kindergarten and first grade classrooms incorporated media into their daily routines as they engaged with the central Confucian values of their culture. In addition, other researchers have examined how the mass media affects sense of anticipatory socialization.

Keywords Anticipatory Socialization; Ethnography; Internet; Mass Media; Social Learning; Socialization

The Mass Media & Socialization

Overview

Socialization can be defined as the type of social learning that occurs when a person interacts with other individuals. While some believe that this process is limited to the childhood years, others argue that socialization is a continuous process that stretches over a person's lifetime.

Psychologists, sociologists, and other researchers have studied socialization and social development over one hundred years. As a result of their work, practitioners have been able to guide people through the socialization process. Social learning theory is especially helpful in understanding socialization and the most appropriate ways to guide a person through the process.

The socialization process enables one to develop a sense of self and of how to relate to society at large. This connection is secured via the internalization of the values, beliefs, and norms of one's environment and culture. Socialization plays a major role in identity formation and social functioning. Through it, people learn the behaviors appropriate to their cultures as well as how to interact with other people within their cultures.

Mass Media & Socialization

People spend substantial time viewing mediated sources. According to the Media Comparisons Study conducted by the Television Bureau of Advertising in 2010, American adults watched 319 minutes of television per day (Prince, 2012). In 2022, as Internet use proliferated and other media forms and platforms became more available, this figure seems to have dropped. Americans still spend large amounts of time consuming media, television watching however, now has become less for a utilized platform. In 2022 only 13% of people responded to watching between 4-6 hours of television. The largest segment of viewers watched between 2-4 hours. Adults over 65 spent more than other groups watching television, averaging four hours daily. Teenagers, aged 15-19, spent the least amount of time with television at under two hours. Nonetheless, for many years, there was a dearth of research on the influence of the mass media on socialization. As late as 1966, Gerson reported that nearly all of the research that had been conducted on mass media had been only indirectly concerned with socialization. Rather, the majority of studies had concentrated on understanding how "persons with different statuses and in different social structures use the media and…the resulting gratifications and consequences" (Gerson, 1966, p. 41). Thus, these early efforts had focused on how media exposure affects the "interpersonal environment" rather than the individual (Gerson, 1966, p. 40). Nonetheless, for many years, there was a dearth of research on the influence of the mass media on socialization. As late as 1966, Gerson reported that nearly all of the research that had been conducted on mass media had been only indirectly concerned with socialization. Rather, the majority of studies had concentrated on understanding how "persons with different statuses and in different social structures use the media and…the resulting gratifications and consequences" (Gerson, 1966, p. 41). Thus, these early efforts had focused on how media exposure affects the "interpersonal environment" rather than the individual (Gerson, 1966, p. 40).

At the time of Gerson's (1966) report, researchers were just beginning to propose that the mass media carried out many functions, of which socialization was just one. Perceiving the scarcity of research, Gerson carried out his research on the assumptions that the mass media contributes to socialization

• "by reinforcing existing values and attitudes, and

• by serving as a source of norms and values which offer solutions to personal problems" (1966, p. 41)

Since Gersons' time, sociologists have come to see the mass media as a powerful agent of socialization. It has the power to dictate how we learn about what is going on in the world, as well as how to appropriately interact with one another. It connects people to various social institutions. Furthermore, most of the information people believe is now based on what they see and read in the media, rather than on personal experience.

For example, during election years the media provides full coverage of the debates in addition to presenting expert analysis of these debates. As a result, voters may be more powerfully swayed by what they see and hear in the media than by what they learn about the candidates through attending town hall meetings or reading their campaign literature. The process is similar with other mediated events such as professional sports—commentary and analysis goes hand in hand with the actual event. In summary, one could argue that the media helps shape human interaction.

To date, most research has studied the effects of visual, audio, and print media like television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. However, another medium that has the potential to simultaneously reach and influence many cultures has been added to this list. The Internet has become an incredibly accessible medium that enables individuals to exchange information and opinions via constant visual and audio streams. Still, despite the Internet's popularity, television continues to be a powerful medium, as well. Those who work in the television industry are very skilled at determining what will appeal to the mass market and manipulating messages to encourage consumers to buy into ideas and products. For example, although in previous decades most people got along fine without smart phones, many youth have come to believe that they are a necessity. Sociologists who adopt Marxist perspectives often cite the mass media as a powerful agent in the maintenance of capitalist societies.

Smart devices and social media have been in existence for approximately one generation. While people now have greater access to more content, it may come at the cost of forming actual social interactions. Often, the messages social media can promote are anti-social. Scholarship has shown that smartphones and social media are attributed to increased mental stress. This rise has correlated with the increased availability of mobile devices. Social media has facilitated the tendency for adolescents to engage in negative comparisons with their peers, and cyberbullying is a persistent challenge.

Applications

Children & the Media

Parents, educators, and sociologists have all argued that uncritical media consumption can be harmful to children (Hadley & Nenga, 2004). Uncritical consumption, these groups say, can "socialize children into an adult culture that consists of sexist and racist stereotypes, sexuality, violence, and commercialism" (Hadley & Nenga, 2004, p. 515). Their research has largely consisted of content analyses and effect studies. Researchers employing content analysis have shown that media content targeting children is often of a violent or sexist nature. Effect studies have found that as children are exposed to greater amounts of media, they become more likely to develop stereotypical beliefs about race and gender roles, be aggressive, and gain adult knowledge about sex.

However, both of these approaches are based on the premise that children only consume media passively, and never actively. Corsaro (1997) explains that "both content analyses and effect studies have focused on the deterministic model of socialization…in which children passively internalize and then re-enact sexist, racist, and violent mass media messages from the adult world" (Hadley & Nenga, 2004, p. 516). Researchers have challenged this assumption by studying how children interpret media messages and incorporate media into their daily lives. Hadley and Nenga (2004) conducted an ethnographic study that sought to understand how Taiwanese kindergarteners and first graders "incorporate media into their daily routines as they engaged with the central Confucian values of their culture" (p. 515)

They used ethnographic data to examine how four- to seven-year old Taiwanese children incorporated media into their peer groups. One of the researchers conducted over 350 hours of participant observation at the Little Forest Elementary School Attached Kindergarten, which is a public kindergarten in Taipei City, Taiwan, during the second semester of the 2000–2001 academic year. The researcher returned to the school after the summer break and conducted an additional 315 hours of participant observations in one first grade classroom.

Teachers in the studied school were expected to both promote official goals (e.g. good behavior, health, and academic and social skills) and undergird them with Confucian philosophy. In other words, students were expected to learn not only how to meet official goals, but also understand why meeting these goals was philosophically important. These philosophical beliefs were woven into the school's organization and academic activities and reflected overall Taiwanese cultural values.

However, students at the studied school were also widely exposed to the mass media. Classrooms contained toys that were based on television shows, and teachers often showed cartoons like Pokémon during the school day. Children also brought paraphernalia like pens, book covers, clothing, and backpacks into their classrooms which supported characters from popular television shows. According to the study authors "children in these classrooms had a wide variety of media resources to draw on as they constructed their peer cultures" (Hadley & Nenga, 2004, p. 522). The researchers found that the Taiwanese students used the media within their peer groups in three ways:

• They displayed their knowledge of media content by engaging with the media and media related materials in their classrooms. Additionally, they used these materials to display academic skills like reading and writing.

• They planned their play around shared media knowledge by using known media characters to assign and enact play roles.

• They drew on their shared media knowledge during drawing games and physical play for plotlines and characterization (Hadley & Nenga, 2004).

In all of these uses, the authors claimed, the children "enacted, explored, and occasionally resisted certain aspects of the Confucian values that were pressed on them by teachers" (2004, p. 522).

What were the results? Some of the conclusions of this study included:

• The Taiwanese children in this study used media to explore concerns and issues of importance to them, such as how to create and sustain play episodes and how to better understand the hierarchy central to being a good student and family member.

• The children showed a clear commitment to nurturing a sense of sharing among peers. In addition, sharing media knowledge unique to the peer group also brought the children together, especially if the adults were not knowledgeable about the same topics.

• The children creatively appropriated media messages to address their own values and concerns within the context of their peer cultures.

Overall, the authors concluded that the children were able to use the media messages to address their own values and concerns, suggesting that their media consumption was active, rather than passive. The children manipulated media messages for their own uses in both learning and play.

Issues

Anticipatory Socialization

Some development theorists believe preparation for adult employment is one of the main purposes of adolescence. In addition, many argue that this socialization begins before an individual even enters the workplace, and continues throughout the lifespan. In his study on how individuals enter and are assimilated into the workforce, Jablin (2000) identified anticipatory socialization as the process, which generally occurs during childhood and young adulthood, through which individuals learn about work prior to entering the workforce. According to Levine and Hoffner (2006), much of this learning happens through interactions with parents, peers, schools, and the mass media. One part of their 2006 study sought to understand how media messages can influence young people's attitudes about work in an effort to better design job training programs to produce effective workers.

What's the Impact of the Media?

Reviewing previous research, the authors stated that "television and movies often transmit an inaccurate, stereotypic image of the world of work and the ways that people behave and communicate in the workplace" (2006, p. 651). For example, Lichter, Lichter, and Rothman (1994) reported that media depictions often

• Showed characters who constantly conflicted with their superiors, with few negative consequences.

• Portrayed characters who were employed, but rarely showed them at their workplaces.

• Communicated that individuals spend a lot of time in nonwork related activities.

• Emphasized the social and relational aspects of a job over the task related aspects.

• Glorified the exciting aspects of a job and rarely showed the boring, daily tasks required to do the job (as cited in Levine & Hoffner, 2006).

Levine's and Hoffner's (2006) study suggested that the mass media's portrayals of work can influence young people's career aspirations. Additionally, though young people are generally skeptical about how accurately the media portrays the workplace, it can lead young people to believe that work is more easy, fun, or glamorous than it actually is. However, the study concluded that young people's parents played the largest role in the formation of their attitudes about work. By and large, it was parents who taught the adolescents job searching skills, appropriate workplace behavior, the value of having a job, and the importance of having a good work ethic.

Conclusion

Psychologists, sociologists, and other researchers have studied socialization and social development over the past one hundred years. As a result of their work, practitioners have been able to guide people through the socialization process. It has been found that social learning theory is especially helpful in understanding socialization and the most appropriate ways to guide a person through the process.

The socialization process enables one to develop a sense of self and of how to relate to society at large. This connection is secured via the internalization of the values, beliefs, and norms of one's environment and culture. Socialization plays a major role in identity formation and social functioning. Through it, people learn the behaviors appropriate to their cultures as well as how to interact with other people within their cultures.

People spend substantial time viewing mediated sources. Up until the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, most studies on the mass media concentrated on understanding how people of different social statuses used the media and with what effects. Since then, researchers have turned their attention to how the mass media connects people to cultural norms and supports existing cultural values.

However, despite this trend, researchers are also questioning just how people interact with media. Though parents, educators, and sociologists have all claimed that media consumption can encourage children to accept sexist and racist stereotypes, and engage in aggressive and consumerist behavior, studies have found that children do not engage with media uncritically. Rather, they creatively incorporate media messages into their learning and play, suggesting that their consumption is more active and critical rather than passive and uncritical (Hadley & Nenga, 2004). Additional research on young people's attitudes about work also suggests that, although the media portrayals do play a role in forming these attitudes, the socialization provided through their parents carries a much greater weight (Levine & Hoffner 2006). Studies have also investigated the role that parents can play in terms of limiting the amount and content of mass media consumed by younger children. In conjunction with the traditional methods of active discussion regarding this media and verbally setting time limits for viewing, reading, browsing, etc., parents have also gained the ability to use technology to theoretically protect children from any potential negative effects. In terms of television and the Internet, for example, parents can create passwords and other settings that restrict certain content (Gentile, Nathanson, Rasmussen, Reimer, & Walsh, 2012).

In sum, the relationship between individuals and the mass media may be much more complex than previous research has indicated. If children can and do critically engage media messages, its influence as an agent of socialization may be much smaller than some parents, educators, and sociologists have claimed.

Terms & Concepts

Anticipatory Socialization: The process of through which an individual learns the values and attitudes of a group in expectation of joining the group.

Ethnography: A qualitative research method in which a group of people is studied through participant observation or interviews.

Internet: A worldwide system of computer networks that allows users to retrieve data from other users' computers.

Mass Media: Types of communication such as television broadcast stations and networks, newspapers, magazines, and outdoor displays that are designed to reach the large numbers of people.

Social Learning: A change in behavior that is controlled by environmental influences rather than by innate or internal forces.

Socialization: The process through which individuals learn about and engage with the norms and values of their culture. Most socialization occurs during childhood, though it continues to some degree throughout the lifespan.

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Suggested Reading

Davignon, P. (2013). The effects of r-rated movies on adolescent and young adult religiosity: Media as self-socialization.  Review of Religious Research, 55, 615–628. Retrieved January 12, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=92724523&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Kotzé, H. (n.d.). Mass media and political socialisation: A South African case study. International Political Science Review, 7, 415–434. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ioh&AN=707637&site=ehost-live.

Salama, M. (n.d.). Role of mass media in socialization of person. Vestsi natsyianalnai akademii navuk Belarusi. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ioh&AN=2752751&site=ehost-live.

Waterston, M. L. (2011). The techno-brain. Generations, 35, 77–82. Retrieved October 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=66815082.

Wei, R., & Leung, L. (1998). A cross-societal study on the role of the mass media in political socialization in China and Taiwan. Gazette: International Journal for Communication Studies, 60 , 377. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=1261584&site=ehost-live.

Zurbriggen, E., Ramsey, L., & Jaworski, B. (2011). Self- and partner-objectification in romantic relationships: Associations with media consumption and relationship satisfaction. Sex Roles, 64(7/8), 449–462. Retrieved October 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=59438129.