Social Theories And The Mass Media Internet
Sociological theories and the Mass Media Internet
SOC 101
July 5, 2008
Introduction
Mass media is not only a way to inform people around the globe from official side; hence it is a means of communication used cross all ages and social statuses. Mass media today includes not only TV, radio and home phones anymore. In the 21th century mass media includes internet that opened a completely new world of communication possibilities for the private sector, as well did it for the educational field. Communication today is not only a one way issue anymore, where society is only the receiving end and has to accept information they are told. Communication under the functionalist perspective is a means of information and at the same time educational, it opens possibilities that are creating a base for thirst of knowledge and truth. The paper explores the positive effects on society and education by looking at the internet as a new mass medium especially.
Conflict theory and Mass Media
In order to explain the impact of the conflict theory on Mass Media its is helpful to take Gramsci’s view of hegemony in consideration. David C. Durst (2005) points out that:
Gramsci employs the term 'hegemony' to focus attention on the determinate role of socio-cultural and ethical-political formations in sustaining relations of domination. In his eyes, a group maintains its supremacy not simply through the direct domination of the coercive state apparatus but also, more fundamentally, through the organized consent of the governed in civil society. Hegemonic formations establish a dominant 'structure of feeling' (Raymond Williams) or ' habitus ' (Pierre Bourdieu) that organizes social practices and mental habits of 'collective wills' (Gramsci) generally in keeping with a prevailing social order (p. 175).
Therefore under the conflict theory it can be assumed that the media perpetuates the ideology of the powerful, influences people, creates desire and refusal. Gramsci's ideas...
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