The concept racist media openly encourages discriminatory views towards women, youth, minorities etc. Reading headlines or even various articles you can see the journalists can be very bias. They know that they are in control and can usually write about just about anything. What I have seen in the media and find it disturbing is the bias towards seniors. I see a lot of articles on the fact that seniors should not drive past this age or that age and should be stripped of their license. I believe that this is open discrimination towards the seniors and when people read about this in the media they will act this way towards seniors in public. To write about issues such as this one articles should have both sides of the view and not just one.
The concept agenda setting means the ability that the media has that influences peoples perceptions of what is important and drawing their attention to certain aspects while also drawing attention away from others. I believe this is a very important concept that people need to be educated on. There are a lot of people who believe anything that the media says and obviously a lot of negative can come out of this. To be a passive audience to the media is dangerous because they can control your mind basically. In my experience the media loves to talk about Indian reserves in BC and even though I have never been to one when one comes to mind I think of a dirty or unsanitary place. This is due to the media who reports on these areas and tells the society that the Indians that are given free reserves are not taking care of them and we as the audience believe these claims.
The concept contested sites is any society or institution that is viewed as a battleground involving a struggle that has conflicting views. Looking at the course material and what the media loves to report on, I have found that contested sites are popular in the headlines. After all the media is about entertainment so who does not like to watch a good fight unfold? Whether the contested site is in the political arena, between racial groups, or in an organization, the media will definitely be reporting on it. Looking the news you see view points such as the National basketball association and the players always arguing about salary. The two conflicting sides usually never agree upon a mutual agreement and this ends up in a strike where the players wont play until their views are met.
The concept ideology means an idea or view that explains and justifies how something is organized or should be organized. Thinking about this concept I have come to believe an ideology is very powerful. It can be an ideology in religion in which followers around the whole world will believe in this idea and will live their whole life based on it. Or it can be a political ideology the way a politician would want his country or city to think in certain ways. Either way an ideology in any environment can control the minds of people and make them act in certain ways. An ideology can be negative or positive and someone may not even come to understand that the ideology they truly believe is in fact actually negative.
The concept ethnocentrism means judging another culture solely by the value and standards of one’s own culture. Looking at the world in general you can see this happening in many countries were there is a dominant culture and then small minority groups who are pressured to assimilate into the larger group. This can be seen in India where the Hindu population is in the 90% and a minority group like the Sikhs is in the 1%. The Sikhs rights are violated regularly and their claims are ignored, how can this happen in the 21st century? Well when they are the 1% in such a large country ignoring the “little” people is easy to do. This concept is easily reflected in daily media outlets, as the media loves to create negative stereotypes for the minority.
Symbolic interactions approach is used in social research to describe how individuals and their identities are created, maintained, and changed through the process of socialization.
This article explains that gay men are more likely to suffer social anxiety in comparison to straight men. There was a study done and it was reported that they feared approval, negative remarks, and had lower self-esteem. The implication this has on society is a huge negative impact. As gay men fear to fit into society they will obviously turn to gay groups or organizations to separate themselves to feel “normal”. For example in Vancouver there is Davie Street, an area that gay individuals feel safe living and socializing in. What this does for society is that it separates individuals in to different segmented groups where they feel safe. However this is not how a healthy society should be like, it should be collective not separate. They only reason they face anxiety is because gay individuals are stereotyped as negative in society. Gender roles are so inscribed into the minds of people that men are supposed to be masculine and show no emotion and women are supposed to be emotional and always look their best. With all these gender roles floating around in society a gay individual threatens those roles as they cross over most of them. As more gay individuals come out of the “closet” and integrate into society it will slowly start to look “normal” to others. The article shows that society holds dominant ideologies that basically control our everyday lives to what we think about someone to how we act on our own. Of course to change an ideology as big as sexuality, targeting political and different other institutions in society will definitely help the cause.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/25022011-the-revolution-in-egypt-rise-of-the-social-movement/
Social change is the transformation of elements of society such as culture, institutions, and ideological systems. Social movements are seen as a collective act that influences social change
This article explains the rise of social movements and protests in Egypt. It states the rise of them comes from poverty and suppression, unfulfilled hopes, youth power etc. In today’s century with the help of technology communication networks strengthened the protests in Egypt, as they work as organizing demonstrations and avoiding security state. The country’s leader Mubarak failed as he was overconfident and arrogant and did not communicate with his citizens. People became frustrated at his strategy of sitting at his expensive property and not taking into consideration their needs. As a collective group the Egyptian citizens became powerful and could not be controlled by the state ultimately Mubarak’s regime was removed. The article shows that it is important for citizens to rise to power against corrupt governments and officials, and it needs to be done as fast as possible. When news such as this hit different societies around the world people start to realize that if it can happen in one place it can definitely happen in their country or anywhere around the world. One movement across the pond can be a push for another somewhere else it becomes a confident booster. This movement in Egypt was unquestionably a revolutionary social movement as it affected a large population and had a radical strength that changed the political element of their society. Therefore having news like this in the media is certainly a positive thing as it can affect a society positively somewhere else in the world to make a change.
