Page 38 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

media

The media is a slightly-unusual secondary agency because our relationship with it is
impersonal; we’re unlikely to ever meet those doing the socialising, although it’s more than
possible for people to develop parasocial relationships with various new and old media
personalities. That is, we behave as if we know these people personally and they become
very influential figures in our social development.

While there’s no conclusive evidence the media have a direct, long-term, affect on
behaviour, there is stronger evidence of short-term effects. Advertising, for example, aims
to make short-term changes in behaviour by encouraging people to try different consumer
products. Potter (2003) suggests short-term effects include:

• imitation, such as copying behaviour
seen on television;

• desensitisation, the idea constant and
repeated exposure to something, such as
violence or poverty progressively lowers
our emotional reaction and

• learning - the media introduce us to
new and novel ideas and places.

There’s also evidence for indirect long-
term effects. Chandler (1995) for
example argues "Television has long-term
effects, which are small, gradual, indirect
but cumulative and significant".

The same is true for exposure to something like social media. Potter, for example, argues
these effects include things like:

• consumerism - repeated exposure to
affluent lifestyles and desirable consumer
goods suggests "happiness" is something
that can bought.

• Fear: "Heavy exposure to negative
and violent" media leads some people to
overestimate things like the extent of
crime and their likelihood of being a
victim.

• agenda-setting. Philo et al (1982)
argue the media determines how
something will be debated; in the UK,
for example, immigration is framed in terms of “numbers of immigrants” and Islam
is frequently discussed in the context of “terrorism” - the media sub-text being
"Muslim = terrorist".

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