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Media

Mass Media and Socialization The Media as an Agent in Socialization

According to the reading, “Socialization and Culture” from the book
“Interdisciplinary English” by Loretta F. Kasper, socialization is the
process in which a child learns how to behave in life and participate
in a group in society. Socialization has four basic agents: family,
school, peers and the mass media. Each one of these agents plays a
role in our lives. However, in my opinion, the most important agent of
socialization for the development of the child is the mass media.
The Mass Media are the different processes that facilitate
communication between the sender of a message and the receiver of that
message. It plays an important role in the socialization of children.
In fact, there are many types of media; these include newspapers,
magazines, radio, films, CDs, Internet, and television. These kinds of
media, especially television, affect children’s and adult’s behavior
in different ways. According to the article, “Socialization: From
Infancy to Old Age”, “The average family in the United States has at
least one television turned on for at least seven hours a day.”
Television is the biggest mass media in this country and has positive
and negative aspects.
There are
some programs which are very helpful with lots of information for the
children. When children watch some programs,
they are not the same people anymore because they can become more
knowledgeable. These programs are very good because they change
children’s minds and make the children different from what they were
before. However,
there are also television programs that affect children negatively.
. Children like and learn how to use knives, guns
and explosives because they see it on TV. Sometimes children take the
role of their superheroes in real life because they see their favorite
actors using these weapons. For example; when children watch the actor
stealing a car on...