Sociology Induction Essay
Sociology Induction Essay. The article I have chosen to analyse is "With Knife Crime on the Increase it's back to Basics" by Michael Godfrey. The article discusses the increase in knife crime amongst teenagers in the British isle's and claims that it is a 'lack of respect' that has caused this, claiming that parents are at fault for 'attempting to reason' with their children instead of setting clear boundaries and enforcing rules. Violent crime effects all members of society negatively, and increase in knife crime causes members of the general public to become paranoid and afraid for their safety. It makes people less likely to want to travel anywhere alone or at night and also to decrease the amount of valuables they keep on their person in order to avoid being "mugged". Also, looking at knife crime from a more macro perspective, it could be said that increase in crime costs our society economically (the government paying to keep them in overcrowded jails) and culturally (creating a negative image to other countries/societies and harmful stereotypes). According to a recent study by the youth justice board, relative poverty among young people has caused many to resort to violent crime in order to get the things they covet (iPods and mobile phones) this combined with poor parents is creating children/teens who grow up to be dysfunctional members of society. Marxists would
Case Study (Tom Cruise)
He is one of the worlds richest and most famous actors, but after many crazy publicity stunts, and his crazed obsession with the religious cult Scientology, he is one of the worlds biggest jokes. He no longer has the huge fan base he used to have, but his personal life is looking up with the birth of his daughter Suri, and his long-awaited wedding to Katie Holmes only weeks away. Yet still the media cannot stop stirring and printing suspicious stories, the latest one is that the long-awaited pictures of Suri, is because of a large birth-mark on her face, which also furthered suspicion that the photos were airbrushed. Can Tom Cruise do anything right anymore? The Rise of Tom Cruise Tom Cruise was born into a middle class family, his parents got divorced when he was very young. He went to live with an Aunt whilst his mother set up home for his brothers and sisters and him. Soon after moving in with his aunt, his mother had met someone and they had set up home together. His mother got married when Tom was slightly older and his family moved again. After a quick stint at a church school wanting to become a Monk, Tom went to New York and started out on broadway. He then went on to appear in such films as Mission Impossible. He was married to Nicole Kidman for 12 years and they adopted two children, then there marriage ended abruptly and shocked half the world. He had
How far do the sources taken together support the view that 'it was mainly the media who turned the Kray Twins from villains into heroes'?
Rebecca Hayes Coursework How far do the sources taken together support the view that 'it was mainly the media who turned the Kray Twins from villains into heroes'? The title of this essay already assumes that the Kray Twins were villains and that they were actually seen as heroes. Not all of the sources say either, that the twins were villains, or that the Twins were heroes, some are objective. It could be said that the question is biased towards the twins. The British media often represented the East End of London as a somewhat 'glamorous' and 'trendy area'. Photographs, by David Bailey, showed young men dressed in 'stylish suits', 'narrow ties' and 'stovepipe trousers'. These quotes come from source 3. Later in the same source the author, Jones, the East End being one of the best and most prominent settings for thrillers and novels on which to be written. He describes the 'evil' of the East End and its 'poverty induced conditions' and how people lived their lives against a back drop of 'drunkenness, immortality, 'rape' and 'assault' and how gangs often ruled the streets. In a way Jones is trying to make acceptance of the Krays behaviour because of their background, and because of the conditions in which they were brought up and the people who they mixed with,
Censorship is a controversial word. Discuss.
Censorship Introduction In a world in which acts of heinous violence, murder or crude and shocking behaviour seem to be a normal occurrence, it may lead one to wonder what has put society onto this slippery slope. How did this type of behaviour come to be so acceptable and in some cases glorifiable? A careful study of society may lead to multi media as being the main cause in this changing of ideals. The modern world has become desensitised to the acts shown on television, movies, video games or printed in newspapers and magazines. Censorship must be employed if morals and decency are to be preserved. Censorship is a controversial word that has been with us since who knows when. Ancient dictators would burn books because they didn't like them and force people to believe what they did. The question I ask myself, though, is if censorship in Libraries and schools is justified. My answer is yes, and that is what I will try to convince you. Censorship is the act which helps keep the world from being so corrupt. One of the culprits of criminal behaviour is T.V. violence. Violent programs may have a negative influence on those individuals who are already violence-prone, or children who are living through vulnerable periods of their development. Adult violent offenders tend to have shown certain personality features as children, "one being they tended to have viewed violence on
During the course of looking at education, and ethnicity issues I became interested in how ethnic groups were portrayed in the media
Lesley Symons - Sociology Coursework AS THE MEDIA AIM During the course of looking at education, and ethnicity issues I became interested in how ethnic groups were portrayed in the media. Although I haven't studied this before, I wanted to do something different, but still apply the fundamental theories which I have studied. I have noticed how there seems to be a trend with all areas involving ethnicity, and personally feel there is racism and under-representation of ethnic groups on television, and definitely inequalities in the press. The media has a huge effect on our perception of life and self-concepts, and reinforce stereotypical ideals, and it seems that ethnic minorities tend to be characterised as uneducated, illiterate and bad role-models. Therefore the aim of this research is to see how people feel about the way the media represents all ethnic groups, and whether they think they are stereotypical. (139) CONTEXT & CONCEPTS My first concept is the cultural effects model which sees the media as a very powerful influence, but also sees it as very diverse, and one type of audience's response may vary to another. However, there is an anticipated response, known as the preferred reading. Those who lack experience in cultural diversity are more likely to accept what is shown and therefore make generalisations from what they see to what they think. Therefore we
Assess the claim that 'The News is selected according to the demands of the target audience'
Assess the claim that 'The News is selected according to the demands of the target audience'. The extent to which the news is selected according to the demands of the target audience will depend on the perspective from which this is viewed. However, it should be noted that news is clearly a social construction- selected by individuals and organizations based upon differing requirements. Pluralist and Functionalist theorists would support the view that news is selected according to audience demand, as it corresponds to their ideas on the market and libertarian dimension. On the other hand, Classical Marxism would disagree with the view, instead arguing that it is media owners, not audiences, who select the news, and this news in turn reflects the capitalist and owner's viewpoint. Neo-Marxist theorists would also disagree with the view that the news is selected according to audience demand, seeing news as being influenced by other factors including the dominant ideology. It could also be argued that news is selected on the basis of other factors, including practical constraints as well as the norms, values and practices of journalists and producers. It can be argued that the news is indeed selected according to the demand of the target audience. This is backed by the functionalist perspective as well as pluralist theories. Functionalism (Durkheim) identifies the media and in
Assess the view that the mass media creates violence.
Assess the view that the mass media creates violence. There is much debate on whether the mass media creates violence among its audience. There are some views that think that violence in the media does indeed create violence amongst the audience, whilst other views think otherwise. One view, or sociological model, that thinks violence in the media creates violence amongst its audience, is the stimulation effect model. This model assumes that viewing violence is likely to create violence in the viewer. The sociologist Berkowitz (1962) maintained that watching violence stimulates emotional and physiological responses so that the likelihood of aggressive behaviour is increased. However, the stimulus response model is far from simple as Berkowitz argues that it depends on the individual having feelings of aggression or frustration before viewing begins. On the other hand, a model, which argues against the view that the mass media creates violence, is the catharsis model. This model is a psychological approach, grounded in Freudian psychoanalytic theory. It believes that the stresses of daily life build up such a high degree of frustration in the individual that it may lead to aggression. The sociologist Feshbach (1961) argues that viewing violence may in fact act as a deterrent to real life violence because watching violence on our screens relieves our feelings of frustration.
Following Foucault's conception of subject and power, how do you account For changes in the representations of sexuality in the media?
Alastair Stone 012930 Politics Of Representation Following Foucault's conception of subject and power, how do you account For changes in the representations of sexuality in the media? It is without doubt that the media in our society has an elevated position of power, with moguls such as Rupert Murdoch reputably having control over a distribution of information through processes of media signification. In communication terms these people in the media would be labelled the gatekeepers and their perceived power would rise from their ability to form opinion and withhold or release information. This is a relatively simple concept to come to terms with. However, media representations are formed over time often through myth and a production of truths which operate everywhere in our language. Truth can manifest itself in a number of ways and each society has its own truth regime meaning that the conditions are set for only certain discourses to function on a level of truth. In Foucault's research he looks at power in relation to the subject, and how the human subject is placed in power relations similar to those of production and signification. Representations of sexuality are a particularly interesting site of struggle and it has only been through recent (in particular) Feminist movements that many forms of representation in the media have been challenged. Foucault offers
In what ways television affects
In what ways television affects the way children say they play. AIM: I propose to find out what children say about how television affects their play. Socialisation is a very important concept in sociology and the role of the mass media is highly debateable. Many sociologists believe that media effects start by setting out an overall relationship between media and its audience. They are often called models of media effects. I will interview the children these interviews will be unstructured. The children will be interviewed separately. Gender will be a comparison I look at to and whether the gender affects whom the children imitate. CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS: The study of Bandura Ross and Ross uses the term of social learning theory to assert that children copy behaviour another example of this is copycat violence found in Hagell & Newburn's study. In my research will ask the children whether they say they act violently due to the violent content they may have viewed and whether they have chosen to imitate these programs. Hagell & Newburn's study compared young offenders viewing behaviour with non-offending teenagers. They found the differences were few between the two groups and what they watched, with hardly any having seen the films that were causing the concern at that time. A few members of either group had an interest in a violent output. The young offenders had less
Censorship is necessary to protect the public
Monday 26th March 2001 "Censorship is necessary to protect the public." How far do you agree with this view? Censorship is the term used to describe the editing of the media to control public access to whole or specific media texts. A view held by some is that the media has a strong influence on people, and in some cases is responsible for the drastic actions of some individuals, for example the murder of toddler James Bulger by two young boys. Generally, proponents of this view believe in the most stringent censorship. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the liberal opinion is that the public have a right to choose themselves whether they personally are exposed to certain media material or not. Effectively, this means no censorship at all. In recent years when prices have descended, multimedia technology has advanced daily and disposable incomes have risen; video recorders and access to the internet are increasingly to be found in the homes of the public. This has led to an increase in availability, through various circumstances, of controversial materials which contain elements such as violence, racism and pornography. With the internet in particular, it is challenging to control who is exposed to it, exactly what people are being exposed to and the serious consequences it may be having. When a country is at war, few can argue that a certain degree of censorship is