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Mass Media
Jason Schmohe
SOC 101
Cari Beecham-Bautista
11 December 2011
Mass Media
Mass media is the lifeline of information between the world and the rest of us. We sit at home watching the television, paging through the internet, or fingering through the newspaper and in many cases we wouldn't know about what is going on thousands of miles away if it weren't for the media. The view of what the media is, what it is supposed to be, and where it is headed are different in many peoples perspectives. There are a lot of different opinions about the answers to these questions, but there are three main sociological points of view, the functionalist, the conflict, and the interactionism. There are many points that all of these different theorists would agree on, and many that they would disagree on.
Mass media is defined in the dictionary as "a means of public communication reaching a large audience". It is typically broken down into eight main mass media industries; books, newspapers, magazines, recordings, radio, movies, television, and the internet. The other controversial piece that may someday be in this group to make it nine industries is the cell phone. It is just as capable to access any news station or web page through your cell phone as it is to look on a computer. The fact is that as the world evolves and becomes more advanced so do the ways that we attain information about the world.
Jason Schmohe
SOC 101
Cari Beecham-Bautista
11 December 2011
Mass Media
Mass media is the lifeline of information between the world and the rest of us. We sit at home watching the television, paging through the internet, or fingering through the newspaper and in many cases we wouldn't know about what is going on thousands of miles away if it weren't for the media. The view of what the media is, what it is supposed to be, and where it is headed are different in many peoples perspectives. There are a lot of different opinions about the answers to these questions, but there are three main sociological points of view, the functionalist, the conflict, and the interactionism. There are many points that all of these different theorists would agree on, and many that they would disagree on.
Mass media is defined in the dictionary as "a means of public communication reaching a large audience". It is typically broken down into eight main mass media industries; books, newspapers, magazines, recordings, radio, movies, television, and the internet. The other controversial piece that may someday be in this group to make it nine industries is the cell phone. It is just as capable to access any news station or web page through your cell phone as it is to look on a computer. The fact is that as the world evolves and becomes more advanced so do the ways that we attain information about the world.