Informal Agency of Social Control - Media

Question 1

Media

Answer 1

Tabloid newspapers, magazines, television and films often reinforce what count as the boundaries between ‘normal’ and ‘deviant’ behaviour

Journalists are responsible for representing the actions of particular social groups and their relationship to specific social problems as part of the news reported in newspapers and on TV news programmes

Question 2

Women

Media is Bad

Answer 2

Critics of the media point out that these representations are often ideological in that they stereotype particular social groups as engaged in either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ behaviour

For example, females may be ‘demonised’ or negatively labelled because their behaviour is interpreted by journalists as not sufficiently ‘feminine’

Some women may be ‘fat-shamed’ by the media because journalists subscribe to patriarchal stereotypes which interpret slimness as best representing femininity

Question 3

Sexism

Media is Bad

Answer 3

Similarly, both men and women may be ‘persuaded’ by the media that their social destinies should be on very different trajectories

The media may reinforce the idea that the certain arenas of work such as science, business, medicine and engineering are best suited to male abilities and traits

A great deal of media content may represent females as either nurturers and domestic workers so reinforcing the notion that women’s skills are better suited to the home and the raising of children