Week 3 Flashcards
What is Agency
Capacity of an actor to act in a given environment
What is social action
Social behaviour that is perceived as subjectively meaningful
Who are social Actors?
All humans are social actors.
What is the duality of structure and structuration
are we controlled by social structures or do we control our own lives through agency?
the structured properties of social systems are simultaneously the medium and outcome of social acts
we both structure society through our social actions but are also structed by society based on our social location
What are the 8 assumptions of Interactionism
- Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them: we take social action based on the meaning we have for things, people and the world in general
- The meaning of things arise out of the process of social interactions, we socially construct society through social interaction
- Meanings are modified through an interpretive process that involves self reflective individuals symbolically interacting with one another: we reflect and interpret our social experiences
- Human beings create the worlds of expriences in which they live, our lives experiences are social constructed
- the meanings of these worlds come from interactions\and they are shaped by the self reflections that persons bring to their situations interadction is the means through which our worlds are constructed
- self reflection interwoven with social interadction and influences that social interaciton. the way we see ourselves is shaped by social interactiom and impacts the way we interact with others
- a soceity consists of the joint or social acts which are formed and carried out by its members. society is made up of social action and social agents
- a complex interpretive process shapes the meaning that things have for human beings. culture shapes our meaning
What are the theories of the self
The looking glass self: we shape our perceptions of the self based on how we think others perceive us
What is impression management?
Engaging in social behaviour to make yourself appear a certain way.
What is political economy
Political Economy organizes the production, distribution and consumption of wealth ina society
PE also forges links between cultural objects their material representations and the personal identities of consumers as gendered humans.
What is Mass media
Communication= Culture
communication is a process involving two or more people in an authority, accountable, exchange, charismatic, intimate, tyrannic, or representative relationship
mass media, including advertising is aother form of cultural communicaiton.
What are the four purposes that mass media serves
They want to create audiences who:
1. become consumers of the products advertised in the media
2. engage in consumption practices that conform to the norms of possessive individualism endored by the capitalist political system
3. adhere to a public opinion that is supportive of the strategic policies of the state
4. do not realize theya re commodities
What are semiotics
Describing how meaning is generated
What is a signifier
What you see or hear
What is signified
the idea that is being transmitted via the signifier
What is an Icon
Physical resemblance of the thing signified
What is an Index
Shows evidence of the signified
