Chapter

Culture and Media
Do mass media create social norms

or merely reflecting them? Culture
is like two mirrors facing each
other: it simultaneously reflects and
creates the world we live in.
Culture is like two mirrors facing each other: it
simultaneously reflects and creates the world we
live in.
 Culture Social Social

Media Norms
Media and Social Norms
Social
Mass Norms
Media
Values
Roles
TV Books
Categories Beliefs
Films
Internet
How do mass media and social norms
affect each other?
 Social norms are typically defined as “rules and standards that are understood by
members of a group, and that guide or constrain social behaviors without the force
of law, and often relate to a perceived social pressure to engage or not engage in
specific behaviors.
 Social media is a collective term for websites and applications that focus on
communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and
collaboration.
 Most sociologists believe that cause each other. We can confidently say that mass
media affect us. It provide us with values and norms that we follow in order to
function in society. Media also produced by people with their own biases and
opinions.
What is Culture?
 Culture includes the ways we speak and think, the food we eat and the way we
dress. It can be loosely defined as a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices.
 Culture set of beliefs, traditions and practices, separate from natural
environment, it is the sum of social categories and concepts we recognizes in
addition to our beliefs and behaviors except the instinctual ones and practices.
 Behaviour based on learned customs is not a bad thing. Being familiar with
unwritten rules helps people feel secure and “normal.” Most people want to live
their daily lives confident that their behaviours will not be challenged or
disrupted. But even an action as seemingly simple as commuting to work evidences
a great deal of cultural propriety.
 As Europeans came into contact with non-Westerners, culture
evolved in terms of differences between peoples, which could be
viewed positively or negatively. For example, , the term of
ethnocentrism, which concludes the sense of taken for granted
superiority in the context of cultural practices and attitude.
 Ethnocentrism, as sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906)
described the term, involves a belief or attitude that one’s own
culture is better than all others. Almost everyone is a little bit
ethnocentric. For example, Canadians tend to say that people
from England drive on the “wrong” side of the road, rather than
the “other” side. Someone from a country where dogs are
considered dirty and unhygienic might find it off-putting to see a
dog in a French restaurant.
 A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy;
a shared sense of community pride, but ethnocentrism can lead to
disdain or dislike for other cultures, causing misunderstanding and
conflict.
Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
 Take the case of going to work on public transportation. Whether
commuting in UK, Cairo, or China, many behaviours will be the same in all
locations, but significant differences also arise between cultures. As culture
consists of thoughts (expectations about personal space, for example) and
tangible things (bus stops, trains, and seating capacity).
 Material culture, refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people.
Metro passes and bus tokens are part of material culture, as are
automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship.
 Non-material culture , in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and
beliefs of a society.
 These material and nonmaterial aspects of culture can vary subtly from
region to region. As people travel farther afield, moving from different
regions to entirely different parts of the world, certain material and
nonmaterial aspects of culture become dramatically unfamiliar. What
happens when we encounter different cultures? As we interact with
cultures other than our own, we become more aware of the differences and
Living in a multicultural world
 Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with all

the differences of a new culture, one may experience
disorientation and frustration. In sociology, we call this
“Culture Shock.”
 Culture shock may appear because people aren’t always
expecting cultural differences.
 Code switching is the ability to flip fluidly between two or
more languages or sets of cultural norms to fit different
cultural contexts.
 Cultural lag: is the time gap between the appearance of a new
technology and the words and practices that give it meaning.
Cultural Relativism
A term coined by Ruth Bendict in 1930s, Cultural

relativism is the idea that we should recognize
differences across cultures without passing judgment
on or assigning value to them.
Cultural Scripts
 Cultural scripts are modes of behavior and

understanding that are not universal or natural,
but that may strongly shape beliefs or concepts
held by a society. n other words, it refers to a
technique for articulating culture-specific norms,
values, and practices in terms which are clear,
precise, and accessible to cultural insiders and
outsiders alike.
Subcultures
A subculture is a group united by sets of
concepts, values, traits, and/or behavioral
patterns that distinguish it from others within
the same culture or society.
 Hegemonic culture would be the main culture,
the majority culture or most powerful culture.
Values and Norms
 Values are moral beliefs.

 Norms are how values tell us to act.
 Socializationis the process by which a

person internalizes the values, beliefs, and
norms of society and learns to function as a
member of that society.
Reflection Theory
 Reflection theory states that culture is a

projection of social structures and relationships
into the public sphere.
A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that

cultural objects reflect the material labor and
production relationships that went into making
them.
What Is Media?
 Media are any formats or vehicles that carry,

present, or communicate information – books,
posters, Web pages, clay tablets, and radio.
 Massmedia refers to any form of media that
reaches the mass of the people.
 Hegemony refers to the impact of media on
culture and how people and societies shape, and
are shaped by, the dominant culture.
The Media Life Cycle
 Media studies open paths of investigation, including:

 textual analysis and audience studies
 how people create media and the biases involved in
that creation
 how media reflect the culture in which they exist
 how individuals and groups use the media to change
culture
Media Effects
 Media effects can be placed into four categories according to their duration and intention:
 short-term and deliberate
 long-term and deliberate
 short-term and unintentional
 long-term and unintentional
 Duration. Some effects last a short time, then go away, while other effects are permanent.
For example, Cindy may listen to the words of a new song on her iPod and remember those
words the rest of her life, or she may not be able to remember them an hour later.
 Intention. When the media industries are criticized for negative effects, one of their
defense strategies is to point out that they did not intend to create a negative effect. For
example, when the media are criticized for presenting so much violence in Hollywood
movies, Producers of those movies will say that they are merely trying to entertain people,
not teach them to behave violently. However, there are many effects that occur even
though the producers of those media messages, as well as the consumers of those messages,
Where Do Stereotypes Come From?
Intentionally or unintentionally,
subtly or overtly, the media can
create or reinforce ethnic, racial,
gender, religious, and other
stereotypes.
Political Economy of the Media
 Media ownership in the United States is in the hands of six companies.
 Those companies affect the information and messages communicated to
the public.
 The media, especially advertisements, play a large role in the
maintenance of consumerism: the belief that happiness and fulfillment
can be achieved through acquisition of material possessions.
 The globalization of the media has spread American culture(soft power)
around the world. This has effects on culture, values, and ideas on
others' behavior, and it has experienced a drop in popularity recently
because of some American foreign policies.
 Culture jamming is the act of turning media against themselves. Its one

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Culture and Media

Do mass media create social norms

 Culture Social Social

 Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with all

A term coined by Ruth Bendict in 1930s, Cultural

 Cultural scripts are modes of behavior and

 Values are moral beliefs.

 Socializationis the process by which a

 Reflection theory states that culture is a

A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that

 Media are any formats or vehicles that carry,

 Media studies open paths of investigation, including:

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