Blog Post 7

There are many important sociological concepts that aid us in conducting a sociological analysis on the media. Bureaucracy refers to a collection of more or less anonymous people who follow fixed rules and routines in running organizations and it is typically characterized by a hierarchy of authority, impersonal handling of problems, and a great deal of red tape. Max Weber concluded that as society evolves and becomes more complex, it moves from being led by charismatic individuals to being led by politicians and bureaucrats in what he described as a "rational-legal system" with its by-products being depersonalization. Social roles are formed by the behavior in which people learn relating to expectations of others have on them in specific situations, leaving each individual's social roles to be determined, in part, by his/her place in society. Alienation refers to a feeling of estrangement and separation from others in which the person who is under this condition is like a stranger or alien with no connections to the rest of society. Anomie, deriving from the Greek word nomos (norms), refers to the behavior of a group of people who have no respect to the laws of society,whether they are alienated or not (ex. a group of thieves). The concept of social class refers to a group of people who hold something in common, particularly, according to a sociological context, in terms of socioeconomic class (a person's class level or place within the hierarchy of classes in society). W. Lloyd Warner suggests that there exist six classes in American society, including the lower-lower, upper-lower, lower-middle, upper-middle, lower-upper, and upper-upper classes. Functionalism is a concept in which anything functional contributes to the maintenance and stability of whatever entity it is a a part of, whether it is manifest or latent in nature. Marginalization is the process of individuals and groups with hold values and beliefs that differ from the norm in societies being delegitimated and given secondary status, which may involve being ignored, persecuted, or both. The ideas of mass communication and mass media refer to the use of mass media (ex. Newspapers, the internet, film, television) as a means to communicate to large numbers peoples with sociologists developing numerous models to explain how it functions in society. Communication researchers debate over whether the mass media are weak or powerful and what effects they have on the lives of individuals and on society as a whole. Postmodernism is a term that has held a profound effect on American culture and society and has played a major role in shaping its consciousness while representing the latest stage of capitalism, as stated by Fredric Jameson from Duke University. Sex and gender, being important concepts when linked to roles and some of the other concepts, indicate that the mass media is sexist and has consistently assigned women to destructive roles. Socialization is the process by which people are taught about the rules, roles, and values of their society, which may be sen as a kind of indoctrination done formally through institutions such as the family, school system, and church and informally through the use of the media. What is significant about informal socialization is that people are generally unable to to recognize that they are being taught or "programmed" what roles to play and how to play them, what values to espouse, what attitudes to have, what goals they should strive for, and so on. A person can be pressured into doing what they are expected to do either by force or internalize the rules to them.  Status refers to the position a person has in some group or organization and the prestige attached to that position. It is thus associated with a person's role and is a powerful force used to control people in subtle ways. Those who have certain occupations hold great success where as those with "lesser" jobs hold little status. Stereotypes, as defined in Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, is a social classification of particular groups of people as often highly simplified and generalized signs, which implicitly or explicitly represent a set of values, judgements, and assumptions concerning their behavior, characteristics, or history. Regardless if they are positive, negative, or mixed, no matter what form they take, they are oversimplifications that minimize individual differences and tend to be destructive.