Question

Sociology subject

Culture

Suppose you live in a foreign country and know little about the United States.

Watch any prime-time television and take careful notes about what you learned about U.S. society.

answre the following questions

1- Were the media images you saw an accurate representation of U.S. society?

2- Why or why not?

3-What lessons about the United States might the export of such cultural products be teaching people in other societies?

Be sure to include sociological terminology and critical analysis when answering the questions please

Answer 1

1-)In recent years, the American media has been plagued with all sorts of problems including, sliding profits, scandals about manipulation, plagiarism, propaganda, lower audiences, dumbing down, and so on.

Media omissions, distortion, inaccuracy and bias in the US is something acknowledged by many outside the USA, and is slowly realized more and more inside the US. However, those problems have made it very difficult for the average American citizen to obtain an open, objective view of many of the issues that involve the United States (and since the United States is so influential culturally, economically, politically and militarily around the world, they are naturally involved in many issues).

Those with power and influence know that media control or influence is crucial. A free press is crucial for a functioning democracy, but if not truly free, paves the way for manipulation and concentration of views, thus undermining democracy itself.

2-) In recognition of the role that the press played in the nation’s founding, and in appreciation of the crucial role it plays in maintaining a free society, the press was granted special protections under the First Amendment.

But the founders knew that a free press would be worth little if the people could not read it, so public education became one of the great obsessions of the leaders of the early republic. [The problem in Europe at that time] was restricting education to the wealthy, in the mistaken belief that knowledge is the parent of sedition and insurrection. Instead, he wrote, education was vital to the maintenance of a free society. This concern with education was widespread in the founding generation, and Thomas Jefferson famously listed the establishment of the University of Virginia as one of the three great accomplishments of his life (he omitted his presidency from the list)

The idea of citizenship education grew from these ideals stressing the education of the American institutions, the value of democracy, thinking critically about their society and their roles in that society etc. But with business groups looking to schools essentially to educate workers for a complex industrial society an inherent conflict was brewing.

Thus, the traditional and primary collective goal of public schools building literate citizens able to engage in democratic practices [also the goal of American’s founders] was replaced by the goal of social efficiency, that is, preparing students for a competitive labor market anchored in a swiftly changing economy.

3-) In addition to characterizing the audience as market and commod- ity, we can think of the audience as cultural identities represented in the media. The audience is composed of individuals who are each members of one or more social groups that define their identity. A part of your identity might be defined by the fact that you are a college student; but this identity is already quite complex, and the way it is lived may vary depending on your age, background, income, and so forth. Nevertheless, you are part of an entire generation of college students, both past (all college graduates) and present (the particular graduating class). You are also part of the population of a particular university or college; your affiliation may be expressed in any number of ways (wearing school colors or clothes, sporting the school insignia, supporting the athletic teams). You may also be a member of various groups on and off campus (“Greeks” or independents, commuters or dorm residents, different majors and classes). Consequently, even something as apparently simple as your identity as a college student is itself the product of your particular position in a variety of social groups and social differences. In addi- tion, everyone brings many affiliations with them to campus: religious, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities, particular regional and economic origins (Midwest farming, Northeast working class, or South- western suburban middle class) as well as particular interests (for example, sports and musical tastes). One of the things that every uni- versity tries to accomplish is to bind students together into a common identity with common loyalties.