Matakuliah
Tahun
: Sosiologi Komunikasi Massa
: 2009/2010
SOSIOLOGI & MEDIA
Pertemuan 1
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Sociology
• The study of social (groups)
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Interaksi
Aktifitas kelompok masyarakat
Sub-groups
Ethnic groups
Politics (kekuasaan)
Ekonomi (household corporations )
Ideas (come from culture) ie: ideologi, filsafat, moral
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Sociology
• A scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans in their collective aspect,
sociology is concerned with all group activities—economic, social, political, and religious.
• Sociologists study such areas as bureaucracy, community, deviant behavior, family, public
opinion, social change, social mobility, social stratification, and such specific problems as
crime, divorce, child abuse, and substance addiction.
• Sociology tries to determine the laws governing human behavior in social contexts; it is
sometimes distinguished as a general social science from the special social sciences, such as
economics and political science, which confine themselves to a selected group of social facts or
relations.
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Unit of Study
• Political Science is the study of government and political processes, institutions,
and behavior
• Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin and behavior of man, including
the development of societies and cultures
• Sociology the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships ;
specifically : the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and
collective behavior of organized groups of human beings
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Fathers of Sociology
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Max Weber (1864-1920)
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: Society and Conflict
: Society and Function
: The Rationalization of Society
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Social Organization
Social Structure
• Refers to the social context itself, or
the set of social relations that link
individuals in a society
• Social organizations tend to refer to
social actions and define roles
individuals play in relation to one
another
• The term ‘social organization’ has
been used since Comte
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• Refers to the sum total of activities
performed in a given social context
• Social structure defines the status of
actors performing such roles
• The study of social structure
descends from classical structuralfunctionalist and structuralist
traditions
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Functionalist View
– The media:
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Socialize us
Enforce social norms
Confer status
Promote consumption
Keep us informed about our environment
May act as a narcotic
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Functionalist View
– Agent of Socialization
• Media increases social cohesion by presenting
common view of culture
– Provide collective experience for members of a society
– Socializing effects can promote religious as well as patriotic
exchanges, uniting believers around the world
– Socializing effect of media means programming can easily
become controversial
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Functionalist View
– Enforcer of Social Norms
• Media reaffirm proper behavior by showing
what happens to people who violate societal
expectations
– Conferral of Status
• Singles out one from thousands of other
similarly placed issues or people to become
significant
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Functionalist View
– Promotion of Consumption
• Media advertising
– Supports economy
– Provides information
– Underwrites cost of media
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
Figure 7-1. Number of Hours per Week Spent with Media,
1997—2008 (projected)
Source: Veronis Suhler Stevenson LLC 2003:166-167 for 1997; 2004:184-185 for all other data
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
Table 7-1. Status Conferred by Magazines
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Functionalist View
– Surveillance of the Social Environment
• Surveillance Function: collection and
distribution of information concerning events in
the social environment
– Dysfunction: The Narcotizing Effect
• Narcotizing Dysfunction: phenomenon in
which the media provide such massive
amounts of information that audience becomes
numb and fails to act on the information
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Conflict View
– Conflict theorists emphasize that the media
reflect and even exacerbate many of the
divisions of our society and world,
including:
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Gender
Race
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Ethnicity
Social class
– Gatekeeping: how material must travel through a series of
checkpoints before reaching the public
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Conflict View
– Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality
• Dominant Ideology: set of cultural beliefs
and practices that help to maintain powerful
social, economic, and political interests
• Mass media serve to maintain the privileges
of certain groups
• Stereotypes: unreliable generalization
about all members of a group that do not
recognize individual differences within the
group
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Conflict View
– Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture?
• Globalization projects the dominating reach of the
U.S. media into the rest of the world
• Media cultural exports undermine the distinctive
traditions and art forms of other societies and
encourage their cultural and economic
dependence on the U.S.
Nations that feel a loss of identity may try to defend against the cultural invasion
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Feminist View
– Feminists share conflict theorists’ view that the mass media
stereotype and misrepresent social reality
• Women underrepresented
• Perpetuate stereotypical views of gender
• Emphasize traditional sex roles and normalize
violence against women
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
• Interactionist View
– Interactionists especially interested in shared
understandings of everyday behavior
– Examine media on micro level to see how they shape dayto-day social behavior
– Scholars increasingly point to mass media as source of
major daily activity
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
Figure 7-2. The Internet Explosion
Source: National Geographic 2005:21
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Sociological Perspectives of the Media
Table 7-2. Sociological Perspectives
on the Mass Media
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