Agents of Socialization - Part One

Class Notes
Professor Henry Schissler
Principles of Sociology

Agents of Socialization – Part One

Socialization is the process by which, through the agents of socialization, individuals learn about and come to believe in their culture. It is the lifelong process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the physical, mental, and social skills needed for survival in society.
Through the process of socialization and interaction with others, individuals learn about social roles, the socially defined expectations that a person in a given social position will follow, and the core values, generalized beliefs, and expected behaviors of the culture they are born into.
One result of this process is the development of a social identity, the characteristics that other people attribute to an individual. If social identities mark ways in which individuals are the same as others, self-identity sets people apart as distinct individuals. The concept of self-identity refers to the process of self development through which individuals formulate a unique sense of themselves and their relationship to the world around them.
Agents of Socialization may be other individuals (a parent, teacher, a friend), groups (family, peers), or they may be societal institutions (schools, the media).


#1 The Family

For most, the family is the most significant agent of socialization. The family is the source for the child to have his basic needs, safety needs, belonging and intimacy needs met. The family, typically, holds beliefs and expectations that are passed down to the child, often in the guise of “traditions.” And the family helps the child sort through societal social controls.

Since human infants are helpless for a prolonged period after birth, it is essential that all societies have strong cultural norms aimed at providing stable family forms that will help ensure the protection of children.

Before the process of puberty, the child thinks concretely. As puberty settles in, sometime during the late middle school years, abstract or insightful thinking becomes the norm for the child, who is now called a “teenager” or “adolescent” in Western society but is, in fact, a functioning young adult.

The difference between the concrete thinker and the abstract thinker is an important point in the socialization process. The concrete thinker takes the messages of the family and internalizes them – as is. There is no critical analysis there. In contrast, the “teenager” hears family messages but has the developmental ability to critically analyze the messages, to look beneath the surface of them

For example, if a child is raised by a harsh and angry father whose moods are directly impacted by his alcoholism, the concrete thinking young child takes the gruff statements of rejection to heart and takes the negative moods of the alcoholic personally. The insightful thinking teenager can reason. He can therefore reason that his father’s diatribes toward him are a direct result of his drinking problem and should, therefore, NOT be taken personally or internalized.


In the past, the standard definition of family has been a group of people who are related to one another by bonds of blood, marriage, or adoption, and who live together, form an economic unit, and bear and raise children. But to accurately reflect the many changes in family life, a more encompassing definition of what constitutes a family has emerged.

Family – relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.

Changes in family structure and priorities can be attributed to various factors, including 49 states adopting “no-fault” divorce laws; the changing economy that made it necessary for both adults in a household to work outside the home; birth control and family planning; women pursuing careers and choosing to have a child or children later in life; changes in religious practices including annulments in Roman Catholic churches; the “sandwich” generation; the common practice of cohabitation; and, various other issues, some positive, some negative, as they relate to stable families.


Examples of the Many Types of Families

Extended Family – unit composed of relatives (such as grand parents, uncles, and aunts) in addition to parents and children who live in the same household, the largest family type in Western society and throughout the world.

Nuclear Family – unit composed on one or two parents and their dependent children.

Blended or Step Families – both adults have remarried and form a new family that includes children from the first marriages (Brady Bunch Families).

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (often adopting them) – fastest growing type of family; alcohol/other drug abuse main reason parental problem.

Gay & Lesbian Families – growing acceptance of non-traditional families and of gay/lesbian population particularly among Americans under the age of 35 is causing more and more gay/lesbian families to move into suburban environments to raise their families; anti-gay/lesbian rhetoric has been used as a divisive “wedge” issue politically but most Americans support civil unions and a majority of Americans (about 54% - 11/07) support full marriage rights; Civil Unions now legal in Connecticut; adoption of foster-children by same-sex couples has been legal in a majority of states.

Mixed Race – growing quickly throughout the United States; sixty percent of biracial population is under the age of eighteen; as this population grows, it is probable that we will need to redefine our understanding of race.

Cohabitating Families – now a common family type; it was called “living in sin” just thirty years ago.

Single Parent Families (majority headed by female) – divorces, absent fathers, single women having children are all common occurrences; and ongoing social problems including alcohol and illegal drug abuse, poverty, and financial difficulties for families above the poverty level are all contributors to family dysfunction.

The Working Poor – 1996 welfare reform has created this population of full time working parents who cannot lift their families above poverty line.


Marriage Patterns

Marriage is a legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual activity.

Marriage is civil, a legal union; it can also be religious if the couple chooses to be married within a religious institution.

Monogamy – a marriage between two partners, usually a woman and a man; the only form of marriage sanctioned by law.

Serial Monogamy – the practice of having more than one wife, husband or partner, but only one at a time (marriage, divorce, remarriage, divorce, remarriage).

Polygamy – the concurrent marriage of a person of one sex with two or more members of the opposite sex.

Polygyny – one man with two or more women; practiced in a number of Islamic societies, including regions of Africa & southern Russia, also breakaway Mormons in Utah; some Fundamentalists state that the Bible & Koran support Polygyny.

Polyandry – one woman with two or more men; very rare; typically found in societies where women greatly outnumber men.


Patterns of Power & Authority in Families

Patriarchal – structure in which authority is held by eldest male (usually the father), who acts as head of household & holds power over women & children; most prevalent pattern; holds true in most cultures

Matriarchal – authority is held by eldest female (usually the mother), who acts as head of household.

Egalitarian – structure in which both partners share power & authority equally

Endogamy – cultural norms prescribing that people marry within their own social group or category.

Exogamy – practice of marrying outside one’s own social group or category. (example: Immigrant groups)


Theoretical Patterns

Functionalist Perspective

1. Family maintains stability of a society, well-being of individuals;

2. Biological reproduction;

3. Protection of those who are relatively helpless, including children, the infirm, the very elderly;

4. Provides members with intimacy and social support essential for mental health and personal well-being;

5. Four key functions are: sexual regulation; socialization; economic & psychological support for members; provision of social status & reputation;

6. Nurturance and socialization of children provides social stability; inadequate or dysfunctional socialization leads to deviant behavior.


Conflict Perspective

1. Families are primary source of inequality; power disparities are the norm in patriarchal systems;

2. Reinforces inequality between men and women;

3. Teaches “pecking order”, authority, conformity;

4. Reinforces class system;

5. Promotes competition;

6. Sustains cultural status quo.


Family Systems Theory

1. Family is ecosystem, programmed to survive;

2. Family is balanced, but able to deal with consistent demands of change through “un”balance to “re”balance process;

3. Families can be drawn using genogram so that members can see the roles that they play and change them if necessary.


Other Issues Impacting Families

1. Economics, including debt
2. Status and Social Class Difference
3. Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Inequality
4. Alcohol/Other Drug Abuse and Addiction
5. Children Taken Into State Custody
6. Criminal Justice Involvement
7. Domestic Violence
8. Abuse: Neglect, Physical, Sexual, and Emotional




2) Peers and Peer Influence

Peer Group – a set of individuals who, sharing certain common characteristics such as age, ethnicity, or occupation, perceive themselves and are recognized by others as a distinct social collectivity. The group is seen to have its own culture, symbols, sanctions, and rituals, into which the new member must be socialized, and according to which those who fail to comply with group norms may be ostracized.

Peer Influence impacts kids, teens and adults. Peer Influence drives social interaction.

For children, Primary Socialization comes from the family. However, Peer Influence is also being internalized.

For example, four-year-old boys in pre-school settings are already learning gender socialization. They are learning what toys to play with, what areas of the child care center to play in (and which ones to stay away from). They are learning the “boy colors” and the “girl colors”. Should a little boy like the color pink, peer Influence will cause him to either reject the color entirely or pretend to dislike it so that he will be accepted by the group. Even though he cannot understand why pink is “bad”, peer Influence is so powerful that he will accept this fact of life and behave accordingly.

The Adolescent Experience

The inauguration of a thriving teen culture in mid-twentieth century America had as much to do with big business as with teenagers themselves. In order to market their products, advertisers tapped into popular culture and promoted adolescence as a distinct stage of life separate from both childhood and adulthood.

The teen culture became more and more of a subcultural group with clear values and norms that were not entirely in synch with the “older” generations. These overarching macro-level beliefs began to serve as a measuring stick of what was normal or abnormal, in or out, good or bad.

It served notice to this population that their sense of self would rise or fall on these macro-levels conditions. Peer Influence became the cornerstone of peer acceptance. Big business understood this, and marketed products to promote an “in group” status driven by peer acceptance (Peer Influence).

Today, these conditions are stronger than ever. With advancing technology, outreach to the adolescent subculture is more powerful, focused, and intense. Peer Influence continues to grow as the driving force behind beliefs, needs, personal taste, fad and fashion acceptance. All of these would be considered parts of Popular Culture.

Popular Culture – the common set of entertainment, arts, and customs shared by large segments of the population – both reflects and influences society’s values and beliefs. Popular music, fashions, movies, and other entertainment often encapsulate the attitudes of the mass culture. At the same time, they provide a powerful forum for the transmission of new ideas and passionate beliefs about social issues.

Adult Peer Influence is no different from the adolescent experience. It revolves around norms of social class, education and work identity, the acquisition of status symbols, and style.


Symbolic Interactionist Theory: Peer Influence on The “Self”

Three general premises to Symbolic Interactionist Theory:

1. In order to understand human behavior, we must learn what those behaviors mean to the individual actors.

2. Meanings develop within social relationships.

3. Individuals play active roles in constructing their self-concepts.


When Peer Influence is in play, we are actively involved in creating & negotiating our own roles and self-concept. We view ourselves as we think others view us.

This is the looking-glass self; there are three steps in its formation:
1. We imagine how we appear to others.
2. We imagine how others judge our appearance.
3. We develop feelings about & responses to these judgments.

These self-judgments come from various places. Life experiences in general and our specific past experiences influence us. Our primary socialization comes into play as we form self-judgments.

Peer Influence is direct feedback from others. When we give certain peers a level of power, meaning that their viewpoint is meaningful to us, we are affirming internal beliefs about what is important, who is important, and what are our “ideals.”

The Negotiated Self is the self that we fashion to present to others in order to enhance (or preserve) our self –esteem. It represents our “ideals” and the result of our self-judgments from looking-glass self.

Role Identity is the image we have of ourselves in a specific social role.

Physical Appearance – may be the most intense Peer Influenced piece of self-concept one deals with – particularly during early adolescence, adolescence, and young adulthood.

Adolescence has been socially constructed to serve as a bridge between childhood and adulthood (even through the adolescent is a functioning adult). As such, the central task promoted in today’s society is for the adolescent to begin to establish independence – from family of origin, from childhood belief systems, to plan for the future.

Planning is often anticipatory socialization, role learning that prepares us for roles we are likely to assume in the future. Professional Socialization is learning not only the knowledge but also the culture of a profession.

As Peer Influence helps to establish new social roles for adolescents, they will engage in Role Exits, the processes by which individuals leave important social roles. Obviously, this process happens throughout one’s life.

Resocialization occurs when a person abandons her/his way of life for a radically different one. Joining a cult, spending ten years in prison, adjusting to life after a major disability are examples of circumstances where resocialization will occur.



3) Education

Education is a formal process of learning in which some people consciously teach while others adopt the social role of learner.

Education transmits the society’s norms, values, and knowledge base by means of direct instruction (socialization function).

At the micro-level, people acquire the basic knowledge & skills they need to survive in society. At the macro-level, the social institution of education is an essential component in maintaining & perpetuating the culture of a society across generations.

Formal Education occurs within academic institutions such as schools.

Mass Education is the extension of formal schooling to wide segments of the population. It helps to socialize people to norms and values necessary to promote social solidarity (bonds that unite the members of a social group). Mass education began in the US by the 1850’s and accelerated as the Industrial Revolution grew.

Cultural Transmission – the process by which children & recent immigrants become acquainted with the dominant cultural beliefs, values, norms and accumulated knowledge of a society. (Example: standing at your desk when speaking to the professor)

The “Hidden Curriculum” – an unspoken classroom socialization to norms, values, attitudes, allegiances, and roles that a school provides along with the “official” curriculum:

(1) Acceptance of class position
(2) Gender socialization (females and math/science)
(3) Acceptance of normative beliefs for each class (the lower one’s social class rank the lower one’s educational aspirations)
(4) Conformity to cultural status quo
(5) Society’s self-definition (through History & Social Studies)
(6) The value and joy of competition
(7) The value of status through economic success


Sociological Theory

Conflict Theory – Schools foster competition through built-in systems of rewards and punishments; schools reinforce the divisive aspects of society, especially those of class, racial-ethnic, and gender inequalities; students from middle and upper class backgrounds have the Social and Cultural Capitol to succeed in school, whereas those from poorer backgrounds do not.

Social and Cultural Capitol – an accumulation of advantages that enhance a person’s chances for Individual Mobility.

Research shows that the following are most likely to result in advantage:
parental income; one’s level of education; occupation and family connections; supportive home environment, including parental expectations and priority; financial resources to pay for higher education, financial support to eliminate need to work, for books, tutoring, any other “extras” needed for success.

Functionalist Theory – Schools perform a number of essential functions for society, including socialization, transmission of culture, social control, social placement, and change and innovation; the ability to succeed is crucial to an individual’s drive necessary to achieve greatness, to invent, to cure, to innovate.


Symbolic Interactionists – the school culture is complex; it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy for students who perform up or down to the expectations held for them by educators; “looking-glass self” implies that student interactions directly impact sense of self


Education and Social Mobility

Education plays a crucial role in Social Mobility. The impact of formal schooling on adult status is even greater than that of family background. Three-fourths of college-educated men achieve some upward mobility, compared with only 12 percent of those with no college education.

Education’s impact on mobility will diminish as more and more people have an undergraduate degree. There is, therefore, increased demand for Masters degrees to be competitive in the job market.

Education also represents an important means of intergenerational mobility. Mobility declines as more and more people in each generation have college degrees.


The Sheff vs. O’Neill court case in Connecticut is an excellent example of issues of educational quality, unequal funding of public schools and social mobility.

Today’s schools are formal organizations like hospitals or corporations. Schools do not operate autonomously; they are influenced by the market for potential students (private k-12 schools, magnet and charter public schools, all colleges and universities).

“Adult Learner” programs occurred because of a dip in the traditional-age college student pool about twenty-five years ago. Shorter semesters and classes offered at different times (Sundays, evenings) were ways for colleges to compete for “adult learners”. Online courses are the newest innovation to compete for students. There is much debate among educators about the quality of the typical online (versus onground) course offering.

Public Schools are a microcosm of many of the problems facing the country. Examples:

1. School violence,
2. Aggressive behavior, assault, robbery (gratuitous vs. meaningful violence,
3. School shootings (“white” shooters and “minority” shooters);
4. Alcohol and other drug abuse (“crack” cocaine and cocaine),
5. Drop-out rates,
6. Lack of high academic standards and “social promotion,”
7. Gender bias,
8. Teen pregnancy and teen parenting,
9. Gay/lesbian teens,
10. Diversity and multiculturalism acceptance,
11. Bilingual needs.


The Role of History in Society

One way societies, cultures and groups define themselves is through their history. Historical facts, stories, myths and legends come together to trace the evolution of a people. This evolution frames their here-and-now values and norms, and their self-definition.

Who decides the content of a people’s history? Can content change? Can facts be interpreted? Can facts change? Should certain aspects of a history be minimized or removed? Should other aspects be maximized and featured?

Who is history’s audience?

How Societies, Cultures and Groups Tend to Construct Their History

In Textbooks –

Heroification – Our educational media turns flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, near perfect men (and occasionally women) who solve problems quickly, are even tempered, intelligent, family focused, and altruistic.

What happens to our heroes when they are introduced into our history textbooks and our classrooms?

Example #1 – Helen Keller

What the history books say...

History books have held up Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl who overcame her physical handicaps, as an inspiration to generations of school children.

According to a McGraw-Hill publication: “The gift of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan to the world is to constantly remind us of the wonder of the world around us and how much we owe those who taught us what it means, for there is no person that is unworthy or incapable of being helped, and the greatest service any person can do is to help another reach true potential.”
What the history books leave out...

Helen Keller was a highly publicized political radical. Her outspokenness led to a great deal of media attention – both positive and negative. She often denounced our social class system that, in her opinion, controls peoples’ opportunities in life. This belief led her to join the Socialist party in 1909. She was an active member of the women’s suffrage movement, and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union to “fight for the free speech of others”.

Example #2 – Woodrow Wilson

What the history books say...

He led our country reluctantly into World War I and, after the war, led the struggle nationally and internationally to establish the League of Nations. He is associated with such progressive causes as women’s suffrage.

What the history books leave out...

Under Wilson, the US landed troops in Mexico in 1914, Haiti in 1915 (forced the Haitian legislature to select the US preferred candidate for president, supervised a referendum to approve a new constitution after dissolving the Haitian Legislature), the Dominican Republic in 1916, Mexico again in 1916, Cuba in 1917, and Panama in 1918.

Wilson also maintained forces in Nicaragua throughout his Presidency to determine the country’s president and force passage of a treaty giving preferential treatment to the US.

In 1917, he authorized covert monetary aid in the Russian civil war, authorized a naval blockade of the Soviet Union in 1918, and sent troops to the region. U.S. actions (ending in 1920) are referred to as our “unknown war with Russia”. This aggression fueled the suspicions that motivated the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

What the history books say...

“President Wilson was urged to send military forces into Mexico to protect American investments and to restore law and order.”

“President Wilson soon discovered that because of forces he could not control, his ideas of morality and idealism had to give way to practical action.” “Thus, though he believed it morally undesirable to send Marines into the Caribbean, he saw no way to avoid it.”

What the history books leave out...

Wilson’s administration was openly hostile to black Americans. He was an outspoken white supremacist who believed that blacks were inferior. Wilson ordered that black and white workers in federal government jobs be segregated from one another. This was the first time such segregation had existed since Reconstruction.

History textbooks employ a rhetoric of certainty.

Dates, times and events are presented as accurate, with detail that sounds compelling even if it is more fiction than fact.

It is, therefore, hard for teachers to introduce controversy or “critical thinking” without deviating from the usual standards of discourse, history as “factoids for memorization”.

Events surrounding Christopher Columbus and the fate of Native American populations are most often cited as the strongest examples of an inaccurate historical record taught to all children in Western society.

Can a people learn from the mistakes of history? Can a people accept misfortune and missteps as a part of their society’s legacy?

Can a history class “critically analyze” the past in order to strategize for the future?


4) The Media

The development of mass communications has enlarged the range of socializing agencies. The spread of mass printed media was later accompanied by the use of electronic communication. TV exerts a particularly powerful influence, reaching people of all ages at regular intervals every day.
The mass media is an agent of socialization that has a profound impact on both children and adults.
The media function as socializing agents in several ways: (1) they inform us about events; (2) they introduce us to a wide variety of people; (3) they provide an array of viewpoints on current issues; (4) they make us aware of products and services that, if we purchase them, supposedly will help us to be accepted by others; and (5) they entertain us by providing the opportunity to live vicariously (through other people's experiences).
Mass Media Culture – a culture in which mass media plays a key role in both shaping and creating cultural perceptions

• Print Media – newspapers, magazines, books, photojournalism, etc.

• Electronic Media – radio, computer, Internet, television, film, etc.

Mass Audience – a large collection of people who receive messages that are directed at them not as individuals, but as a group; messages are highly generalized and never individualized

Mass Society – one whose members are lacking in strong social ties and are, therefore, defenseless against various forms of manipulation by mass media


Who Owns The Media – In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation.
In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.
Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content.

Media literacy is an overall term that incorporates three stages of a continuum leading to media empowerment:

The first stage is simply becoming aware of the importance of managing one's media "diet"— that is, making choices and reducing the time spent with television, videos, electronic games, films and various print media forms.

The second stage is learning specific skills of critical viewing— learning to analyze and question what is in the frame, how it is constructed and what may have been left out. Skills of critical viewing are best learned through inquiry-based classes or interactive group activities, as well as from creating and producing one's own media messages.

The third stage goes behind the frame to explore deeper issues. Who produces the media we experience—and for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who decides? This stage of social, political and economic analysis looks at how everyone in society makes meaning from our media experiences, and how the mass media drive our global consumer economy. This inquiry can sometimes set the stage for various media advocacy efforts to challenge or redress public policies or corporate practices.

Although television and electronic media may seem to present the most compelling reasons for promoting media literacy education in contemporary society, the principles and practices of media literacy education are applicable to all media— from television to T-shirts, from billboards to the Internet.
Identify — Analyze — Evaluate
1. Form: Media messages come in different forms. Through what medium is the message delivered?
2. Purpose: Each media message has a purpose. Who created the message and why?
3. Construction: Each media message is a construction. What words, images, or sounds are used to create the message?
4. Interpretation: People interpret media messages differently. How does the message make you feel?
5. Reality: Media messages represent (someone’s) social reality. What is the message maker’s point of view?
The Fairness Doctrine and Deregulation
When applied in the United States, deregulation describes most American electronic media policy in the past two decades. This fundamental shift in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approach to radio and television regulation began in the mid-1970s as a search for relatively minor "regulatory underbrush" which could be cleared away for more efficient and cost-effective administration of the important rules that would remain. Congress largely went along with this trend, and initiated a few deregulatory moves of its own.
The arrival of the Reagan Administration and FCC Chairman Mark Fowler in 1981 marked a further shift to a fundamental and ideologically-driven reappraisal of regulations long held central to national broadcasting policy. Ensuing years saw removal of many long-standing rules resulting in an overall reduction in FCC oversight of station and network operations. Congress grew increasingly wary of the pace of deregulation, however, and began to slow the FCC's deregulatory pace by the late 1980s.
Specific deregulatory moves included (a) extending television licenses to five years from three in 1981; (b) expanding the number of television stations any single entity could own grew from seven in 1981 to 12 in 1985 (a situation under consideration for further change in 1995); (c) abolishing guidelines for minimal amounts of non-entertainment programming in 1985; (d) elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987; (e) dropping, in 1985, FCC license guidelines for how much advertising could be carried; (f) leaving technical standards increasingly in the hands of licensees rather than FCC mandates; and (g) deregulation of television's competition (especially cable which went through several regulatory changes in the decade after 1983).
The policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission that became known as the "Fairness Doctrine" is an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair. The FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were "public trustees," and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance. The Commission later held that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community and air programming that addressed those issues. With the deregulation sweep of the Reagan Administration during the 1980s, the Commission dissolved the fairness doctrine. This doctrine grew out of concern that because of the large number of applications for radio station being submitted and the limited number of frequencies available, broadcasters should make sure they did not use their stations simply as advocates with a singular perspective. Rather, they must allow all points of view. That requirement was to be enforced by FCC mandate.
The fairness doctrine ran parallel to Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1937 which required stations to offer "equal opportunity" to all legally qualified political candidates for any office if they had allowed any person running in that office to use the station. The attempt was to balance--to force an even handedness.

An Example of Mass Media Impact

Edward Bernays (1891-1995) was one of the founders of the public relations field. He was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis. Bernays pioneered the industry’s use of psychology, sociology, and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns.

“Public relations embraces the engineering of consent based on Jefferson’s principle that ‘in a true democratic society, everything depends upon the consent of the public.’ This fundamental truth is the basis of my life’s work.”

From The Future of Public Relations, Edward Bernays

Engineering of Consent was Bernays’ scientific technique of opinion molding. “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.”

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling class of our country.”

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society...”
“No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those people who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and clichés and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.”

From Propaganda, Edward L. Bernays, 1928

One of Bernays’ favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of “third party authorities” to plead for his clients’ cases. “If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway,” he said.

In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat hearty breakfasts. He sent results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast. He then devised a public relations campaign that featured doctors recommending a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs.

Bernays’ “celebration of propaganda – proper-ganda” included convincing marching suffragettes to hold aloft Lucky Strike cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom,” Americans to switch to beer as the “beverage of moderation,” and both physicians and actors to endorse certain brands of cigarettes as “milder” and “more soothing on the throat.” These ads had a tone that implied there were medicinal properties in cigarettes.

Behaviorism – an approach to socialization that emphasizes the effect of rewards and punishments on observable human behavior.

Classical Conditioning – a kind of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response through its association with a stimulus that naturally brings about the response.

Learning – a relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience.

Behavior Modification – a technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones.


“Common Sense Knowledge of Culture” and Media

Our theories and opinions about issues come from “common sense” – from our experiences & conversations, from what we read, see on TV, and so forth. A majority is a direct result of media presentations.

“Common Sense knowledge” is not always accurate because it comes from commonly held beliefs rather than from the systematic analysis. It can lead to overgeneralizations, assumptions, and stereotypes. For example, it is a commonly held belief (due almost exclusively to media presentations) that most Americans in poverty are African-American and Hispanic. This is false. There are twice as many white Americans living in poverty than African Americans. Why are there no images of white poverty in the media?

In media, we see stereotypes used frequently in entertainment programs so that the viewer can easily understand who a character is and what the character represents by relating to stereotyped actions and statements. .

In the news, “framing” and “spinning” are two techniques used by infotainers, news personnel, and “expert commentators” to present news but with a particular ideological twist to it. Because all of the parties involved are presented as newscasters, it is often impossible for the general public to understand that they are social and political agenda parading as hard news.

Debunking – the “unmasking tendency” in sociology to look behind the facades of everyday life, and beyond the overgeneralizations, assumptions, and stereotypes, and see patterns and processes that shape attitude, belief systems, and behavior.