SOCIOLOGY – LECTURE 5

IRUM KHAN
OBJECTIVES

 Understand role and impact of technology and media in our lives

 Understand globalization of technology
 Understand and discuss how media and technology are analyzed through various theoretical
perspectives
MASS MEDIA

 Channels of communications that are available to

wide segments of population
 Print media
 Film
 Electronic Media (Radio/Television)
 Internet
 Technology creates media
SOCIAL MEDIA

 The vast networks of social interaction that new

media have inspired
 Usage increases the possibility of democratic
participation by allowing the open discussion and
transmittal of information (Ferdinand, 2000)
 Facebook, twitter, Instagram, snapchat, Tik Tok,
LinkedIn etc.
TECHNOLOGICAL GLOBALIZATION

 Technological diffusion
 Spread of technology across borders

 Technological progress and economic growth

are interlinked
 Mass media are organized via powerful
economic interests and are major producers and
distributors of culture
TECHNOLOGICAL STRATIFICATION

 Digital Divide:
 The uneven access to technology along
race, class and geographic lines.
 Knowledge gap:
 Increasing gap in information for those
who have less access to technology
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE

 It is Technology that is built to crash

 Business practice of planning for a product
to be obsolete or unusable from the time it
is created
 Apple products, Software updates,
replacement costs etc.
RACE, GENDER AND CLASS IN MASS MEDIA

Does it effect standards of beauty?

Does it effect standards of living?
Does it effect our ideals and attitudes?
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

 Functionalism
 Focus on how media and technology contribute to smooth functioning of society
 Commercial Function – Entertainment Function – Social Norm Functions –

 Conflict Theory Perspective

 Differential access to media and technology embodied in digital divide

 Interactionist Perspective
 Focus on difference between real life and one depicted on media
CONTROL OF MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

 Gatekeeping
 Sorting process by which thousands of possible messages are shaped into mass-media appropriate
form and reduced to manageable form
 People in charge of media decide what public is exposed to

 Unbalanced political arena and biased reporting

 Misrepresentation or non-representation in cultural diversity
THANKYOU AND GOOD LUCK
IRUM.KHAN@CUST.EDU.PK