SOC201: SOCIAL & CULTURAL

CHANGE
Lecture 5: Mediatization & Social Relationships
LECTURE OVERVIEW

Examines how mediatization is

changing personal & family life
LEARNING DIARY 1

Explain, using examples, how

mediatization is affecting one of the
following areas of social life in UAE:
the family, education, government,
tourism & leisure, heritage, the
economy, work
 MEDIATIZATION & THE FAMILY
 Mediatization means that family members may
be physically present in the home, yet mentally
engaged elsewhere
 The private space of the family home is ‘opened
out’ to the world
 ‘mediated spaces and platforms have become for
countless adolescents the space where they
‘hang out’ away from parents and other sources
of authority’ (Couldry & Hepp, 2017: 153)
 The result is a weakening of the home’s ability to
regulate family members’ behaviour
 A whole new area for family negotiation and
conflict emerges in relation to children’s and
teens’ access to phones and the internet
 At the same time, new media can help
maintain family ties
 Parents and peers are able to maintain a
constant presence in their children’s lives
through mobile phones and other devices
 Family memories are created and preserved
through uploading and sharing family photos
on online platforms (birthdays, holidays,
anniversaries)
 Families which are spread across long
distances can keep up close relationships
 But are relationships constructed through
video conferences, phone calls and social
media the same as face-to-face
relationships?
Are online relationships the same as face-
to-face relationships? If not, what are the
differences?

What are the positives of online

relationships? Are there any negatives?
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
 Social ties can be ‘weak’ or
‘strong’, as measured by their
frequency, reciprocity,
duration, and importance
(Granovetter, 1973)
 New media multiplies and
expands opportunities for
creating ‘weak’ social ties
 They support forms of
interaction suitable for more
causal and less binding
relationships
OTHER-DIRECTED
CHARACTER (DAVID
REISMAN)
 Social character chances as we
shift from an age of production
to an age of consumption
 Inner-directed people – tend
to acquire an internalised set of
goals early in life
 Other-directed people – are
sensitive to the expectations
and preferences of others
OTHER-DIRECTED CHARACTER
 These people’s behaviour is constantly shaped by other people, who they view
either directly or through the media
 They pay close attention to the signals given out by others throughout their life:
Riesman says they have an internal ‘radar’ which constantly searches for these
signals and picks them up
 ‘an exceptional sensitivity to the actions and wishes of others’ (Riesman, 2001: 22)
 Rather than having fixed goals in life, their goals and opinions shift and change
based on this guidance
 They are subject to a constant anxiety about receiving and responding to social
signals from others (afraid of not being fashionable, ‘cool’, up to date, ‘with it’
etc.)
 New media facilitate the monitoring and imitation of social trends across an
extended social environment
 This reinforces the shift from an inner-directed to an other-directed character
(Riesman, 1950)
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
 Group membership can become
defined by access to particular
media platforms, and failure to use
certain media can result in exclusion
 There is increasingly a pressure to
perform online just to exist as a
social being
 Presence on social media platforms
means submission to judgement by
peers, non-peers and future
employers (‘digital traces’)
LECTURE 5 – KEY TAKEAWAYS
New media open the private space of the family home to the wider world,
weakening parents’ controls over who their children interact with

However they also provide new resources for maintaining family ties

Digital media tend to facilitate the multiplication of ‘weak’ rather than

‘strong’ social ties…

…as well as reinforcing the spread of what Riesman (2001) called an

‘other-directed’ personality

Lack of access to particular digital media technologies or platforms can

lead to people being socially disadvantaged