Anand MalhotraAIR 67 · CSE 2021 · 242 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
Media is described as the channel of communication, entertainment, education and enlightenment which facilitates interaction in the society. eg → Newspaper, TV channel.
Media is impacting varied aspects of social life.
Body · points
Kinship system It is emerging as the functional alternative to lack of grandparents in a nuclear household. Edmund Leach has said that TV is the new grandma and mobile is the new best friend.
Civil Society
Close · a summary
Manuel Castells argues that there is
an emergence of 'Network society'. The proliferation of digital/social media has led to better connectedness. But at the same time it has opened the gauntlet of cyber bullying, fake news and paid media as evinced in Jan 6 riots in US.
Political system is transformed with 24x7 news channels. From a Parsonian perspective it is an agency of value consensus.
Media is leading to reduce church attendence as noted by Peter Berger and contributing to secularization. But T.N. Madan's thesis also
points in role of media in radicalization & fundamentalism. Yogendra Singh views media as an agent of rising aspirations but inabsence of increasing resources on redistribution of wealth, it has led to a paradox of modernity.
Merton's reference theory helps in understanding the role of media in increasing westernization in a globalized world.
For Ritzer, the social media represents hyper rationality with rise of micro-targeting.
Giddens views increasing communication through media as a part of modernity.
Thus, media plays an important role across a smorgasboard of social interactions.