| Galina 1 |
| Galina 2 |
| James |
| Larysa 1 |
| Larysa 2 |
| Rene |
Galina
Kopelovich
ESL 91
Spring, 2001
According to sociology researchers we
know that the
Mass Media- radio, motion pictures, recorded
music, television and
the Internet- are
important agents of
socialization in our
life. The Mass
Media, especially the
Internet, has a
powerful influence in
developing value systems
and shaping behavior.
Recently, sociologists and
other social scientists
have begun to
consider what impact
Internet communication may
have on socialization. Thus, the Internet has
two kinds of
influence on people,
negative if people
do not use
it wisely and
positive if they
do.
“The Internet is
the world’s largest
computer network. As
of 1998, it
was reaching some
37 million computer
users, but the
number of people
using the Internet
has doubled each
year. The Internet
serves as a
powerful agent of
socialization for many
young people in
the United States
and elsewhere. In
recent years, people
have expressed concern
about the type
of material that
children can access
on the Internet, especially pornography.” (Schaefer, 2000).
The governments
of all countries are constantly
trying to fight
child pornography on
the Internet, but
they cannot succeed
because if they
close one site,
there are two
more that will
be opened the
next day. For
example, in a
Russian newspaper I
read about the
recent discovery of
Internet child pornography
in Russia. People paid big money to
see a 6-year-old girl raped
and then killed.
But the government cannot
stop this spread
of illegal material
over the Internet
because there are
too many powerful
people involved in
this business. This
is bad not only for
the children that
are being raped
and killed, but
also for people
who watch those
video materials on
the Internet. After
seeing something like
this, they might
also want to
do the same thing themselves.
Although this
is an example of the
negative influence of
the Internet, the
Internet’s influence may
also be positive.
For example, my
husband’s relatives live
in different countries
such as Australia,
Israel and Germany,
and my husband wants to
keep in contact with them.
However, he does not
like to write
letters at all,
so he uses the Internet.
Sending letters by
mail to other
countries is more
expensive than using
the Internet. In
this case, the
Internet gives him
the possibility to
communicate with his
relatives more easily
and cheaply. Moreover, he has met many
people on the
Internet with whom
he talks about
many subjects including
his and their
lives, the weather,
entertainment, the political
and economical situation
in different countries.
The Internet has
been very useful
to my husband.
While preparing
to write this essay
I spent a
lot of time on the
Internet looking for information about the positive
and negative influence
of the Internet on people’s
minds. After many
hours of hard
work, I’ve found
some useful information
on this topic,
which helped me
to better comprehend
the influence of
the Internet on
people.
I think that
the Internet plays
a great role
in all of our lives,
especially children’s. When
I tried to
find information for
my essay my
son helped me.
I could not
imagine that two
years after we
arrived in America
my son would know so
much about getting
information by using
the computer. When
I came to America I
wondered when I
found out that
every school, college
and even kindergarten was computerized.
The Media, especially
the Internet, play a great role
in our lives and are
an important and
powerful agent of
socialization in everyone’s
lives. The Internet
enables us to
communicate over great
distances and makes
our life much
easier.
Schaefer, Richard T.
(2000). SOCIOLOGY A BRIEF
INTRODUCTION (Third edition). Boston: Mc Graw-Hill.
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Galina Kopelovich
ESL 91
Spring, 2001
Essay Topic: The mass media can have a great influence on encouraging people, especially teenagers and young adults, to pursue the cultural ideal of beauty. How does the mass media teach and promote a specific standard of beauty in our society? What effect does this have on young people? What is the relationship between media messages and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia? Choose ONE form of the mass media (for example, television, magazines, movies, the Internet) and explain how this medium promotes a cultural standard of beauty that can lead to eating disorders.
Nowadays the
Media, especially television,
have become an
important agent of
socialization. Socialization is
an important process
in everyone’s development. Socialization
enables us to
adapt and to
operate in our
society. However, not
everything we learn
over the process
of socialization has
positive results. Think
about eating disorders
that result from
the preoccupation many
people, especially young
people, have with
body shape and
weight.
Many television
advertisements represent to
us thin and
beautiful models which
elegantly show and sell us beauty
products. In these
commercials beauty is
being equated with
being thin and
blameless. These ads
portray models who
have a weight that is
way below average
and who do
not have imperfections. It is really impossible to reach
this look, but
the young people
watching these ads
at home do
not realize that.
The images presented
in these ads
are simply manipulating the young people
for marketing purposes.
When young
people watch television,
they see a
lot of pictures of slim,
attractive young models.
For example, a
lot of young people watch
“Friends”, “Roswell” and
many other serials.
In these serials
the actors are
basically young, thin
and beautiful. They
constantly remind young
people to lose
weight, be thin
and beautiful and
buy more products
such as jewelry,
cars and clothes.
They send the
message that if
you get the
same things, which
they represent to
us in these serials, people
will like and
appreciate you. Young
people, especially teens,
want to look
and be like their idols
because these models
are portrayed as
successful, popular and
rich.
Television ads
portray thin women
and muscular men
as successful, popular,
sexy and rich.
As a result, many young
people, especially young
women, begin to
starve themselves to
get the tender
and exhausted look
that surrounds them.
To many the pursuit
of the ideal image portrayed
becomes an obsession
and results in
eating disorders like
anorexia bulimia. This
pursuit becomes a
way of life and the
starvation of anorexia,
as well as
the binging and
purging of bulimia
become every day
habits. Young people
do not realize that if
anorexia and bulimia
are left untreated,
they can be
fatal. These young
people believe that
when they become
thin they will
be happier, more
successful, and beautiful
because this is
what the ads
portray.
In conclusion,
television has become
an important agent
of socialization which
enables us to
adapt and to
operate in our
society. However, not every
message that we
get through agents
of socialization is
positive. Therefore people,
especially young people,
have to analyze
the information that
they get from
television ads because
as the proverb tells us “
All that glitters is not
gold.”
Kasper, Loretta F. Interdisciplinary English, New York: Mc Graw-Hill,
1998, p.128.
Karyn. “Eating Disorders
and The Media.”
Online. http://home.pb.net/~karyn1/final.htm
James Hyacinthe
ESL 91
Spring, 2001
Essay Topic: The Media as an Agent in Socialization
The entire world media such as TV, radio, magazines, newspaper and the Internet play an important role in society. These kinds of media, especially TV affects people’s behavior in a variety of ways. This is especially true when people watch more violent movies than romantic and neutral news.
In the early days people got the news from media like the newspaper and word of mouth. Later on, in the 1940’s TV appeared and it helped people to understand the news better and to see what was happening all over the world.
In society TV is the most popular media from the past few years. It also educates people with information about weather, crime, historical and current events and also, about good and bad events.
TV can be very good. Some of the shows teach people how to learn English. For example, on channel thirteen (13) at 1 o’clock every Monday, there is a program that educates people with lots of words and also, teaches people how to use them in a sentence. When I first came to the United States, I watched this channel every Monday and it really helped me to learn English faster.
Many people like watching TV instead of reading magazines or newspapers. They may not get the emotional feeling by reading. For example, when the bombs began falling in Kosovo, Yugoslavia in March 1999, people did not get the strong emotion just by reading the newspapers. They wanted to see all the damages the bombs did in those countries. Another good example of the effect of the media violence is the story of the boy who took his father’s gun and went to school with it, and then shot two people. When they showed that on TV people felt sorry for both. First of all, the little boy is not mature to be responsible for his crime and the victim lost his/her life without achieving his /her goal of dream. These kinds of tragedies make people think that they are living in a secure world.
When people get the neutral news such as weather. It does not affect people’s behavior. This kind of news makes people think that they are living in a safe world without violence, and also people get friendlier to others.
After what I have observed, the amount of violence in the news today is much higher than the past. I think that TV should take more time giving neutral news, but unfortunately news reporters are very aggressive in pursuing violent stories that will attract viewers.
Therefore, to attract more viewers, TV devotes more time to violent movies instead of to romantic ones. However, I think it is still a good media to provide people with all kinds of information. It also makes people feel alive, that they want to live in this world.
Larysa Soldatova
ESL 91
Spring, 2001
Essay Topic: The Media as an Agent in Socialization
Since the
twentieth century, media innovations - radio, motion pictures, recorded music, television, and
the Internet – have become
important agents of
socialization. They all play
a great role
in the process of socialization, but to my mind
the Internet is
the most important. It is the world’s
largest computer network.
We can’t
imagine our life
now without the
Internet. High school and
college students use
the Internet in
their studies and
everyday life. Great companies
and firms use
the Internet in
business. The Internet is available
to everybody. In reality
the Internet is
taking the place
of radio, motion pictures
and television. It is
really an agent
of socialization. It helps
people to get
together, exchange
information on different
problems and communicate.
According to
Staimer (1996) and
Bollag (1996), “ A lot
of people in
the U.S.A. believe
that the Internet
will increasingly become
our primary source
of information. About 59
percent of respondents
born since 1971
believed that they
would get most
of their news
from the Internet, compared with 31 percent
who thought it
would come from
radio and television
and only 10
percent who thought
most news would
come from print
media “ (qtd. in Schaefer,2000
pp.467-467).
While the Internet has unquestionably offered exciting new possibilities for sharing information and communication, many troubling issues have been raised about day-to-day “life” on the Internet. For example, it’s impossible to imagine that neo-Nazis or other extremist groups would exchange messages of hatred and even bomb-making recipes, but the do.
Sociologists that
have already been
familiar with Internet, think that heavy Internet
use affects the
traditional agents of
socialization because the
Internet takes users
away from their
families and friends. Since agents of socialization most directly affect
children, the Internet plays
a great role
in their life. On
the one hand
it helps bring
up and educate them. On the
other hand heavy
Internet use takes
much of their
free time. As a
result, children have less
time for reading, for walking, going in for
sports, and communicating with
other children. Therefore I
think parents should
do their best
to help their
children to use
the Internet wisely.
As for
me I have a computer
at home and
I use the Internet. I learn
a lot of information from
the Internet concerning
my everyday life
and my studies. I don’t have
enough time to
read newspapers, so I learn
the news of
the world from
the Internet. I don’t
write and send
letters. I use e-mail to
communicate with my
friends.
I have been living in America for about three years, but I still don’t know many things that are necessary for me. The Internet is my greatest helper because it takes less time but gives me a great amount of information. For example, not long ago I had to buy a car. Instead of looking through papers and calling different dealers, I used the Internet and managed to solve my problem in a few hours. I also use the Internet if I need to get certain information in order to find and buy other necessary things.
Since I
became a student
of Kingsborough Community
College I have
used the Internet
in my studies. My college teachers
give me tasks
on different subjects
on the Internet. In my turn
I send off my homework
to them by
e-mail. I get the
information for my
ESL class on
the Internet. It’s of
great help for
me because I’m
one of the thousands and
even millions of
people who think
the Internet is
the most important
media innovation in
their life.
As one
of the main agents of
socialization the Internet
has considerable influence
on the process of people’s
development. Sociologists
and psychologists have
studied the process
of socialization.
Socialization helps to
shape and define
our thoughts, feelings and
actions. It teaches us
the cultural values
and norms for
our everyday life.
It’s impossible to
overestimate the role
of the Internet in the
process of socialization.
Bibliography
Schefer,Richard
T. (2000).Sociology A Brief Introduction (third edition). Boston: MC Graw-Hill.pp.90, 466-467.
Larysa Soldatova
Spring,
2001
Essay Topic: SOCIALIZATION OF EATING DISORDERS
Mass media
is all means of communication, such as
the Internet, newspapers, radio,
and television, that provide
the public with
news, entertainment and advertisements. To my mind television
is the greatest invention of
the 20th century
and an important agent of
socialization. On the one
hand television plays
a serious role
in the development of technology, science and
industry, space exploration.
Today people can’t imagine their
everyday life without
it.
On the other hand
television may be
harmful to a
certain extent. Television teaches
and promotes a
specific standard of
beauty in our
society. People, especially
the young, watch hours
of television every
day. They see young
people who depict
the “ideal” body. I
don’t think that
television plays a
positive role in
this situation :
inexperienced young people
can do harm to their
health by stop
eating, starve themselves and
exercise more frequently.
Most models
and superstars on
television show clothes
designed to fit
skinny people. Unfortunately,
our society stereotypes
beautiful women as
being thin. Society puts
great emphasis on
thinness for women; moreso than it does
for men.
“Some girls
and women feel
that they can’t
be successful or
worthwhile people unless
they look like
the underweight models
shown in the
media. Many become slaves
to the mirror and bathroom
scale, which robs energy
from more important
pursuits and may
lead to eating
disorders. Indeed, women
are 20 times more likely
than men to
have anorexia nervosa
or bulimia nervosa.” (Insel, Raul M. and Roth, Walton
T., 1997).
When young
people watch shows
like “Friends”, they internalize
what they see. They
want to be
like the beautiful
actresses because they
believe the actresses
to be successful, popular, sexy
and rich. However actresses
must be underweight
to look “perfect”
on television. In order
to be thin, young people keep
to special diets.
Diet advertisements are another media
influence. On television people
are continually exposed
to amazing “before”
and “after” body
images. The majority of
women, especially young ones, watching these ads do
not realize that
the results of
a diet are individual for
everybody. Sometimes it can
lead to diseases
like bulimia and
anorexia. These ads are
viewed during shows
like Dawson’s Creek
and Melrose Place, which occupy the lives
of teenagers. This is
the age when
women are most
vulnerable to pick
up an eating disorder, and these
ads make it
that much easier.
The eating
disorders may begin
with a reasonable diet. However,
in anorexia and bulimia the
goals and habits
quickly become unhealthy. Anorexia nervosa
is characterized by
self-starvation, increased
physical activity, distorted body
image, and an intense
fear of gaining
weight. Bulimia nervosa is
characterized by often
episodes of uncontrolled binge eating and
frequent purging, either by self-induced vomiting
or the use of laxatives
or diuretics.
The desire
is not to be thin. The
desire is to
be thinner. As each
weight goal is
achieved, another lower weight
goal is set. People
with anorexia and
bulimia are not
aware that they
have abnormal eating
behaviors. These people stop
eating, starve themselves and
exercise more frequently.
In today’s society pressures
to be thin and the
media’s portrayal of
thinness have been
thought to play
an important role
in the development of eating
disorders. Eating disorders like
anorexia nervosa and
bulimia nervosa are
threatening the lives
of people. People have
to think about
these as very
serious illnesses.
Bibliography
Insel, Raul M. and Roth, Walton
T, (1997). Core Concepts in Health (eighth edition). California:
Mayfield Publishing. pp.243,248.
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Rene Edouard
ESL 91
Spring, 2001
Essay Topic: The Media as an Agent in Socialization
The media plays an important role in the society. In fact, there are many types of media; these include newspapers, magazines, radio, Internet, and television. There are positive and negative aspects in the media.
There are some programs on television that give children a lot of information For example: Sesame street is one of the best shows for children. They learn to share things, and also how to get along with others. On Channel Thirteen there is a show for children named Barney, in which they teach children the alphabet and how to spell the words. On the Fox channel, there is the Simpsons. It a very good cartoon; and it helps parents to raise their children on the right path. When those children watch these programs, they are not the same persons anymore; in fact, they try to imitate those characters by becoming kind to everyone. These programs really change their mind; they make the children different from what they were before. Those children don’t have the same behavior. Also, they become more receptive and more attuned to reality. These shows help the children to become socialized.
The TV also has some negative effects on children. For example : Jerry Springer’s show shouldn’t be shown on TV because it has too many fights and bad words. Those things could affect the children if they imitate them. Ricky Lake also not a good show for people to watch because it has a lot of vulgar words. She can’t affect children. Also she invites people to talk about their relationships, but those people aren’t good examples for this society; they are usually divorced parents. W.W.F has too much violence . Although those battles are fake, many children believe they are real. As a matter of fact , a teenager in Florida killed his friend two years ago by wrestling with her. Children sometimes like to have knives, guns, and explosives because they see that their favorite actors use them. When those children see something on television like sneakers or cars they want to afford those things. If they don’t have the money to buy them they may steal it.
The Internet also gives children a lot of information. For example when they have homework , they can use the Internet to do research. Also people can check the news on the Internet. College students have a great opportunity to get help when they have projects to do. On the other hand, there are some sites on the web that are not good for children. Parents have to make sure that their children don’t go there because these sites only show pornographic pictures.
The media has positive and negative effects on the society. People get both because the state doesn’t do anything to control those negative programs; it is supposed to assure that these shows really help this world. Sometimes television presents some good programs to the children, but also they have some garbage like Jerry Springer, and Ricky Lake.