Answer to Question #316607 in Sociology for Pilisiwe

Question

Use 4 elements of social problem to motivate why you believe mass media can be viewed as a social problem

Answer 1

Four Elements of a Social Problem:

They cause physical or mental damage to individuals or society.

They offend the values or standards of some powerful segment of society.

They persist for an extended period of time.

They generate competing proposed solutions because of varying evaluations from groups in different social positions within society.

Social problems connected with the media also involve allegedly harmful media influence on children and youth; pornography and the degradation of women and sexuality; advertising manipulation; and the promotion of excessive consumerism and materialism. The media provide access to and construct social problems for large numbers of audiences throughout the world and in turn themselves have become a social problem in view of their multiple and complex effects, many negative. The media have been blamed by a wide spectrum of theorists and critics for promoting violence and sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, and other oppressive social phenomena. media have negative social effects and help reproduce a number of social problems, while other studies assert skepticism toward claims of negative media effects or attempt to confirm positive aspects of the media.

An analysis of the media, morality, and violence, followed by a section on the politics of representation and debates over the media class, race, gender, sexual, and other forms of oppression. setting out the position that corporate ownership and the political economy of the media constitute a social problem in which corporate media undermine democracy.