Public Watchdog

Many have designated the press as a “public watchdog.”  It is more than that.  It brings news and information to the  public that it reaches.  It constitutes men, women, children, ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups.  Stations have carved out a niche to whom to focus their messages.  Many in America do so through advertisements.  Professionals at these stations are well aware of their responsibilities and report news that make it possible for citizens to vote at the polls.  These analysts dissect hard to comprehend issues and break them down into digestible bits and pieces.

The public watchdog role has often come under attack because the media have recently evolved in partisanship ways.  Some see the New York Times, CNN and CNBC as liberal, while FOX and the Daily Standard as conservative.  They argue that this divide is generated by a particular media’s desire to cash in on the sentiments of the time.  Hence some members of the mass media’s audience question their relevance in being fair and impartial.

Market Place of Ideas

Image via Wikipedia

Some persons bemoan the fact that the market place of ideas are shrinking.  They look at Rupert Murdoch that wields influence around the world with his media Empire.  He owns the Times, Sunday Times, Sun, and at one time the News of the World in the United Kingdom.  In the 1980s, he influenced the conservative politics under Margaret Thatcher.  In the 1990s, he switched his support to Labor and became quite a force for Tony Blair.  In 2001, the Express also endorsed Blair.

Many in America are concerned about state sponsored privileges provided by the media in Great Britain.  They prefer to see advertising as a free enterprise.  Some do not make the connection of the influences of such ads on the nature of programs, but rather see the British model as having sovereign consumers targeted in their informational role.  British programmers see themselves as being able to raise the standards of the viewing public.  In America, media is viewed differently.  It is concerned with the bottom line.  What sells is of prime importance.  Some Europeans view American media as appealing to the lowest common denominator.  That is why some Americans, refer to TV as “the idiot box.”

Media Rights

Media rights are fought for daily.  Some see the concept of “good and evil” being played out when they point to John Milton.  Individual rights may be foremost on the mind to those that subscribe to the philosophy of John Locke.  Attaining that ever elusive truth in reporting may buy into John Stuart Mill’s concept that he expresses so well in his book, On Liberty.

Despite these lofty concepts there is censorship with which to contend.  It may not be state censorship because of classified documents, but self censorship.  Some times it is media policy to protect the identities for good reasons of children and some persons.  Individuals that receive a bad press are also free to seek redress if they think that they have been maligned by malicious reporting. Such libel suits have been brought against some media companies but they are rarely successful.  In America, the First Amendment is still foremost among reporter’s right of free speech.  Each year we hear about freedom of press violations in the U.S.A., Great Britain, and many other countries around the world.

- – -

Unlike a Marxist system like in North Korea and Cuba, that is known for its propaganda, the mass media in the U.S.A. and Britain seek to be responsible to the public.  There may be problems, differences, and partisanship, but they have many attributes in common.

- – -

The ability to reach large segments of the public is of great value in commerce, politics, and a society’s culture. The mass media are usually controlled by corporations (as in the United States) or by national governments (as in China). The mass-media industry employs professionals to conceive, produce, promote, and deliver communication products that are specifically designed to meet the goal of attracting large audiences. These products may be sold as objects (such as books—or downloaded e-books—or digital videodiscs [DVDs]) or exhibited for the price of a ticket or subscription (such as movies shown in cinemas or on premium or pay-for-view cable TV channels). Some services may be offered at no cash cost to consumers so as to create an audience for paid advertising (such as commercial television or radio broadcasts or Internet sites). Most newspapers and magazines are sold directly to the reader but depend on selling advertisements for their profitability. A growing number of newspapers and magazines are available online for no fee; this “freebie” has proved to be a challenge for the cash-strapped print media.

No communication technology is inherently a mass medium. Rather, it becomes such a medium through usage. Radio was invented at the end of the 19th century primarily for use as a two-way communication system to serve industrial shipping and naval operations. In the 1920s corporate decisions were made by several major electronics manufacturers to mass-produce inexpensive radio receivers for retail sale and to operate radio stations as incentives for consumers to buy those receivers. Thus radio broadcasting—a mass medium—was born; it quickly grew into the primary use of that medium. Television developed in the opposite way. It was first introduced to the general public as a mass medium in the late 1940s. Decades later the development of such supplementary appliances as the videocassette recorder and the home video camera allowed for its use as an interpersonal medium. The telephone has been an example of a medium of interpersonal communication that remained, primarily, just that. It was only occasionally used as a mass medium; telemarketers use computers to automatically dial thousands of phone numbers for the purpose of reaching a potential customer or playing recorded messages. Letter writing has historically been an interpersonal medium. Yet direct mailing of millions of letters of solicitation by post or by e-mail constitutes the use of the letter as a mass medium.

History

Mass media are essentially an industrial-era phenomenon. The first commercial printing industry during the early 18th century sprang up around London’s Grub Street. This is often cited as a beginning for mass media because of the recognizable economic system that was put into place. It was there that publishing found its early commercial applications; hand-operated printing presses were used to produce and reproduce thousands of copies of inexpensive literary products—including novels (”penny-dreadfuls”) and magazines. These were sold for profit to a growing audience of rudimentary readers. Publishing had previously depended on the clergy or the aristocracy for funding rather than on retail marketing.

A string of communication technologies were introduced during the 19th century and accelerated the development of the mass media. The invention of the steam-powered printing press (along with increasing literacy rates) gave rise to mass circulation of newspapers and magazines. These types of mass-produced print products—as well as books—were commonly available for sale in Europe and North America by the 1860s. Photography was invented in the 1820s. Methods for reproducing photographs in the print media were improved throughout the century and made such media ever more attractive to consumers. The development of still photography led to the invention of the motion picture. The cinema was an entirely new means of communication that showed great potential for mass-media application.

In the 1830s the telegraph was invented and was in practical use by the late 1840s. It was perhaps the single most important invention in the history of mass communication. It revolutionized existing media by supplying newspapers and magazines with a continuous stream of news dispatches from the region and even the nation. The Atlantic cable was completed in 1863; newspapers could then acquire information from around the world. Newspapers and magazines were bolstered by the resources of the telegraphic wire services and eventually achieved circulations numbering in the millions. Thus print became the first of the modern mass media.

Other types of media were gaining public attention on this scale by the turn of the 20th century. Silent movies became increasingly popular. Dramatic narratives provided the main audience draw, with the newsreel and the documentary film also garnering viewers. Attendance grew as the introduction of synchronous sound to feature films in 1927 married voice with picture.

The phonograph (invented in 1877) emerged as a mass medium as well. It achieved wider use as electrification of homes allowed for replacement of hand-cranked mechanical models. Sales of recordings reached mass proportions during the 1920s, with commercial radio used to popularize musical genres and to make stars of artists. The first U.S. commercial radio station went on the air in 1920. Radio networks linked stations in various parts of the country to carry a single program simultaneously by 1927.

By the mid-20th century, newspapers and magazines, movies, phonograph records, and radio programs were all conveniently available to most of the American population. These media provided many aspects of cultural learning to a sizable number of people. Eventually these mass media began to rival such traditional cultural determinants as family and religion. Some saw this as a natural and positive extension of democracy. Others criticized the mass media for failing to propagate existing culture and replacing it with a new mass culture based on consumerism at the expense of traditional or any other values.

Broadcast television emerged as the nexus of the mass media during the 1950s. It contained news, drama, cinema, music, and at least some content from all other mass media in a single, convenient home appliance. Television’s overwhelming functionality was soon dictating supplementary roles to other components of the mass media. Radio began to produce specialized programming for smaller target audiences. TV absorbed general-interest entertainment—from drama and comedy to variety—which had been among radio’s most popular attractions. Newspaper circulation had started to decline in the 1930s as radio journalism proved itself both faster and more popular. The number of daily U.S. newspapers began to drop precipitously with the spread of television. Most cities were left with only a single newspaper publisher. Many general-interest magazines disappeared as well; publishers sought the smaller and specialized audiences that television did not serve. Motion-picture attendance declined in the face of television’s at-home convenience.

Mass Media Today

Evolving technologies continue to drive the development of mass media. Instantaneous communication is a process that originated with the telegraph; it reached a milestone with the successful launchings of communications satellites into low Earth orbit. The first of these was Telstar 1 (1962). It orbited the Earth at a speed faster than the Earth revolves. This allowed for “windows” of time when video and audio transmissions could be made within a shifting orbital footprint. There are now dozens of high-capacity communications satellites in synchronous orbit; a reporter may attach a camera or microphone to a laptop computer and report live via satellite from virtually any location in the world.

The nationwide dissemination of cable TV was a process that took decades because of the necessity of seeking legal franchises in virtually every U.S. municipality. Cable subscription reached a saturation point in the late 1980s. The new mass medium began to remake TV in much the same way that the introduction of TV had remade radio and magazines. Cable channels sought smaller audiences with special target interests for advertisers specifically intent on reaching these audiences. But that changed in the first decade of the 21st century; both the number of cable channels and the size of audiences grew. Millions turned to cable news channels for presidential election coverage in 2008.

The 1990s, meanwhile, were marked by an explosive growth in online services for people who used computers and had access to the Internet. Critics hoped that the Internet might offer an alternative or even a counterforce to mass-media influence over public taste and public opinion (with e-mail, newsgroups, and chat rooms).

Mass-media ownership was characterized by concentration of ownership through mergers and acquisitions in the late 20th and the early 21st century. In the United States a consistent trend of deregulation since the 1980s left most of the television industry (as well as other mass media) in the hands of fewer than a dozen companies.

The 2001 merger of Time Warner—an integrated mass-media company with holdings in publishing, film and television, radio, recording, and just about every other form of mass communication—with America Online (AOL), the then-largest Internet service provider, epitomized this trend. This deal, however, was struck at the height of enthusiasm for Internet and media stocks. When new technologies were created, new online providers jumped in. AOL began to lose many of its users. This was followed by highs and lows in the stock market; a recession ensued in 2007. Time Warner and AOL “divorced” in 2009. As part of the split, Time Warner kept the entertainment site TMZ (Thirty Mile Zone) as well as CNN (Cable News Network), HBO (Home Box Office), TBS (Turner Broadcasting System), and TNT (Turner Network Television).

Large media companies—such as General Electric, Westinghouse, News Corporation, and the Bertelsmann Group—also lost their luster by the end of the first decade of the new millennium. Their success had been fueled largely by a surplus of stock portfolios and the oversized presence—and dreams—of modern moguls.

Mass Media and Democracy

When mass-media ownership was in the hands of a limited number of companies, fewer communicators (and fewer types of communicators) were available to supply users with content. Although this changed with the advent of the Internet, television—both network and cable—remained the major source of news for many individuals. Political or social biases (whether perceived or actual) in the media have compelled some viewers to identify themselves in political terms—liberal, conservative, radical, reactionary. Many of these viewers, in turn, read or watch media material that accords with their own ideology.

The challenge to active participation in democracy was further compounded when the mass media seemed to be in concert about which issues to cover. Some critics think that the inclusion of foreign-based news organizations broadens the variety of American news coverage. Evidence of this appeared during the 2003 Iraq War; radio and television coverage included that by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The fact that a number of important American newspapers (and television stations) are moving to outsource foreign coverage in order to save money may have a significant effect on domestic issues in the future.

The diminishing coverage of world events is the result of budget constraints; it may also be caused by physical inaccessability to newsworthy places because of censorship or lack of a free press. Foreign reporters were banned from Iran after the controversial presidential election of 2009. Yet thousands of videos taken by Iranian citizens during election protests were uploaded to the social media site YouTube and were broadcast on TV stations and Internet sites around the world. In this way, a degree of public access to world news is growing; making this growth possible are new technology and participation of individuals who make their images available to the mass media.

The Effects of Mass Media

Because of their central position as a source of cultural and social learning, the mass media are easily, and often, blamed for many of society’s ills. Some researchers believe that the mass media shape the way people view the world, especially when people have little direct experience. Others point to the media as providing role models—positive and negative—imitated by members of the audience. The portrayal of violence in the media is perhaps the most prominent issue. Other behavioral areas are of concern as well, such as explicit sex or extremely coarse language. These arguments tend to be based on a couple of suppositions: one is that the experience of content presented by contemporary mass media differs in some qualitative way from material that people have been exposed to since the beginning of social communication; the other is that individuals will copy or be influenced by what they view. Attempts to hold mass-media corporations legally responsible for the criminal acts of the consumers of their products have failed. A general consensus has been reached that people will have to continue to be responsible for their own behaviors in the age of mass media.

FAMILY

Of all the agents of socialization, the family is probably the most important. Although the form of the family varies from place to place in any society is primarily responsible for the socialization of children from birth to adulthood regardless. In the family, children develop physical skills such as walking, and intellectual skills of expression, mathematics and writing. The family is also important because it gives the child the location of the company. A child born to an aristocratic family are socialized in wealth, power and social acceptance, whereas a child born into a poor family to learn about daily survival, low wages and social rejection.

the school.

The school is the socialization agent responsible for the formal teaching of cognitive skills such as reading, writing, mathematics and history. The school is often the first introduction of children to a formal agent of socialization. While the family refers to the child as a unique individual, refer the school to the child as a student who is scheduled to meet objective standards, in accordance with common rules and behave like everyone else. The schools are training ground for their roles in the workplace, military and other bureaucracies where relationships are based on uniform criteria.

– Peer group

Sociologists have found that the group, which consists of friends who are about the same age and have the same status, is very influential in the development of the child’s behavior and values. Because children spend much time with their peers, giving the group a great deal of informal socializing. The influence of peers increases with age, peak during adolescence. Teenagers are forging their own identity and participation in a distinctive youth culture, to help them become independent from their parents and other adults.

Communication

The media refers to communication which is communicated to the public, without direct information or other contacts between the transmitters and receivers. While the cinema, radio, newspapers and books are part of the media, television is the dominant medium. Because the media is so widespread, many observers fear that children and adults socialized in a world that does not exist. The amount of violence on TV is a source of concern. At the time of adolescence for children who have witnessed thousands of murders of fiction, rape, armed robbery and assault. Current research tends to support the thesis that television violence contributes to aggressive behavior in children.
Although the media is easily criticized, saying their impact on behavior is not easy. We do not want to absorb everything you see or hear. Instead, choose a medium and the message to suit their own purposes and look for programs that appeal to our experience.

religion

In any society, religion is an important source of own address. Values ​​and moral principles of religious doctrine to provide guidance on the roles and behavior.

Workplace

Most of us spend a significant portion of our adult life working outside of the salary. Communities where we work, but they are very different. Some of us work with machines, some with ideas, some people work with others, much is impersonal, boring, and regulated by clocks, but some are very personal, ambitious and flexible.

Source: # Http: / / www.shvoong.com/social-sciences/sociology/2045398-agents-socialization/ ixzz1ik2XG9Qu

Just like several market sectors, journalists in which lasted attempts to reduce costs with tv set areas, stereo and also magazines have been still left to grab the particular slack regarding misplaced fellow workers. What is the news routine and also account rely had not been planning to experience due to extraordinary fall inside costs and also work force.

Together with a smaller amount staffing generally in most newsrooms around the world, a fantastic will need produced regarding fresh engineering and also shipping and delivery programs which could counter-act the difficulties regarding strong employees and also economic reductions.

Quickly forwards to be able to nowadays…

THE PARTICULAR TRAVELING PUSH REGARDING FRESH MASS MEDIA SHIPPING AND DELIVERY: AN INDIVIDUAL!

Yes it’s true, as huge as mass media will be nowadays, there is certainly nonetheless a great market media agencies take notice also. Before several decades mass media programs have cultivated coming from standard shipping and delivery strategies just like tv set, radio stations and also newspapers to be able to world wide web, REALLY SIMPLY SYNDICATION media nourishes, social media marketing and also sites.

The particular growth regarding mass media directly into fresh programs has been pushed from the behavior regarding watchers, audience members and also viewers. The particular media’s market will no longer has to observe with a specific moment or perhaps obtain a newspapers. They will acquire just what they desire if they are interested inside one or two hours moments from your notebook, capsule or perhaps cell system. On the web shipping and delivery offers newsrooms an international market and also the opportunity to boost advertising and marketing earnings from your continual requirement regarding on the web articles. The particular more quickly what is the news, the harder virally it could distributed.

Every person benefits, proper?

JUST HOW OUR OWN MEDIA WILL BE TRANSFORMING

Fresh mass media programs are usually quickening the particular shipping and delivery regarding media with a great unheard of fee. In a “I gotta own it and also I would like that now” age group, mass media agencies nowadays can easily distribute media to be able to the market inside not merely moments, yet just a few seconds.

Clients to be able to different media line companies are able to turn 1000 terms regarding line replicate in to a lightweight 300 phrase write-up and also submit that almost instantly. To achieve this, mass media doesn’t always have to produce a call, perform backdrop verify and even ensure the particular account has been appropriately vetted.

Revisions or perhaps “teases” to be able to insurance coverage about Twitting and also Fb may be published inside just a few seconds and also can be extremely potent assertions mounting the particular circumstance with the account any audience or perhaps watcher will be pursuing.

Ultimately, several mass media agencies nowadays enable visitors to be able to outline images and also video clip regarding testimonies they could encounter. This type of cell engineering provides exposed the entranceway to be able to testimonies probably none folks could have have you ever heard concerning.

The particular velocity regarding media nowadays will be hassle-free and also potent, just about all provides downsides.

THE SITUATION

Since media shipping and delivery adjustments, a growing number of reporters are usually depending on some other media and also law enforcement officials accounts to be able to swiftly “source” the data they will distribute to have that out there. The particular moral means of credit reporting an account is negatively impacted simply by this kind of period. This is exactly why:

INITIAL: Law enforcement officials and also Authorities typically are certainly not at the mercy of libel or perhaps defamation activities. Law enforcement officials accounts bring plenty of strength inside mass media and also in a few agencies, no less than in the beginning, usually are not wondered.

SUBSEQUENT: Mass media usually takes any law enforcement officials record and also web site that since “fact” with out legitimately the need to make contact with the main topic of the particular account to have their particular part. Provided that the data printed arises from any law enforcement officials record which is appropriately ascribed, mass media is normally safeguarded coming from libel and also defamation.

MASS MEDIA ABOUT MASS MEDIA: Any time a single mass media firm web sites one more mass media corporation’s details, they will almost certainly by no means got time and energy to research the account or perhaps this aspect alone (the reason why they will site/attribute one more thing or perhaps a single they will are certainly not combined together with).

THE PARTICULAR CARESS: Mass media agencies normally have legitimate divisions or perhaps attorney’s on-call year-round willing to guard the business coming from law suits. Several mass media also bring insurance policy in which addresses these in the eventuality of a lawsuit. Even when a great irresponsible mass media firm seems to lose any libel or perhaps defamation circumstance the possibilities are usually practically 100% the particular lording it over could be reversed about charm. Many case-law coming from Appellate Process of law for the Substantial Court docket overturns situations on such basis as totally free presentation beneath the Initial Change.

OUTCOME: For folks around the obtaining conclusion regarding bogus suggestions printed simply by mass media according to any law enforcement officials record, it really is extremely difficult to have vindication as a result of just how pricey and also prolonged any libel or perhaps defamation court action may be. More, it is extremely tough for your “little people” to be able to at any time acquire the same mass media insurance coverage if they are only not liable, fees are usually lowered or perhaps decreased entirely.

Winston Charles Arbitration Newspaper can be a internet site impressive honesty, the law and also answerability. In a write-up referred to as “Innocent Right up until Verified Guilty” Winston Charles produces, “a reliable reporter must record simply just what he/she can easily demonstrate and also practically nothing different due to the fact it is possible to carry out significant injury to someone’s private reputation”.

It could acquire weeks to spot how many court docket situations and the ones relying on underhanded and also one-sided journalism. Even with acquittal or even a circumstance getting dumped, the particular subject matter regarding underhanded insurance coverage nonetheless disappear together with considerable private injury. Several would certainly claim they could ‘ve got apart using a significant offense and also their particular abuse needs to be private injury. Seeking especially with underhanded mass media insurance coverage, a single can not dismiss just how irresponsible journalism inaccurately and also unfairly generates bogus community view to start with.

THE GOOD THING

You can still find economically secure and also moral media agencies on the market. I have already been privileged within my job being a reporter to do business with among the better available. Its not all functioning journalists are usually since blessed since I have already been inside possessing excellent manuals offering continuous education and also perception directly into moral concerns. Step one to be able to correcting a challenge will be creating folks alert to that. It really is my own desire by means of posts similar to this as well as other mass media specialized in large specifications regarding honesty and also concern inside just what they will carry out, to start out establishing an illustration in which people can enjoy and commence you may anticipate. Greater the situation will become, the particular more difficult it really is to correct. There is a point out even though! Exactly like just how the behavior have got altered mass media shipping and delivery programs, your option inside what sort of media insurance coverage an individual sign up to is likely to make mass media, huge and also tiny, take notice.

Traditional Media

Traditional media has fascinated man before the printing of Gutenberg’s Bible in 1456.  Over hundred of years there have been newsletters, newspapers and magazines.  These were followed by the invention of radio, TV, cable and   the Internet in the 20th century.

In the past many journalists opted for being either in print or the electronic media.  Some chose specialties in the arts, science and technology, others in sports, business, or agriculture.

Choices

Some former students pursuing a career in journalism went straight from high school to work at their local media in small towns across America.  Others chose to attend universities with majors either in speech, communication, radio-TV, film, or journalism.  Mass media schools were in demand.  Presently, the three best journalism schools in the nation are at Missouri, Northwestern, and Columbia.  Competition is fierce to be accepted in these schools although there has recently been a decline in the demand for journalists in companies.

Seeking Experience

Going to a good school is the best route to begin a successful career in the media.  Fortunately, I attended the University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore, where I obtained a BS in in Radio-TV-Film and had the opportunity of honing my broadcasting skills at KWAX-FM while working at one of Oregon’s experimental TV stations directing shows.

Through an internship I went on to Brooklyn College of CUNY, where I did a MS in Speech, while producing and directing TV shows at BCTV that were aired on WNET-TV and WNYC-TV.  As I was completing this degree, I was hired at CBS in New York City as a desk assistant where I was an understudy to the network journalists.  Afterwards, I joined the mass communications faculty of SUNY at Oswego, where I taught courses that included TV Production and Directing.

At the end of my second year, I  left Oswego to pursue a doctorate at the School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia.  There, I was baptized by the Missouri’s system that was intensive and demanding.  I worked relentlessly at the Columbia Missourian, wrote news stories for KBIA-FM – affiliated to PBS, and shot news footage for KOMU-TV – an ABC affiliate.

I joined organizations like the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA), Broadcast Education Association (BEA), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).  Through these organizations anyone will be able to attend seminars and conventions like I did, where there are representatives from companies displaying their cutting edge technologies.

Employment

In 1978, on graduation with a Ph.D. in International Journalism and Broadcasting, I was hired at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where I taught for a year before relocating to Norfolk State University, Va.  I eventually became chair and graduate coordinator of Mass Communications and Journalism Department and director of WNSB-FM.  I worked diligently in this department for 25 years before retiring.  While at that Norfolk State, I wrote dozens of papers and articles on the mass media and Make Better Videos with Your Camcorder (1991), TAB Books, and co-edited two others.

New Media

Today, the New Media has taken front stage.  Some universities have begun making adjustments to their curriculum.  No longer is there a distinction for various tracks as they were previously known in journalism schools and departments.  Students have been adjusting well to this new reality.

Reporting of news has become almost instantaneous.  Any blogger or person on a social network can scoop traditional media that once had extensive budgets, foreign correspondents in major cities around the world, and many beat reporters in the field.

To be versatile, a journalist has to be comfortable with new media, know its strengths, limitations, and let it work for him.  For, on us has dawned laptop computers, a new age of IPhones and IPads, that are not only

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

used in covering events but are adding fuel to them, like in the Spring revolution in the Middle East and Occupy Wall Street Movement in this country.

- – -

Everywhere in the world there are rules that make it possible for people to do the thousands of different things that are part of everyday living. Without such rules, it would be impossible to get things done. Everyone would be in a state of confusion. Two people could not even play a simple game of checkers if each one followed a different set of rules. Driving from one place to another would be very dangerous if all drivers made up their own rules of the road.

Most of these rules for everyday living are not found in books. Many are not written down at all. But everyone knows what they are. They are the things that help us understand what other people may expect from us and what we may expect from others.

These unwritten rules are part of what we call culture. A culture is the total way of life created by a group of people. It includes things, ideas, behavior, and speech.

There following are some of the examples of the different kinds of behavior that people expect of each other. You will see how a culture’s unwritten rules protect people from confusion and harm.

Expected Behavior

Have you ever seen an angry baby? Then you know how it behaves. All over the world, angry babies behave in much the same way. Their little hands clench into fists. Their faces wrinkle with temper. Then they take a big breath and yell. They want what they want when they want it. They have no other way to say so. But such behavior is only for infants. Part of growing up is discovering that one cannot always do as one pleases. After all, the world could not work if everyone went about acting like angry babies. People must learn to control their behavior. This is why every culture has rules that define how people are expected to behave. A culture’s unwritten rules of behavior are called its norms.

Children begin learning the norms of their culture when they are still quite small. They learn by being told and by watching others. As they grow older, they get into the habit of behaving in the expected ways. They learn to do this almost without thinking about it. They are startled if they see someone else go against the norms they have learned.

Being Polite: A norm we expect from each other

Many norms develop in an effort to make life easier and more pleasant. For example, one doesn’t start talking when someone else is speaking. That would be impolite. Being polite is something we expect of each other. We have learned that politeness makes everyday living much more pleasant.

Setting Up Our day

Some norms deal with how our days are set up. Many people in the world work from nine to five, with an hour off at noontime. But in countries with very hot climates, people may go home for four hours in the middle of the day. This is a time to rest. They return to work later, in the early evening, when the heat of the day passed.

Norms and People

Norms can tell you where people are from. In European countries, Americans stand out because of their table manners. As they cut their food and eat it, Americans shift the fork from one hand to the other. People in Europe keep the fork in the same hand when they eat. But always keeping one’s fork in the in the same hand is considered bad manners in the United States.

To say goodbye, you are used to putting up one hand with the palm facing out, and then waving it. But if you did this in a country like Turkey, people would think you meant “Come Hear!”. The norm in Turkey is different.

Norms in Different Members of a Culture

Norms are often different for the different members of a culture. In an American culture, for example, teenagers are expected to carry packages and hold doors open for their grandparents. Parents are expected to give their children comfort and advice whenever necessary.

Norms that changes our behavior

Sometimes, norms of behavior change. During the period of change, people may feel uncertain and confused. After World War II, the country of Japan experienced many big changes. The norm of behavior in this new and changing Japan was for people to act according to their own consciences, to their own sense of right and wrong. In 1950 a young village woman discovered that a local official had cheated in counting election votes. Acting as her conscience told her, she reported this to the police. The official was tried, found guilty, and put in jail.

People in the cities thought she had done the right thing. City newspapers praised her. But the people of her village refused to speak to her. Why? They believed that no one should be shames in public. This belief had long been a norm of Japanese culture. It was much older than the new norm of following one’s conscience. The villagers believed that the woman had shamed the official. They felt that she had brought shame to the whole village and everyone in it.

Changes in norms amongst women

Before World War II, young women in the United States were expected to grow up, marry, and have children. They were supposed to become good housewives and mothers. But after the war, expectations have changes. More and more women left home when they finished school. They went to big cities and took jobs. Many did not marry. Often, those who did marry still kept their jobs. Today there is a new norm that a woman can have a business life as well as a life as wife and mother.

The new norm is that woman may choose. But during the time that the norm was changing, there were problems. Young women who left their hometowns to take jobs were likely to be severely criticized by people who knew them. They were going against what had long been expected of young women in their country.

Learning Expected Behavior

As we learn the behavior that is expected of us, we are learning the social values of our culture. A culture’s social values are all the ways of thinking and acting that the people consider important.

In some cultures, it is important to try always to win or gain things that many people want. We would say that such cultures value competition. In Japanese schools, for example, students compete very hard for the highest marks.

Among certain Indian groups in the United States, it is considered wrong to try to do better than others. Some who wins too often at a game might not be asked to play again.

Learning the Social Values of our Culture

How do children learn the norms and social values of their culture? In most cultures, children begin learning from their parents. In many cultures, the learning goes on with grandparents, older brothers and sisters, and other family members as teachers.

But learning to follow the norms and accept the social values of a culture does not stop when a child steps out the front door. In fact, much learning takes place away from home. In most countries, schoolteachers play important part in helping children learn how to get along in their culture. They also learn from friends, neighbors, and religious teachings. They learn great deal from the mass media. As adults, most of us learn about our culture in our places of work and from the new social groups we join. For most people, learning continues all thorough life.

Learning Norms by Observation

One important way to learn is by observation. This is the act of seeing and noticing. A child watches what older people do and then tries to do the same. If a Quechua girl sees her mother and older sister spinning wool, she may also want to try. Just by watching, she begins to learn how to do the job. How to keep the wool from getting tangled.

Learning Norms by Instruction

Another way to learn is by instruction. This is being told or shown what to do and how to go about it. It is instruction when your math teacher shows you how to work new kind of problem. Your mother is instructing you when she shows you how to write a thank-you note for an enexpected birthday present that arrived in the mail.

Short stories also teach the social values of a culture. One story told, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf!,” has been retold for centuries. The story is about a little boy who likes to shout “Wolf! Wolf!”. Each time he shouts these words, other people come running to save him. But there never is a wolf. The little boys is just playing a game. Then one day when he is alone, a real wolf comes along. The little boy is truly afraid. “Wolf! Wolf! He shouts. But nobody comes to save him. You may already know what social value this story told us.

Encouraging others to keep the norms followed

All people everywhere have ways to encourage others to keep following the culture’s norms and respecting its social values. Hugs, kisses, smiles, and kind words let people know that we like what they are doing. Such things are called rewards. They are like presents given for doing right.

Norms and Rejection

But what happens when we notice someone doing something wrong? We do not smile or say kind words. We may frown or speak harshly. These are forms of punishment. A child who does not play fairly with other children may be punished by rejection, by being sent or kept away from the group. Adults who break certain traffic laws may be given a fine, a sum of money they have to pay as a punishment. People found guilty of such serious crimes as robbery may be punished by being sent to prison.

Most people usually follow the expected ways of their culture. It is only a small number who break the most important rules. This is why most groups, most of the time, work much as they supposed to.

It appears that the days of random advertisements, not synchronized to any hard product are gone, that even the small businessman has to discover what percentage of his earnings is to be put into advertisement to keep the wheels of his investment moving so that there is a return for the publicizing of his business. He has to know where and how the funds are going to be spent in lean times and in good, not wanting any overkill and wanting to have an edge over his competition. This is what occurs even as foreign news gets interpreted and distributed to us.

The way that foreign news hits us depends on this market more than not. Will it be appealing or will it lose readership may be a question that enters editorial rooms. One wonder whether the item is then newsworthy or gets shifted to an obscure corner of the paper. If it is a conflict within a nation which is struggling for a new leadership and the old oligarchy is still hanging on, the news might read that the establishment is just about to be overthrown. The news might come across as positive for the reformers and yet they may not be anywhere near reform. Maybe the headline is geared for better reading. Who would want to hear that the leader has managed to find a new stronghold and has resisted an overthrow for months?

So somehow it does not matter to some outlets whether the news is as accurate as it appears. Better still the news staff may know that there is still an opposition to the proposed government but there is a concerted  effort to obscure that all is not well with the liberating forces backed by the international governments that the media outlets owe their support to. Money controls the media and the newspapers, not just the newspapers anymore for a long time as print has fallen to the wayside while the news is picked up on cell phones and ipads.

One can think fo two middle eastern countries that have been following the this trend while there is an occasional lull and one would have assumed that the leaders were unpopular to the point of having been dismissed for good. Oil rich countries beg for more attention than their poorer nations too as if to say that news is not as profitable when no oil can be found or few resources can be rummaged. And the news of the stronger nation prevails over the weaker in this global village.

The media includes a wide variety of information to the public. There are limitations that are to be followed order to air anything on the television. The bias and rhetorical language is limited but not absent. A main majority of the public depends on the media for updates on our country, crime, and so forth. The impact that the media has over public opinion is tremendous. The public clings to the media as though they are the only form of truth available to the public.
      The roles and responsibilities of attorneys in trials are addressed by the media. But there are a lot of gaps in the story and the actual time and effort that attorneys spend on one trial alone. The media does not break down what all of the roles and responsibilities are. They are only addressed when it is believed to be appropriate to a case for a better outcome. When the media addresses a case, bias is not allowed. However, I have seen many cases in which the media is one sided on facts. The media is known for being short and sweet and to the point.
     The media encourages some viewpoints to be absence about the professionals depending on the situation. The media is used to portray professionals, but the view point may be vague. The media is used to portray facts, but when this does not work to attract the public, a form of entertainment is substituted in its place to catch the eyes of the public. The result of care being neglected to portray professional in the proper manner may involve more rhetorical devices than facts. I believe that this leads to my opinion on the media to be more discouraging on the accurate information needed to accurately portray these professionals.

    Let me first explain what I think about the so-called ‘media heart of the city’. In many people’s perception it’s supposed to be a TOP-rated thick newspaper with 2/3 of politics and the rest- whatever will be found, sport scores primarily. And it goes on and on, and on, and on… Politics and whatever, politics and whatever…

    It seems that people stopped thinking about cultural entertainment, personal precious luxury of not reading about the same people over and over again; fantastic events that take place in downtown and are not announced about anywhere close. 

    I am 24 years old and have seen a lot in my life, but politics and sports is not what I want to read from issue to issue. And I’m not the only one with the same approach. I want to learn more about great events, people coming to Buffalo and the area and many other things, except politics. There is no such a thing in Buffalo like Local-about-great-things-but-politics-paper. Or even a colorful magazine, that will excite your eyes every time you open it.

   Where is the local Time Out+ Vogue+ Men’s Health+ People etc…? It seems to me that everyone is so depressed in this area because they forgot about normal life and arts that happened to be here from time to time. Why was it even so hard to find out about the performances of the great world-famous DJs like Markus Schultz and Tiesto? thousands of cities in the World are dying to see them at least once in a life time, but here they come and people don’t know. Where is the information that should help me living a great life?

   Like the list of healthy food stores or new opened boutique with great discounts? The list of Art exhibitions and psychology in different aspects of our life with opinion polls? Where are the stories of success by great people that come to our area to inspire youth?

     People might think that I’m too young and not serious at all- it’s not true. I’m just too positive-thinking! Sometimes I run into an idea that politics are too up above from earth that you can’t even do anything about it. Politicians basically live their own lives and fight with each other and that, for instance, doesn’t inspire me in any possible ways.

   Where is the positive-thinking media concentrated on the variety of aspects of our life to fulfill this gap? I wish it will change in the nearest future and people will stop being depressed!