A Healthier Media Culture For All

As the world becomes more and more advanced in technology, it becomes less dependent on the things that got us to experience the technology now. Why should it be harder to revert back the days of dial-up or landline phone? I remember watching That's So Raven on Disney around seven or eight years old. I saw Raven eventually get her own landline connected to her room. This was the early 2000's it was a BIG deal to have your phone line in your room. No waiting to get on the phone. No rushing to get off the phone. And, the most part PRIVACY!!! After I seen her with a phone in her room, I decided to have one in my room when I get to Raven's age. (I DID.. Kinda.. Sorta..) I always found that funny with how much little time it was ago. It just goes to show technology always evolving. The same thing can be said for media culture. "Mass culture is the set of ideas and values that develop from a common exposure to the same media, news sources, music, and art. Mass culture is broadcast or otherwise distributed to individuals instead of arising from their day-to-day interactions with each other." (Chegg, 2017) The culture can influence the way we interact with each other. The exposure to the interconnecting media plays a huge part of the interaction that happens in media. Mass culture developed a distributed of ideas and values to the news, music and art. I wonder if people truly aware of the impact media culture has in our society. In Dill's book, she explain the importance of respectful depictions and multicultural interactions. They are uplifting and healthy to everyone. For example, "When children from different backgrounds play well together on children's shows such as on Sesame Street, and when they are each presented as equally valid human beings, it sends important messages." (Dill,K. 2009) More than often enough, we as a society are reminded that there is still racial and prejudicial stereotyping in the media. The example set the tone of all different backgrounds can come together to create an experience. If we keep that same tone we have now it can shape the way stereotyping is view in this society. 

"As recently as the 1960s and 1970s, television, for example, consisted of primarily three networks, public broadcasting, and a few local independent stations. These channels aimed their programming primarily at two‐parent, middle‐class families. Even so, some middle‐class households did not even own a television. Today, one can find a television in the poorest of homes, and multiple TVs in most middle‐class homes." (Cliff Notes, 2017) In 2017, we are able to stream television shows or movies online. Or even on our smartphones. The way media culture has shifted in the past few decades is amazing. I believe we as a society won't have to continue the conservation of the disadvantages of media culture. That media culture will go above and beyond to change its face.

Here's a link to an article about certain influential contemporary games in media culture:

http://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/10-3-influential-contemporary-games/

Also an video describing the media power it has on society: 

The Social Psychology Of The Social Networking Sites

The Social Construction Of The Culture

When I think about the social construction in today's culture one word comes to mind, UNIQUE. Unique to the point of showing different types of social settings. But first, we need to understand what is the meaning of social construction. "It is common place in the humanities and the social sciences to claim that certain human features, such as someone’s gender, race, or sexual orientation, are socially constructed." (Diaz-Leon, E. 2015). The view of social construction is primarily focus on the nature of human categories sorely in a social way. It deal with the way we choose to connect with human interaction. In Dill's book, she brought up an great example of what we do in our media literacy. "A swastika, for example, is a symbol that is understood throughout the world to represent the Nazi movement." (How Fantasy Becomes Reality, 2009) Media Literacy is understanding the messages that are being transmitted through media. Media Literacy ties in with social construction for one reason, HUMAN FEATURES. We have built certain categories for our society to allow the ability transmit specific messages to each category. Since it is embedded into our society it will be hard to try and unravel the construction. " Social constructionism is taken to be a realist account of the nature of a certain category: it is claimed that the category is a real feature of human beings, but it is determined by social, rather than natural or biological properties." (Diaz-Leon, E. 2015) Sometimes that get blurry trying to decipher between the form of social construction and understanding why it was form.But, I'm happy a social construction been created. Without even knowing we find out exactly who we are. Or who we really want to be in this world. I admit we as a culture need a lot more kindness in the world. But, we also find the unique and different qualities in people had we not build this social construction. "For example, Berger and Luck-mann argue in their 1966 treatise, which is concerned primarily with the sociology of knowledge, that the "social order is not part of 'the nature of things."' Rather, it "exists only as a product of human activity.'" (Stabile, B. 2016) In this example, it shows that we created the system for the construction. We as a society took on the role creating the formula for social construction. The theory of social construction have been around for decades. This example took place in the mid-60's. Imagine all the additional research done at this point of time. Social construction formed our culture. "Our culture is our shared reality, created and maintained through common experience and through communication. Culture includes socially constructed meanings including shared beliefs, values and rules." (Dill, K. 2009) Dill understood how we connected based on two things, experience and communication. Dill also understood that the constructed meanings were our beliefs, values and rules. If someone ask the question of "can we destroy social construction?", I will respond with no. Believe it or but we need social construction to experience life and communication those experiences. And, for that we will always social construction.

Here's a link of social construction of stories:

https://www.edge.org/conversation/paul_dolan-the-social-construction-of-stories