Sociological Approach To Sociology Essay

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Sociology is considered to be ‘the systematic study of ways in which people are affected by, and affect, the social structures and social processes that are associated with the groups, organisations, cultures, societies, and world in which they exist’ (Ritzer, 2012, p. 6) Sociology is the science of society, it aims for one to look on society with a broader view in order to understand human reactions to life. The sociological approach to understanding media as a whole differs from any other method due to the fact that sociology refers to studying the development, structure and functioning aspect of the media. Sociology looks at the place of the individual and that individuals place within society. When studying the sociological approach to …show more content…

When studying the sociological side of media one needs to take into account that the different forms of media in which one takes for granted is often our greatest influence, e.g. social media, music, radio and films are beginning to become a demanding part of everyday life. These accessed forms of media can often impact an individual’s life and how they react to life’s situations. The use of media sites such as Facebook have caused major changes within the sociology of media, that being globalization. This globalisation is largely influenced by the cultural aspect of sociology, culture studies within media allows one to manipulate the meaning of media in order to suit one’s self at their own disposal in order to create their own personalities within media. (Devereux, 2009) Globalization’s role within the sociological understanding of media allows a ‘growing level of connectedness between individuals, societies and national states’ (Devereux, 2005, p. 30) this may be evident through the use of the radio as radio provides a large aspect of social control over its consumers. On a sociological level radio concerns were largely based on the influence radio media could have over its consumers, depending on the broadcaster and their views their listeners were often swayed with regards to issues such as voting patterns and political