Socialization refers to the process of learning a culture and learning the rules of the culture, which in turn helps one to develop a social self. There are seven social and institutional agents of socialization: family, peer group, government, religion, the workplace, schools and mass media. Of all these agents, the media has greatly served to shape my beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Mass media is defined as a set of public communication tools used to reach a large audience. Common examples include the internet, television, radio, magazines, movies, books, newspapers and music.
I appreciate the media’s potential for influencing my beliefs, attitudes and behaviors because of the amount of time I spend watching television, listening to radio, browsing the internet and reading magazines. Ever since I was a young child, I always spent more time watching television programs instead of mingling with my family members and peers. The media conveys highly powerful messages and values because as a young child, I often modeled the characters I watched on television. A good example is when the television showed advertisements featuring children in fancy clothes, I would always look for my own fancy clothes and try to model the characters I saw on television. This made me believe that being fancy was a necessity in life.
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Moreover, as an adolescent, the media, specifically, music, movies, magazines, newspapers and the internet became my sub-pop culture. for me, it was always sensational to listening to the latest songs, watch the latest movies and wear everything I saw in these movies. Even today, the internet remains a valued part of my life thanks to web pages, chat rooms and email. Because the media has played a huge role in shaping my beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, it thus remains an important agent of socialization in my life.
