SMM11003 SOCIOLOGY IN NEW MEDIA

TOPIC:

Chapter 1: Discover Sociology

  • The Power of Society
    • Sociology shows us the power of society to guide all our life decisions in much the same way that the seasons influence our choice of clothing
  • The Sociological Perspective: What is
    • Sociology
      • Systematic study of human society
      • Distinctive view guided by sociological perspective
    • Sociological perspective
      • View that seen general patterns of society in the lives of particular people
  • The Sociological Perspective
    • How is the sociological perspective defined?
      • Seeing general patterns in the behavior of particular people (Berger 1963)
      • Seeing society shapes what we think and do in patterned ways
      • Seeing society in our everyday lives
    • Emile Durkheim's Study of Suicide
      • Does society affect decisions about suicide?
        • More likely to commit: Male Protestants who were wealthy and unmarried
        • Less likely to commit: Male Jews and Catholics who were poor and married
      • Basic findings: Why?
        • The differences between these groups had to do with "social integration"
        • Those with strong social ties had less of a chance of committing suicide
        • Freedom weakens social ties and increase risk of suicide
  • What is sociological imagination?
    • C. Wright Mills
      • Society, not people is main cause poverty and other social
        problems.
      • By turning personal problems into public issues, the sociological
        imagination is the key to bringing people together to create
        needed change

  • Applying the Sociological Perspective
    Usefulness of applying the sociological perspective
    Sociology guides many of our life-shaping laws and policies.
    Using a sociological perspective leads to important personal growth and awareness.
    Studying sociology aids in the preparation for the world of work.
  • Applying the Sociological Perspective: Sociology and Public Policy
    Sociologists shape public policy in countless ways
    What examples can you identify?
  • Applying the Sociological Perspective: Sociology and Personal Growth
    The sociological perspective
    Helps us assess truth of common sense
    Helps us see opportunities and constraints
    Empowers us to be active participants in society
    Helps us live in a diverse world
  • Applying the Sociological Perspective: Careers
    The “sociological advantage”
    Sociology is excellent preparation for jobs in dozens of diverse
    fields (American Sociological Association, 2002, 2011a, 2011b).


Chapter 2: Culture and New Media

  • Culture is
    • Society's entire way of life
    • No particular way of life is natural to humanity even though most people around the world view their own behavior that way
  • Culture shock
    • Disorientation due to inability to make sense out of unfamiliar way of life
    • Often occurs with domestic and foreign travel
  • Kind of Culture: Cultural Relativism
    • Is the idea that a person's beliefs, values and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another
    • More accurate understanding
  • Types of culture
    • Nonmaterial culture: The intangible world of ideas created by members of a society
    • Material culture: Tangible things created by members of society
  • Culture differences
    • All societies contain cultural differences that can provoke a mild case of culture shock
    • This woman traveling on a British subway is not sure what to make of the woman next to her, who is wearing Muslim full-face veil known as the niqab
  • Elements of culture:
    • Symbols
      • Human transform elements of the world into symbols
      • Symbols are anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture
      • Societies create new symbols all the time
      • Meanings vary within and between cultures
    • Language
      • Language is a system of symbols that allow people to communicate with another
  • Values and Beliefs
    • Values
      • Broad guidelines for social living: values support beliefs, culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness and beauty
    • Beliefs
      • Specific statements people hold to be true
      • Matters individuals consider to be true or false
  • Values sometimes conflict
    • Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts another.
      • Value conflict causes strain.
      • Values change over time
    • Cultures have their own values.
      • Lower-income nations have cultures that value survival.
      • Higher-income countries have cultures that value individualism and self expression
  • Norms: Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
  • Mores: Widely observed and have great moral significance
  • Folkways: Norms for routine and casual interaction
  • Guilt: A negative judgement we make about ourselves
  • Shame: The painful sense that others disapprove of our actions
  • Culture: What is
    • Ideal culture
      • Way things should be
      • Social patterns mandated by values and norms
    • Real culture 
      • Way things actually occur in everyday life
      • Social patterns that only approximate cultural expectation
  • Material Culture
    • Includes a wide range of physical human creation or artifacts
    • Contains artifacts that partly reflect underlying cultural values
    • Reflects a society's technology or knowledge used to make a wat of life in particular surroundings
  • Standard of beauty
    • Including the color and design of everyday surrounding
    • Vary significantly from one culture to another 
  • Cultural Diversity: Many Ways of Life in One World
    • Many cultural patterns are readily available  to only some members of society
    • High culture: Cultural patterns that distinguish a society' elite
    • Popular culture: Cultural patterns that are widespread among society's population
  • Cultural Diversity: Subculture
    • Subcultures involves difference and hierarchy
      • Subculture
        • Cultural patterns that set apart some segment of society's population
      • Counterculture
        • Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society
  • Cultural Change
    • Cultural Integration
      • Close relationships among various elements of a cultural system
    • Culture log (Ogburn 1964)
      • Uneven change of cultural elements that may disrupt a cultural system
      • A common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a longer period of time
  • Culture changes in three ways
    • Invention
      • Creating new cultural elements
      • Telephone or airplane
    • Discovery
      • Recognizing and better understanding something already existing
      • X-rays or DNA
    • Diffusion
      • Spread of cultural traits
      • Jazz music or much of the English language
  • Ethnocentrism: Practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture
  • Cultural relativism: Practice of judging a culture by its own standards
  • Function of Culture: Structural Functional Theory
    • Views society as a complex, interconnected system
    • Culture functions as the structure in society that exists to meet human needs
    • Values are core of a culture
    • Every culture has cultural universals
  • Inequality and Culture: Social-Conflict Theory
    • Social conflict
      • Cultural traits benefit some members of the expense of others
      • Cultural values of competitiveness and material success are tied to our country's capitalist economy
    • Evaluation
      • Understates the ways cultural patterns integrate members into society








The Birth of the Social Self

• Socialization

• Total Institutions and Resocialization

• Social Interaction in New Media

Chapter 4: Social Class and Inequality

• Stratification in Traditional and Modern Societies

• Sociological Building Blocks of Social Class

• Class and Inequality in New Media: Dimensions and Trends

Chapter 5: Race and Ethnicity in New Media

• Minority and Dominant Group Relations

• Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination

Chapter 6: Gender and Society

• Concepts of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

• Gender and Society in New Media

• Gender Issues in New Media

Chapter 7: Families and Society

• Millennials and Marriage

• Family Engagement and New Media

• Families Yesterday and Today

Chapter 8: Education and Society

• Education in New Millennial

• Theoretical Perspectives on Education

• Education, Opportunity, and Inequality

Chapter 9: Social Movements and Social Change

• Social Movements in New Media

• Sociological Perspectives on Social Change

• Sources of Social Change

• Social Movements

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