Freedom and censorship in the media

The media can be used for social control that is, to influence the ways that people
behave. The media can be used for propaganda that is giving a one sided or even
false version of what has really happened. For e.g the state media will present a
good image of the government and a negative image of the opposition party.
Public media have freedom over what to record and how to record as they are less
bias than the state media.
Censorship is the control or suppression of what is published in the media which
can be either overt that is the population is aware that such information cannot be
displayed or covert that is when the population does not know that the content of
the media has been restricted. Censorship can take the form:

Laws protecting the unfair treatment of some ethnic group.

Laws on obscenity.
Laws not to reveal the secrets of the state.
Laws where a person cannot make unfounded allegations that is accusing a
person without clue.
Copyright for films and computer game.

Pluralist
Pluralists believe that the media is a form of socialization and help to establish the
norms of society. Pluralists argue that the media take up the role to please the
audience that is the audience demand and they supply. It is the audience who had
the power through choice and competition. If there is competition among the
different media, each media will try their best to please the audience; so the media
compete to take up the role of pleasing the audience. Moreover the media is very
diverse from books, television, internet, etc..that is people have choices and
they are not being manipulated. People can choose what they want to watch, see
and hear.
Marxist
Marxist argue that the media keep the population ignorant and in a state of false
consciousness. Media create false needs in people and make people become
addicted consumers who are willing to work hard for the capitalist to buy things
they dont really need. Media divert attention from important issues from life and
society by providing programs and entertainment such as gossip, reality, television,
etc.. The media acts as an ideological state apparatus that is a process by which
they can control the mind believes and ideologies of the masses and put them in a
state on being passive.
Post modern

The post modern period is when digital media has started to exist. The digital or
new media is different from the old media because it is interactive and more than
one way communication.
Democracy: it is a political system in which all eligible citizens have a say in the
decisions affecting them.
Patterns of media use
Gender
David Morley identifies the gender differences of gender:
In the family men almost always have control over programme choice.
Men prefer to view attentively in silence whereas women combined with
conversation and household task.
Men carefully plan their viewing, women tend not to.
Most women left video recording to their husbands or children.

Age
The amount of television people watch goes up when they become older. However
old people with visual or hearing difficulties prefer newspaper. Teenagers and young
people tend to go to the cinema more frequently than other aged group. Young
people watch television less than older people but they increasingly watch short
videos on YouTube.
Social class
Many working class families pay for satellite and cable channels which provide
football and other sports which are seen as diversions. Marxist would see that the
function of the media is to distract the working class with such programs so that
they do not know and do not think about their poor conditions. Also in some
countries poor families cannot afford the internet yet.
Ethnicity
People who settled in other countries have the tendency to keep in touch with their
original culture through their media. For e.g Indians who migrate in UK watched a
lot of Bollywood films compared to UK people.
Media representation

Some sociologists argue that media can represent or misrepresent identities such as
ethnicity, gender, age groups, social class and people with disability in the media.
Ethnicity
Some ethnic groups are positively portrayed in the media and other ethnic groups
are negatively portrayed.
Pluralists argue if ethnic groups are negatively portrayed it is only because the
audience has demanded such programmes and Marxists argue that minority ethnic
group such as African Carribean are purposely negatively portrayed because they
are the scapegoat of government and when there is disorder in society they are
easily to be blamed.
Gender
Representation of gender also have specific ways to be portrayed. For example
females are shown as passive, weak and helpless. The media directs female about
how they should look physically. They tend to be shown in the home rather than at
work and the roles of wife and mother. Women are shown in a very limited number
of occupations such as secretary, receptionist, primary school teacher or prostitute.
Bad women are shown as rebels and independent whereas good women are
portrayed as submissive and like to take care of the house. The media portrayed
women as either weak or use them as sexual objects. It is quite rare to see the
media projecting women as role models and on the other hand, men are portrayed
as strong, powerful and independent and that there is strength attracts women.
Age group
Age groups tend to be represented in the following ways:
Children as innocent and vulnerable.
Teenagers as rebels and irresponsible.
Middle age people as responsible and laws-abiding figures of authority.
Older people as vulnerable and a burden to society.
Representation of children
Modern societies usually see childhood as a period of innocence and helplessness in
which children must be protected by responsible adult. The media can reflect this
image or used to reflect it. In some advertisement children are shown as white, blue
eyed, blonde, chubby cheeks and helpless and sometimes as evil and bad.
Representation of teenagers

Teenagers and youth are often represented in negative ways. They are represented
as rebellious, juvenile delinquents who may be involved in small crimes, drugs
stealing, running away from school, etc... They formed youth subcultures which
have been reported in media to create moral panics.
Representation of older people.
Older people are less represented in the media and they are negatively portrayed
as physically weak, needing help and confused. As they are not part of the labor
force, they are seen as burden. However older men get better roles than older
women.
Social class
The working class people are often portrayed as brutal and worthless while upper
class people are shown to have good taste and fine culture.
Disability
Media often stereotype people with disabilities and project fears or negative attitude
towards disabilities. For example they would usually portrayed a villain in a movie or
a monster with a handicap. Disable people are under represented in all media or not
present at all. Some common representations of disable people are:
The monstrous villain common in older Hollywood films.
The object of pity; disable people are pitied because of their illness and suffering.
A burden on society and others.
The object of ridicule for example people with visual problems knock in everything
they walk in.
Reason for changes in representation
The way the media represented identities such as ethnicity, gender, age, social
class and disability has changed mainly because of the post modern period that is
new media has emerged. Reasons for changes in representations are the following:
Social positions have changed so that women are no longer just housewife and
mothers but also workers and decision makers.
Campaigns change representations which are negative on minority ethnic groups
and women are more common.
More employment is available in the media for example more women and members
of ethnic minorities are employed in media.

Media have become increasingly varied and diverse it is because nowadays we

have new types of media such as internet thus there are more competitions where
media need to change the negative representation to attract customers.
Influence of media and role of media
Violence and media
Politicians and other have expressed concern that violence in the media may lead to
more violence in society. For example children learn by imitating others so they may
copy violence they see in the media and is known as Hypodermic Syringe. Another
negative impact of violence from the media is desensitization which occurs when
people have been so used to violent images from the media that they are no more
shocked by it.
On the other hand, it can be claimed that violence in the media may have positive
effects. For example some people may release their aggressive impulses by playing
a violent computer game and no one will get hurt in real. Another positive effect of
media is sensitization that is the shocked effect of seeing violence in the media
causes someone to take action against real life violence.