The Media From a Sociological Stand Point: Part 1

The media in American society is a huge part of how we learn, understand, and form opinions about political topics.  “The role of the media is to shape political debates and there are varied characteristics that shape news discourse in media systems”(Benson 275). The media dominates the television and utilizes computerized political marketing. Politics are structured by the logic of electronic media. Media texts and images are accessible more than ever because of technological advances in American society.

The sociologists that study the media are sparse which leads to an inadequate amount of theories. The media has been viewed as a dependent variable by most sociologists because of the wide variety of influential factors (Benson 275).  Rodney Benson, the author of the article ‘Bringing the Sociological of Media Back In’, decided to focus on the media has an independent variable by evaluation of its content. Also focusing on the process of creating political meaning rather than just a convenient indicator of the outcome (Benson 276). The stated roles of the media include censorship, regulation, enabling, and primarily a definer. The main issue associated with the media is the content analysis, if the medias’ reports are true and accurate. Recent sociological studies have attempted to operationalize and measure the quality of news reports but then subjectivity is intertwined.

- Abby Love