Although society seems to hold different expectations of the roles of men and women, according to Layng (1995), gender roles are global. Indeed, there are some behaviors, attitudes and roles that are similar in both traditional and modern societies despite the fact that different societies hold different views about masculinity and femininity. Gender roles have remained intact and unchanged in some societies, despite industrialization, mainly because the old traditional roles imposed on both men and women have still been perpetuated. Additionally, mass media has contributed greatly in the perpetuation of traditional gender roles of men and women.
Media has been defined as the mirror of society, means through which the realities and happenings …show more content…
That is, heavy viewers “cultivate” the information present in the media by integrating the information into their real world perceptions and judgements and this occurs more for those who watch television at high frequency as compared to low frequency of TV viewing. According to cultivation theorists, the effect of cultivation occurs in 2 levels: The first- order effect concerns the more general beliefs about the world and the second- order effect concerns the more specific attitudes (such as hatred, violence, crimes). The theory argues that for the cultivation process to take place, these attitudes must already exist in society and the role of media is thus, to pick up on these attitudes and alter them in different ways and present them to the audience. The cultivation theory divides television viewers into two categories: heavy viewers and light viewers. Heavy viewers are more prone to believe the altered and created information painted by the media as compared to light viewers. However, Gebner’s cultivation theory has been subject to criticisms. Potter and Chang (1990) criticized Gebner’s theory as presenting television for being uniform across programs (presenting violence). Also the two …show more content…
They proposed 3 interpretative strategies, to understand how non advertising forms of mass media plays a role in the audience’s interpretations of the meanings they draw from advertisements, in an attempt to build an audience – media relationship. Audience may either aspire, reject or personalize media images according to Hirschman and Thompson. The first strategy: aspiring and inspiring is where audience view the media images as aspiring and worthy. Images are perceived as providing motivation of time, effort and sacrifice to attain the messages of the media. Example of this can be the images of perfect body shape of celebrities: audience perceive the celebrities ideal body as goals to achieve. The second strategy: deconstructing and rejecting is where audience criticize the images and the information portrayed in the media. Audience focus on the exaggerated, altered and artificial features of the images rather than blindly accepting the portrayals of mass media. The third strategy: identifying and individualizing, is where the audience identify themselves with the images portrayed by the media. They relate their self-concept to the images found in the
Media has been defined as the mirror of society, means through which the realities and happenings …show more content…
That is, heavy viewers “cultivate” the information present in the media by integrating the information into their real world perceptions and judgements and this occurs more for those who watch television at high frequency as compared to low frequency of TV viewing. According to cultivation theorists, the effect of cultivation occurs in 2 levels: The first- order effect concerns the more general beliefs about the world and the second- order effect concerns the more specific attitudes (such as hatred, violence, crimes). The theory argues that for the cultivation process to take place, these attitudes must already exist in society and the role of media is thus, to pick up on these attitudes and alter them in different ways and present them to the audience. The cultivation theory divides television viewers into two categories: heavy viewers and light viewers. Heavy viewers are more prone to believe the altered and created information painted by the media as compared to light viewers. However, Gebner’s cultivation theory has been subject to criticisms. Potter and Chang (1990) criticized Gebner’s theory as presenting television for being uniform across programs (presenting violence). Also the two …show more content…
They proposed 3 interpretative strategies, to understand how non advertising forms of mass media plays a role in the audience’s interpretations of the meanings they draw from advertisements, in an attempt to build an audience – media relationship. Audience may either aspire, reject or personalize media images according to Hirschman and Thompson. The first strategy: aspiring and inspiring is where audience view the media images as aspiring and worthy. Images are perceived as providing motivation of time, effort and sacrifice to attain the messages of the media. Example of this can be the images of perfect body shape of celebrities: audience perceive the celebrities ideal body as goals to achieve. The second strategy: deconstructing and rejecting is where audience criticize the images and the information portrayed in the media. Audience focus on the exaggerated, altered and artificial features of the images rather than blindly accepting the portrayals of mass media. The third strategy: identifying and individualizing, is where the audience identify themselves with the images portrayed by the media. They relate their self-concept to the images found in the