The Social Impact of New Communication Technology - Essay Example

? Social Impact of new communication technology Introduction The society has experienced an information revolution where the core aspect of the individual household, organizations and the society as a whole is going through a very key revolution. Introduction of new communication technologies at the household level such as interactive televisions, videotext, and at the heart of it all, the computer, has had a wide range of impacts both socially and economically. The very nature of work has totally changed at the organizational level due to the impact of new communication technology such as computer, video and telephone conferencing. In this age of high and advanced technology, people have constantly come to interact with the media in every day of their lives (Farmer, 2001). People are now constantly being flooded with messages, thus the media has emerged as influential on the activities and thoughts of individuals and of the global society as a whole. Usually the message sent is in a variety of forms, including the currently popular short message service, and they are perpetuated by large corporations. Gender inequality: a social impact of new communication technologies Gender inequality is an important social impact that arises out of the use of new communication technology; it has regularly been observed that it increases with the increase in the latter. When one sex subordinates to then other one, then this is referred to as sexism, in most societies of the world female usually subordinate to the male. This not only leads to objectification of the females but also marginalization, as this happening, men increase their wealth, privilege, social power and opportunity. Advertisements on televisions and on the internet intensify the myth that the toys used by boys should be those that reflect power and authorities, girls’ toys are usually dolls only. This gives the impression that women are trivial, deceitful and promiscuous; this often accompanied with the suggestion on women should look. In the developed nations, the idea of the perfectly shaped woman has been inculcated into the mindset of the society, where only thin woman are preferred. The media fuels such perception of a ‘perfect woman’, through application of advanced technology, the image is more enhanced, and internalized by the society and carried on by very many generations. There are several theories developed by communication and journalism experts to analyze such perspectives, the analysis of the media, and gender inequality as a social impact of new communication technologies and tools. People are always in continuous battle over power and resources, this is the conflict theory. This theory gives the implied explanation for this increasing and blatant societal bias that is heavily influenced by the media. It is often stated that publishing and broadcasting companies are under the control of a small bunch of individuals; these companies only help to perpetuate only their interests and a few other biased views. This theory points out that unlike men, women do not hold privileged or influential positions of power; this naturally follows that women would be portrayed as naturally weak to so that men increase their control over the society. Conflict theory is further augmented by materialist theory in explaining gender inequality as brought about by new technologies in communication (Mooney, 2011). The theory offers a compelling justification of the increasing gender inequality, by using cross cultural information on the exact position of the male and female genders. They define gender inequality as a consequent of the way the society views and holds men and women in an economic structure. These theories offer control and distribution of important resources as critical data in giving out stratification. The roles of the female members of the society is often looked down upon notwithstanding their importance to their society, these are often devalued. Conventional media has stereotypically painted women in bad light; leading female characters in the society are often depicted in situations that display their weakness, or that they are overwhelmed by the duties that are bestowed upon them. When they are in positions of authority, the society is frequently reminded of the deceitfulness and irresponsible behaviors of such characters. Very many television programs or movies that revolve on female characters and their male counterparts depict the female as immoral and cruel while the male character is a celebrated character, despite the fact that they both engage in extra marital affairs (Ross, 2011). Audience reactions theory has been developed recently to explain the relation between people and the media, society is perceived as the total sum of reactions individuals through different forums, media included. The theory argues that people normally use their own cultural understanding and social status to interpret their surroundings. This is often manifested in gender bias as female inferiority; this is the common societal comprehension of the gender bias. Women who work in the media are portrayed as very beautiful, with most of them being skinny and very youthful. Such portrayal does not include the larger female demographic that people interact with every single day, these females who certainly do not possess the characteristics mentioned above. Most of the cities are crowded with billboards, posters magazine covers and television adverts of skinny models that have photo shopped extensively and expertly. This in turn leads to ordinary girls in the society to ape these features, but they don’t do it for money or fame, merely to be in touch with modernity. The most important role of the media is that of communicating local, regional and global news, in addition, the media performs the most important role of passing down societal traditions and entertainment. Journalism and communication experts call this the functional theory; it explains the role of media to the society. Communication experts ascertain that gender is an inevitable imprint of the society, regardless of the existence of different gender roles. They believe that the gender of an individual informs the roles that a person can perform which accordingly dictates division of labor. This theory explains that the male gender is more task-oriented while the female gender can perform emotional duties better. Experts who hold this theory therefore argue that a functional society can only be achieved by each member of the society performing their designated tasks. Conclusion In a liberal society such as the United States, the media enjoys unimpeded freedom due to lack of substantial solutions to control the message relayed. It is deemed unethical and wrong to limit media freedom through censorship by any means whether the information is offensive, inaccurate or oppressive. This freedom is further heightened with increase in new communication technologies that lead so such social impacts as gender inequality, both at the household level and the organizational level. References Farmer, L. S. J. (2001). Teaming with opportunity: Media programs, community constituencies, and technology. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited. Mooney, L. A., (2011). Understanding social problems. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Ross, K. (2011). The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media. Chicester: Wiley. Read More