Political socialization *** See Below*** - Essay Example

Political Socialization, Gatekeeping and Agenda-setting Method Political socialization is a concept that deals with the development procedures by which children and adolescents acquire various features of a political culture such as attitudes, beliefs, values, behavior patterns and habits that essentially shape a political community. According to Davidson (1983), it is the “Study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors” (p. 20). Indeed the process of political socialization is a sum-total of all the cognitive, evaluative and affective orientation -of a man’s psyche in his or her childhood and adolescence- towards the existing political system.

Various agents such parents, family, Friends, Teachers, Media, Genders, Religion, Race, Age, and Geography play crucial roles to influence the political socialization of a child. Scholars often divide these agents into two categories: primary group and secondary group. Political socialization of a man is influenced by the face-to-face interactions of a man with the primary agents such as parents, family members, friends, etc, whereas the secondary agents –mass media, religion, civil groups- affect a man’s mind indirectly and in a round-about way.

As far as media is associated with the interest of individuals or organizations, the process of “gatekeeping” is of crucial importance to control the flow of information to achieve one’s intended end. Therefore, individuals or organizations do not have any other choice to control and edit information in some way or other. Though “gatekeeping” often tends to go against the democratic interest of a state, the US Government must have to face some situation that compels the authority to apply the process of gatekeeping on information.

For example, History shows that the US government has applied the process of gatekeeping on publishing the casualties of the US Army at wars. Indeed “agenda-setting” is also another crucial process that has been applied by the US Government in many cases. One of the cases is the US role in the Vietnam War. Indeed in way or other, the ‘gatekeeping’ can be associated with ‘agenda-setting’. Whereas “gatekeeping” allows an individual or organization to control information through mass media in order to influence the audience’s mind, in the concept of agenda-setting, the media plays an active role to influence the audience.

Before joining the Vietnam War the US Government had to set the following agenda: “1. Non-communist South Vietnam was invaded by communist North Vietnam, 2. The United States came to the aid of the regime in the South, 3. The regime in the South was democratic” (Shah, 2003, p.3). The longer the war lasted, the sooner the spell of the Media on common began to dispel, as John Pilger (1986) says, “This assumption was shared both by “hawks” and “doves”; it permeated the media coverage during the war and has been the overriding theme of numerous retrospectives since the war.

It is a false and frequently dishonest assumption.” (p. 178) In September 2007, the military junta in Myanmar applied the gatekeeping method to conceal its repression on the antigovernment protest arranged by the political activists and students. In order to control information, it increased surveillance and repression on the journalists. In Also as a technique to prevent any mass revolt, the Myanmar junta sensors the national, the public radio transmission and all types of media in 1988. ReferencesDavidson, R. (1983). Political socialization and political culture. In J. Glass, V. B. (1986).

Attitude similarity in three generational families: Socialization, status inheritance, or reciprocal influence? American Sociological Review, pp. 685-698.Norris, P. (2010). Public sentinel: news media & governance reform.London: World Bank Publications. p. 363Pilger, J. (2986). Heroes. New York: Jonathan Cape. p.178Shah, A. (2003). Media, Propaganda and Vietnam, Global Issues. Retrieved Nov 18, 2010, from http://www.globalissues.org/article/402/media-propaganda-and-vietnam