How Do the Media Work, According to Their Various Theorists, in Shaping the Individual Habitus - Essay Example

How do they work, according to their various theorists, in shaping the individual habitus? Introduction In this essay, I will argue that mass media, through aspects such as stereotypes, narratives, ideologies, and discourses, has assaulted and shaped individual habitus. This paper explores the effect of media on individual habitus by grounding the arguments on Pirre Bourdieu’s habitus and Charles Saunders Peirce’s theories of semiotics. In appreciation of the function of the media in transmitting cultural elements, the paper explores the critical role that the media plays as significant actors in cultural preservation and construction of individual habitus. Habitus in this case derives from a social instead of individual process resulting to patterns that are continuing and transferrable from one context to another (Aydurmus 2). The media shapes people’s consciousness and influences the way in which people view the world. The continuous process of cultural transmission has had spatial, temporal, and material dimensions. The mass media can be considered as the main conduit for the diffusion of popular culture across regions. Mass media form an essential component of cross-generation cultural transmission in which certain forms of collective habitus are cultured into the individual. The media expose individuals into the accepted norms of behavior within both private and public spheres of life as well as at a discursive and practical level of knowledge (Schirato & Yell 42). The socially sanctioned modes of behavior emerge as appropriate and tolerated forms of individual and group habitus. As people’s exposure to the media increases, their individual habitus is created and reinforced. Mass media permeates cultural structures of the society transforming much of the cultural elements within the society. The media provide a platform in which members of the society might view reflection of their cultural elements. The media aids individuals in experiencing a communal sense of naturalness. Habitus stands out as one of Bourdieu’s popular ideas in his social theory, advanced to overcome some of the binary divisions and explanations in social sciences. This prevents an over simplistic understanding of phenomena whereby previous attempts failed to avail a framework that reflects complexity present within society. Specifically, the concept of habitus addresses the duality of structure (via capital and field) and agency (practice) (Frangie 213). Habitus shapes a central idea in analyzing the structure and human practice by inviting ambiguity and flexibility depending on interpretation. Nevertheless, it is helpful as it does not separate structure from the agency; it emerges as the best construct that reconciles structure and agency as mutually defined. Bourdieu suggests that there are three different types of dispositions that construct individual and social habitus. The concept of habitus avails a window of transcending the dualisms of theoretical paradigms and models (Crossley 82). It also incorporates the conditions of existence; this explicates that individual’s everyday activities display their relations to society. Habitus incorporates the manner in which people act, which reflects social structures and their process of socialization. In shaping habitus, the media seek to explain the dispositions that influence individuals in becoming who they are. The media afford the duality of structure and make agency an accelerated reflexivity. Television has been a significant component of a mass media in creating the postmodern habitus. This has mainly been through aspects such as influencing of people’s thinking, the manner of relating to others, and self-conceptions (Aydurmus 4). The dynamics of media and accompanying technologies has collapsed boundaries and reinforced means by which individuals can socialize. The media facilitate the social practice to be observed in a person’s life trajectory through dispositions such as habits, tastes, beliefs, feelings, and thoughts. The media help to shape dispositions with inculcation from the past into the present. The inculcation of dispositions occurs as individual’s exposure to the media; the cultural capital they are exposed to becomes part of their habitus. Habitus generates and shapes individuals’ perceptions and actions. Habitus in this case reflects internalized principles emanating from a person’s upbringing (structured structures) that result in an agent’s action and view of the world, encompassing dispositions, which reflects the creation of an agent’s social position (Schirato & Yell 48). The media and the transmission of cultures are all interrelated factors. In the contemporary society, the media are a powerful carrier of cultural values and norms. In today’s world, mass media has evolved to become a significant agent of change within the society. The media floods the society with pieces of information designed to mould attitudes as well as public opinion. Through this, the media plays a crucial role in constructing and representing individual habitus. The media can be conceptualized as a platform for change in which interdependent agents interact and affect each other. Individual habitus arises from the consumptive process of media content. The media play a critical role in homogenization of culture, which shapes group habitus. The media allow an easy spread of culture across regions having a significant social impact. Cultural homogenization arises from the fact that mass media is a powerful agent of socialization. The dominance of some sections of the world having an enhanced ability to distribute cultural goods makes them gain an upper hand in culture transmission (Schirato & Yell 51). Mass media envelop a wide range of communication, information, and entertainment such as music, books, video games, newspapers and magazines, radio, television, and internet. The present media trends continue to impact on children and shape their individual habitus. This arises from the fact that mass media pervades almost every aspect of people’s lives. The wide access to media and ensuing socialization has led to some media analysts labeling it as supersaturation. The term infers a state in which people are entirely surrounded by diverse mass media to the extent of becoming embedded in their lives; moreover, they no longer appear noticeable. In addition, mediated experiences form a principal part of people’s perception of the world and their being. However, a complication by the fact that human behavior is in no way a product of a single variable. Media Discourses and Construction of Individual Habitus Discourses play a crucial role in constructing the normative self through a succession of time, events, and actions. Discourse signifies a certain awareness of social influences on the application of language. Discourse can infer what is conventionally said or written in a general context or what is said or written in a certain occasions of that context. Words are determinate of commonplace whereby there is a lack of a clear distinction between generality and specificity. The idea of discourse infers that what can be regarded as specific can also fall into the category of general. Discourse is not in its entirety a linguistic phenomenon, but rather it can be conceptualized as inhabiting other forms such as visual and spatial forms (Brauchler 137). Nevertheless, language is a social and communal practice since it is not external to society. Media discourse can be visualized as a reflection of certain context in the society. The proliferation of discourse in the media allows beliefs and ideas that are socially and historically specific to be legitimized out of their universal and natural appearance. This is evident in advertisement discourses, especially of luxury products (Couldry 45). This discourse, in part, strengthens consumption-driven culture. Individuals are awarded social identities established by discourse, which simultaneously naturalizes such subject positions. Discourse can be envisaged as a medium via which power and norms function. The media have a significant effect on the social attitude and behavior of persons, especially in attaining cultural taste owing to ever increasing participation and quality of media experience. How Narratives Work in Shaping Individual Habitus Narrative refers to the organization of a certain series of facts. Individuals connect events and make interpretations grounded in those connections. Individuals understand and construct meaning via experiences of reality (Brauchler 138). Narrative conventions revolve around genre, character, form, and time. Media texts mediate the world to individuals by packaging episodes and characters. Narratives may be incorporated into film dramas or documentary programmes. Similarly, they may also involve serial narratives such as TV news broadcast as well as soap operas. Narrative within the media has a remarkable influence on the construction of individual habitus. Media Stereotyping and construction of individual habitus Media stereotypes are commonplace, especially in the arena of advertising, entertainment, and news. Stereotypes within the media act like codes that provide audiences with a quick understanding of an individual and a group of people in relation to topical aspects such as class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social roles, or occupation. Mass media, inclusive of movies, documentaries, magazines, music, and TV shows, reinforces commonplace stereotypes within the society (Hiller & Rooksby 7). Most of the times, the media perpetuates stereotypes instead of combating them, which has a significant effect on the construction of individual habitus. The stereotypes may centre on men and women in society, race, and class. Beside the traditional ideological state apparatuses such as schools, families, and religions, the media have come out strongly as dominant in the transfer and indoctrination of the overriding hegemonic ideology into the minds of the people (Couldry 47). The content of the media comprising of popular culture embodies the life of the people via reproduction of stereotypes geared towards making the programmes known to everyone. The exposure to a media-saturated environment is blamed for adverse affects such as predisposition to aggressive behavior or violence. Research signifies that exposure to a media-saturated environment leads to possession of stereotypical views, especially concerning women and minorities (Marsh 131). Nevertheless, stereotypes are problematic in the sense that they reduce a diverse range of differences among people into simplistic categorizations, transform a myriad of assumptions into “realities,” justify the possession of power, and orchestrate social prejudice and inequality. Media Ideologies Media ideologies form part of a broader focus of semiotic ideologies. Mass media texts can be understood in ideological terms, whereby forms of communication privilege certain sets of ideas while neglecting or undermining others. Studies of mass media are problematic in the sense that some people advocate the notion that mass media promote the world view of the dominant or powerful (Ritzer 375). Similarly, others argue that mass media texts encompass opposing messages both expressing the dominant ideology as well as partly challenging the set worldviews. Nevertheless, the media provide a platform for the waging of cultural contests over meanings, which results to construction of habitus (Schiffer 114). The media avail a central form of public discourse in which cultural warfare is waged. For instance, the media offer a platform for debating morality of issues such as abortion and homosexuality regardless of the fact that the discussion may be conducted in polarized terms. The ideologies in the media discourse can be split into such perspectives as Left, Right, and Centre as well as status quo and anti status quo. The ideologies projected by the media aids in shaping social groups and designating certain social roles. In this case, habitus is a product of long and enduring processes of socialization reproduced by their individual actions. The concept of the habitus describes the general tendency of people to reproduce certain patterns of action inclusive of conformity, as well as divergence (Schiffer 115). Actors employ conformity and divergence as strategies in relation to political, cultural, social, or economic fields of activity. The media continue to facilitate the construction, interpretation, and dissemination of fresh ideological models that shape gratifying personal identities. Conclusion As demonstrated, the media play a crucial role in the construction of individual habitus. Mass media have evolved to become one of the critical components or sources of popular culture in the modern society. The main task of the media does not necessarily centre on entertainment or disseminating news; media have come out strongly as a principal component in the transfer of stereotypes, beliefs, and values in the society. In turn, this reproduces the prevalent order of social life. The media have been a leading player in transmitting and appropriation of post-modern culture. Media content has formed part of the cultural capital. This translates to what people find as comfortable or expected. The media have exposed people to tastes and judgments, especially those centering on post-modern culture. In post-modern discourses, people struggle to define themselves whereby the postmodern culture has divided rather than uniting people. Works Cited Aydurmus, Didem. An Introduction to Facebook’s Nationalist Discourse and its Practice. Norderstedt: Verlag, 2010. Print. 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