Impacts of Media on Culture | Media | A-Level Sociology

This topic video considers the impacts that media has had on culture, as explored in the optional topic of the Media in AQA A Level Sociology.

VIDEO SUMMARY

In this video, Craig examines the impacts of media, especially new digital media, on the formation of culture. It looks at how media transmits cultural information as an agent of secondary socialisation, and its influential role in mass and global culture.

Features of new media like its global reach and enabling of participatory culture give individuals new ways to receive and shape cultural attitudes and norms.

Movements utilising social media are analysed as agents of social change and resistance to dominant ideologies. The video also discusses perspectives on media as promoting cultural homogeneity versus reflecting diversity, as well as its impacts on identity, consumption, and postmodern uncertainty about meta-narratives.

KEY TERMS

• Secondary socialiSation
• Mass culture
• Global culture
• New media
• Participatory culture
• Digital activism
• Social change
• Media saturation
• Postmodernism
• Cultural imperialism