SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES

Sociological Approaches

Sociological Approaches

Introduction

Sociological theory is defined as the study of a human being and how they interact with society. It can also be defined as the study of a human being, in groups and the party they play in society. There are many different types of theories, but the main and sensational theories are Functionalism, Marxism, and Social Constructionism. These theories attempt to explain human behavior according to the condition they are in.

Discussion and Analysis

Functionalism

This approach considers that the media can be studied as institutions, play an important role in maintaining social order and its transformation process. This means that the mass media must be studied from the standpoint of their ability to meet diverse needs.

A structure or social system can be considered for study as a set of interrelated variables. For some authors, the relations of individuals within an institution form a structure, for example, family, banking, etc., while for others, the structure is the entire society (Pace & Geoffrey, 1997).

Whereas functionalists argue that it is necessary to study the media from the point of view of its ability to meet diverse needs of society. This trend indicates that when the institutions that perform functions such as high-newspapers-stop be somehow transformed society and other institutions that arise supplement its mission to meet their needs.

In the United States dominated the functionalist school, communication researchers have conducted studies to determine the impact on society and how roles are changed when, for example, people will break down their radio or television and when it stops circulating newspaper or decrease their circulation (Craib, 1992). Each medium has its own characteristics that define them different ways each has their messages get into the knowledge of these characteristics allows us to better define their functions.

According to functionalism, information is a data set that reduces the uncertainty, acting as informants and transforming the individual and society. Within this sector, communication and information are two harmonic functions are complementary.

Structuralism

This approach considers it necessary to build "mock logical" that allows us to understand the facts that have permeated social life of significance. The structuralist argue that the senses tell us that the media are just ways of transfer by which certain forms that enrich restructure its force of expression, i.e., which are conditions to encode or reinforce what society has already meaning (Briggs, 2010).

Within this theory, the company, established as having certain rules or structures that produce the sense of events, which are the product of the rules that men have assimilated into society and allows them to evoke the same meanings in common.

Structure, within structuralism, means a body of assets subject to certain laws. The universe of symbols, signals and coding systems is areas that, identified accurately by this current (Parsons, 1961). Within this theory, one can speak of information and communication as two distinct elements, but not contradictory, because the rules structure the data, reports, mean you can be evoked in common but unreported.

By exploiting the nature of language and the roots and interconnections of cultural ...