Chapter 7 Overview

This chapter introduces you to the debate over the media’s role in society and how sociologists have studied the matter. Language influences human behaviour and language is fundamentally related to the media. Language influences thought according to the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and so the language used in the media influences the thinking and actions of individuals who consume the media.

Media are defined as the technology behind sending and receiving messages and mass media refers to an individual sending a message to multiple people via some technology. This idea inspired Canadian Marshall McLuhan to coin the phrase, “the medium is the message,” as he theorized the infrastructure that transmitted and received messages was just as impactful as the content of any message.

Media concentration is a significant social problem in Canada. Media in Canada are controlled by fewer and fewer corporations who then control more of the messages transmitted and received in Canadian society. This inevitably means a decrease in diversity in the ideas and people portrayed in the Canadian media, which results in negative consequences for public health. New media such as social media have helped diversify the voices and demographics of messages transmitted and received in the realm of media, but these media come with their own inherent consequences, some of which negatively impact Canadian society, for example, cyberbullying.

To conclude, this chapter tells you about the digital and global digital divide in terms of access to information and communication technologies but explains to them how alternative media potentially bridges this divide.