chapter 15 Science and mass media

                Information is an important aspect of society because it gives insights of the advances and problems of society. One of the most rapid growing means to discover information of the world is science. The history of science that leads to multiple changes of social structures and relations is fundamental to understand the present science. With these new systems and during the renaissance the mass media grew in an exponential form. The only negative are the terrible side effects like the jealousy and inequality.

Science started in Greece with math, physics, astronomy, and biology/medicine. After the fall of Rome the Catholic Church and the economy silenced the scientific research.  the renaissances began a resurgence of science with  the scientific method and gained power after the 1800s with the industrialization. Modern science has multiple branches and specialty, norms are expected to be followed and has a scientific community to ensure norms were followed during experiment before being accepted. These norms are the judgments based on creating equality ,Organized skepticism: All scientist discoveries can be questioned and re-test, Communalism: the discovery belongs to the scientist society and will be shared in the scientist society, Disinterestedness: scientist must look for the truth not individual gain, Counter norms: if the research has a controversial or not well defined the research will be judged by mental state.

                                                

Mass media: method to communicate that reaches multiple individuals. Writing and paper: Sumerians with writing, Egyptians with papyrus. The printing press in Europe in 1400ad. The industrial age: the industrial age multiplied the speed of the printing press and soon after the news paper, radios, and movies. Computer and information society: the invention of the internet caused the creation of digital society that exchanges information and social economic activities. The mass media of the usa is Print media: news papers books and magazines, Audio: sound records, and radio, Visual media: movies, television, CD’s, and videocassettes, Online media: anything that is found. Convergence: areas with “media convergence” that is where to areas of media colliding and combines.

The problems of science are Fraud: researchers fake or tamper their results, Competition: the desire to obtain fame and money causes scientists to block their information that way no one can copy their experiment, This causes rushed research. Matthew effect: the credit of the experiment goes to the most famous member instead of the group. Conflictive views: different theories on reality are used in some experiments that alter the method and ideas. The perspectives of mass media are Functionalist: society runs smoother because individuals know what is happening, and Conflict: distract individuals with merchandise reducing the possibility that individuals notice and do something about the inequality. Which cause a knowledge-gap: caused by the economic difference this is known as digital divide. The mass media is known for children having access to violence, less contact with others, and a decrease in social capital. It also makes a spiral of silence: were a group silences those with different opinion and allows Gatekeepers to select only a part of the information to be.

                                 

Science and information are the reason for social change and improvement. The problems come from all directions because none of these areas are perfect. From the conflict that are neutralize create a greater revolution because eventually a very one is able to communicate. Even with the errors science overcomes they as well as those that depend on the mass media.

chapter 13 The economy and politics

                The economy and politics control the present and future of a society. Even though each has power over individuals they both depend in each other. This can be seen in the economic system and the legitimacy of power a government possesses. There are different economies and the American capitalism is a result of multiple mixtures between socialism and capitalism with a strong base of capitalism. Politics are not so different there is a variety of governments and the USA has an interesting system of democracy with multiple rules.

                The economic institution is the way that a society governs the production of goods. The factors of production are the resources needed to manufacture the products. There are three sectors of the economic system the primary is the raw materials, secondary manufactures products, and tertiary provides services. The other way to see it is preindustrial where the economy is based on the extraction of resources or agriculture. Industrial were the economy buys the product of preindustrial economies to create products.  Postindustrial is a society that sales information or are based on e companies. Power is the ability to control others. Authority is normally is where people follow because they followed their status before. Rational-legal authority is power vested by the government. Charismatic authority is power given to those based on how much a group agrees with the individual. Coercion is illegitimate power because the law does not allow it and people do not agree with them.

                                       

                Capitalism is where individuals control the production instead of the government. The why the economy is regulated by supply were people make more because they can charge more and demand were people buy more when the price decreases. The French call free-enterprise laissez-faire capitalism because the government barely gets involved. In socialism the government controls the production. Communism is normal is socialism that can lead to totalitarianism were power is exercised over citizen. The American economy is mostly capitalist were corporations are owned by few and they are protected in the USA and are multinational and have e-comers.

                There are three types of government democracy were the people have a say, monarchy that is where an individual has the power un less there is a constitution in which the people have a say and the monarch approves, and authoritarian in which were the state has the power as dictatorship, junta, or absolute monarchy. In the USA there is democracy but individual companies have power over certain candidates.

                In the current ways of government and economy it is easy to see that the problem is the free enterprise. There should be regulations on profit to ensure companies do not have the ability to control or over through governments. The fact that pure capitalist and socialist economies do not exist shows that a balance most be found between democracy and free enterprise that persuade individuals with the propaganda that they are able to give to the individuals who will do their bidding corrupting laws and more.   

chapter 14 Education and religion

                As more and more information is created less individuals are able to learn all that is known. In many cultures parents pass down their knowledge to their children who will gain spiritual guides by their religion. This is why in a large and diverse society like countries education plays a major role to ensure everyone knows around the same. This can sometimes have a conflict with religion as well as it can work together. This can be seen in public catholic school.

                Education is the methods to pass information from one generation to the next. The purpose of education varies depending the perspective. According to the functionalist education teaches skills, transmits culture, integrates individuals and it guides individuals into an occupation. The conflict perspectives believe is controls individuals with a hidden curriculum and tracking individuals with different education programs this also cause create an educational and socioeconomic difference. The internationalists believe that education aid the self fulfilling prophesies that can be positive and negative. This can be related to religion and their function. Religion create coherence or in other words bonds between individuals, as well as it controls their followers by teaching some actions are profane and what they should to is the sacred acts they dictate. An extra is the emotional support made by the bonds.

                                         

                After the education reform the quality of education increased. This lead to an increase of graduates. Some use public schools that are paid by taxes. Some choose charter school that is private. This is an alternative in the school choice that is also composed of home school were parents teach their kids.  The reason some prefer home school is because school violence is present and the zero tolerance has failed in their area or they fear their children will have bad influences. As well as the English language has been diminished by the diversity in cultural and linguistic were parents teach their children a language that is reinforced more that English this creates a bilingual education.

                                                     

                Religion has rituals that are patterns of behavior that are followed. Different religious beliefs are animism. The beliefs in mystical spirits that can have shamanism where there is a shaman or totemism were animals and humans have kinship. The second belief is theism that is the amounts of deities were mono is one supreme deity, and poly is a group of multiple deities. The third and last of the beliefs is ethicalism based on a set of values. The organization can be ecclesia with a kinship, denomination like a church, a sect with a small group and a leader, or cults were their beliefs are different from largest religions. The USA government still has religious affiliations and religious participation.

                As the demand for equality in knowledge and other areas have not been met it is easy to notice how easy it is for many to miss opportunities passed on their economic status. Even when religion can provide a certain degree of education it will control and eliminate the information that differ with their teachings, that is why as a culture more and more individuals must help to increase the equality in education. 

chapter 11 Gender, age, and health

              As individual differences separate society, more culture differs from how each group behaves. One of the ongoing rights fights are the female rights that have been diminished throughout the western culture until after WWII women started to gain the same jobs and a different stereotype. In the United States age has an important role for judgment as well as it can cause fear in terms of society. Health plays the hope card for society but recently it has become harder to obtain in the United States.    

               Gender is the behavior expected to be followed by a members of a certain sex. In the gender roles the behavior and attitudes are made or dictated by society, like house duty or hard labor. The gender identities in the other hand are the changing awareness. In certain culture in Africa makeup is not only for women but for male doctors, this can be seen in other tribes in America. As the social status for each gender is un equal the differences most be taught from an early age. As kids many are taught that girls are delicate and that boys are rough which has different areas that can be ambiguous like cooking that in a house it is expected to be done by women but in restaurants by men. Many societies are patriarchies were the man is expected to be the head of the family. Sexism is when one gender is placed higher than the other. This has caused women’s movements that caused women the suffrage which allowed them to vote. Still there is an inequality for education and a wage gap that proves that the glass ceiling is still present. An example is that working moms still are expected to do household duties.

                Ageism is the preference of a certain age group. As the aging world grows in the grey America more people retire. The fear is the baby boom generation which will cause the dependency ratio to be 2 working individuals to sustain one elderly. The inequality mostly consists of the problem for the young to sustain the old. Another inequality is for the disabled.

                In the united states health care is not provided by the government but by the individual families. Some managed care consists on using alternative health insurance. Recently more and more have suffered from the rise of prize for health care causing an inequality for those with fewer resources. This has caused unconventional medicine to grow in popularity. The largest fear in medicine is the aids disease that weakens the defenses and is transmitted by sex.

                As the world cause differences between genders less single moms will be able to pay for health insurance for their children and themselves. This will only get worse as more working families will have to pay more taxes for the baby boom generation. How much change will be needed for the social balance to be stable after this shock hits it. Only the future can tell us.

chapter 12 Family

                The initiation into society starts or should start in a family. The family system has a complex system of and function. The core of a family are the union of the parents this is known as marriage, there is a process as well as disruptions in marriages. The greatest problems are the trends created by the increase of disruptions.

                Family is a group of individuals who are related by blood or by law. The family orientation is the nuclear family the individual is born or adopted into, that is composed of siblings and parents. The family of procreation is the individual and his or her spouse plus their children. The extended family in the other hand would include the grandparents. The kinship consists of multiple individuals related to each other. The family is responsible to make the sexual taboo between family members. The creation of more family members, the socialization of the new members, plus the economic and emotional security.

                Marriage are the set of rules that are followed by a couple. There are two types of partnerships monogamy we there is only a pair and polygamy were there are more than one partner for an individual. In polygamy if a man have multiple spouses it is called polygyny but if it were a women it would be polyandry. An important part of a family is which grandparent family they are closest to. If it was the parents it is patrilocality, if it was the mother then is a matrilocality, and if they are close to both then it is a bilocality, but if they were far from both then it is a neolocality. How the property is passed down is patrilineal when it is passed from father to son, matrilineal mother to daughter and bilateral descent when it goes to any. Certain is marriages are based on homogamy (same age, status, religion and race)  and others on heterogamy (different opinions).
                                    

                Family violence affects the children and the mother because it affects their psychological and physical state. This can lead to divorce that separates parents. This can happen in dual –earning families.  The resent problems created a trend of delayed marriages, delayed childbearing creating a sandwich generation,  voluntary childlessness, dual –earning marriages, one-parent families and remarriage. This affects the family house hold the mental state of children. As more families follow this trends and create broken homes with broken families less individuals will follow the home making procedures required to create a stable family.

                Family is the most important aspect of society since without it the first years of life depend on guidance. Family provides social guidance and without it individuals run the risk of failing as parents and being failed as children by the system. The fact that violence and divorce are common shows that better surrogate parents must be made as well as the structure of teaching who to make and maintain a family. Chair less of partner number or reasons to unite the society needs stability from the core.  

chapter 10 Racial and ethnic relations

The concept of race is not science. As a society grows individuals try to find comfort in groups that share something in common with them. The larges problem of this concept is that groups discriminate others. By distinguishing others as superior the less popular ethnicities and races are treated as minorities. These are the truths of the social classes and the prejudice to those who are different.

Race is a set of traits that are recognize by others. There are different social races that expand from there are 2 races to 200. The main theory is that there are three race groups the Mongoloids, Engrains and Caucasoid, but it does not apply to all the individuals of the world. In the other hand ethnicity are the people that share opinions that distinguish them turning them into an ethnic group once others recognize them. Many concepts of races and ethnicities cause the division in a society the concepts of a minority group is created based on the idea that they are less so they can be treated differently. 

        

Once the minority group of an area is established socially it becomes a trend to discriminate them based on their difference to the dominant race or ethnicity. There are two types of discrimination legal and institutional discrimination the only differences are that one would be punished and the other is allowed. Way individuals create the weakness or bad reputation for a group is with stereotypes to create a concept of those individuals so that the rumors become true caused by the self –fulfilling prophecy effect.  This is why racism exists, to solve it the groups must be allowed to be understood and incorporated, because the minority groups are the scapegoats for the problems because they are different.  

                   

There are many minorities in the social classes, races ethnic groups and economically the main reason for their existence is that they are different and unpopular. Cultural pluralism is allows cultures to keep traditions, allowing them to maintain their identity. This facilitates their assimilation because they can share it without being out cased. The problem is that some segregate the minorities with laws, de jure segregation, or with informal methods, de facto segregation.  These are methods of subjugation in some ways it is like mental slavery. In the worst case this leads to genocide or ethnic cleansing. The five minorities of the USA are the black, Hispanics, Asian, Native American and white ethnics which are those that did not share the same beliefs as the English.

The truth of how the social structures divide only to ensure inequality is destructive. The more it is understood the better a society can prepare to neglect its growth. Every ethnicity has its truths and knowledge that deserve respect. Sooner or later the inequality will cause revolutions in the society that tend to have violence. So less violence and more unity for the future this way we can see the past a judge and analyze the why.