Opinion Making and Attitudinal Change
Media resources shape our understandings, which guide our individual actions and activities, and also influence collective decision-making processes and policy formation in the public and political spheres. Thus, the media can play a role in bringing about social change.
Pervez (1986), a renowned psychologist articulates that media is a cultural force, which not only reflects the social reality, but also modifies it according to the demands of the age. The contents of the media serve as a model and source of identification and gratification of certain psychological needs.
Whereas Rider in her book "Our Voices" (2000) articulate that media images are powerful tools of socialization, shaping and reinforcing both positive and negative attitudes.
The relationship of media and reality is of a vicious cycle; media affects in constructing reality and thus the constructed reality provides content for media as it is said that "media mirrors reality". The stereotypical portrayal of genders restricts the potential of humans and limits their capabilities because the media influences them to conform to the prevailing culture.
Although it is an issue that is often neglected, the media play a significant role in providing many of the resources which we use to think about gender and gender related issues: about what it means to be a woman or a man, about gender roles in the public and private spheres, sexuality, parenthood, and what we consider to be (or not to be), natural, normal, acceptable, desirable and possible in relation to these aspects of our lives.
The media are also sites, or spaces, where gender and gender issues can be discussed and debated, both in news and in fiction, and they can play a significant role in determining whether or not gender issues will widely be considered important and legitimate social, political and cultural issues in a particular society.
In today's world, the media are
believed to have great power to influence society and the potential to
challenge sexist and superficial views. By providing both such resources and
spaces, the media can play a role in shaping how we think and feel about gender
and gender issues. The Mass media occupies an increasingly central place in the
lives of women and men all over the world.
However, the media, both
commercial and public or state broadcasting can provide more diverse resources
that can be used to challenge gender inequality or understandings of women as
limited and subordinate entities. Such resources can include news items on a
variety of women's individual and collective activities in the public sphere;
the inclusion of female experts, discussions, and debates on various dimensions
of gender inequality which include different points of view from different
women; documentaries on gender issues, and female characters and narrative
explorations of women's experiences in media fiction that are characterized by
diversity, complexity, ambiguity. Alternative media output produced by and for
women in women's media can provide spaces in which a greater variety of women's
voices and experiences, past and present, are made public and shared, where
information and support can be provided on dealing with gender inequality and
other issues relevant to different women's lives (The Gender and Media
Handbook, 2005). Kindly refer to given reading for a detailed account of how
media influences the shaping of our social attitudes and behaviors.
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