Section A Paper 3 Sociology

GLOBALISATION

• Positive view – world shrinking
• Negative view – lead to bullying fraud etc
• Developments in communication and transportation
• Wider global society
• National boundaries less significant.
• Not even process
• Happens different rate not in the same way.
• Assumed it is positive process
• Cochrane & Pain - global economic and cultural system, single global society
• Giddens - intensification of worldwide social relation
• Cohen & Kennedy - changes in concept of time and space
• Impact - identity, social inequality & social movements.

AGE AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION - PATTERNS

• More adults in UK, especially older adults, are going online using a range of devices
• 83% of afults now go online, nearly all 16-24 yo's and 25-34's are now on line
• There is 9% increase of over 65's going online from 2012
• Number of adults using tablets to go online almost doubled from 16% in 2012 to 30% in 2013.
• Use of tablets for age 65-74 yo's trebbled from 5% to 17%
• 6 in 10 UK adults use smartphone
• Those ages 45-54 now twice as likely to use internet to play games
• 66% of adults say they have a current social media profile.
• Berry - 79% of household below avg pension age have access compared to 37% above who dont. = digital divide due to lack of skill/knowledge

AGE AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION - IMPACT AND CRITICISM

• YOUNG - Positive- valuable skills, important connections, engage in political and social issues, support groups and networks, access ideas and info immediatly.
• YOUNG - Negative - exploitation, sexual abuse, greater pressure to conform to societies expectations, unhappy cant reach goals, cyber bullying, discrimination, exposure to adult content
• Palmer - toxic parenting, good parenting is replaced by tech to occupy children

CRITICISMS

• Increases digital divide
• Keep in contact with family - other side of world etc
• Older generation useage increasing
• Boyle - each generation has greater reliance of digital communication

SOCIAL CLASS AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION - PATTERNS

• Less money = higher rate of non participation
• Low class linked to lower internet use (81% of lower class are users compared to 94% of middle class)
• Low class focus technology use on entertainment not knowledge/info (79% owned games consoles compared to 64% of higher classes)
• Mertens and D'Haenens - social class is most powerful variable in digital inequality
• Guardian 2005 - 88% middle class and 61% working class have access to internet at home
• Marxism - Cornford and Robins -  spreads ruling class  ideology, false class consciousness to prevent revoly and keep masses happy.

SOCIAL CLASS AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION - IMPACT AND CRITICISMS

• Digital divide
• Digital underclass
• More affluent can increase social capital through online networks
• Considerable cost linked with DC and maintenance of it
• Digital divide - increasing social inequality in society
• Ruling class own media outlet - fox news right wing bias, claim they are fair but tell us their views

Criticism

• Digital revolution
• DC allows people to challenge ruling class - protest and challenging inequality.

GENDER AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATON - PATTERNS

• Younger women much more likely to use DC to maintain relationships. 42% younger woemn compared to 34% 18-34
• Younger users - mostly men- use social media for other reasons that maintaining relationships (usually entertainment) 28%
• Young women spend 16% of tyime online finding info
• Women have avg of 394 facebook posts and 69% of facebook gamers are female
• In every month in 2014 40m more women visited twitter than men .
• Li and Kirkup - british and chinese students - males in both countries more likely than women to use email and chatrooms.
• Men played more video games, more likely to boast about computer skills and more likely to express view that using computers was male activity

GENDER AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION - IMPACT AND CRITICISMS

• Women represent under 1/5 of IT managers, 21% of computer analysts and 14% of software porfessionals - Cooper 2013.
• Linkedin more male users than female
• Women increasingly objectified regarded as objects
• Women exploited online
• Women who might have been 'muted' have a voice through DC and can contact others all over the world
• Cyborgs and other identity created transcend gender
• Women utilise DC to mobilise support for activities which challenge patriarchal practices and ideology. 

Global Village

• increasing volume of communication not involve face to face contact
• idea of time and distance shrink - smaller world
• increases abulity to create and maintiain social relationships
• people can search for specific online communities and interact with others who share similar interests and concerns.
• relationship which people have online may be as significant as offline ones
• social capital - meet business partners, save time and money
• advertisers can use social media to expand business
• virtual communities - cyber city carter and second life boelstroff

Global Culture

• transmission of ideas, meanings, and valuesaround the world in such a way as to extend and intensify socialrelations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the internet, pop culture, media, and international travel

FEMINISM

• provides a new way to exploit women and children
• patriarchal ideology prepetuated through imagery and representation
• roberts et al - younger women use dc to maintain soc relationships, women excluded from history of dc, cyborgs and other identity created to transcend gender,
• nakaurma pervious muted groups have voice through dc and can connect with others accross world
• haraway - what it is to be woman politicides and socially constructed - technology offer women new identity

MARXISM

• globalisation results in spread of western capitalist ideas
• new forms of communication reflect ideas if media owners - rupert merdoch fox news - political bias, claim they are fair but show their views right wing republican/conservative
• new forms of communication encourage poassive acceptance  of capitalism

MARXISM CONT

• vertical concerntration - attemt to control every aspect of film
• horozontal concerntation - buy competitors in same market
• big data help companies profit

POSTMODERNISM

• Linked to globalisation
• represents way in which people create own identity
• positive and negative effects on social relationship
• collins - understand chains of interation must be inderstood. look closely at identity shown through sociual media using microsociologist approach it may be possible to understand world around you
• hart - rewrite autobiography daily
• case- hard to remove mistakes online. online and offline identity may cause issues. conflict and tension.

• laura bates everyday sexism
• nakumura - ethnic minority / muted groups experience a voice
• 42% use dc to maintain relationships
• haraway -women put aside by men
• globalisation expolites women - physical and sexual abuse, commodification of women (being sold and bought) ability to share eroticising of mens violence towards women
• sexualised violent imagery less serious as it is prevelant
• ikamara larasi campaign to address racist and sexist stereotypes in music video students began to ban blurred lines on uk campuses in response to sexist lyrics
• jinan younis co founded feminist society at school - online abuse from boy in peer group wrote article and went viral and is encouraging deminist society in schools worldwide
• women mobilise support for activties which challenge patriarchal practices
• linked in used by mainly men
• cooper - women 1/5 it managers, 21% computer analysts14% software professionals
• women not protected online - male dominated government
• national boundries less significant illegal movement of people become easier to coordinate