Learning about social activities

Mass media

Mass media refers to the technology that is intended to reach the mass audiences through enhancing communication and information sharing activities. It is the primary means of communication used for reaching the vast majority of the general public. The latest news and information can be shared through mass media communication among the general public who can access diverse sources of mass media and acknowledge the latest updates. The most common platforms of mass media are such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, journalism, social media, advertising and public relations as well as books and journals. The mass media plays a crucial role in the sharing the views of the world and the intensive use of mass media has resulted in the world to appear smaller and closer. Media is the watchdog of the society and it works to transmit heritage and cultural values (Hanitzsch and Vos, 2018). The mass media creates a global platform to bring the people worldwide together and share own thoughts, develop arguments and exchange information. It also promotes the distribution of the good and services as well as the fundamental objective of mass media are to inform, educate and entertain the masses through communication and cooperation (Hanitzsch and Vos, 2018). It is helpful to reach wider audiences across the globe through mass media communication where the audiences can access the authentic information and acknowledge diverse knowledge and social activities around the globe. In the recent era of globalisation, mass media is effective to gain knowledge and information about articular activities in the society where the individuals can access the internet for getting latest updates about worldwide activities.

The purpose of the mass media is to inform the people across the social communities, build the public opinion as well as persuade their thinking process, circulating the government policies, providing pleasure and entertainment as well as disseminating health and educational programs are also other major purposes of mass media, to engage the audiences and provide them latest updates about education, health and safety and government programs. In addition to this, the mass media activities are beneficial to establish social contract and linkage among the people across the globe (Boczkowski, Matassi and Mitchelstein, 2018). Mass media also has crucial impacts on socio political activities, information exchange, transportation improvement, business world through increasing international trade and working against disaster and calamity. Hence, the mass media communication is necessary for exchanging information and provides latest updates to all the individuals across diverse social communities. It is hereby working as the mode of communication and information exchange for sharing the latest updates (Sharma et al., 2020). For example, in the recent pandemic era of COVID 19, through mass media, the individuals across the international countries get authentic news and information about the death rate for the virus spread, the policy and initiatives taken by the government of the international countries as well as the recovery rate of the people through treatment and continuous care. The individuals are getting continuous updates about COVID 19 and they become concern about the virus spread as well as awareness across the societies can be raised successfully through mass media activities (Anwar et al., 2020). In this regard, the people across the world get the actual statistics of death rate and recovery rate as well as acknowledge the treatment process and home remedies to stay safely through maintaining social distancing and lock down as well as getting latest updates about the vaccine for the virus. Hence, in the recent years, mass media plays an important role for the people to get latest updates about the pandemic situation and raise awareness across the social communities to stop the spread of virus across the societies.

On the other hand, the international trade activities and business world growth depends on mass media activities. The multinational corporations try to develop marketing strategies by utilising mass media for promoting their particular products and services in the global market. The latest mass media platforms such as internet, social media and digital media activities as well as the traditional media activities including newspaper advertisement, billboards and television advertisement are effective for promoting the products and services in the market and attract the audiences for increasing brand profitability and sales volume (Kriyantono, 2017). The corporate leader of Apple, which is a famous technological innovation organisation in the electronics industry focus on mass media communication and advertisement through social media for attracting the audiences towards the brand to launch the newly produced electronics gadgets. The company is successful to maintain strong customer’s base and improve market communication through mass media including social media advertisement, digital media and internet for managing their loyal customers across the market. on the other hand, the famous retail firm Tesco, is successful to operate across the international retail industry through increasing promotional activities by utilising mass media and it also help the brand to improve market communication and engage the customers with the organisational activities. The company is successful to serve the customers across the international markets and create brand image through social media and television advertisement (Kriyantono, 2017). Hence, mass media is highly utilised by the corporate firms to ensure business expansion and attract the audiences for their quality products and services. Through mass media advertisement, the customer also get access to the quality products at effective price and the brand are also able to influence their purchase decision to maximise their profitability and make the business successful.

Crime and deviances

Crime is an illegal act which is punished by law and on the other hand, deviance is the behaviour which does not conform to society norms and values and if it is detected, it is likely to lead to negative sanctions. Crime is also a form of deviance that breaks the social norms, laws and rules in living in the society. Crime mainly violates the criminal law where the societies look these activities illegal such as robbery, assault, battery, murder, rape, embezzlements and burglary. The criminal justice of the society punishes the criminals which is necessary under Criminal Act (Ward, 2019). On the other hand, social deviations are the acts like abusing the serving staff or the behaviour arising from mental illness and addiction which are not illegal themselves but it is harmful for the society. Hence, there are differences between crime and deviances. Crime refers to the violation of law, deviation refer to the violation of the social acts, rules, norms and conventions. There are differences between crime and deviances and the causes are also different. There are several causes of crime, and recently the crime rate across the globe is increasing over the period of time, and the major causes are poverty, peer pressure, politics and religion issues in the society. Poverty is considered as a serious cause of crime, where the individuals engaged in crime to live minimum standard of living. The peer pressure and political issues are also the causes of increasing crime rate (Bittle et al., 2018). The family condition, addiction towards substance use and the unemployment issues in the society are other causes for which the young generations are engaged with crime in the society. Rapid population growth, lack of social welfare and lack of social capital for the new generations and are also the major causes for which the individuals are suffering of maximising their wellbeing, for which they are getting involved with the criminal activities in the society. These are the issues for which there is growing high crime areas and increasing numbers of individuals in the society who are engaged with criminal activities (Bittle et al., 2018).

On the other hand, deviance behaviour goes against the social norms as identified by the group of society and the actions are labelled as deviant and it is difficult to accept in the society. Lack of education is one of the major issues where the young generation are not interested and engaged with the educational activities for developing their physical and mental health. Lack of education and broken family with improper socialisation are the major issues of such deviance behaviour, where the individuals are suffering from behavioural disorder issues in the society (Ward, 2019). Lack of religious education and poor morality are also other causes of deviance behaviour in the society, where the person cannot understand the cultural perspectives, values and ethics of others. Rejection by the neighbours and lack of engagement with the social communities further raise the issue of deviance behaviour among the people. Lack of basic facilities in the society, poor parenting or parentless childhood also raises the issue of deviance behaviour among the individuals across the social communities. Urban slums and mass media activities also have serious impacts on the people, where the individuals start behavior weirdly in the society and they face the issue of social isolation (Akers and Jennings, 2019). As per the recent police record, there are 5.8 million crimes in England and Wales in the year ending of 2020. The crime of homicide has been increased over the years and the annual % change is 10% as well as there is 6% increase in the crime of knife or share instruments (Akers and Jennings, 2019). The percentage of theft and burglary has been decreased in the previous year. These are the major crimes in the UK where the causes are poverty, lack of employment opportunities in the society and income inequality. The individuals fail to meet their basic needs and they become engaged with the criminal activities. Child abuse is another major social issue in the UK which is considered to be crime and needs to be addressed through punishing the victims. There are more than 50,000 children in the UK who needs protection and safety from abuse (Akrivos and Antoniou, 2019). The government of the UK is efficient to support the child, with 24*7 call services, and arrange intervention program to provide safe environment for physical and mental health development.

According to the British Medical Association, 5% of adults are exercising mental health issues in the UK, and the statistics for mental illness in increasing over the period of time. Anxiety and depression are the major mental health issues among the individuals and the children are also suffering for such critical problems. Due to poor parenting, absence of parents and lack of spending quality time with the children, loneliness is the issue which raises anxiety and depression among the children in the UK (Akrivos and Antoniou, 2019). The behavioral problem among the individuals is also a serious issue among the individuals, and the major cause of such issue are anxiety disorders, dementia depression, bipolar disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The major risk factors among the individuals for behavioral issues are anti-social activities, ADHD, mood disorders, substance use, which raise the deviance behavioral problem among the people. Recently, most of the individuals fail to manage their anxiety and stress that creates unacceptable situation in the society, where one misbehaves with others (Wells, 2017). Harming others, threating of violence, criminal behavior, cruelty towards others and animals are also other deviance behavior for which the other people in the society face difficulties in living in the society safely. It needs effective intervention planning to take care of the people with deviance behavior with group therapy, counseling, social skill enhancement and medication.

Reference List

Akers, R.L. and Jennings, W.G., 2019. The social learning theory of crime and deviance. In Handbook on crime and deviance (pp. 113-129). Berlin: Springer, Cham.

Akrivos, D. and Antoniou, A.K., 2019. Crime, deviance and popular culture: International and multidisciplinary perspectives. Berlin: Springer.

Anwar, A., Malik, M., Raees, V. and Anwar, A., 2020. Role of mass media and public health communications in the COVID-19 pandemic. Cureus, 12(9).

Bittle, S., Snider, L., Tombs, S. and Whyte, D., 2018. Revisiting crimes of the powerful: Marxism, crime and deviance. London: Routledge.

Boczkowski, P.J., Matassi, M. and Mitchelstein, E., 2018. How young users deal with multiple platforms: The role of meaning-making in social media repertoires. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 23(5), pp.245-259.

Hanitzsch, T. and Vos, T.P., 2018. Journalism beyond democracy: A new look into journalistic roles in political and everyday life. Journalism, 19(2), pp.146-164.

Kriyantono, R., 2017. Do the different terms affect the roles? A measurement of excellent and managerial role of business and government public relations practices in Indonesia. International Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research, 15(6), pp.193-209.

Sharma, P., Gupta, S., Kushwaha, P. and Shekhawat, K., 2020. Impact of mass media on quality of life during COVID-19 pandemic among Indian population. Int J Sci Healthc Res, 5, pp.260-7.

Ward, J.T., 2019. Developmental and life-course theories of crime and deviance. Handbook on crime and deviance, pp.283-308.

Wells, L.E., 2017. Social control and self-control theories of crime and deviance. London: Routledge.

Take a deeper dive into Introduction to Homelessness as a Social problem under Poverty in the UK with our additional resources.