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Amanda Pridmore
Professor Frank Meyers
SCOM-110
Think Critically: Media Regulations and Ethics Assignment
1. Find examples of advertising that use ideas from symbolic interaction or social
construction of reality to sell their products? How do they do so?
a. For many people, technology itself is a social indicator of wealth and
status. The type of computer you own, the vehicle you drive, how much
money you have; these are all social indicators. Technology is viewed as a
symbol of coldness and alienation by neo-luddites; however, technology
symbolizes the potential for a brighter future by technophiles.
b. While we share our understanding of society through symbols, the media
creates and spreads them. Interactionists focus on this ongoing process of
subjective creation and understanding of reality. Media constructs our
reality in several different ways. For some, the people they watch on
screen become a primary group, which means the small informal groups of
people closest to them.
2. Describe how the morality and ethics of those participating in various media
outlets might have an impact on your life. Include social media like Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram, and Snap Chat effects in your discussion.
a. Social media is a platform for communication. It is also a way for people
to connect, exchange information such as visual and audio contents, and
spread various ideas in the virtual community. Ethics on the other hand is
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a person's ability to know and differentiate between what is right and what
is wrong. In this age and day, social media is being used even by kids and
teenagers and lots of side effects go with it and one of them is the effect of
social media on the human ethics and social morality.
b. One of the effects of social media is when people pretend as someone who
they are not because they see someone on Instagram posting luxurious
lives and people also want to live like that even they cannot afford it.
Some people even become in debt with credit cards because of this
pretentiousness. This is a question of ethics and morality for those people
who are blinded by influencers because people tend to shift their focus on
valuing surface beauty and luxury rather than truly improving their lives
within their personal means.
c. Social media has impacted my ethics and morality both positively and
negatively. I also experienced arguing with someone on Facebook which
led me to say bad words. I also tried to post on Instagram of some lifestyle
changes wherein I used my credit card and nearly became in debt. This
opened my eyes, and this is the good side of it, that I learned something,
and now, I am more decisive of what I post and say on social media. I
always check if what I am doing is ethical and moral. After all, social
media is not a platform for war and evil for social media should be a way
to help improve lives and raise other people’s spirits.
3. How much regulation or, if you prefer, deregulation do you think media outlets
should accept? For example, do think your free speech rights should be regulated
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on social media where the platforms like Facebook and Twitter have very little
government oversight and make their own policing policies that historically
censor Christian groups and conservative organizations. Explain your answers.
a. As a proud American, I do not think that there should be extensive media
regulation. Well, to an extent, that is. Free speech is in the constitution,
and I feel that should be honored heavily. But with the topic of cyber
bullying, I am not sure where I stand with this.
b. As someone who attended high school from 2013-2017, I know the
aggressors of online bullying all too well. Although I value our rights to
free speech per the constitution, I feel that there should be some sort of
regulation standard when it comes to online bullying. Perhaps primarily
with minors to deter online bullying.
c. In my years as a high school student, I delt with people telling me via
social media, “you’re fat and ugly”, “kill yourself”, and many other
saddening phrases. When I brought this to school faculty’s attention, they
didn’t seem to feel any urgency to get to the bottom of these messages.
This is what I mean by our country needing more control over freedom of
speech when it comes to minors. So much so that, “cyberbullying victims
were almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to youth
who had not experienced cyberbullying” (mmm).
d.
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Works Cited
Baran, Stanley J. Introduction to Mass Communication, Media Literacy and Culture. Eleventh
Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, 2021.
Montgomery, Diana. “What Is the Difference between Technophile and
Technophobe?” Gzipwtf.com, ThemeGrill, 18 Oct. 2020, https://gzipwtf.com/what-is-the-
difference-between-technophile-and-technophobe/.
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Hinduja, Sameer, and Justin W. Patchin. “Cyberbullying and Suicide Research Fact
Sheet.” Cyberbullying Research Summary, Cyberbullying Research Center, 5 Mar. 2019,
https://cyberbullying.org/cyberbullying_and_suicide_research_fact_sheet.pdf.
