How Social Deviance Is Represented and Controlled By Mass Media: A Field Study on Children's Animated Movies

Öz

The term social deviance refers to norm violations which cause negative reactions; it is a deviation from the rules of the society. Throughout history, deviants, or in other words norm violators have been labeled, stigmatized, imprisoned, and excluded. They were always subjected to a sort of control, although the means and the mechanisms of this control have changed over time. These means and mechanisms lead us to the term social control, whose primary purpose is to control deviance. This study focuses on how cartoons or animated movies, whose primary target audience is children, engages in this social control or represent social deviance, and how children are affected by the messages they are exposed to. In order to analyze these problems, a case study which consists of a focus group study with nine children at the age of six, who have seen a selected sample movie, has been conducted. After the children had seen the movie, they were asked questions whose purpose was to understand what messages they received from the story about deviance, norms and social control, and how they interpreted those messages. The responses indicate that mass media functions as an agent of social control, and that it is an effective tool to make individuals internalize the norms of the society.

Keywords: Social deviance, social control, mass media, cartoons, media effects

Anahtar Kelimeler

• social,deviance

Sosyal Sapkınlığın Medyadaki Sunumu ve Kontrolü: Çizgi Filmler Üzerine Bir Alan Çalışması

Öz

Sosyal sapkınlık kavramı, negatif tepkiler doğuran norm ihlalleri anlamına gelir ve toplumun normlarından sapmayı ifade eder. Sapkınlar, başka bir deyişle normları ihlal edenler, tarih boyunca etiketlenmiş, damgalanmış, hapsedilmiş ve dışlanmıştır. Söz konusu bireyler, her zaman bir tür kontrole maruz kalmıştır; fakat bu kontrolün yöntemi ve mekanizmaları, zaman içerisinde değişmiştir. Bu yöntemler ve mekanizmalar, bizi, temel amacı sapkınlığı kontrol etmek olan sosyal kontrol kavramına götürür. Bu çalışma, ana hedefi çocuklar olan çizgi filmlerin söz konusu sosyal kontrole nasıl dahil olduğu, sosyal sapkınlığı nasıl temsil ettiği ve çocukların bu mesajlardan nasıl etkilendiği üzerinde durmuştur. Bu amaçla, aynı anaokuluna giden 6 yaşındaki 9 çocuğa seçilen örnek bir çizgi film izletilerek bir odak grubu çalışması yapılmıştır. Çocuklar filmi izledikten sonra,  filmin hikayesinden sapkınlık, normlar ve sosyal kontrol hakkında nasıl mesajlar aldıklarını ve bu mesajları nasıl yorumladıklarını anlamak için çocuklara sorular sorulmuştur. Çocukların yanıtları, kitle medyasının bir sosyal kontrol aktörü olarak işlev gördüğünü ve bireylerin toplumun normlarını içselleştirmesi için etkili bir araç olduğunu destekler niteliktedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Sosyal sapkınlık, sosyal kontrol, kitle medyası, çizgi filmler, medya etkileri

Anahtar Kelimeler

• sosyal,sapkınlık

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