Chapter 16 : Education and the Mass Media

1. Even though it is often claimed that American public schools attempt to provide equal educational opportunities for all citizens, it is evident that lower-class children do not reap the same advantages from schools as those from more privileged backgrounds. Explain how this happens, despite schools' attempts to do otherwise.

2. Based upon your textbook's discussion, what might be the principal advantages and disadvantages of having children go to private versus public schools in the United States at this time. Assess whether privatization of our public schools would help to improve them.

3. Explain why literacy is so important in efforts to promote greater economic development in the Third World developing nations.

4. Why do the authors of your text claim that the spread of the Internet across the globe has raised important questions for sociologists?

5. Back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan argued that the developments of radio and television helped to produce a global village. Carefully explain what he meant by the term global village and its importance. Explain how the advent of the Internet and cell phones will be likely to extend the concept of the global village further and faster than ever before.

6. Compare and contrast the four different views about the influence of the mass media on society: Marshall McLuhan and "the medium is the message," Jürgen Habermas and emergence of the public sphere, Jean Baudrillard and the world of hyperreality, and John Thompson and the three forms of interaction.

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