Digital Media

• Sociology


  The scientific study of the nature and development of society and social behavior (Oxford Dictionary)
• Main elements of sociology

  • The Object of Study: Society
  • The Methods: Scientific methods
  • Information: Empirical Data/Empirical Evidence
• Object of Study: Society

  People living together in a community, including people at individual level and society as a whole
• Methods: Scientific methods


  Systematic methods to objectively examine the world with an aim to gain knowledge about the structure and behavior of the natural and physcial world, based on facts the you can prove, for example by experiments (Oxford Dictionary)
• Objective examination


  Assessment or analysis of something in a fair, impartial, and unbiased manner, without influences from personal feelings and emotions
• Information: Empirical Data/Empirical Evidence

  Data deriving from observation or through an experiment to see behavior and patterns and to prove a hypothesis
• Natural Scientific Methods


  1. Asking a question about the world

  2. An observation

  3. Developing and testing a hypothesis

  4. The empirical data gathered from an observation or an experiment to see whether it can or cannot prove the hypothesis

  5. The hypothesis is tested and supported by evidence

  6. Conclusion and result are used to create a theory

  7. A theory is used to explain a natural phenomenon
• A hypothesis is a proposition or an assumption
• Can sociology be scientific?

  • Although sociology employs scientific methods, it has certain limitations in comparison with the methods in natural science
  • In social science, experiments are quite rare (in comparison with natural scientists who regularly do experiments in laboratories)
  • Social scientific hypotheses cannot be tested in isolation from human actions and behaviors which are complex
  • The subject matter of the social sciences is human beings which act out of their free wills (they are unpredictable)
  • It is difficult to control the environment (in comparison with bacteria in a petri dish or guinea pigs in a lab)
  • Without environment being controlled, there are too many external factors which can affect the results
  • To understand humans and society in the real world, the environment with which humans interact should not be controlled
  • Ethical issues in experiments in human are significant, especially on vulnerable groups such as young children
  • The conclusions are always tentative and probabilistic
• Social Sciences


  Aim to study and understand social world and human from different perspectives with different focuses
• Scope of social sciences

  • Sociology
  • Economics
  • Political science
  • Legal studies
  • Psychology
  • History
  • Anthropology
  • Education
  • Communication studies
  • Criminology
  • Penology
• Sociology


  • Distinct from other social science disciplines, as it focuses on the examination and understanding of patterns (recurring characteristics, behaviors and events)
  • It looks at different patterns of different or similar groups of people at different or similar places and times
  • It attempts to understand a social behavior in a wider social context (class, gender, neighborhood, race, ethnicity and etc.) and notice or point out a peculiar thing in familiar context in people's everyday lives
• Quantitative data


  Numeric data which can be counted or measured
• Qualitative data


  Non-numeric data which can describe qualities or characteristics
• Schools of Sociology


  • Positivist Sociology
  • Interpretive Sociology
  • Critical Sociology
• Positivist Sociology


  • The study of society is objective and based on systematic observations of facts
  • The observers must be neutral
  • The study does not give importance to the beliefs
  • Only empirical data/information is used to answer a question
• Interpretive Sociology


  • Studying society from simply objective social facts may not be able to answer all questions
  • It focuses on how people make sense, understand and interpret their social world
  • It aims to understand why people act/behave like that, why such social phenomenon/event happens, and what meaning is behind that
  • Through an analysis of the beliefs, norms, and values of the culture of the society in which it takes place
  • It aims to understand the subjects see their social world through their perspectives (rather than the researcher's observation)
• Critical Sociology

  • The study of a society with a focus on the need for social and political changes
  • It attempts to find reasons for/ causes of certain social problems, as well as to propose solutions to deal with such problems
  • It is not limited to a study of a society to know, but to use the understanding of social phenomena or human's social behaviors to bring changes to the society
• Theory


  • A formal set of ideas that is intended to explain why something happens or exists (Oxford Dictionary)
  • A formal statement of the rules on which a subject of study is based or of ideas that are suggested to explain a fact or event or,more generally, an opinion or explanation (Cambridge Dictionary)
• Sociological theories are proposed on the basis of observations and experiments by sociologists
• Paradigms


  Different theoretical perspectives in sociology which are different in their core concepts, ideas and the approaches to which they are trying to explain a social phenomenon or a society
• Macro-level sociology


  Aims to examine sociological questions at a large scale, concentrating on overarching social structures, institutions, and patterns that shape the behavior and interactions of individuals within a society
• Micro-level sociology


  Investigates sociological questions at a smaller scale, focusing on interactions, behaviors and other social phenomena of individuals or small-groups of people (such as families, communities, particular ethnicities, religious groups, particular groups of certain sexual orientations)
• Structures, institutions, and patterns

  Shape the behavior and interactions of individuals within a society
• Although macro-oriented and micro oriented sociological questions focus on different pictures of the society (big or small), it does not mean that they are completely separated, since the bigger and the smaller pictures are always connected and can be used to explain each other
• A Question at micro level : Do police treat people of different races differently?

  Understand the society at macro level : a pattern of racial discrimination in the society
• A Question at macro level : How does capitalism cause income inequality?

  Understand the society at micro level : the pattern of how illegal Thai migrant workers develop their network
• Functionalism (structural-functional theory)

  A society is like a machine or a body of a living creature
• Conflict Theory

  A society is as a group of competing interests between different groups of people
• Symbolic Interactionist Theory

  A society is as a group of people/individuals interacting with each other
• Functionalism

  • Looks a society as a system of highly interconnected structures or parts that operate or function together harmoniously
  • Individual part contributes to the smooth functioning of the whole society
  • From the functionalist perspective, it is assumed that the society is stable, balance and self-regulating in itself (if every part is functioning properly)
  • It is also expected that people in the society have similar values and are aware of what to expect from one another
• Mechanical solidarity

  In a more primitive society, members in a society performed the same or similar tasks, holding them together by shared values, common symbols or systems
• Organic solidarity

  In a modern society, people no longer perform the same or similar tasks. However, their different tasks are important to each other, making them become interdependence
• Manifest function


  Intended and obvious consequences of the social structure
• Latent function


  Unintended or byproduct of the social structure
• Mass Media

  • Manifest function - Mass media disseminate information, entertain, and facilitate communication among individuals and groups
  • Latent function - Mass media can transmit cultural norms, values, and ideologies, shaping perspectives of people in a society
• Schools

  • Manifest function - Schools provide education for people
  • Latent function - Schools serve as a social space, allowing people to learn social norms and values
• If a family (as a part of the society) functions properly, children would grow up to become good quality adults which can contribute to the society
• If a family does not function properly (dysfunctional), children would grow up to be troublemakers and create problems to the society
• If the education system functions properly, the society will have enough people to work in different industries, making the society move on and stable