Week 2 Entry: Identify at least 4 Social groups or cultural groups and the media you think they use. You may include photos if you like.

                Basically, a group is a collection of people who have developed a common social identity relating to certain object of an activity. There are some elements that enable us to identify a sociological group. For example, the interaction among the group members and the group most likely will be in an organizational structure.  In a group, the members are likely to aware of their membership in the group and the members mostly will share the common interest. Sociological groups can be divided into different categorized groups: peer group, community, aggregate, primary group, reference group, voluntary group and other groups. 

                 The first social group I will like to discuss is the peer group. A peer group is made up of individuals of relatively equal status with whom the individual interacts frequently. As the saying goes, “A friend indeed is a friend in need”. Hence, anyone of us makes the very first social group with our peers. In another words, we can deduce growing up with friends will shape who we are nowadays other than our own parents. The members in a peer group tend to share the similar interest and sometimes will exchange ideas which indirectly will affect one another. I think the media that will be used for peers are mobile phones, internet, cameras and external hard drives. Members of a peer group can be adolescence or youths. Hence, they usually use mobile phones to send text messages to one another as a medium for communication. They will also use social websites like Facebook or Twitter to preserve their friendship. They may also use the features of creating events or groups for discussion over some matters.  Peers will also like to exchange the movie files and others sources of files through the usage of hard drives which can be used to store many files.

 

                 The second social group that I will like to highlight is the aggregate group. An aggregate group is a group of people who are in the same place but they do not interact much with one another nor share the same characteristics.  In fact, these people are concerned about themselves and do not care much about their surroundings. For example, the college or university students who are staying the outdoor campus and do not interact to one another. For this instance, the most common media they will use are social media and mobile phones. They are not good at expressing themselves and they will depend on the use of the common social sites-Facebook to act as a medium to express their own feelings and even their thoughts to other housemates. Another possible media that they will use are text messaging services to the other housemates for communication purposes.

                 Next, I will emphasize another social group which is the primary group. A primary group is a typically small social group whose members share close, personal and enduring relationships. This group is marked by members’ concern for one another and these people normally share the same culture as well as activities. Examples of this group of people are family, childhood friends as well as highly influential social groups.  The media that they used to use are mobile phones and letters. For example, the parent will use the mobile phone to contact their children who are not by their side to ensure their safety. Some childhood friends, who are not very computer literate, will use letters to one another to maintain their closed friendships especially to those who have not been met with each other for few years. In this modern era, the use of social site like Facebook and Twitter enable them to reach one another more easily in a more efficient way.

                 Last but not least, the other social group is franchise.  Franchisees are the persons involved in this social group, which run several businesses in the country. They will normally use billboards, internet, television, radio and newspapers to promote their products to the consumers to ensure a good business flow. Apart from that they will sometimes depict the use of animation or short video clips for publicity purposes as well. For example, we can see Kentucky Fried Chicken or Mac Donald’s advertisements most of the times on the television during the advertisement intervals of the television programmes, like drama series, news, celebrity or entertainment shows.  Some of them even create websites and web pages for sharing the latest information regarding their latest products and at the same time, obtaining the feedback from the consumers.  

                In short, media have been played an essential roles in our lives as they enable us to connect to one another at anywhere at any time in terms of verbally or non-verbally communication.