المستخلص: |
Mass media are considered as the major democratizing agent and at the same time the safeguard of a democratic and inclusive society. However, what is more important from a sociological point of view is that the use of a particular language by means of selection and omission, communication media creates new forms of action and interaction in the social world, new kinds of social relationships and new ways of relating to others and to oneself. So one of the fundamental questions regarding the functioning of media in the society is about the role it plays in establishing or maintaining a specific social order in which certain sections of the society are facing discrimination or marginalition. In the democratic form of social system, media are supposed to play a great role in terms of mobilization of the people and strengthening inclusive citizenship by functioning as a watchdog of social justice. However, several contemporary studies have shown how contemporary media have failed to meet these shared expectations playing a significant role in creating and perpetuating such a discriminatory social system, in which the marginalized communities are denied full citizenship rights. Since the nature of power relations in modern society is largely linguistic and discursive in its essence, the role of mass media in creating and maintaining a particular social order is significant. My concern here is to look into some of these questions while trying to understand the media’s engagements with the socially excluded groups.
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