X A Content Data Workshops Short Answer Response: Chapter 4: TV as an Agent of Socialization Step 1: Finding a Focus 1. Which aspect of social status and identity will you focus on? In one or two sentences, describe your focus using the terms status and role. Step 2: Analyzing Roles and Portrayals 1. In three or four sentences, answer the following questions: What types of roles do the characters you focused on have? What are their activities, attitudes, and interactions like on the show? What kinds of things do they do and say that tell you who they are and what they are like ? 2. In three or four sentences, answer the following questions: Are the portrayals of your focus characters positive or negative? Humorous or serious? One-dimensional or multidimensional? How can you tell? 3. In three or four sentences, answer the following questions: What image(s) of your focus status does this program portray? In other words, what messages do the words, pictures, plot lines, and characters convey to viewers about this status in general? Step 3: Evaluating TV as a Socializing Agent 1. Answer the following question in two or three sentences: How does TV socialize us? 2. In two or three sentences, answer the following questions: What do you think of TV's powers of socialization? Does it benefit or harm society, and in what ways? rds: Chapter 4