Sociology 101, #61383TV as an Agent of Socialization: Homosexuality in “Modern Family”Recently, mass media has been increasing, and it has affected socialization while mass media market is growing. Before mass media had been diffused to our society, people were able to connect with others only through the direct interaction, but as the analogue era has gone and as the digital era has come into our culture, it is hard to imagine our life withoutmass media. Most people just think about mass media as interesting and useful tools, but actually, it is not only for interesting and useful, but also it exerts a strong influence on our social perceptions by showing culture components such as values, belief, and norms from the media. For example, depend on how specific races are described and how men’s or women’s roles are portrayed on the shows, People’s value can be changed and affected. As diffusion of mass media market, people can be socialized without direct interactions with others. “ModernFamily” is a famous American TV show that shows modern American family’s ordinary life. In this TV show, it depicts the roles of agent of socialization that means “social groups, institutions, and individuals that provide structured situations in which socialization takes place” (Ferris and Stein 2016:107). “Modern Family” show how homosexuals are socially stereotyped, how they dealt with the attentions of others around him, and how they solve it through the gay couple’s ordinary life.There are several important concepts about sociology before analyzing “Modern Family”. According to the textbook, “The Real World,” socialization which “is a twofold process” refers to “the process of learning and internalizing the values, belief, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society” (Ferris and Stein 2016:97). It is essential process for humankind to be better society. Although there are peoplewho tend to enjoy their life by themselves without connection with other people, our society, still, demands the connection, and people have the connection unless they lives alone such as Page #1feral children like Mowgli. People need to be raised because human being is a social animal, and so they should learn socialization through life-time. From the textbook, socialization includes “the process by which a society, culture, or group teaches individuals to become functioning members, and the process by which individuals learn and internalize the values and norms of the group” (Ferris and Stein 2016:97). Every person is educated and affected bythe process of socialization, and they learn how to live well with members of the society frominteractions between each other. So, they could distinguish the thing whether it is right or not and they would react depends on their judgement. Foe human being, infancy, especially whenthey start to learn language, is the most important period because they feel their sense of self and learn the ability to distinguish themselves from others that is expressed as “generalized other” on this period. And then they learn variety social skills from “the four predominant agents of socialization” that is most influential socializing forces; “the family, schools, peers, and the mass media” (Ferris and Stein 2016:107). I will use ‘existing sources’ research method for this papers; ‘existing sources’ refer to “any information that is available for future research” (Ferris and Stein 2016:53). Also, content analysis, which refers to “a specific use ofexisting sources that examines visual or written material,” is applied to the research to approach to working with existing sources due to the fact that “Modern Family” is a visual material.The TV show, “Modern Family,” is one of form of mass media. I have watched the first episode of the first season titled “Pilot”. “Modern Family” is the story about modern family life in the modern society. There is a gay couple who are main characters of the show, Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker, and they adopt a baby, Lilly, from Vietnam. In brief, they are suffering discrimination from others who have negative stereotype about homosexuality. They are on the airplane, and passengers take displeasure from the gay couple. In addition, they are worried to tell that they adopt a baby to their family because theyPage #2also know that their family would not give a celebration and would not support that a gay couple raise an adopted baby. Relatively, this couple takes less important role in the show compared with other main characters who are heterosexual.In the “Modern Family”, homosexuality is portrayed as an abnormal thing throughout this episode. This gay couple, Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker, is what I focus on to analyze how they deal with it. When they, include Lilly who adopted, are on the airplane to come back home, there are passengers around them who praise Lilly. People around the gay couple give an interest to Lilly because she is adorable, but they take a different position after they notice that Lilly is adopted by the gay couple. It shows how our society treats homosexuals and ultimately, how people react when they face people who have different values. And so, it is really hard to reveal that they are homosexuals due to the negative stereotype about homosexuality. Next, it shows a satirical scene about homosexuals’ self-complex. It also happens on the airplane. A passenger is passing the gay couple and says,“Honey, look at that baby with those creampuffs.” ‘Creampuff’ is usually expressed man whois girlish. So, Mitchell gets mad because he thought that the passenger is insulting him, but it was not insulting and the word ‘creampuffs’ that the passenger spoke meant actual creampuffs that Lilly was grabbing. The passenger did not mean to insult the gay couple, but the couple thought that it was insulting to begin with due to their self-complex which came from heterosexuals’ negative point of view about homosexuality. By heterosexuals’ negative point of view about homosexuality, homosexuals tend to think themselves as abnormal people like the term ‘social looking glass’ which refers to “the way we see ourselves reflectedback from others” (Ferris and Stein 2016:102).Next scene is in the gay couple’s house, and Mitchell is afraid of telling his family the truth that he adopted a baby