Socialization Agent

Many people watch television as part of their everyday routine, and according to Kerry Ferris, in The Real World, “The average American watches between two to seven hours of television per day.” The television is a common agent of socialization and is used to depict many different identities and social statuses. After looking in depth at the messages we are all receiving from television shows; it is very obvious that television makes these messages appear to be “the norm.” I chose to take a closer look at the ABC show, Modern Family. The TV show bounces back and forth from the different families and does not show the characters throughout the whole episode, therefore, I chose to watch two episodes to get a better understanding. It is a comedy show written about a father, and his two children, who have all expanded their families. I chose to focus on the individual identity shown about sexuality of the Father’s son, Mitch. He is a gay man, who has a partner and a young adopted daughter. In addition to having this couple as two of the main characters; they also introduced one other gay male character, and a lesbian couple, who were only on for a single episode. The message Modern Family is showing about homosexuality is being seen by over 12 million viewers per week, and contributes greatly to the process of socialization and acceptance of gays. In the program there is a total of 11 main characters depicted every episode. Two of those characters are homosexuals, Mitch and Cam. I can tell that the characters are main characters because they are shown and talked about throughout the entire episode. In the first episode they are trying to adopt another child and it becomes the center of the episode. When Mitch and Cam are not on the TV screen, the other main characters are talking about them throughout the episode. For example, the other main characters talk about their struggle to get another child, and the Grandfather talks to his grandchild about