The social construction of reality is a view that “people create reality—the world as they believe it exists—based on their individual knowledge and on social interactions with other people. People then act in accordance with the views of reality and society. Individuals gain the knowledge on which they base their social realities from four sources: personal experiences, significant others (peers, family, friends), other social groups and institutions (schools, unions, churches, government agencies), and the mass media" (Surette, 1992, p. 4). People mix all these realms together and come up with their own world view, so social construction. "The socially constructed world is thus composed of events individuals believe to be happening; facts they believe to be true; causal processes they believe to be operating' relationships they believe to exist; and values, attitudes, and opinions they believe are valid and should be upheld" (p.4). People in similar circumstances tend to construct the same views (Surette, 1992, p. 4).
Mass Media
For mass media's role in social construction, mass media institutions have become increasingly popular, and one drawback from this is that in order for institutions to present their message through media, they must conform to the norms and formats of the media. The for-profit nature influences media (p. 4).. Many question whether the media causes change in social constructions or just reflect changes being made; a thought is that it is reciprocal. The media does, however, legitimize topics, social issues, social policies, and people.
Communications theory believes that "attitudes and beliefs develop gradually in response to significant trends in media representation" (Barak, 1994, p. 23).
References:
Barak, G. (1994). “Media, society, and criminology.” In G. Barak (Ed.), Media, process, and the social construction of crime: Studies in newsmaking criminology. 3-45. Garland Publishing: New York.Surette, R. (1992). “Mass media, crime, and criminal justice: An introduction .” Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities. 1-20. Wadsworth Publishing Company: Belmont, California.