Issues of the small screen

Running head: Issues of the small screen

Issues of the Small Screen: A Psychological Exploration into the Programmes, Stereotypes, Fantasies and Ethical Implications

Madhavi Menon and Swasti Shrimali Vohra University of Delhi, South Campus.

Abstract: This is an exploratory study on the issues related to the Indian television. An indepth questionnaire was developed to elicit responses on the programmes and channels viewed, fantasies, and ethical implications of the television media. Picture cards were used as stimuli to gain an insight into the stereotypes and themes subscribed to. The questionnaire was administered on 70 students (male and female; postgraduates and undergraduates). A qualitative and quantitative analysis revealed significant gender and educational differences in the kinds of programmes and channels watched, and the fantasies (understood from the serial the respondents created). A qualitative analysis also revealed a link between the serials watched and the stereotype themes that emerged in the study. No significant difference in opinion regarding the ethical implications was noticed.

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Issues of the small screen

The concept of an information society got off to a slow start in India. However, the liberal policies of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during 1984-1989 ushered in an era of telecommunications and computer revolution in the country. The expansion of television in India during the first two decades after it began its programmes in September 1959 was excruciatingly slow. However, it was the five year period from 1982 to 1987 that the Indian television saw phenomenal expansion, switched over from black and white to colour televisions during the Asiad in 1982, and created television culture through popular programmes like ‘Humlog’, ‘Buniyaad’ and ‘Ramayana’. There are innumerable television channels on air today. The burgeoning and bustling media industry, with rapid in-roads being made by television in the semi-urban and rural areas, has brought to the fore concerns regarding the socio-cultural implications of the television medium. There are dozens of serials on the small screen today, relaying varied messages and themes, which need to be examined to understand the socio-cultural effects of media viewer ship on the ordinary Indian citizen. The present study attempts to gain an insight into the television viewing styles of the urban Indian youth, with special emphasis on the kinds of channels and programmes viewed, dominant themes, attitudes towards censorship, and the stereotypes subscribed to by the urban Indian youth. This study also attempts to explore any linkages between the programmes viewed and stereotypes subscribed to. A review of literature yielded significant information on the media consumption habits, the effects of the media and the ethical implications with regards media programming. However, very few Indian research studies have been reported. An evaluation and understanding of the media and its reach on the urban Indian youth is becoming important due to the rising number of television channels in the twenty first century.

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Anastasio, Rose and Chapman (1999) suggest that the television media functions as a “window to the outside world” and what appears across its landscape actually may become the viewer’s reality. Thus the medium remains a powerful presence in any culture. Stroman and Jones (1998) have discussed the analysis of television content and how such analysis have been of interest for roughly half a decade and continue to be of interest as we enter the 21st century. They have proposed that for the field to advance its knowledge of the relevance of television content and the development of social attitudes, quantitative and qualitative paradigms need to be employed. Drukin (1998) considered the nature and impact of implicit messages in media content. He noted that implicit elements of the media are manifold as they may include subliminal or barely detectable imagery, but also expressions of attitudinal biases, social prejudices, and behavioral scripts that are in some respects overt (i.e., identifiable and quantifiable by researchers), yet not always consciously recognized by its lay users. Drukin then summarizes findings concerning lay beliefs about implicit context and argues that these form an important component of contemporary orientations towards the media. Topics discussed include, backward messages in rock music, sexual embeds in visual media, perception and implicit content and subliminal, embedded and symbolic content. Brown and Barwick (1986) report that “soaps” often portray men as sensitive to interpersonal problems and women as occupying professional roles with substantial power, which has the effect of giving these behaviors and themes an increased cultural legitimacy. An independent survey conducted by ‘The Times of India’ (1993) in the metropolitan cities of India revealed that cinemas and soap operas have currently become an addiction with the teenagers from an upper middle class background. Their favorite heroes turn out to be the ones

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famous for their propensity for militant action as the answer to all evils. According to this survey, the action is very clearly embedded in aggression. Eckholm (1986) reports that an ‘imitative-effect’ influences teenage suicide rates. A study examining 38 nationally televised news or feature reports on suicides from 1973 to 1979 found that the number of teenage suicides jumped by about 7% in seven days after each of the broadcasts. The result: nearly three extra suicides nationwide per programme, or 110 more suicides than would otherwise be expected in the years covered in the study. Sirgy, Lee, Kosenko and Meadow (1998) hypothesized that television viewer-ship influences materialism and dissatisfaction with the standard of living, which in turn contributes to feelings of dissatisfaction with life. The results show that television viewer-ship may play a significant role in making people unhappy with their lives. Further, Conis and Harris (1987) report that television influences the values and behaviors of people who watch several hours of television each day. Thus, it is now becoming increasingly important to gain an understanding into the influence of the television on the youth in urban India. METHOD Sample. The total sample consisted of 70 urban upper middle class (annual income between 4-10 lakh rupees) students in the age range of 18 to 23 years from colleges in New Delhi affiliated to the University of Delhi. The upper middle class sample was chosen for their access to televisions and satellite channels. University students were selected as it was felt that this segment had the independence to watch ‘what they want, and when they want’, as unlike school children, their free time is not rigidly regulated by the school curricula or parental rules regarding ‘what to watch’. The subject set included both undergraduate as well as post -

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Issues of the small screen

graduate students from the University of Delhi. Gender and educational differences were expected in this study. Sampling. Though an attempt was made at random sampling, practical problems like subject unwillingness or inability to participate, hindered randomization. Further, via nonrandom sampling we could obtain subjects who would voluntarily participate, since the nature of the data can be considered as personal and confidential. Thus validating the use of an incidental sampling methodology. Tools used in the study. The Media Viewing Habits Questionnaire (Menon & Vohra, 2001) was used to study the television viewing habits of the youth. The Media Viewing Habits Questionnaire consists of 9 sections including a Thematic Apperception (TAT) cards section. The questionnaire had both open ended and close-ended items. The sections covered Sports, News, Science/Information, Music, English Serials, Hindi Serials, Self-Creation, Personal Stand, and the TAT Picture Cards. Two general sections preceded these 9 content sections. The first section sought personal information about the subject, and the second section sought general television viewing information of the subject (like the channels watched, themes liked, time of television-viewing etc.). The Indian adaptation of the Thematic Apperception Test by Mehrotra (1996) was used in the picture cards segment of the study. Of the 30 TAT cards, only 4 cards had both the male and female form and were suitable for a mixed adult sample. From these 4 cards, one card (Card 2) was dropped as it had more than two figures in the fore ground. Thus the cards included in the study were- Card 4, Card 10 and Card 13MF. All these cards were similar in structure, as they all had a male and female figure in the fore ground. Mehrotra’s (1996) adaptation of Henry Murray’s TAT (1935) is a modification of the original cards, where the faces and clothes have been indianized without compromising on the

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stimulus value of the original pictures. The TAT cards were used to understand the stereotypes subscribed to by the subjects and not for any kind of personality profiling. Procedure. The field study method was used in which the questionnaire and picture cards were personally administered to each of the 70 subjects in an individual setting after adequate rapport formation. Instructions were clarified beforehand. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results obtained were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. A Chi-Square test for independent samples was used to assess gender and educational differences in the channels viewed and the kind of family the sample would portray if they were to create their own serial. In the present study, a significant gender difference was noticed in the viewer-ship of the sports channels, music channels, English serials, Hindi serials and the family portrayal in the serial they would create (i.e. portraying ‘new trends’, ‘nuclear family’ or a joint family). Further, educational differences between the postgraduate and undergraduate sample were evident in the statistically significant differences in the viewer ship of Hindi serials and family portrayal in the self-creation section. These results indicate that the hypothesis suggesting that females would favour soap operas while the male sample would favour sports and information programmes was corroborated in this study. However, the hypothesis that more undergraduates would view entertainment-based programmes (like serials and music) did not find support, as there was no significant statistical difference on the Chi-Square test. Further, more postgraduates were found to view the Hindi serials as compared to the undergraduates (see Table I and Table II). The 8-10 pm slot has emerged as the most popular time slot for viewing television, with over 50% of the respondents in each category stating that this was the time when they

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generally watched television. This finding is hardly surprising as almost all the television channels promote this time slot as “prime-time”. Further, market research studies conducted by leading market research agencies in India have also had similar findings (Indica Research Bombay Study, 1998). The 10-12-midnight time slot is the distant second with over 25% of the respondents across groups stating that they generally watch television at this time. The most popular channel of the sample are the range of English movie channelsincluding Star Movies, HBO, Hallmark, Zee Movies and TNT. Over 60% of the sample in all the 4 groups chose the English movie channel as a ‘generally watched channel’. The group most probably likes watching these channels as they show an entire range of Hollywood films, which they perhaps might not be able to view otherwise. However, very few in the sample marked the Hindi movie channel in the list of ‘Generally watched’ channels. This could perhaps be because of the ‘availability-factor’. Perhaps the sample perceives Hindi films to be more easily available especially as when the sample was growing up in the mid 1980’s, Hindi films were fairly easily available on video cassettes, while English films were less easily available. Further, this viewer-ship preference could also be because watching and discussing English films is considered to be “hip” for this age group, while Hindi cinema might not be considered so. The second ‘most popular’ channel varied in the four groups. While the music channels (MTV, Channel V, Music Asia, B4U and Zee Music) were chosen by the females and the undergraduates, the males chose the Information/Science channels like Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet, while the post graduates ranked Star Plus as the second most watched channel. The ‘popular theme’ of the sample across groups is comedy. Quite interestingly, it is either via channel surfing (females and postgraduates) or via television promos (males and

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undergraduates) that viewer-ship was initiated. The finding that channel surfing plays such an important role in determining viewer-ship initiation is of significance to serial makers/producers, as viewer-ship initiation via surfing would mean maintaining a consistency in quality in the programs, as channel surfing is known to be a randomly occurring event. Initiation via television promos have been quite a time tested means of viewing initiation, not just in the television medium, but also for films, music and consumer products- after all, crores of rupees are spent on television promotions and advertisements for consumer products. English Serials Viewed. Across the groups ‘Friends’ emerged as the serial viewed by the maximum respondents, it was viewed by over 70% of the respondents in each group. The other English serials viewed by a majority of the respondents’ include- ‘Ally McBeal’ (viewed by over 57%, 26%, 46% and 45% of females, males, undergraduates and postgraduates respectively), ‘Dharma and Greg’- an English sitcom that has emerged as being quite popular with the female and undergraduate respondents (with over 54% and 63% of female and undergraduate respondents watching this serial). The ‘X-Files’-a science fiction serial is also viewed by a sizeable number of subjects across groups (51.4%, 42.1%, 36.6% and 62.5%female, male, UG & PG respectively). With the exception of the ‘X-flies’, the other programmes that are watched by a majority of the respondents, i.e., Friends, Ally McBeal and Dharma & Greg are classified as ‘sitcoms’ or ‘situational-comedies’ by the major television networks.

The respondents’ reasons for watching ‘Friends’ include its interesting plot as they feel that they can relate to the attitudes in the serial. As articulated by a respondent on why he watches friends, he says- “its young, youthful and fun…it implies freedom”. Further, the respondents also felt that the light heartedness in the serial boosts their spirits. Quite a few of

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the respondents also articulated that their own friends are similar to the characters in the sitcom. While a number of the respondents wished that they could live like the characters in the serial, as they felt that they could relate and identify with the characters and attitudes in the serial. Thus, the sitcom ‘Friends’ seems to reflect the respondents’ aspirations, as that’s how they would wish their own lives to be. Further, one respondent remarked that “its natural for people our age to watch it…”-thus perhaps there exists some kind of peer-pressure to watch this particular programme and hence everyone wants to ‘join the bandwagon’ and not be left behind. Subjects claim to view the other programmes like X-Files because of their curiosity and anticipation on what will happen next. The thrill element seems to be the main driver for viewing X-Flies. Some claimed to view serials like ‘Baywatch’, ‘Xena-Warrior Princess’ and ‘Dharma and Greg’ so that they could watch their favourite star in action.

Hindi Serials Viewed. The serials that emerge as favourites with the subjects include, ‘Koshish ek Asha’, ‘Saans’ and ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. A commonality between all these serials is their strong female character- be it Sandhya Mridul’s character in Koshish ek Asha, Neena gupta’s portrayal of Priya in Saans, or the character of Tulsi in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Some of the reasons articulated by the respondents for viewing their favourite serial include the realistic storyline or the ‘believability-factor’ where they feel that the serial is “realistic without being overly melodramatic” and how “it addresses some of the underlying issues of Indian family dynamics and portrays the changing family ethics and systems”. This “realistic portrayal formula” is subscribed to by Ms. Ekta Kapoor the CEO of Balaji Telefilms who feels that to ‘hook’ viewers, one can either make them dream, or make them identify (Hindustan Times, November, 2000).

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Issues of the small screen 10

It is interesting to note that the reasons for viewing their favourite English and Hindi serials are vastly different. In case of the Hindi serials, it is the believability factor, empathy, roots in Indian culture and traditions that draw the respondents towards watching these shows. While the primary reason for viewing ‘Friends’ was aspirational, and as it was believed to portray the ‘dreams and desires’ of the youth, and not what was realistically possible for most youths in India. The Self-Creation. A significant educational (p < .01) and gender (p < .05) difference was noticed in the ‘Kind of family’ portrayed in their serial (Table I & II). While 40% of the female subjects wanted to portray a nuclear family, only 23.3%of the male subjects wished to do so. Further, 35% females wished to portray new trends as compared to 16.6% males, and 25% females wished to portray a joint family, while the majority of the male subjects (60%) wanted to portray a joint family. There could be varied reasons for a gender difference in the kind of family the subjects wished to portray. Ours is essentially a patriarchal society, which is also patrilineal and patrilocal. Thus, perhaps the young woman of the 21st century does not want to bind herself to these age old norms- which could explain why the majority of females have chosen to portray new trends and nuclear families whilst the male subjects want to continue with the age old traditions, perhaps because of a high degree of comfort in staying with the old time-tested formula (where the male was traditionally considered to be superior to the female). Further, female viewer-ship of the English and Hindi serials far outnumbers the male viewer-ship. Therefore this gender difference could also be a product of wanting to be ‘different’ in their self created serial, as presently the mantra that seems to be working magic with the TRP (television rating points) figures is the ‘Great Indian Family’, in a full-bodied avatar, swarming with in-laws, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, grandchildren- the works.

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There is also a significant (p <.01) educational difference in the kind of family the subjects wish to portray. A majority of undergraduate subjects wished to portray new trends, while a majority of postgraduate respondents wished to portray the joint family. This difference could stem from the situational and temporal levels of the two groups. As undergraduates- fresh out of school, perhaps these youngsters want to experiment with ideas and think differently. Research has shown that younger people tend to be more open to experimentation and new ideas, while as the person gets older, they take succour in the timetested, existing norms and traditions. This could explain this age difference. From the results obtained in this study, the kinds of television relationships that are emerging as popular amongst this age group are- peer relations, couple relations and generational joint family relations. These relationship portrayals mirror the themes of the subjects favourite shows in English and Hindi i.e., ‘Friends’ (peer), ‘Saans’ and ‘Koshish ek Asha’ (couple) and ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ (generational). In their serial the respondents want to portray something that is relevant to them, something they can identify with- leaving school, issues of growing up, search for an individual identity are all themes relevant to this age group. This trend was noticed in the articulations of the postgraduate group too. Where the undergraduates focussed on ‘growing up’, ‘peer pressure’ and ‘social, sexual and spiritual quest’, the postgraduates focussed on ‘settling down’, ‘harmonious co-existence’. Almost all the respondents ended their serial on a happy and hopeful note. Further, across the groups, ‘idealism’ was the message the subjects wanted to convey in their serial. Further, messages on respecting other human beings, humanitarian instincts, togetherness, peace and harmonious coexistence were also predominant.

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Attitudes towards Censorship. Over 75% of the respondents across the groups felt that the media was responsible for change in society, thus ascribing media (television) the status of an important ‘change-agent’. The respondents felt that people often live out the fantasies fed to them by the media…”changes peoples thinking, attitudes, values and lifestyles”; “reinforces behaviour” etc. However, very few respondents gave any personal examples of changes in their personality as a result of media influence. Thus, the predominance of the “third person effect” was noticed in the respondents. The third person effect is a perceptual hypothesis which predicts that individuals will perceive media messages to have greater effects on other people than on themselves (Salwen & Dupagne, 1999). Over 75% of the respondents across the groups also felt that media should be instrumental in bringing about societal change. Thus, the respondents want to give the media the responsibility of being instrumental in moulding the minds and attitudes of society and being proactive in bringing about societal change.80% of the females and 77.14% of the postgraduates felt that censorship should be prevalent. However, the males and undergraduates were more ambivalent on their attitudes towards the enforcement of censorship laws, with only 50% males and 57.14% undergraduates feeling that censorship on television should be prevalent. Most respondents in the present study felt that violent themes required censoring. Other themes requiring censorship were ‘attacking minorities’ (over 45% across groups), ‘hampering the national image’, ‘sexual explicitness’ and ‘indecent exposure’. Thus, these themes can be broadly categorized as- “violent”, “threatening Indian democracy” (national image and attacking minorities), and “sexual in nature” (sexually explicit and indecent exposure). Some of the reasons articulated by the respondents for censorship include, “the media feeds people

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with ideas for violence” (the media is an information disseminator), “it corrupts the minds of the children and is a blot on conservative Indian society and culture”; “we have no right to attack any community…everyone has their own religious beliefs…and we should respect them” etc. Thus, from these excerpts it is evident that preserving the democratic structure of the country features as an important thought in the minds of the youth. Further, issues of violence and sexual explicitness are also important to the youth.

Stereotypes Ascribed to. The first card depicted a man moving away and a woman trying to stop him, further, there was another woman in the background. Across groups, the figures in the foreground were identified as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, the figure in the background was perceived to be either a mother-in-law, servant or neighbor, and this figure was ascribed with ‘pesky’, ‘inquisitive’ traits by most of the respondents across all groups. Some of the stereotypes that have emerged from the stories to this stimulus card include, ‘The Mother in Law Stereotype’- the mother in law stereotype subscribed to by the groups, by and large have a very ‘Lalita Pawar-esque’ mother in law in their stories. The mother in law figure is portrayed as an interfering character in the stories, who ‘pokes-hernose’ into the matters concerning the young couple. The mother in law or ‘saas’ is very much a part of the scene in Indian serials. The dominating ma-in-law like the Lalita Pawars or Bindu who once ruled the silver screen might seem regressive today. But they still dominate the small screen. For instance, Tulsi, the female protagonist of the hugely popular ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ after getting married into the Virani clan got herself not one or two, but four mothers in law.

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‘Infidelity: The Roving Eye Stereotype’- Almost all the subjects refer to male infidelity, where the man is having an extra marital affair and wants to leave his wife and be with the other woman. The themes of extra marital affairs have been prevalent in the serials viewed by the group. The basic story of ‘Saans’ involves the husband – Gautam leaving his wife-Priya to set up house with the other woman-Manisha. Further, serials like ‘Kora Kagaz’ and ‘Heena’ depict the male character having an affair prior to marriage and not accepting the wife (a theme that was noticed in the story of one respondent). Further, films like ‘Pati Patni aur Woh’, ‘Biwi Number One’, ‘Yes Boss’ etc. also explore similar themes. ‘The always-there wife or Ardhangini Stereotype’- The wife is portrayed as the ‘always-there’ person. She is depicted as a pillar of strength, the one who gives succourance and encouragement to the husband. The stereotype of the Nurturing Woman is not something new to the Indian small screen. For instance, in ‘Koshish ek Asha’ (a serial quite popular with the youth according to the present study), the female protagonist played by Sandhya Mridul is married to a mentally challenged man, and is shown as the lifeline of his being--the one who is always there for him. The depiction of the nurturing woman is all too familiar to the ardent Hindi film buff. Be it the role portrayed by Nutan in ‘Saudagar’ in the early 1970’s, or the roles portrayed by Kajol in ‘Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain’, or Renuka Shahane’s role in the 1993 blockbuster “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’. ‘The Pesky neighbour/friend Stereotype’- The American comedy ‘Small Wonder’ very humorously portrays the Brindle family as the ever-inquisitive neighbours whose only motto in life seems to be to make life miserable for the Lawsons. In the very popular American drama series- Ally McBeal, the character of Elaine (the secretary) is portrayed as the gossip-monger in the office. Gossipy characters are to be seen in the Hindi serials and films too. No Hindi film or serial is complete without the scheming and plotting friend or neighbor- be it the three

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women (referred to as ‘titlies’ or ‘butterflies’) in Suraj Barjatia’s ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ or the typical character played by Bindu in the Bollywood potboilers of yore. The second card showed two figures in the foreground in a close embrace. The underlying theme in the stories in the study was that of love, love between a married couple, love between a courting couple, love between a parent and child, love between siblings etc. As mentioned earlier, love is the one over riding emotion in practically all the serials on television today. Be it the love between a married couple (for instance the relationship between Tulsi and Mihir in ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’); the love between the parent and child (the relationship of Kiron Kher with her daughters in ‘Kanyadaan’), or the love shared between friends (which has been epitomized in the hit comedy series- ‘Friends’). The theme of love seems to be one theme that has been passed on from generations-whether it was the days of ‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ (in the early 1980s) or the present day television serial. The third card depicts a man holding his head and a semi nude woman lying on the bed. The dominant themes that emerged from the respondent’s stories were those of rape, seduction and promiscuity. Rape Stereotype- The portrayal of rape and other forms of violence towards women have been depicted quite often on the Indian small screen as well as the silver screen. The recently concluded serial ‘Alpviram’s’ storyline dealt with a woman in coma who was raped. Further, sexual harassment in the workplace has been shown in many movies like ‘Yeh Dillagi’ (where it was portrayed humorously) etc. The girl standing up against tyranny and then inviting the wrath of the goons stereotype has been seen all too often in the Hindi cinema. Films like ‘Raja ki Aayegi Baraat’ and the recent Aishwarya Rai starrer ‘Humara Dil Aapke Paas Hai’ dealt with this sensitive issue.

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The Seduction of the ‘Good-Boy’ Stereotype- the woman has been portrayed as the temptress- a la Helen or Bindu of yore. Such characters and stories were widely prevalent in the films of the 1970s and 1980s which had the token cabaret number for the seduction of the ‘good’ and ‘decent’ hero who was being ‘tricked’ into a world of deceit and debauchery by his ‘good-for-nothing-friends’. Such a theme though while not being the primary focus of any serial, has featured as a recurring secondary theme in a few recent serials. For instance in ‘Banegi Apni Baat’ a serial which is regarded as being one of the most popular serials on Indian television amongst the youth in the mid 1990’s, the ‘good-boy’ Manav and ‘good-girl’ Ria were shown to be conned into taking alcohol. Further, in the American cult classic, ‘Beverly Hills-90210’ the main character-Brandon-a teetotaller was given spiked drinks by his friends. Promiscuity Stereotype- The stories also have the underlying theme of promiscuity and illicit relationships-generally being indulged in by the male figure. Extra marital affairs have been the focus of many serials and movies like ‘Hasratein’, ‘Saans’, ‘Tara’ and Hindi films like, ‘Pati Patni aur Who’, ‘Biwi Number One’, ‘Gharwali Baharwali’ among numerous others. Further, some of the stories also delve into the shame being experienced by the female leading her to committing suicide. The story of one of the respondents also has a modern-liberated woman who is not willing to take back her boyfriend who had betrayed her trust. Thus a link between the stereotypes subscribed to by the group and the kinds of programmes viewed have been observed in the present study. The present study is important as it indicates the degree of influence television programming has on the minds of the youth in our country. Further, television programmes also affect the individual’s aspirations and identification, and can prove to be an important indicator of the goals and motivational processes that influence our youth. Therefore, it is important to continue studying the impact of

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television not just on the youth of India but also study the developmental trends, for instance the effects of television programming and themes in children as well as adults, the retired etc. The present study can thus be considered to be a necessary first step to glean a better understanding on the pervasive impact of the television medium on individuals. References Anastasio Phyllis A., Rose Karen C., & Chapman Judith. (1999). Can the Media Create Public Opinion? A Social Identity Approach. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(5): p-152155. Brown M.E., & Barwick L. (1986). Fables and Endless Geneologies; Soap Operas and Womens Culture. Paper presented at the Australian Screen Studies Association Conference, Sydney, 1986. Conis Harris & Associates, (1987). Attitudes about TV, Sex and Contraceptives Advertising. New York., 35-42. Drukin Kevin. (1998). Implicit Content and Implicit Processes in Mass Media Use. In: Implicit and Explicit Mental Processes. Krissner Kim, Speelman Craig, Maybery Murray, O’brien Angela (ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Publishers- Mahwah-NJ. Eckholm Erik. (1986). Studies Link Teenage Suicides TV. The New York Times, Sept 1, 1986. Indica Research Pvt. Ltd. (1998). Unpublished Project Report. Menon, M. & Vohra, S.V. (2001). Issues of the small screen. Unpublished Masters thesis, Delhi University. Mehrotra L. P (1996). Indian adaptation of Henry Murrays TAT (1935). Salwen Michael B., & Dupagne Michael. (1999). The Third Person Effect. Communication Research, 26(5): p523-549.

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Sirgy M Joseph, Lee Dong-Jin, Kosenko Rustan, & Meadow H. Lee. (1998). Does TV Viewer ship play a role in the Perception of Quality of Life? Journal of Advertising, 27(1): p125-142. Stroman Carolyn A., & Jones Kenneth E. (1998). The Analysis of TV Content. In, Research Paradigms, TV and Social Behavior-by Asamen, Joy Keiko, Berry Gordon L. (ed). Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA. The Hindustan Times (19th November 2000), The Lovely People. HT Sunday Magazine. The Times of India (4th November 1993). Schools, Parents Search for Antidote to Satellite Television. Table 1. Gender Differences MALE

n=30

FEMALE n=40 f. %

f.

%

CHANNEL Sports channel

22

73.33

15

37.50

News channel Informative Music channel

22 21 21

73.33 70.00 70.00

31 28 37

77.50 70.00 92.50

English serials

19

63.33

35

87.50

Hindi serials

13

43.33

27

67.50

FAMILY PORTRAYAL Joint family 18 Nuclear family 7 New trends. 5 X crit for df=1 (3.84; 6.64 at .05, .01 levels .01 levels of sig.).

DIFF. X calc.

df

8.835* * .1622 .1978 6.1043 * 5.6896 * 4.0937 *

1 1 1 1 1 1

60.00 10 25.00 23.33 16 40.00 8.8229 2 16.66 14 35.00 * of significance), df=2, (5.99;9.21 at .05 and

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Table II. Educational Differences UNDERGRAD. POSTGRAD. DIFF. n=35 n=35 f. % f. % X calc. df CHANNEL Sports channel 20 57.14 17 48.57 .5158 1 News channel 24 68.57 29 82.85 1.942 1 Informative 25 71.42 22 62.85 .5819 1 Music channel 29 82.85 29 82.85 0 1 English serials 30 85.71 24 68.57 2.9166 1 Hindi serials 15 42.85 25 71.42 5.826* 1 FAMILY PORTRAYAL 48.57 17 31.42 Joint family 11 40.00 13.93* 2 14 28.57 10 Nuclear family 11.42 * 04 40.00 14 New trends. X crit for df=1 (3.84;6.64 at .05, .01 levels of significance), df=2, (5.99;9.21 at .05 and .01 levels of sig.).