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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1952 G74 / Master of Science

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In traditional research approaches, soap opera viewing has been studied quantitatively. Such studies ignore the subjectivities, the sociocultural contexts, and life contexts of individual viewers. To account for such shortcomings and to offer a qualitative research approach, an investigation was conducted into the engagement that viewers have with a particular soap opera, The bold and the beautiful. The collective case study research method was used. Three subjects were interviewed using in-depth phenomenological interviewing and the data obtained was subjected to.a hermeneutic method of investigation. This involved using a reading guide that extracted firstly, how pleasure is experienced in soap opera viewing, and secondly how the viewers' interpretations of the soap opera are linked to their everyday life contexts. Pleasure was found to be related to experiencing the soap opera world as real, the social context of the viewer, the openness of the text, selecting textual elements, identification and opening up the viewer's world. The viewers' interpretations were related to their life contexts in terms of the meanings that were constructed around emotions, identities, interpersonal relations and a cultural interface. Most notable for the South African context, is that viewing The bold and the beautiful provides a cultural interface because African identities are brought to this practice.

The study sought to establish the impact of using the local content policy in reducing television cultural influences on Mbare youth in Zimbabwe. It is assumed that television has ideological and hegemonic functions which have come to dominate the life styles of the youths on issues of dress styles, musical tastes and language, thus threatening and weakening the long established local cultures. Hence the Zimbabwean government’s local content policy was established to reduce influences of alien cultures. This study, therefore, sought to establish if Mbare youth cultures confirm or reject the imitation of television cultures with regard to dress styles, music tastes and language. In addition, the investigation aimed at establishing the feasibility of using the local content policy to reduce foreign cultural intrusions vis-à-vis globalisation challenges. The three theories utilised in the discussion of the influence of television on Mbare youth culture in this study include the cultivation theory, the theory of hegemony and the uses and gratification theory. A qualitative study was adopted to gather data using focus group discussions, questionnaires and semiotic analysis. The sample of the study consisted of 87 participants and 4 Youth.com programmes. The study revealed that television has ideological and hegemonic functions. As such, it tends to be a dominant influence on the life styles and culture of Mbare youths. The study also established that Youth.com influences youth culture through music. In Zimbabwe music has become the most influential aspect of Youth.com despite not being specified in the local content policy on television broadcasting. Furthermore, the study shows that the implications of globalisation on local television content are undermining government efforts to preserve local cultures through the local content policy. The primary reason for this has to do with the fact that Youth.com programme does not contain a higher quota of local content as stipulated in the policy. However, although the local content policy was viewed as a political gimmick, the the study revealed that it was necessary in view of youths’ vulnerability to television’s ideological and hegemonic influences. Nevertheless, in view of the loopholes revealed by this study, the policy requires to be revised to cater for all the essential cultural elements, such as, music, which are allowing alien cultures to penetrate local ways of life. For instance, the urban groove music has major impacts on the culture of Mbare youths.

A field study was conducted in order to examine the relationship between television viewing and school children's performance on measures of ideational fluency and intelligence, Alternate Uses and Pattern Meanings tasks (measures of ideational fluency), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) Vocabulary and Block Design subtests (measures of intelligence) were administered to Grade four and Grade seven children in three British Columbia towns which varied in television recpetion. All three towns were studied at two times (Phases One and Two), two years and four months apart. One of the towns did not have television reception at the time of Phase One data collection but acquired it soon afterward. Thus at Phase Two, residents of this town had had television reception (CBC) for two years. The second town received CBC at both phases of data collection. The third town received one Canadian (CBC) and three U.S. (ABC, CBS, NBC) channels at both phases. During Phase Two data were collected both from the same children as in Phase One, and from a second cross-sectional sample (Grades 4 and 7) of children in each of the three towns. The total number of subjects in both phases was 443. The results suggested that television exposure is not related to performance on the WISC Block Design and Vocabulary subtests, or to performance on the Pattern Meanings task. The results did indicate, however, that television exposure has a negative effect on performance on the Alternate Uses task. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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This study examined television viewing habits and preferences of impulsive and reflective third grade and seventh grade children. Amount of television desired and reported as viewed were compared at each grade level. Impulsivity was also compared with preference for and reported exposure to each of five most commonly viewed television program types, which were situation comedy, movie, cartoon, action drama, and game show. The initial sample consisted of 46 seventh graders and 39 third graders from one middle school and two elementary schools in Pima County, Arizona. Impulsivity was measured using the Matching Familiar Figures test. Ten impulsive and ten reflective subjects were identified at each grade level. One subject furnished uninterpretable data and was dropped from the study. Subjects were asked to use copies of TV Guide magazine as viewing diaries during two one-week periods. Subjects were asked to mark in blue all programs they wished to view, and in red all programs viewed. Background data were secured from school records, and subjects completed questionnaire items regarding family size and structure, viewing circumstances, and attitudes toward television. Impulsive and reflective children were compared in overall amount of television programming selected and reportedly viewed. Differences were small, with impulsive children selecting and viewing less than reflective children at the third grade level and more than reflective children at the seventh grade level. Correlation coefficients were calculated between impulsivity and the selection and viewing of each of five popular program types. Most correlations were small. Correlations in the range of 0.35 to 0.60, however, did occur in certain cases. Selection and viewing of game shows by seventh graders showed a positive correlation with impulsivity, while selection and viewing of cartoons by third graders showed a negative correlation. A second set of correlation coefficients was calculated based on the response latency component of impulsivity. This second set reflected essentially the same relationships indicated by the first. Data from school records and questionnaire items did not enhance the interpretation of relationships between impulsivity and television use.