THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION ON SRI LANKAN MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY UNIT: A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY

M.N. Vineeshiya

Department of social sciences

Sabaragamuwa university of Sri Lanka.

Introduction The media have a strong social and cultural impact upon

society. This is predicated upon their ability to reach a wide audience with a strong and influential message.

McLuhan describes how the globe has been contracted into a village by communication technology.

Researches have been revealed that that the television is the most using media among people around the world. As Stanley there are 105.5 million television households in the US 99.9% have color, 75% have more than one set, A television is on for an average of 7.5 hours a day in each US household (Stanley 2004:245).

History of media research

As the television became commonplace, people started to worry about

what effects it might be having on viewers? how much time were people spending viewing television?

What activities would it replace? Why were people watching television? Most important, what effects, if any, would the content of

television programmers' have on viewers? Would it lead to violence and juvenile delinquency? Would it take children into the world of adults too early? Would it transform society?

(Ralph 2005:254).

History of media research As many studies have proven that how the television

impacts of individuals studying media effects on behaviors goes back to late 1920s and early 1930s (Dominick 1994:540).

The explosive growth of television in the early 1950s refocused research attention on media impact on young people. it concluded that violent programming in large doses could be potentially harmful to children.

In late 1950s & 1960s three important books were published 1st of this is ‘television and the child’ (1958). In that study the researchers found that television had an impact on children’s values and the perception of the world.

Cont; The big story of 1970s concerned the impact of

television violence.

researchers had concluded that exposure to televised violence could increase the probability of anti social behavior over both the short and long term.

The early 1980s a great deal of research attention was devoted to investigating the behavioral effects of the new technologies (Dominic 1994:543).

Likely many researchers have been done relate to the impact on television in to people’s lives.

SRI LANKAN HISTORY OF TELEVISION RESEARCH An analysis of ETV programs- 1982, A survey on television audience- 1984, Comparative analysis of Rupavahini news content- 1985, Portrayal of woman on Rupavahini- 1985, A survey of TV viewing habits of children & adolescents with

a view to ascertaining the possible impact on their education, social and emotional dev -1989,

Children’s response pattern to lovely produced children’s peogarames-1989,

Survey on popularity of Rupavahini & ITN -1986, Violence in Rupavahini entertainments- 1988 Survey on Rupavahini teledramas- 1989, Content analysis of Rupavahini programmes – 1990, Case study on viewing habits of TV programmes in two

villages, Survey on advertising pattern 1992

Present study focuses on how the television made an impact on determining the nature(functional relationships) of middle class families in Sri Lanka.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

Is there an impact of television on the functions of Sri Lankan middle class family unit?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Overall objective: To Study the influence of relationship in Sri Lankan

middle class families by contemporary television text.

Specific objectives: Study of role of the present nuclear family. To analyze the social class differentiation by

sociological point of view. To study of the development of the Sri Lankan

television as an industry with global television improvements.

To describe the sociological role of Sri Lankan middle class families.

To identify the comprehension pattern of television text of Sri Lankan middle class families.

SAMPLING

FIELD SETTING OF THE RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY Primary data:

The questionnaire, interview method, case study and simple observation techniques were employed for collecting field data.

Secondary data

collected through the books, journals, articles, and past survey reports. Internet also used as secondary data collection method and television programs chosen from two channels also become secondary data source of my study.

LIMITATIONS

This study is limited to the field of middle class families in the Jayewardenepura GN division in Ampara district.

And the middle class features are differing from one geographical are to the next in present Sri Lankan context. Means Ampara is geographically situated far from capital city and Colombo middle class people’s are with different characteristics. So generalizing these all in to one would be another limitation of my study.

In categorizing the middle class here the divisional secretariat office used only the income level factor. To evaluate the social class accurately income should mix with other factors like education, occupation. When categorizing the classes it is seen that people are not willing to consider the most important factors. A social class categorized according to the salary and physical recourses are not real social class (Peris, 1984:59).

SALIENT FEATURES OF MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY AND USAGE PATERN OF TELEVISION

57.8%Gov't Sector

20.0%PVT Sector

13.3%Business

8.9%other

Sample distribution of occupation

28.6%Higher Education

28.6%Below O/L

25.0%O/L

17.9%A/L

Female

47.1%A/L

23.5%O/L

17.6%Higher Education

11.8%Below O/L

Male

Gender wise educational bacground

Hours

Per

cent

age

98765432

40

30

20

10

0

Avarage number of hours watching T.V per day

6.7%Watch Children like

4.4%Watch adult like

48.9%Occures debates

40.0%Get chance for all

In Selecting channels

News and current 8.1

Teledramas 8.2

Guidance programmes 8.3

Political conversations 8.4

Musical programmes 8.5

Competitions 8.6

Religious programmes 8.7

THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION ON CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY UNIT