Television as an Agency of Socialization

Wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale, cannot inculcate the more complex courses of

behaviour required by the State. For that there must be words, but words without reason... the

kind of words that require no analysis for their comprehension, but can be swallowed whole by

the sleeping brain. This is true Hypnopaedia, the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all

time. (Huxley, 1959: 124)

In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World the author imagined an apocalyptic

future in which children were socially conditioned through the repetition of subliminal messages

in music they listened to during their sleep. However, as Huxley notes in his essay Brave New

World Revisited, those messages could only be basic patterns for the children’s social interaction

and never of a great complexity, as if the author was foreseeing the upcoming social effects of

mass media in children and young receptors (Buckingham 1993: 8). Most of the research carried

in the specific area of television viewing and the socialization of young children shows that

children socially benefit from watching educational programming, as well as perhaps suffering

from watching violent programming (see Anderson 2001: 132). Significantly, these research

studies stress the theory that it is not television as a medium that has an influence in children’s

socialization, but rather the content of the programming they watch, their active engagement

while they watch it and other external issues such as who they watch television with. Therefore,

as in Huxley’s novel, children can only gain vague social patterns form television viewing.

Hence, the aim of this essay is to acknowledge the fact that the content of television can be

considered as an instrument of socialization of our society, as watching television is highly

linked to most children’s early development. Using McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory and

DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach’s work on media, socialization and their account on the theories of

indirect influences as a framework, this essay will attempt to demonstrate to what extend is

television a major agency of socialization in Western societies, discussing and investigating the

approaches and issues around this topic with a specific case study.

Socialization

Firstly, what is socialization? In the given context, DeFleur defines socialization as a complex,

long-term, and multidimensional set of communicative exchanges between individuals and

various agents of society that result in the individual’s preparation for life in a sociocultural

environment (DeFleur1989: 209). This preparation or induction to social life takes place in the

infancy of the individual and derives from different agencies that converge in the child’s

reasoning, perception and interaction with the surrounding world. These agencies alternate

between the parents, family and social groups sphere on one side, to the child’s exposure to

media on the other. Yet, the views and the validity of this definition vary, as Buckingham argues

that the socialization theory is ‘a functional approach that regards children as passive recipients

of external social forces rather than active participants in the construction of their own social

lives and identities’ (Buckingham 1993:14). However, the approches to socialization vary from

the anthropological point of view to the more Freudian one. The first refers to the process

as enculturation which consists in the individual’s internalisation of ‘all aspects of their culture’

(DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach 1989: 209) such as traditions, language and common discourses. The

media has its importance in this view, for it can teach the child about the nature of his or her

social order (ibid). On the other hand, psychologists see socialization as an inner process that one

must acquire in order to control inborn drives that ‘would lead to socially unacceptable

behaviour’ (ibid). The role of the media in this case can be considered as highly important, for

the negative aspects that explicit exposition of adult issues can cause in the child’s future

development. Finally, the sociological belief is that ‘socialization prepares individuals for

participation in group life’ (ibid: 210). Issues of media and representation take an active role in

this approach, which can be addressed to the argument of television as a socialization agency.

Therefore, taking socialization as a communicative process rather than an isolated effect on the

individual, a distinct approach has to be taken by researchers to analyse the impact of television

in viewers’ social attitudes, also known as the cultivation theory.

Cultivation theory and socialization

Cultivation theory supports to a larger extent the hypothesis of television as a socialization

agency. To describe cultivation theory and on the most hypothetical of the extremes we could

devise an experiment in which a subject is isolated, with the only company of a television. How

will that person respond when placed in the reality of society? For cultivation theorists, the heavy

consumption of media in general and television in particular ‘leads to the adoption of beliefs

about the nature of the social world which conform to the stereotyped, distorted and very

selective view of reality as portrayed in a systematic way in television fiction and news’

(McQuail 2000: 465). Furthermore, cultivation theorists argue that television has long-term

effects, which are ‘small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and significant’. Theorists distinguish

between ‘first order’ effects (general beliefs about the everyday world, such as about the

prevalence of violence) and ‘second order’ effects (specific attitudes, such as to law and order or

to personal safety) (Chandler 1997)

However, there are other theoretical considerations, criticisms and assumptions that arise from

the cultivation theory, and which are mainly addressed in the work of Huston and Wright (in

MacBeth 1996:38). Cultivation theory needs to rely on other approaches such as the influence of

the family, the child’s cognitive development, the amount and most importantly the type of

television the child views... to fully understand the socialization development of the subject.

Therefore many different levels of analysis - sociocultural, social institutions, family, and

individual (ibid: 44) take place along the utilisation of the cultivation theory. Furthermore, other

theorists reject the use of these ‘intervening variables’ (Buckingham 1993:15) in favour of the

cognitive capabilities of children, in relation to what has been cautiously noted as ‘television

literacy’. As children do not submit passively against the fictional - or real - representations seen

on television, they process that information and make sense of it on one way or another. Further

studies on television literacy link television viewing with academic performance of the viewer

and other social habits (see Neuman 1991). This theory concludes that in some cases television

viewing acts as a replacement to other activities, while in other cases television acts as an aid to

the personal development of the child (Newman 1991:110).

Hence, socialization in a group of individuals can be measured in different ways, through the

application of these theories and the continued observation of the effects of television, along with

the observation of the individuals’ viewing patterns and other external agencies - or what

McQuail refers to as cultivation analysis: ‘relationships between exposure to television’s

message and audience beliefs and behaviour’ (2000: 465).

Social Organization Theory

The other major theory in the study of television as a main agency of socialization is social

organization theory. As a social group develops through the interaction and socialization of its

members, a series of events are repeated and transmited from generation to generation. Those

events, that can be divided into norms, rules, ranking and sanctions, are the driving motives for

the actions of each individual within the social group. Therefore, before the individual takes the

initiative towards an action, he or she will be comparing his or her actions to the ones of the

fellow members of the group. This equilibrium through the mere imitation of actions is, in very

broad terms, the basis of any given social group. Each member of the family has a determined

social niche. This is, each member has a role with its significant levels of discourse in

accordance to the other members of the group (father, mother, son), working in what DeFleur

and Ball-Rokeach call ‘a set of specialized and interdependent roles, like the parts of a machine

or an organic system’ (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach 1989: 222). Eventually, one piece of that system

will replace the other but in the meantime each individual must hold to his or her determined

position in the group, just expecting to step further in this invisible hierarchy of the society. the

way in which this theory is linked to media studies, television viewing and socialization is

thoguh the proposition that television conveys information regarding rules of social conduct that

the individual remembers and that directly shapes overt behaviour (Ibid: 225). It has been proved

that young viewers internalise norms, role definitions and other understandings of social

organisation from what they see on TV screens and mainly thorugh the representation of

stereotypes of recognisable portrayals of stable patterns of group life (ibid: 224).

A case study: Anderson et al.

In a widely cited study presented by Anderson et al (2001), the authors report on the follow-up of

570 adolescents, age 15 to 18, from Kansas and Massachusetts that had previously been studied

as preschoolers in the early 1980s, to determine how the usage of television in an early age had

affected their social and behavioral development. In their research Anderson et al assessed

adolescent media use: grades in English, science, and mathematics; leisure reading; creativity;

aggression; participation in extracurricular activities; use of alcohol and cigarettes; and self-

image, ‘dependent variables’ that are commonly believed to be influenced by television 

(ibid:121). The authors tested theories that emphasized the casual role of television content - in

the line of the cultivation theorists - in opposition to those theories ‘positing effects of television

as a medium, irrespective of content’ (ibid), more concern with the format of the television

programmes watched. The results of this research fall on the side of the content-based

hypotheses rather than supporting the theories that emphasise television as a medium.

Furthermore, the study ‘provides strong support for the potential of television to teach children’

(ibid:134) following the approach of television literacy and supporting the theory of television as

a socialization agency - although the research does not follow the debate of whether it has

positive or negative socialization effects. Finally, in opposition to the criticisms that consider

television as yet another alienating medium in our societies, the study concludes with a final

thought; ‘the medium is not the message. The message is the message!’ (ibid).

In conclusion, it can be said that television is a major agency of socialization in Western

societies. Two of the main reasons that support this statement are the sociological effects of

television as part of the mass media and the different theoretical approaches designed by

researchers to investigate the specific means of television viewing and individual development.

Although television is primarily considered a medium that reflects the world and which shows

viewers what their societies are like, the response to these representations varies from individual

to individual and can be assessed in the form of social behavior comparison along with the study

of the viewing patterns of the individual. Some of the approaches that can be taken to assess the

connection between television viewing and socialization are Cultivation theory and social

organization theory. The first one comes from the assumption that television has long term

effects in the attitude of the viewer. The second theory is based on the observation of human

behavior to understand the intrinsic yet invisible patter within a social group. This theory can be

applied to television given the representational value of the medium: viewers will identify in

television social discourse to apply to themselves and to the rest of their social group. However,

both theories are conditioned by the cognitive nature of human beings; although it is plausible to

analyse the effects of television viewing in a group of individuals, the different external variables

around each one of them will affect the assimilation of information and therefore the effects that

such information will have in the mind of the viewer.

Television

Television was gradually introduced in the United States and Western Europe after World War

II, although the medium as such was developed before the war. By the end of the 1950s most

countries in the Western hemisphere had access to one or more television channels and in the

1970s the majority of the households were equipped with at least one television set. At the end of

the 1990s television was still the most pervasive medium in European households: about 90

percent of children had access to a television in their home. The dissemination of television was

also rapid in the Third World and by the end of the twentieth century most people, at least in

urban electrified areas, had a set.

Television gradually replaced RADIO as the medium most used by children; primarily attracting

children in the younger ages (up to the teenage years). The amount of television viewing is

sensitive to the output of children's programs as well as the output of entertainment programs.

Thus, children have increased their viewing time as a consequence of more national channels as

well as the deregulation of the television market, which have led to an increased output of

globally distributed commercial children's programs, such as animated cartoons and action

adventure series. Time spent with television varies between different countries, depending on

differences in cultural pattern as well as differences in production. By the 2000s, the average

child viewer in the United States watched about three to four hours of television a day, whereas

the European viewer watched about three hours, with some national variations.

Television in Europe and the United States has changed its function from the early days, when it

was a medium gathering the family in the living room, to a more privatized and individual

activity, as many children today have their own television set in the bedroom.

Television's Impact

Children's fascination with television has concerned researchers, parents, educators, and other

groups dealing with children's well-being ever since the medium was introduced. Much of the

public debate has been focused on the effects of media violence, which has resulted in much

scrutiny by psychologists and sociologists and has given rise to a massive body of research. But

the debate and research has also dealt with whether television viewing in itself is a passive

activity, and sometimes television has been compared to a drug, which has a tranquilizing or

seducing effect on the viewer. Television has also been blamed for causing negative effects on

reading skills and some claim that too much television use makes children stupid. Other worries

have concerned children's physical condition, such as too little exercise or that radiation from the

screen may affect the brain or eyes. Television viewing has also been linked to obesity in

children.

In the history of media effects, a "direct effects era" was dominant for a long period of time. The

reception of television was viewed in a linear and one-dimensional manner. Later, researchers

realized that children did not react uniformly to the same program, but there were intervening

variables such as age, gender, predispositions, perceptions, social environment, past experience,

and parental influence. However, even if years of research has stressed that there are a number of

so-called intervening variables, the "direct effects model" has been very influential in the public

debate about children and television.

When research was done in more realistic settings, rather than in the laboratory, the effects of

exposure to television was attenuated and long-term effects were particularly weak or even

nonexistent. Long-term research conducted both in the United States and in Europe came to the

conclusion that television violence is but one of a number of factors responsible for violent

aggressive behavior among young people. Aggressive behavior is mainly related to other factors

than exposure to television violence, such as personality or sociocultural variables, for example,

family conditions, school, and peers. However, researchers also point to the fact that the frequent

occurrence of screen violence reinforces the idea of violence as a solution of problems.

The GLOBALIZATION of the television market contributed to increased production of violent

programming and to the worldwide dissemination of such programs (e.g., animated cartoons and

action adventures).

Learning and the Social Benefits of Television

At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of 1970s there was a belief that television could be

used for promoting learning and social behavior. The medium was deliberately used for

preschool learning, often called pro-social learning, and compensatory education in the United

States, in Europe, and in some countries in the Third World, for example, in the Latin American

countries of Mexico and Brazil. Producers, educators, and researchers started investigating the

possibility of using television to reach out to underprivileged groups in society. In the United

States, the educational program Sesame Street was developed and became a success also in other

countries, where the program sometimes was adjusted to the domestic child audience. For

example, Brazil, Germany, Israel, and Spain developed their own versions of Sesame Street. In

Scandinavia, the domestic public service companies expressed a certain resistance

against Sesame Street, because of the commercial format. However, in Sweden there was a wave

of program series inspired by Sesame Street, teaching elementary skills in reading, concept

formation as well as promoting pro-social behavior, such as solving conflicts without violence or

strengthening children's self-confidence.

Regulation and Public Service

The television market has been more regulated in most European countries than it is in the

United States. As a rule, the European broadcasting landscapes are organized as dual systems

with public service broadcasters as a central pillar of the broadcasting system, rather than just a

supplement to commercial broadcasting. In Northern Europe, children's programs have a

particular position and status. Programs for children are offered on a regular basis. For example,

in Sweden, about ten percent of the output on public service television was aimed at children and

young people by the 2000s. About half of this output was domestic productions, with programs

in a variety of genres: fictional dramas, sports, news, documentaries, magazine programs.

However, deregulation has been both a challenge and a threat against public service television.

The general tendency in Europe is weakened public service television, with fewer investments in

domestic children's programs in favor of cheap imports. In recent years public broadcasters have

been facing increasing competition by global (American) commercial children's channels like

Cartoon Network, The DISNEY Channel, Nickelodeon, and Fox Kids Network. The situation in

many countries in the Third World is such that the child audience has no other choice than the

output from these channels.

Children's Participation

During the 1950s there was a discussion about whether children should participate in programs

or not. In England, it was legislated that children were not allowed to participate or to appear as

actors. The legislation originated from the days when CHILD LABOR was a common

phenomenon in society. Children's programs were mainly performed by adults, as well as by

various kinds of puppets, which acted as children, for example the puppet Andy Pandy from the

BBC's Watch with Mother, one of the very first children's programs. In Sweden, on the contrary,

it was stated from the start of broadcasting that children were welcomed to participate in

programs. One of the very first television programs for children exhibited a mother with all her

children in the studio. Eventually, children came to be heard and seen in children's programs

more generally. But the image of the child is highly related to cultural patterns. For example,

there are differences between how children in France are portrayed, where there is a preference

for well dressed and proper children, as compared to children in Scandinavia, where the idea of

the "natural" child is advocated. However, in the output as a whole, children are

underrepresented both in the United States and in Europe. Children are rarely addressed directly,

except in advertisements, as children do not have prominent roles in programs aimed for an adult

audience. When young people are portrayed, they are often represented as a problem and a

threat. Another recurrent picture is the good, innocent and sweet child, which reaches its extreme

in advertising.

Media Education

The issue of children and the media (particularly television) has also been a target for the United

Nations since the UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, became valid in

1989. One issue of concern has been to increase children's participation in terms of media

education. In the United States and in Europe, media education has been inserted into the school

curriculum to varying extents. The implementation of media education has been a slow process,

often met with resistance from defenders of established school ideals. Wider access to digital

video cameras for domestic use as well as computer editing programs makes it easier for children

themselves to produce their own programs, which strengthens their positions and makes their

voices heard more easily. However, the unequal distribution of technological resources in the

world, makes such a scenario realistic only in more economically developed nations.