The Trend of Violence on the Indian Screen & its Influence on Children – Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Introduction: The debate on screen violence & this study (Contd.)
Changing audience habits
Parallel to increase in television’s reach, there have been changes in audiences’ watching habit. More and more people are today spending more time watching TV today. As the worldwide study by Unesco showed, children all over the world spend an average of 3 hours daily in front of the TV screen. That is at least 50 per cent more time spent with this medium than with any other out-of-school activity, like home-work, being with family or friends, or reading. The Second World Summit on Television for Children, held in London in March 1998, was told that watching TV is now the number one after-school-activity for 6-17 years olds.According to Washington-based TV-Free America Group, American children spend an average of 4 hours a day watching TV; they spend only 39 minutes a week in meaningful conversation with parents. According to the BBC’s research department, the national average for 1989 among the British was 3 hours 46 minutes a day.
Closer home, Indonesians watch TV for an average of 3 hours 42 minutes every day, according to the rating system of Survey Research Indonesia (SRI). This is the most time any national audience spends before TV in Asia. Even university students have become television addicts. In an early 1998 survey, 59 per cent students (out of 105) stated that they watched TV for 4 hours or more on school days. The average viewing time on holidays was 5 hours 24 minutes.
A study conducted in the Jakarta area found that among high school students, there is little difference between rich and poor as far as the time spent in front of the TV set is concerned. More than half the students (55 per cent) watch television two hours or more daily, 37 per cent spend three hours or more. The average free time these students have is between 3 and 4 hours a day, most of which they spend before the TV. One-third of Indonesia’s population, that is 60 million, are now estimated to be regular TV viewers.
In India, the National Readership Survey 1997 shows that the time spent on watching television has increased to more than 13 hours a week amongst all television viewers. This is a 12 per cent increase since 1995. Audiences of households with access to satellite and cable channels spend 25 per cent more time – 16.5 hours in an average week – watching TV. The audiences in the top eight metros watch more television than those in smaller towns.
The amount of time today’s audiences spends watching TV shows how important a place television has come to occupy in our lives. Not only it is the most important means of communication among the mass media, crucial to viewers’ need for information and entertainment, but also it casts significant influence on their behaviour, attitude and lifestyle. As Nilanjana Gupta points out,
Much of our knowledge, many of our attitudes, the topics of conversation at work the next day, the brand of soap we pick up at the grocery store, the cartoon characters on our children’s clothes, our aspirations – almost every conceivable aspect of our lives is touched by this medium: yet, like eating or sleeping, we accept it as just another part of our daily routine, uncritically and unknowingly.
It is this “subliminal communication” that television is capable of which has worried social scientists and psychologists. Commenting on research into subliminal communication, Norman Dixon has written: ‘The most striking finding to date … is that subliminal effects appear negatively correlated with stimulus energy. The further below threshold, the weaker or briefer the stimulus, the stronger its effect.’ Which means, the viewers’ “state of half-attention” during the time they spend before or around TV is ideal for “insertion of suggestions” into their subconscious. This fact is behind the commercials being shown in between programs by advertisers who know very well that viewers use “breaks” for brief work like going to toilet or fetching something from kitchen or refrigerator. Playfair explains the process of “indirect suggestion” that works here.
It is not necessary to watch a TV commercial to get the message. A word in the ear from a distance while opening the fridge, or a brief glimpse of the product while settling down for Part Two is just as effective, probably more so.
