The study of cultivation effects on the representation of social attributes, marriage, family and occupational roles: TV dramas in Thailand and Thai young adolescents

This thesis investigates relationships between reported television viewing and gender-attribute perceptions of Thai youth. It was conducted within a cultivation analysis framework that necessitated the collection of data about the nature of television output and about young people's perceptions of aspects of social reality. A detailed review and critique of the cultural indicators research literature identified both its relevance to this research and the limitations of early studies in this area. The main focus of this study was placed on TV drama representation and adolescents' social reality perceptions. The content analysis was used to extract the most frequent occurring of 416 TV male and female characters depicted on TV dramas containing relevant material in informational terms to the perceptions being explored. Audience survey was conducted using questionnaire methodology about their television viewing habits and gender-related perceptions. It obtained data from 962 male and female 10-to-19 years-of-age young adolescents in 15 secondary schools of Bangkok. This thesis argues that firstly, the stereotypes of gender-related social attributes, marriage, family or domestic, and occupational roles are evident in TV drama programmes. Secondly, heavy TV viewers adopt TV views of the world in some attributes and roles more than light viewers because of the effect of cumulative exposure to the depictions of gender-related roles. The original contribution to this thesis is based on Gerbner's cultivation indicator project of message system analysis and cultivation analysis. Message system analysis was referred to in order to assess the most representative, stable, and recurrent aggregate patterns of messages to which total communities are exposed over long periods of time. Cultivation analysis was used to compare real world perceptions of heavy and light viewers of television, assuming that heavy viewers will exhibit perceptions that are more consistent with the world of TV drama than do light viewers or cultivation effects.