CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY

Parental regulations on television viewing

According to Salvato (2006), “childhood obesity is the most prevalent chronic

disease among North American children and has reached epidemic proportions.

Increased television viewing has been show to increase the chances of a child becoming

obese”. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the amount of media

children are using and the parental practices being used to regulate television viewing

among elementary school students. The sampling frame consisted of parents of children

attending an elementary school in Connecticut. A questionnaire was adapted to

determine the parental regulations being used to monitor children's television viewing.

Parents self-reported their child's height and weight so that a correlation could be made

between regulations and childhood obesity. The results of this study have increased the

data on parental regulations regarding the use of television, and revealed that many

parents are not aware of the effects that excessive television use can have on their child.

Philippine Teleserye

Pineda (2012), stated that as early as the sixteenth century, the Filipinos had

taken drama as a form of entertainment in their lives. Drama was encapsulated by the

zarzuela, locally known as sarswela, typically with fighting and conflict, introduced to
the Filipinos during Spanish rule (sixteenth to nineteenth century). Eventually, drama

became part of the everyday consciousness of Filipinos who listened to and watched

different heroic and love stories.

During the American period (late nineteenth to early twentieth century), use of the

radio and later the television was introduced. Radio dramas became popular during the

1950s. The very first radio drama was 'Gulong ng Palad" the 'Wheel of the Palm' or

'Wheel of Fate' in 1949 (DZRH interactive, 2009). Once the busy time in the morning

was over, radio drama would fill the air and become the daily dose during coffee

breaks. Other similar shows were introduced in the afternoon during lull hours. Life

was slow during this time, stories were told using different voiceovers and sound

effects that created strong imaginative inner capes among the listeners. The radio drama

became a motion picture in the minds as it was heard by many Filipinos. At present,

radio dramas are still heard by many rural folks. Most of them had advanced to

television as soap operas. But the formula is the same with the story having different

episodes and unfolding over months. Soap operas are called teleserye, tele for

television, serye is the Tagalog for series. The term has other synonyms like telenovela

or teledrama. These teledramas are shown at prime time, five days a week. The

subjective delivery and meanings of the story is evident, but that did not matter. For

most Pinoys, a.k.a Filipinos, the teleserye drama brings a gratifying moment that offers

them an escape from the tiring pressure of work. The Filipino attitude also exhibits

great interest in social realities. The drama happens to be the small box of secrets that

holds all the emotions of the viewer - passion, sympathy, misery, determination,
empathy, ambition, anger, and love. The feelings become the connection to the drama

and the shared experience of the Filipino audience.

Hence drama as a medium to impart stories is a strong cultural artefact in the life of the

Filipinos. It reminds people how lives are very much interlinked even though they are

diverse. The Filipino love of life dramas hopefully inspires the extraordinary Gogol

Interplay ground project.

Persona

Marcovitch (2002), (as cited in Wilde (2007)) believed that every individual is

obligated to cultivate an artistic self .He saw persona as a way to bring aestheticism into

everyday practice. In the 1880s as his own persona was being debated in the press, he

presented persona as a way of liberating the self from the oppression of social

expectations by encouraging the free expression of social, sexual, and behavioural

difference in the middle and upper classes.

Jung (2001), stated that the development of a viable social persona is a vital part

of adapting to, and preparing for, adult life in the external social world “A strong

ego relates to the outside world through a flexible persona; identification with a specific

persona inhibits psychological development”. Thus for Jung the danger is that people

become identical with their personas. The result could be “the shallow, brittle,

conformist kind of personality which is 'all persona', with its excessive concern for

'what people think, an unreflecting state of mind in which people are utterly

unconscious of any distinction between themselves and the world in which they live.
They have little or no concept of themselves as beings distinct from what society

expects of them'.

Effects of television on children’s learning

Werner (1989), stated that while quick cuts and over-stimulating programming

present certain unique threats, children's television and videos also carry all the

medium-related dangers of adult shows. The 1982 California Assessment Program

discovered, for example, that children who watched educational (public) television once

a day earned achievement scores identical to children who watched commercial TV,

and both groups scored 10% lower than children who did not watch TV at

all. Moreover, like their commercial counterparts, educational TV and videos devour

not only the time a child would otherwise be reading, writing, or practicing arithmetic;

they also consume playtime, which means less opportunity for learning how to interact

with others and less physical exercise. And like any TV show, educational programs

increase daytime sleepiness and impede the development of independent imagination.

Television causing personality change

According to Yap (2014), television is a ubiquitous part of modern childhood. It

plays many roles in a child’s life — entertainer, educator and even babysitter. As

children are exposed to television at earlier ages and for longer periods of time — it

becomes imperative that as parents and teachers, we pay close attention to what our
children watch on television and the possible effects that it can have on them. Cartoons

form a major chunk of children’s television viewing. It has been a topic of concern that

many popular animated shows depict aggression and violence, feelings such as envy

and revenge as accepted behaviour usually in the guise of humour or righteousness.

Physical violence, bombs, verbal aggression, etc. are all a part of various child-centric

shows. There is a long-standing debate on whether increased depiction of violence has a

consequence on aggression in children.

Young children do not have the ability to distinguish between reality and make-

believe world. With today’s stellar technology and special effects, video games and

television has become very realistic and life-like. This makes it even harder for young

children to make the distinction between what is real and what is not. Children are very

susceptible to learning through observation. Whether this is observation of parents and

peers or television characters, they tend to turn into role-models, they learn what they

see. This learning then transfers to practise in real life. Such children may be more

aggressive with their friends and their loved ones. With busy schedules of parents, and

increased unsupervised television time, the danger of exposure to violent and

aggressive content on television becomes very high.