One final entry before the final deadline. I was finally sitting down in the living room at 9PM watching the channel 8 drama (the one with the beach babes playing volleyballs).

As it was close to the end of the drama, the male lead (Christopher Lee, whose stage name I do not know, so I shall call him YY) saw his mother again after she abandoned him at the playground and ran off with another man. The show goes on to show that his dad remarried a short while later, which resulted in abuse by the step mother.

These scenes are very common in drama serials (also in local dramas). The media uses the cultivation theory to indirectly influence its audiences. The media can create a way of looking at the world, therefore changing the perception of others and it eventually becomes the commonly held view.

The portrayal of the “evil stepmother” ranges from kids stories to mature content. Snow White and the seven dwarfs is a very good example. The story was written a long time back, and the movie was released in the early 1900s. We all know that the evil stepmother tried to kill Snow White by giving her the poisoned apple.

Similarly in the local drama, the stepmother abused YY by hitting him after the father left home. She schemed to do these acts behind the father’s back and pretended to be the nice and loving mother in front.

We then stereotype stepmothers to be evil and abusive towards their stepchildren.

In this sense, the media has created a perception of “stepmothers are evil” and most of us have this common view.

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Let’s go back to the drama. The drama then shows the YY getting drunk because he was upset after meeting his mother. The girl who liked him then sent him home cause he was too drunk to get home.

At this moment, my mother commented that surely the girl and YY would end up in bed stark naked the next morning. The show then ended without showing more.

Indeed, tomorrow’s trailer aired and they had done something wrong. It goes on to show that YY said since they are both willing parties, he would bear no responsibility and that there is no feelings between them.

Pre-marital sex is depicted to be a norm in the modern day society. One night stands are so commonly shown that we can predict what would happen.

The media influence teenagers nowadays, and somehow, their views of pre-marital sex are: it’s no surprise, and they are not against it.

Pre-marital sex is so rife that magazines teaches you the various positions in order to achieve maximum pleasure, or interviewing others who are not at all shy to tell that at the young age of 20, they have had sex.

The media has created a synthetic reality in which everyone lives in it.

“Resonance is when the audience’s everyday experiences match those they view on TV, creating a “double dose” effect.” Quoted directly from text materials.

These teenagers have sex, then watch these TV dramas. Sex is portrayed as such a common action nowadays, and the drama shows that there is nothing wrong with one night stands. There can be no feelings between both parties and after the sex, that’s the end.

The double dose effect in this case is that the media further enhances teens thinking that sex is okay.

In my opinion, the more the TV portrays the action being a commonly done act, the more teens would be influenced by it. These influences cannot be turned backwards. I wonder what would it be like 10 years from now, would my kids be having sex at the age of 14 and telling me about it?

OH NO!