1. This study was about television and how it gives society a false perception mainly in body image, job glorification, stereotypes, and culture. She used quantitative research and used surveys and other studies to try and prove her hypothesis. I think maybe her hypothesis hit some points and was supported by research. She listed articles and statements for sources to show that there should be some concern involved. The idea being that television use to be so conservative and now it is too relaxed, and may cause worrying effects for young ones.Her findings somewhat were were close to other studies. For example a lot of people agreed they liked the bodies of actors, but did not compare them to their own bodies and would not want to look like them. Also In this Sample study the majority of participants believed television shows to be only somewhat accurate and none of them believed television to be very accurate. This suggests that the participants are aware of television is exaggerated, which could be the reason the effects of television are not as strong as originally predicted. The researcher may feel like her studies may have differed because of the questions she asked for the surveys. Also the ages, originally she liked her age group, but then towards the end of the study realized it is the younger kids that are very easily influenced. She also felt like she had limitations to this study. One being that people didn’t believe that television was to blame for things like body image, but television along with social media and other platforms come together to make body shaming.
2. The research did not fully supply the hypothesis. This is due to the fact that “participants are aware of television’s exaggerations and thus may adjust their perceptions accordingly” (p. 17). The researcher also stated that the cultivation theory was not supported by the results of the study. Reality television was the only genre that had a positive relationship between the frequency and perception. According to the Cultivation Theory, “the more television someone watches, the more they will experience its affects” (p. 4). This is also added with the Social Learning Theory, where people learn by watching and then try to emulate that. As stated from above, the theory was not supported by the results. The more crime shows a participant watched, the less accurate they believed the content to be. Medical dramas experienced the same phenomenon, the more medical shows a participant watched, the less accurate they believed the content to be. A limitation might be that the researcher chose the age group of 18-49 due to it bringing the most money to advertisers. Then, the researcher stated that it was focused on the target age group and it was not random, being unable to a be representative of a population. It was also done on 22 participants with 59% of the students between the ages of 18-25. Around the ages 26-49 consists of the minority. The researcher also mentioned that younger people are generally more influenced than their counterparts. There could be an issue with the methods and sampling. There was also a mix in terms of the results comparing to previous studies and theories. Things did not fully support it.
3. Based on the sample paper of whether television has an effect on peoples’ lives—if one watches more television their perceptions of body image, stereotypes, and job glorification may be skewed—however, the hypothesis was not supported. The findings ended up being different from previous research in that “The theories of cultivation and social learning were only supported when dealing with reality television. Reality television is the only genre that has a positive relationship between frequency and perception” (p.19) Previous work, as well as her hypothesis stated that the social learning theory and cultivation theory would be supported across all genres of television. The limitations in her study were the amount and diversity of the sample population she used. These are noted as limitations because participants felt uncomfortable about how their race and gender was portrayed on TV, along with age being an issue of having effects on one’s perception—the younger the individual was, the easier it was for them to believe that what they were watching is true/accurate, thus leading to having more of an effect on their perception.
4. This study was conducted to see whether or not television had an affect on people’s perception of life (i.e job glorification, body image, and culture). I believe that the hypothesis of this paper was not fully supported by the results as the only part of the research that ran true was the issue of body image. Her findings were similar to those of previous research on her topic as participants, specifically females believed that the body size of the actors and actresses were “somewhat accurate.” However less than half (41%) acctually compared themselves. Some of the limitations were the age range and the amount of people she studied (22 participants). One aspect the research felt was flawed was choosing the wrong age group. Maybe if she focused on younger people such as 10 years old to 20 years old, then the research might have been an exact match to similar artcles related to her topic. This is because younger kids and teen are more impressionable and are more likely to believe that TV and movies are a direct relfection of life rathern and simple entertainment.
5. After reviewing the sample paper and determining that the purpose of the paper was to determine if those who watched the most television were more susceptible to its effects. According to the author, the research findings of the study did not fully support the hypothesis. The findings of her study were different from the previous research, “According to cultivation theory, those that watch more television or more of a certain genre should experience a greater influence of its content; however, the results of this study did not support that” (pg 17). A limitation in the study was the minority participants, “Had there been a larger selection of minority participants the results may have been different” (pg 19).