Cultural Indicators: The Social Reality of Television Drama.

A proposal is presented for the continuation of ongoing research into the relationships between pervasive cultural trends represented by network television drama and popular conceptions of reality in the areas or health, behavior, and policy. The research leading to the development of the Cultural Indicators (of trends in television dramatic content and their effects) began with the analysis of the most pervasive and comprehensive images of everyday culture found in television drama. The symbolic structures and functions of the message systems in television drama provided the basis of the pilot project, which gave striking evidence of the cultivation of certain assumptions and conceptions among heavy viewers. The pilot project involved: (1) a study in which children were asked to rate specially prepared pictures according to who would be the aggressor/victim or hero/villain; answers revealed race, age and sex biases; and (2) a survey of adult viewers through telephone interviews involving the use of a semi-projective questionnaire with forced error choice items and opinion items. The next and final phase of research should establish the theoretical and practical usefulness of cultural indicators as guides to scientific understanding, citizen and consumer behavior, and public policy in communications and culture. (KM)