Inhalt | Table of Contents | Contenu 15 Nr.| Trans | Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften | 15. Nr. | Juli 2004 | |
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1.2. Signs, Texts, Cultures.
Conviviality from a Semiotic Point of View / Buch: Das Verbindende der Kulturen | Book: The Unifying Aspects of Cultures | Livre: Les points communs des cultures |
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Hans W. Giessen (Saarbrücken)
Summary: This paper presents data from field research in a remote mountain region of Tunisia. The aim was to examine the impact of television on a society which had previously been more or less untouched by the medium, and thus to find out whether television leads to changes in the concept of values of the villagers. The results suggest that television is much more than a simple "channel", which is used to broadcast cultural "signs" - by its pure existence, it has a tremendous influence on social structures and culture itself. The Tunisian results indicate that, interestingly, the influence of the "sign" television (and evidently not only of the contents it transmits) seems to lead to social structures and cultural behaviors that resemble the structures and cultures of other civilizations. Television as a "sign" thus seems to have a surprisingly unifying power over cultures and civilizations.
Since the beginning of the 1980s, social scientists from Germany and Tunisia have carried out several field studies in a remote mountain region of Gouvernorat Zaghouan, Tunisia (Auer 1982, Donsbach et al. 1985, Donsbach 1992, Kepplinger et al. 1986). The reason for these studies was the fact that electrification was planned to be introduced into several villages of the region. This seemed to offer the rare opportunity of examining the impact of television (whose spread was expected to go hand in hand with electrification) on a society which had previously been more or less untouched by the medium. The aim of the studies was to find out whether changes in the concept of values of the villagers could be observed. It is important to mention that the region concerned is relatively far away from bigger agglomerations and does not even have access to paved routes; and there are no other obvious influences of "modern life". So electrification and television were indeed the only "new" variables that were able to influence village life in a significant way. Changes in village life, if they were to be observed, therefore should be allowed to be traced back to electrification and television as their only causes.
Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor was one of the villages visited. A series of interviews was carried out there before the beginning of the village's electrification. (Because of the public power-supply company's long-term planning, it was known when the village was to be connected to electric power supply). The second series of interviews was carried out 15 months after electrification, and a third one another 21 months later. All three examinations were drawn up as panel examinations. One of the results of these studies was that, even within the relatively short period of some three years, far-reaching changes in the villages in question could be observed. Therefore, it seemed to be of special interest to carry out another survey some ten years later, in order to find out whether these changes were only of short-term character or whether long-term consequences of television could be observed (cf. Giessen 1999, 2003). However, the panel procedure could not be applied to this study, mainly for organizational reasons. As the electoral registers were incomplete, they could not be used for a long-term study. If it had been realizable at all, the organizational expenditure, which would have been necessary to guarantee that the same test persons could be interviewed another time, would have been excessive. Since, however, the previous examinations, as well as ethnological studies about the region - especially those carried out by Pierre Bardin (1965) and Nadia Abu Zahra (1974, 1976, 1982) -, demonstrated the homogenity of the villages in North Tunisia, it seemed to be legitimate to carry out a random sampling which promised both an efficient and economical field study. Anyway, a random sampling has to be extensive enough so that trends can be established. Therefore, about ten percent of the total population was to be interviewed in order to guarantee reasonable results even with a maximum random error taken into consideration (i.e. even with a random error of about 50%, a fiction which is certainly unrealistic with respect to such a homogeneous population). In the end, 79 inhabitants of the village Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor were interviewed; Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor being a village with a population of approximately 500 inhabitants. The survey in Douar El Hadj Amor was carried out by students at the Institut de la Presse et des Sciences de l'Information of Université Tunis 1, with the assistance of Prof. Mohammed Ali Kembi, to whom this author is very thankful for his help. (Since the interpretation presented here, however, was compiled by this article's author, he is therefore solely responsible for all possible faults.) The study was funded by the German Science Foundation.
Some ten years after electrification, television sets were widespread in Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor. Inhabitants confirmed quite proudly that a large majority of the families had their own television set. At the time of this examination it was confirmed that there was even a first video recorder in the village.
Nevertheless, at first it seemed quite doubtful whether a "natural" handling of television had really already developed. This would be inconsistent with the general observation that all the families visited protected their television set against dust with a cloth (not only the upper side, but also the screen!). Since this did not apply to radios and tape decks, there is no doubt that television sets were - unlike audiomedia - not yet being taken for granted, they obviously were a precious, "outstanding" property, which had to be suitably protected. The reason for this is probably that television was still a "new" property, even if electrification was completed ten years ago. In the third and last survey of the earlier examinations, 66% of the inhabitants of the then examined three villages confirmed that there was a television set in their household. This means that there was a second boom of buying television sets within the very years prior to this examination. By now, we can - and must - definitely assume a full supply of the population with televisions: meanwhile 97.5% of the households in Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor are in the possession of a television set (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 251). As a rule, however, television indeed was acquired not too long ago. More than a quarter of the population (27.9%) bought their television sets in the course of the last three years prior to this field study. This might explain the impression given by the cloths. However, since nearly half of the households had had their television sets for 10 years or longer, and approximately three quarters for at least three years, consequences of television were possible and probable.
This assumption is supported by the average daily amount of television time (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 254-256). None of the test persons chose the option "less than once a week". Obviously, this was not a realistic option. On the other hand, 92.4% of the test persons watched television every day for one hour or more. More than a third of the test persons watched television for more than four hours a day. So television obviously played an important role for the inhabitants of Douar Oueled El Hadj Amor.
The previous studies already revealed that the families did, in fact, seize the opportunity to watch television at home. 15 months after electrification already some 90% of the test persons who had their own television sets answered that they preferred watching in their own homes, a value which has remained constant over the years. Therefore, as more and more villagers had the possibility to watch television at home, the percentage of those making use of this possibility rose accordingly: from three fifths of the inhabitants of the villages examined 15 months after electrification, up to three quarters 21 months later. The social surroundings within which people watched television had changed though, being reduced nearly exclusively to the family members. At the same time the number of those constituting an "audience" decreased from an average of 8.6 persons 15 months after electrification, down to an average of 6.8% 21 months later. There was actually a tendency that - more and more obviously - the size of each audience approached the size of the households. From 15 months after electrification to 21 months later the number of family members in a wider sense (partners, brothers and sisters, children, relatives) watching television increased by 32 percentage points, whereas the number of acquaintances (especially neighbors and friends) decreased by 21 percentage points. Since television had become the most important leisure activity, considerably more time was spent on watching, together with one's family, whereas less and less time was spent with other members of the village community. Whenever possible, people retired into the circles of their families, according to the previous studies' authors. The existence of a television set in their own household thus seemed to determine whether people watched television together with their families or together with their acquaintances. Television thus seemed to strengthen the family, whereas the village community seemed to be weakened accordingly.
Of course, it can also be assumed that this led to changes in both the villagers' attitudes and behavior. The possession of a television set thus seemed to have effects on both the social life in the village and on the families. The authors therefore assumed that the family developed a completely new value. Television even seemed to bring about an impact on the relationship between men and women. The relatively strict separation of sexes (together with the different value of the competences attached to each of the sexes) seemed to have become more fragile. So the attitudes of both men and women changed: their willingness to discuss various subjects grew. As a consequence, women started longing for more competence in fields to which they previously had not had access. For example, both men's and women's attitude towards the joint family prayer definitely changed. In families who had a television set it was distinctly more common that not only the father but other family members, especially sons, but also wives (and less often daughters), were allowed to assume the responsibility over the family prayer.
Ten years later, the villagers watched television with even fewer persons (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 257-258). There were three peaks: The first one in the field of the small families (two persons watching television together), the second one in the field which also corresponds to the average (five to eight persons watching television together), the third one in the field of a large social surrounding (ten persons watching television together). All in all, a further decrease in the number of persons forming an audience was thus be observed (from an average of 8.6 persons 15 months after electrification, down to an average of 6.8 persons 21 months later, to 6 persons ten years later).
Also, there was a further, slight increase in the percentage of those who did not watch television at another than their own place, who thus used only their own television set (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 261-263). So it now seemed to be clear that the possession of a television set tended to exclude that people watch television somewhere else than at home. This suggested that the possession of a television set tended to increasingly weaken the desire to watch television together with other villagers in their homes. The time people spent in front of the television set took away from the time spent on common activities with other villagers.
What consequences did the people's desire to not wanting to watch television at someone else's place, but just at their own place, have? Did it also mean that the villagers no longer enjoyed watching television with other villagers? Indeed, 92.4% of the persons preferred watching television at home (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 265-268). As a result of the multiple answers, it was not just 7.6% of the persons interviewed who named other places. The inversion, though, confirmed the tendency of the results. It was striking that there were considerably less people answering "yes" compared to the question for the place where people usually watched television. 20.3% of the test persons were used to watching television at their families' or relatives' place. Only 16.5% liked to do so. As for friends and neighbors, the difference was even more striking: 13.9% of the test persons were used to watching television at their friends' place, 12.7% at their neighbors' place - respectively only 5.1% liked to do so. The result was clear: people not only liked watching television at someone else's place less (than they did at their own place), but they also liked watching television together with others less, their own family being still more supportable than other social surroundings within the village. The more important television became for the villagers, the more the social surroundings lost their importance. At the same time the social structures upon which the value of the social surroundings was based (before) obviously became less important.
Furthermore, almost half the villagers who were interviewed confirmed without any reservation that they personally considered they had less time to meet friends, acquaintances or relatives since television had been introduced; if the number of those answering "often" or "sometimes" is added, nearly three fourths of the test persons confirmed so (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 270). And what is (even) more, one participant out of four declared that he or she preferred watching television alone (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 275-276), although the traditional structures would indicate an opposite answer as desirable and even necessary for the self-definition of the village and its inhabitants.
It has already been stated that television, therefore, seemed to have led to changes in the village's social life as well as in the families. One question focused on the concepts of the nature of family life after the children got married, being an evident indicator for a social change process (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 295-299). More than 70% of the test persons who had had a television set for a relatively short time only selected the family-oriented option. On the other hand, among those who had had a television set for a relatively long time, for whom television had become a part of their everyday life, the situation was completely different. Statistically speaking, the result is very significant. The tendency towards the small family can thus be considered as indeed a long-term consequence of the mass medium television.
Within the family, the traditional separation of sexes also seemed to have changed. The question referred to a similar one within the previous examination that focused on the relationship between men and women, related to the attitude towards the joint family prayer (for the empirical data referred to, see Giessen 2003: 310-314). The results were, in some 75% of the families, that the father was still the person responsible for the prayer. But in more than 50% of the families, this role could be conferred to the mother. This alone would be striking enough. But in contrast to the previous examinations, the daughters' roles had become as important as that of the sons. The changes which had taken place compared to the previous studies were more far-reaching than expected. Before electrification, only 19% of the test persons declared that the mother could assume the responsibility for the prayers. 15 months later, already 26% of the test persons declared that the mother could assume the responsibility for the prayers, and another 21 months later, the figure was 23%. The confirmation resulting from this examination, where 57% of the test persons declared that the mother had meanwhile adopted this function within the family, emphasized the extent of the changing process. Within ten years, the (per cent) number of women who assumed that function had doubled. Moreover, there was another indication for these change processes. Earlier, daughters were more or less excluded from this development. This examination proved though, that the daughters were now on par with the sons, indicating that the role of women had improved as a whole.
And it indeed seemed that television was the cause of those change processes, as a reconsideration test confirmed. Those test persons who had had access to television for a relatively short time only gave less attention to women as far as the distribution of roles was concerned, whereas this had changed with families that had access to television for a longer period of time. The mothers' influence distinctly increased in households where television had been available for quite a long time from 47.1% up to 61.7%: after all, nearly half of the participants who had had access to television for at least two years confirmed that mothers could assume such a responsibility, and among those participants who had had access to television for more than two years, it was even more than three fifths who confirmed this statement. It was clear that the distribution of roles had become stable for boys and girls who had already had access to television for a long time (respectively 13%).
The results can be interpreted as follows: The structural distribution of roles according to the sexes became less and less important. The corresponding cultural responsibilities shifted from the sexes to the family unit, where they could be assumed by each family member. The separation according to the ages subsisted, but the separation according to the sexes got weaker and weaker. The father's status as head of the family had become less dominant, slowly but surely. And although his status was still unassailable, these processes indicated the beginning of a change in the traditional family structures. As a consequence, women gained competence even in fields to which they had not previously had access.
Thus, it can be concluded that television's influence was the cause of severe changes both in the villagers' attitudes and behavior, as there were statistical significancies regarding the amount of time people were exposed to television and their attitudes and behavior. The cause seems to lie in the fact that the television set changed the social focus from village towards family live. As a result of this process, television even seemed to contribute to a change in the sexes' behavior towards each other, as could be shown with regard to the question whether a new-married couple should create a new household or should rather stay with the man's family, as well as with regard to the question of who was allowed to conduct the family prayer. Thus, television sets might be regarded as possible contributors to an individualization process that, by weakening traditional structures, leads to more personal freedom and strengthens the chances of society's weaker groups, as was shown with respect to the village's women.
The results suggest that television is much more than a simple "channel" that is used to broadcast cultural "signs" - by its pure existence, it has tremendous influence on social structures and culture itself. The Tunisian results indicate that, interestingly, the influences of the "sign" television (and evidently not only of the contents it transmits) seem to lead to social structures and cultural behaviors that resemble the structures and cultures of other civilizations. Television as a "sign" thus seems to have a surprisingly unifying power on cultures and civilizations.
© Hans W. Giessen (Saarbrücken)
REFERENCES
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Giessen, Hans W. (1999). "Überlegungen zum langfristigen Einfluß des Fernsehens auf Gesellschaftsstrukturen". S - European Journal for Semiotic Studies 11(1-3): 159-188
- (2003). Untersuchungen zu langfristigen Konsequenzen formaler Eigenschaften des Fernsehens auf Gesellschaftsstrukturen. Berlin: uni-edition
Kepplinger, Hans-Mathias; Donsbach, Wolfgang; Auer, Rainer; Kembi, Mohammed Ali; Hamdane, Mohammed & Rachid Skik (1986). "The impact of television on rural areas of Tunisia". Revue Tunisienne de la Communication 10(juillet-décembre): 107-164
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For quotation purposes:
Hans W. Giessen (Saarbrücken): How Television Changes a Traditional
Culture. In: TRANS. Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften.
No. 15/2003. WWW: http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/01_2/giessen15.htm
