Islam 1

Tasnuva Islam
ID# 021-345-030
Mr. Carl Bloom
English 105, Section 6
16 August 2004
Effect of Foreign TV Channels on young people to change their view towards
marriage/affair
INTRODUCTION
Scholars have never been able to agree on a straightforward definition of
culture. In the 1870s the anthropologist Edward Tylor defined culture as that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals. Law, custom and other
capabilities acquired by man as a member of society. (Charles 89) Since then,
hundreds of other definitions have been developed. Another refined definition of
culture was given by Geert Hofstede. He defined culture as the collective
programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from
another. (Charles 89) However, one of the most important characters of culture is, it
is not constant: it evolves over time. There are many reasons behind the changes of
culture. Some elements lead to cultural changes fast and some do so slowly. Media
nowadays is considered as a window for learning and is also considered to be our
main window to the world. The programs of satellite channels make the young
generation of our country more exposed to cultures that are totally different in values
and norms from the one they have most likely grown up in. As a result, now-a-days
most young people dont posses the same ideas about life style, culture, family value
and marriage that their parents did. Most people think marriage as a relation that
makes the commitment to each other stronger and it definitely makes two people

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committed to being together for the rest of life. In our country, most parents still hold
conservative thoughts about their childrens marriages. In most families, affairs or
choosing life-partner him/herself is strictly prohibited. Parents think it their special
duty to find a suitable partner for their child; but does the child think so? As they are
now better conversant about other cultures through magazines, TV shows and of
course, the internet, their thoughts are getting reconstructed. A wide range of
experience of different cultures creates for a broader outlook and while they go about
exploring a different culture through the media, their own culture goes largely
ignored. The trial thesis of my research paper is foreign TV channel programs are
gradually changing (both positively and negatively) the idea of marriage/affair of
young people.
BACKGROUND
I often wonder, if the pioneers of television could see how TV is used today
what they would think? Satellite, which is considered to be the most efficient
innovation of science and scientists, has made the world very small to us and abridged
the distance between countries and nations. If we turn the TV on, it turns us up within
a minute and makes us look at the colorful screen, spell bound. Everyday it updates us
with the news of sports, politics, movies, music and every bit of information someone
possibly needs to know. Effect of dish culture is no different in Bangladesh. Here it is
found to be the most popular medium for entertainment, education and information.
Being a third world country, both positive and negative effects of satellite channels
have been found here side by side. At present dish culture has brought an ominous
effect on our social, economical, cultural, relational and national life in Bangladesh.
Talking only about the positive aspects of cable network would be bit chauvinism.

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Todays young people are better informed about foreign norms and cultures
than their predecessors. They find themselves at the cross-roads where different
cultures meet. Cable dish is found to be popular amongst all sorts of people, specially
the young generation. After the advent of dish culture, they are getting to enjoy the
charisma of worldwide satellite channels. Soon it spread its popularity throughout the
country incredulously. When the question of cable impact comes in, we must recount
the incredible changes in Bangladesh. For example, if we look at the country now
there is a huge difference from ten years back. These are all nothing but the effect of
dish. Although there are both positive and negative effects, in my research paper I will
not discuss specifically one thing but how the ideas are changing will be my main
point to discuss. The effects on those I will draw your attention in this paper are The
change in their ideas about marriage, living together, same-sex attraction and delaying
in marriage for career consciousness.
METHODOLOGY
I collected the data for this research paper from primary sources and secondary
sources. As the paper is argumentative in nature, I had to depend on some experts
opinions as well as interviews of the general public. Therefore, the primary sources
that I have used are a personal interview with a lecturer of North-South University
and a survey with an approved questionnaire. To seek the opinion of the general
public, with a close ended questionnaire, I interviewed 20 young people of different
private universities of Dhaka city and among those 20 people, 10 were male and 10
were female. The sample population is assumed to be representative of the larger
population. The survey was conducted in Dhaka city and includes people aged 19 to
23 years. On the other hand, I personally talked with Ms. Gigi Asem (Sociology and
Anthropology lecturer of North-South University) for her valuable opinion about

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satellite dish cultures effect on young people. Besides that I collected my secondary
data from the daily newspapers, different books, periodicals, journals on cultural
phenomena and some previous works. Then the collected data was reviewed and
analyzed to prepare the report.
LIMITATIONS
Before starting my main research paper and analysis, I must mention a few
limitations of this paper. For this purpose, I interviewed with questionnaire only 20
people among whom 10 were males and 10 were females and the age group was 19 to
23. It can easily be said that the number is very small compared to the total people of
our country who enjoy the programs of foreign TV channels. Again, I only surveyed
some private universities students, the public universities students or the other
college and school going young people are not part of this survey. The other districts,
except Dhaka city, are not included in this survey as well. So the outcome may not
show us the correct situation. In addition, questions arise about the honesty or
approach of my target group during asking questions. I distributed the questionnaire
to my classmates who were more interested to chat with others at that time than filling
up my questionnaire. I provided some space for writing their comments about this
research topic to know more about their notion that I could not cover in my closeended questionnaire but most of them did not bother to fill that part up.
PROBLEMS FACED DURING DATA COLLECTION
I had to depend on different sources to collect persuasive data to write this
research paper as it is more argumentative. Moreover, during collection of this
different information I faced a lot of problems.

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During primary data collection

After getting approval for the questionnaire from my honorable course
instructor when I thought to start the survey, the university authorities declared to
postpone classes for a few days due to the miserable flood. As I targeted North-South
universitys students as my target group for survey, I got stuck with the main part of
the research paper. Again, I faced some problems to get an appointment with the
person I targeted to take a personal interview as she was not available all the time.
Therefore, I had to spend a lot of time to fix an appointment with her.

During secondary data collection

I collected secondary data from some published articles and journals in
some renowned national newspapers and from the internet. The main problem that I
faced during secondary data collection is that those articles and journals were not
available. I also had to spend a lot time on this purpose. I wanted to use some
references from articles that my friends referred to me, but when I asked North-South
University Librarys reference section for those dates newspapers, they were not able
to give them to me . I planned to go to the newspapers office but I came to know that
nobody is allowed to the reference room of those offices without reference of any
person who is involved with the newspaper. Again, I did not get that much
information related to my topic on the internet.
FINDINGS FROM SURVEY
In order to analyze the data collected from survey, some findings are divided into
two parts -- Graphs and data analysis. In this part I have presented the most relevant
questions that I asked people through the questionnaire. Other questions and graphs
are shown in the appendix. All the respondents are television viewers with access to
foreign satellite networks. The relevant salient findings of my survey are as follows:

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Close-ended question:
Do you think that those programs of different channels have any effect on
changing your opinion?

Data analysis - From the data in the graph above, we can see that half of the people
think that those programs on foreign TV channels dont have that much significance
on changing their opinion. That means they think that this media has a small effect at
any rate regarding this change. The second largest portion (30%) says Yes. From
this, we can say that 80% believe that there is at least a very minor effect of those
foreign programs on changing their opinion-only 15% said absolutely no effect.

What do you think about marriage?

From the survey, I got a clear idea about what young people think about marriage.
About 50% think marriage makes people bound and none of them consider it as a
backdated idea. Their idea, regarding to marriage, can be shaped as a result of
watching different family problems in different soap operas and movies. The other
half portion of the people is divided in two different answers. 25% considered

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marriage as a better idea while 25% are not sure about this. May be those soap operas
and movies make them confused to give a specific answer about it.
What do you think about living together?

Data Analysis - Here we can see that about 75% dont consider living together as a
good option. 40% think it is against our cultural norms while 35% dont believe that
premarital cohabitation (living together before marriage) can help to take a better
decision. 15% people, on the other hand, think it is a better idea while 10% are not
sure. This 10% may be affected by foreign TV channels and their ideas are changing
so they hesitated to give any specific comment.

Do you think that in marriage people are more obligated or have more
responsibilities than in living together?

In response to my 8th question, about 80% people agreed upon one answer and
that is In marriage, people are more obligated or have more responsibilities than in
living together. Not a single person disagreed with this opinion while 15% didnt
think marriage gives that much responsibility on people. The reason why those young
peoples are so sure about marriage lifes having much responsibilities can be their

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easy access to different cultures through satellite that shows many day to day life
stories.

Should same sex marriage be legalized?

Data Analysis - No matter to what extent western cultures affect our own culture,
most of the young people have still not agreed on the legalization of same-sex
marriage. Conversely, 4 among 20 people (that is about 20%) think it should be
legalized while 3 have never thought about this issue.

Do you think career consciousness is influencing todays women in

delaying their marriage?

Though 80% of young people of my survey clearly agreed on one answer

Todays women are delaying in marriage because of their career consciousness, the
other 20% agreed implicitly on the same answer. The different women-oriented
programs on most of the foreign TV channels may play an important role for
progressively changing the whole situation.

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2/3 years before, were these opinions the same as they are now?

Data Analysis - From the table above, we can see that only one person claimed to
have the same opinion 2/3 years ago, while 12 people noticed that their opinions are
changing over time. 75% of the people consent (60% saying It is changing and 15%
No) on not having the same attitude and opinions a few years back, can show an
immense impact of a change in their perceptions. As in the first graph we saw that
80% believe to have at least a minor effect of satellite TV programs in changing their
opinion, we can link that with this change and can say that these changes in their
opinion can be a result of the spread of satellite dish all over the country.
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT SOURCES USED
For my research purpose, I used different sources to learn about the effect of
foreign TV channels and how, other people think, these are changing a certain groups

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ideas related with their life. When I revised what I got from those different sources, I
found that in some issues the general people, the experts and the secondary sources
agreed, while on some issues they did not. Most of the general people agreed on these
foreign channels having effect at some extent on changing their ideas or opinions
while the experts said that Some aspects of marriage have been influenced to a
certain degree by satellite TV. (Asem) She thinks that Satellite TV is exposing more
young people to the idea that women should work and earn money whether they are
married or not, and that marriage is a viable option once you are earning money to
be financially independent. (Asem)According to her, Whether a large number of the
upper and middle classes of Bangladesh are affected by satellite TV will depend on
how much importance other corresponding aspects of social life (i.e. education,
parental teaching, religion and job availability) have on their lives. (Asem) The
article on a renowned newspaper based on the same topic also agrees How much a
modern youngster knows about his/her own culture depends on the home
environment. (Ahmad 1) Besides, while sharing their opinion, most young people
expressed their feelings about how those foreign TV channels are having a tendency
to make us feel indifferent towards nudity and vulgarity. Some think that the dress
code of the young generation is changing because of dish culture; some got innovative
make-up ideas while some others get conscious about feminism and female freedom.
Finally, the expert thinks that a larger proportion of the population needs to be assured
of a minimal standard of education to enable them to critically analyze and evaluate
the messages they are receiving through Satellite TV. (Asem)
EFFECT/CHANGES IN YOUNG PEOPLES IDEAS
The foreign TV channels programs exert an enormous influence over the lives
of young people. When the medium was first introduced, it was little more than a

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luxury for the wealthy, but now it is a luxury with great appeal, especially for young
people. It influences the way in which individuals and groups dress, talk, behave, and
think. The media, in the forms of movies, television, radio, and print as well as the
new electronic communications medium of the Internet, helps to connect individuals
to one another and to the world; invariably, this powerful influence shapes the ways in
which viewers or participants perceive the world and their own place within that
world. Given that young people are often highly impressionable and subject to such
influences, this reports next part will consider the effects of media on this particular
age group-

Kiyu Hota Hai Pyaar: A young-people oriented drama serial of star Plus showing a
more friendly relationship of young people.
Ideas about marriage
Traditionally and legally, marriage has been defined as a union of a man and
woman. It should however be noted that as an Islamic country, our societys concept
of love is different from the more commonly understood romantic love so valued in
Western cultures. There is no dating or living in defected relationship or trying each
other out before they commit to each other seriously. There is to be no physical
relationship what so ever before marriage. The parents or guardians of any of the

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parties may give advice, choose a marriage partner or use persuasion, but the final
decision to enter into a marriage must be the result of a free choice on the part of each
partner, even though this freely made choice may consist of nothing but accepting the
choice of one's parents or guardian. This right of free choice is fairly well recognized
in the case of men but (unfortunately) not in the case of women. Now-a-days because
of the entrance of different cultures through satellite dish, young people are getting
conscious about these traditional ideas. They now hardly support the idea of arranged
marriage where there is not enough scope to learn about the person whom one is
going to live with for the rest of his/her life. Programs like Kahin na kahin koi hai
on Sony entertainment television tried to inspire arranged marriage through TV
media, but that program was not a success. The programs like different soap operas
like Kashish on Zee TV, Hum Pardesi ho geya on Sony are showing the negative
aspects of marrying the people of parents choice without knowing about the person
and these programs are ultimately making people conscious. This is of course a
positive effect of foreign channels. These programs are helping them to know about
different sides of a particular event like arranged marriage and their previous ideas are
getting changed accordingly. Albeit till now they are considering marriage as a better
idea, their perceptions about arranged marriage are getting diverted.
Ideas about living together
Living together is a common phenomenon in western culture. A Few years ago
the Indian TV channels also started to move with it and in their programs directly or
indirectly they started to show some positive aspects of living together. As a result,
young people are now probably more used to the idea of dating, having non-marital
relationships and certainly of having less formal communication with someone of the
opposite sex. However Glenn T. Stanton in a web page troubledwith describes:

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Research continually reveals that married people are generally physically

healthier, happier, and live longer, enjoy better mental health, are more
fulfilled and less likely to suffer physical abuse. Premarital cohabitation
(living together as a family outside of legal marriage) does not bring the same
benefits marriage does. Instead, it brings increased conflict and aggression as
well as increased chance of divorce in later marriages. (1)
The idea of living together still is not a common incident in our country, but the ideas
are molding slowly. As a Muslim country our culture doesnt support living together
as a family outside of marriage. The family doesnt ever support their children living
with their boy/girlfriend before marriage as it is totally against our cultural norms.
The TV programs focusing on this issue are giving the ideas to the young people who
take it as a concern of their independency. Popular TV serials like Friends, The
Bold and the Beautiful, Baywatch Hawaii in Star World can be common examples
of showing this type of relationship which matches with their culture but not with
ours.
Same-sex attraction
In our society most people believe that attraction between man and woman
was instilled by the Creator to ensure the perpetuation of mortal life and to draw
husband and wife together in the family setting he prescribed for the accomplishment
of his purposes, including the raising of children. In contrast, I dont feel still they
could think about anything that differs from their usual idea. Same sex attraction is
still prohibited in our culture. Theoretically, homosexuality is defined as any kind of
erotic thoughts, feelings, or behavior towards persons of the same sex. The term same
sex attraction doesnt only mean when a man or a woman engages in sexual behavior
with a person of the same sex, it refers to even when a person has erotic feelings that

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could lead toward such behavior. The term is a common matter in western culture and
we are also now watching many programs, movies and dramas based on this topic via
satellite channels. I am not saying that young people are getting these feelings or
being attracted to this kind of relationship as it is an inherent quality of a human
being. Nevertheless, they are getting the ideas of this kind of relationship that are
completely opposite of our culture. In my survey I found that most young people are
opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage, but they agreed that now a days
there are a lot of drama serials and movies on different channels showing this kind of
relationship. Not only western movies but also some Indians movies are now
presenting this issue in different ways. A few days ago, the Indian film industry
released a movie named Girlfriend based on lesbianism which was banned later on
the objection of general public in front of a cinema hall.
Womens Delaying in marriage for career consciousness
In our male dominated society, women dont have that much scope to think
about their career. Most of the cases, a wife has to compromise with her career for a
so called happy family life. A few years ago, it was a common scenario for girls to
sacrifice their career even after completing Honours or Masters in a good subject.
However, now the situation is changing. There are a lot programs on different TV
channels that are showing women working in different areas. These programs give
girls ideas of the breadth of their choices, encourage them to explore ideas that they
may not have thought possible before, and offer ideas about how they could achieve
their goals. Shows like Rendezvous with Simi Garewall The Oprah Winfreh
Show or Cover Story on Star world and different women oriented programs,
dramas and movies can play a significant role to inspire women with their objective.
Now-a-days most girls give priority to their careers more than all other things; there is

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even a tendency of delaying marriage because of career consciousness. They want to

complete their studies and to be established before marriage.

RECOMMENDATIONS
I hope that my research paper will have a great significance to know about
cultural changes through the entrance of satellite culture. It has both positive and
negative effects on our culture. We can justify and apply them in our own culture
judiciously. It will not be easy to stop the changes that do not match with our culture
as it comes from inside of a human being. However, I can recommend the following:
Positive and negative attributes of dish culture go side by side. We have to keep in
mind peace and pleasure is what we would like about cable TV, not violence and
destruction. One should guard against the tendency of taking a position that
everything coming from outside is necessarily bad or good.
Mahatma Gandhi said something about the effect that One should keep the windows
open so that the wind comes from different directions but not be so much that one is
swept off one's feet. I think this attitude and the need for free and balanced flow of
communication is needed for understanding the social and cultural impact.
Bangladeshi television programs need to focus on entertainment more, to make them
attractive and interesting rather than showing only political issue related conversation
programs and discussion types of programs.
CONCLUSION

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Satellite dish culture is spreading all over the world on account of the fact that
we live in the age of information and communication. Its really up to us to decide
what we should watch and what we should consider to go after means we should have
the ability to differentiate our own culture with others. Satellite TV is in no way
totally to blame--but its a start. It can change our perception of how life is supposed
to be. It is necessary and important to learn about the world, people, and life in other
ways that just living. If we didn't do that, we'd never get anywhere. We must learn
from other's achievements and failures. However, there are better types of media to
use to learn those things than just TV.
My thesis statement was Foreign TV channel programs are gradually
changing the idea of marriage/affair of young people. I found out through my
research that these foreign TV channel programs are having a superficial effect on
upper and middle class viewers generally. The reasons behind those programs
popularity are they are well presented, whatever the themes are these are designed to
attract the viewers; the glamour and the making of those programs also outshine the
Bengali programs. Our young generation is also influenced a lot by those programs I
want to conclude by saying that we can not stop the changes in culture, but if we want
we can at least reduce the negative changes in our culture while inspiring the positive
ones due to the programs of Indian TV channels.

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Works Cited

Ahmad, Sabrina F. Caught between cultures. Rising Stars 22 July, 2004.

Asian Educational Media Service. Media Review.
<http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/HTML/mir.las?-Database=aems%20Biblio.FP3&Layout=Media%20Information%20Record&BiblioID=2759&-Search>
Healy, Jane M. Understanding TV's effects on the developing brain. May 1998.
<http//www.aapnews.com>
Hill, Charles W. L. International Business-Competing in the global marketplace. 4th
ed. Tata McGraw Hill.
http://www.ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/singles/msg0509283117999.html
Impact of Indian TV channels programs over the cultural changes of Bangladesh
Eng105 paper.
Sabrina, Jafrin. Effect of Dish culture in Bangladesh Eng105 paper.
Stanton, Glenn T. Marriage vs. Living Together Troublewith 1997.
http://www.troubledwith.com/stellent/groups/public/
%5C@fotf_troubledwith/documents/articles/twi_036526.cfm?channel=Love
%20and%20Sex&topic=Living%20Together&sssct=Questions%20and
%20Answers

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Youth Information. Home page 16 August 2004

<http://www.youthinformation.com/infopage.asp?snID=388>