Role of Media and Its Impact of Contents on Audience: A Comparative Study of Mainstream Private Channels

Abstract

This paper explores the role of media and its impact of content on viewers. The purpose of this research is that researchers must first understand how society affects individuals. Everyone learns social behaviour through observing others. Before TV, children learned socialization through family and peers. Cultivation theory studies TV's long-term impacts. The more time people spend 'living' in the TV world, the more likely they would believe it's a social reality. The survey method was considered to be an appropriate method for collecting information and data analysis. The population is the male and female viewers of the private news channels. A stratified sampling method for the specification of the demographic characteristics was adopted, and the population was divided based on age and gender; for data collection, the target of one hundred and sixty viewers were selected. This research revealed that the viewers/respondents' credibility assessments could be predicted by their unique media consumption patterns and media platform preferences. One of the most significant takeaways from this research was the importance of familiarity with a media outlet's format and content in shaping viewers' perceptions of that media outlet's credibility. Keywords: Social Behaviour, Cultivation Theory, Television, Family, Media.