Television as Popular Culture Media and Parental Attention and Their Correlation to the Students’ Motivation to Choose Major

Abstract

Television as one of the popular culture media plays an important role in the development of students' personality and knowledge because it provides countless information and entertainment that can enhance their knowledge as the viewers. This study was conducted to give an idea whether television viewing and parental attention can assist students to take a decision of choosing major at the senior high school. This study used descriptive method which analyzed the correlation among television viewing, parental attention, and the students' motivation to choose a major. The sample of this study consisted of 100 students of the state senior high school in Malang, East Java. The finding shows that there is no correlation among television viewing, parental attention, and the students' motivation to choose major at the senior high school. In other words, the possibility of choosing the major can be attributed to some other factors such as interest, talent, aspiration, and other expectation to achieve their goals.Keywords: television, popular culture, media, parental attention, students, motivation IntroductionTelevision can be regarded as one of the popular culture media that is used by teachers in teaching and learning process (Bruce & Ewing, 2009). It gives considerable influence to the development of youths' personality and knowledge because it provides information and entertainment that can enhance teenagers' knowledge as the viewers. Moreover, the information is packaged in an attractive entertainment display. Judging from the impacts of television on adolescent behavior, Wilson (1995) argues that the dominance of television as a household activity often reduces the level of communication among family members. Therefore, culture is absorbed by the more teenagers coming from television than from parents.Similarly, Rubin (2012) claimed that the media like television is truly one of the greatest and most influential teachers. It means that television is able to provide students or viewers with much information which enable them to improve their knowledge. Likewise, Comstock, Chaffee, Katzman, McCombs, and Roberts (1978) argues that television has a number of ways that can affect the viewers' experiences. These effects include audience's behavior during television viewing and the effects on other activities. Thus, television becomes popular culture media which bring great impact on the senior high school students' learning achievement. Furthermore, if the television can influence teenagers' behavior, it is expected that television can also contribute the same thing to motivate students to choose major at the senior high school. This is due to a significant increase in the number of private television stations in Indonesia that broadcast a variety of fascinating entertainment such as soap operas, quiz, sporting events, and other captivating shows. The importance of television in improving students' knowledge is examined by Gill (2012) who quotes UNESCO statement that empowerment of young people through information an...