Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Question 1: Social Learning Theory and Television Viewing Habits of Egyptians during Ramadan
Viewership habits during Ramadan are definitely different than during the rest of the year. Fewer people watch TV from the early morning to 4 p.m. After iftar, TV viewership increase to a longer and more continuous period than during the rest of the year as people come and rest in front of TV after breaking their fast. Moreover, prime time lasts until much later at night during Ramadan, with audiences remaining healthy until 2 a.m. Although the ratings peaks during Ramadan coincide in the early evening prime time, Ramadan viewership is more spread out in the day. This is primarily because working hours are shorter during Ramadan, meaning people have more time to spend in front of TV. I think the overall average time watching increases to a minimum of 5 hours during Ramadan. Egyptian audience shares for mosalsalat (serials) increase exceptionally during the month of Ramadan when compared to any typical month in the year. By national and TV industry tradition, the serials during Ramadan are broadcast in both greater numbers and are known for their superior writing and acting compared with year-around fare. To me, this is a perfect setup for the social learning theory to take place, knowing that in Ramadan, dozens of new TV serials hit the screens. These series are divided between genres: comedy, historical events, religious and romance, they are all presented through different television series, and people usually plan their day around which shows they hope to watch. By watching these series, people learn new ways of how to wear new fashions, getting lessons on how to interact on certain issues, and absorbing behaviors identified with being with or against a certain issue. In Ramadan 2007, Qadiyat Rai Aam (Public Opinion Case) was a social drama that discussed the issues of drug addiction, rape and other general ethical matters occurring within the Egyptian society. The famous actress, Yousra, played the role of

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Dr. Abla, a well-respected pediatrician, known for her dedication and veracity in her work. The turning point of this drama was when Yousra and two other fellow female workers get attacked and raped on their way home after a late shift. The series revolves around the consequences and how these women are treated and viewed by society and the obstacles they face in their quest for justice. This serial was extremely successful as people started watching it closely, they started to learn how they should deal with raping and raped women, and actually it was successful in changing the image of raped women, which was the main plot of the serial. In addition, after the serial was over, a lot of groups were formed and named after the serial to discuss the topic and how it was handled in the serial. Again, to me, this is what social learning theory is all about, people learning from the media new behaviors and adopting new thoughts and trends. Ayza Atgawez (I want to get married) was a series that was aired during Ramadan 2010, the serial dealt with the problem of spinsterhood in a comic way. The serial is based on a blog and top selling book by Ghada Abdel Aal, which caused

a phenomenon in 2007 and 2008. The serials main theme is that girls may not marry
because no one proposes but because the right person didnt come along yet. This serial was one of top serials in Ramadan; all the family members were following it closely with girls being the main target. I think social learning theory works here perfectly because many girls learned a lot from Ola; the main character, the way she dressed, the way she talked and how she dealt on the blind dates and the arranged marriages meetings. Not only that, but also many parents were interested in watching the serial to see how Olas parents dealt with the different grooms that proposed to their daughter. Actually, girls started to adopt many of the actions and behaviors of Ola, in a very obvious way that it is now known as Ayza Atgawez Style of Marriage. Childrens programming also commands a larger audience share during Ramadan. These programs are aired just after Iftar to keep the kids busy while the adults break their fast. I remember many of childrens programming that were on TV in Ramadan when I was a kid, actually one was very interesting to me, and I made sure to watch it every day while my parents were breaking their fast, It is The stories of the

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Prophets the characters were made of clay and the program was made of short stories that constituted 25 episodes. The program brought to me a lot of thoughts at that time, I remember asking my mum every now and then, why they did a certain action in the episode, should I do the same, Is this the way you make god love you. And the result was a lot of actions and behaviors that I learned from these episodes. Although everything showed on that program was made of clay, it still gave me a certain image of how life looked like back then (at the times of prophets). This, in my opinion, is social learning theory taking place, I learned certain attitudes from what I saw on TV and I made certain actions and even was able to talk in the standard Arabic language because these episodes where using it and not the colloquial Arabic. Since social learning theory hypothesizes that the audiences learn certain trends, thoughts, and behaviors by watching television, then Ramadan is a perfect timing for that theory to be in action. In Ramadan people get the chance to watch TV for longer than in regular times, and therefore the social learning theory is more likely to happen and have an effect here.

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Question 2: The increasing of the Knowledge Gap in Egypt during the coming 2-3 years among young adults due to new technologies
In the answer to this question, I will discuss how the new technologies already altered and will alter the way that Egyptian youth (20 30 years) think on a day to day basis and the argument that the knowledge gap hypothesis has and will have severe implications not just for the have nots but also for the haves. It became obvious once I purchased the Apple iPad, as I perused the number of free podcasts and audiobooks available in the itunes store I realized that I had been doing myself a disfavor. My self-imposed ban on buying any of these new technologies had made me lose out on a wealth of knowledge. I then thought about all of the people who could not afford mp3s, broadband or DSL service and all of the tools necessary to take advantage of all of the free downloads available online. Again, what I mean here is that the knowledge gap theory is no more about increasing the gap between those of higher socioeconomic classes and those of lower socioeconomic classes. But on the contrary, it means that each new medium increases the gap between everyone regardless of being information rich or information poor. When I come to think about it, there is a knowledge gap between my sister (who is raised in the same family, same socioeconomic class and same education) and me, just because I took the decision to buy such a device (iPad) and make use of all the available content on itunes. In addition to the evolution of social media, here we need to consider the gap between people who are active users of social media and who frequently create content; in its various forms that vary from facebook to flicker and YouTube, and those who dont. To me it seems that those who are using social media regularly know more than those who dont, because they are using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques that add to their knowledge and experience. Again here I think of my sister who knows a lot about twitter and for that I usually refer to her for instructions. Once more this is a

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

knowledge gap which would never have been there before. This gap isnt necessarily an educational one but rather a gap due to maybe a lack of interest; there are plenty of people with PhDs or other high-level degrees who, as a matter of priorities or personalities or interests, simply are not heavy users of social media. I agree with many others that the social media bang is an evident example of how quickly things can change in short order. Another aspect that in my opinion is helping a lot in increasing the gap between Egyptian youth is blogging. Theres great evidence that creating is an important element of knowledge development: People who interact with content are forced to think more critically about it. Therefore, bloggers who are trying hard and even struggling to clarify and explain their random and casual thoughts in a blog post spend much time in the process of writing; consequently this shapes and deepens their understanding of the topic at hand. As a result, this also helps in increasing the gap between those who are educated and of high socioeconomic class, because they arent making use of the huge amount of new communication instruments at their finger tips. Another new type of technology that is widely spread in Egypt and helping increase the gap between youth is the latest preference of using smartphones to laptop PCs. Now its very common that you see people using blackberries and iPhones everywhere and all the time, browsing pages, checking emails, chatting, playing games, or even studying. These technologies have dramatically reshaped our culture and society. All of it happened in less than five years. In my opinion, PC could easily be displaced that fast. Nowadays, these young adults almost dont use laptops out of their workplace, they can do whatever they want using their smartphones. Again here the gap is increasing between those who decided to shift from the regular mobile phones to the new smartphones and those who didnt. I assume that if any of my friends still own the regular mobile phone, I m pretty sure that there will be a knowledge gap between us both. In conclusion, here the gap isnt between people of high and low socioeconomic status but rather between those who are interested in knowing more and those who

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JRMC 500 Final Exam

arent. As J. Severin and W. Tankard mentioned The several studies that have found knowledge gaps to narrow have generally shown that motivation to seek knowledge is the key variable leading to a narrowing. But its not enough to have motivation to seek information; one must also have access to information. As for the media, I really dont think that the media is able to bridge this kind of knowledge gap between the haves. If communicators proposed segmentation and targeting as the way to help bridging the knowledge gap between the have nots and the haves. I really doubt the ability of the segmentation and targeting technique in helping to overcome the knowledge gap between only the haves, especially the gap caused by motivation and interest. Media cant communicate messages that make people change their interests unless they already have initial covert desire to adopt this new interest.

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Question 3: Theories of Media Effects

Part 1:
In my opinion, the Theory that is least valid is the Two step Flow Model; the idea of the media having direct effects on a passive audience seems to be very inaccurate, vague and not convincing to me. The audiences are definitely more active and they have the power and the ability to choose from what they receive from the media. Suggesting that people are either active opinion leaders or passive followers of opinion leaders doesnt seem to be very right. In addition, why do people need an opinion leader to disseminate to them the media content? Initial mass media information flows directly to people on the whole and is not relayed by opinion leaders. When I need information and decide to get it from the media, I go to the media directly and dont wait for an opinion leader to give me the information. For example, in the recent parliamentary elections, I was more likely to read El Masy El Youm online version (online media) to know more about whats happening than to wait for Magdy El Galad, El Masy El Youms Editor in Chief (opinion leader), to tell me about the elections through his daily article. Concerning the influence of opinion leaders, I think it tends to be horizontal across a particular socio-economic class. This means that no opinion leader is an opinion leader in all aspects of life. Also, people can be opinion leaders on some matters and not on others, there is also the objection that some people may be neither leaders nor followers, but quite simply detached from much media output. In other words, how would people who arent exposed to mass media know about things and formulate opinions about these things. Not everyone is a consumer of the media content. Additionally, the two step flow model completely disregarded the interpersonal communication means that happen to people. Sometimes people get to know about things from each others by simply interaction. In most cases, its about opinion sharing and not only opinion giving. Even if I received the information through the media, I m

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

more likely to get it in a sort of primarily information and not to change my attitudes, I would rather be persuaded to change my attitudes by interpersonal channels. Finally, I think that Theories in communication usually suffer from one of two fundamental problems: they are both too narrow and specific; or they are too broadly conceptualized.

Part 2:
Cultivation Theory is the one that I find very useful and interesting. I agree that certain degrees of media exposure (mostly television) are correlated with predicted differences in cognitive, affective or behavioral measures. I tend to agree with the fact that exposure to large doses of TV generally or specifically to violent, crime-laden programming is linked to higher rates of fear of being victimized by violent crime, and overestimating of actual crime rates. I like how the theory of cultivation stresses the role that story-telling plays in the human society. The basic typical characteristic of human beings is that we live in a world that is created by the stories we tell. Great portions of what we know, or think we know, come not from personal or direct experience, but from many forms and modes of story-telling. In my opinion TV is now taking over this task of storytelling in its various shapes, from TV serials to movies and even advertising. I believe that heavy TV viewers tend to take what they see for granted; TV becomes their source of information about the world around them. For example, recently a lot of Arab channels have been airing Turkish dramas and soap operas over the past few years. These dramas and soap operas resulted in creating an image for Turkey, cultivating the audiences with Turkish habits and traditions, and creating the want to live in a Turkish series style of living. Many incidents happened due to the cultivation effect of these dramas; among these incidences, are divorce cases in the Arab world where women request that their husbands treat them more romantically, along the lines of what they see on the Turkish TV series.

Salma Halawa 800090317

JRMC 500 Final Exam

Another way of looking at cultivation, these Turkish series actually with the cultivation effect was able to manage to accomplish what governments have not, in bridging the gap between people, disseminating culture, reviving the economy, travel and tourism. Now, Istanbul has become a destination for some Arabs thanks to Turkish soap operas. Many of the Arabs who are heavy viewers of these series think that Istanbul is really like how it is showed in these series. These effects proves to me that the cultivation effect is there, where television viewers' beliefs about the "real world" are shaped by heavy exposure to the most stable, repetitive, and pervasive patterns that television presents, especially in its dramatic entertainment programs.