2. PERSEPSI ANAK PADA ACARA TELEVISI

Abstract

The poor quality of television program available to Indonesian children and the escalating cases of antisocial
and delinquency among children are undeniably the hard fact. But linking the two in a causal relationship is
a mere speculation that oversimplifying the issue. At the conceptual level in the study of mass communication,
there are theories based on the perspective of the limited influence of the mass media. Theories such as those of
Klapper’s phenomenistic, DeFleur’s individual differences and social category, selective processes theory, and
Seymour Feshbach’s catharsis theory, are all discouraging the behavioral effect of mass communication. Media
influence on children is determined by their comprehension in TV viewing. By about age 8 or 9 (Huston et.al),
children are about as accurate as adults in judging whether a television program is presenting fiction or fact.
There are arguments on how children perceive the reality out of the television. First, Aletha C. Huston
explained that perceptions of reality occur on two dimensions: factuality and social realism. Second, Gunter and
McAleer pointed out that children use three categories of television versus real-life comparisons. These include the
category of the ‘actual’, the ‘possible’, and the ‘impossible’. The third explanation dealt with the way children
evaluate characters in television programs. Findings revealed that perception on factuality was dominant in
programs such as news, sports, infotainment, talk-show, variety-show, music, and reality-show. Perception of
social realism was dominant in cartoons, movies, and soap-operas. Similar to those of factuality, the actual
category appeared predominantly in news, sports, religion, talk-show, variety-show, music, and reality-show. The
possible was slightly highlighted in cartoons, movies, and soap-operas. While the impossible also seemed
dominant in cartoons, movies, and soap-operas. Conceptually, the 4 children’s favorite characters are the humor
of the characters; the strength of the characters; the attractiveness of the characters; and the activity level of the
characters. Humor was dominant in cartoons, talk-show, and variety-show. Strength was central in sports and
movies, and attractive in infotainment and talk-show. There were no active characters significantly perceived in
any television programs.