Media one of the strongest socialisation agents
Dr Md Ridhwanul Haq says at Abdur Razzaq Foundation lecture
Certain television programmes are having a negative impact on socialisation of youths due to absence of any quality control system, said Dr Md Ridhwanul Haq, a professor of Institute of Business Administration of Dhaka University.
He also said media, especially electronic media, influences young consumers’ behaviour to a great extent as it acts as a strong agent in creating ideas and values.
The professor made the observations as the speaker of the sixth “Unpublished PhD dissertation lecture” series organised by Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation, at the RC Majumdar auditorium of DU,
Dr Ridhwanul Haq completed the doctoral dissertation titled “Understanding teenagers” buying behaviour by the influence of electronic media’ in 2010 from University of Western Sydney.
Dr SM Shameem Reza of Mass Communication and Journalism of DU presided over the programme while Dr Ahrar Ahmad, director general of Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation, delivered the welcome speech.
Students of different faculties of DU attended the programme.
In his speech, Dr Ridhwanul Haq said reality shows have become popular at home and abroad.
“Teenage groups are engaging with reality shows and in Bangladesh, youths constitute quite a big community as around 60 percent of the population belong to it,” he said.
He said media is shaping our consumption behaviour and among socialisation agents like family, school, community and religious institution, media is one of the strongest.
Dr Ridhwanul said socialisation agents make us responsible consumers.
“When we talk about media -- we have electronic, print and alternative media. Each has its different vehicles or programmes to draw people’s attention,” he said.
“I just wanted to see through my research how reality shows are shaping consumption-related behaviour of the youth community,” he said, adding, “Gender, class difference and parental control are also shaping their involvement with media and how they are reacting, acting and responding to the marketplace -- based on cognition, attitude and values.”
“Based on the findings, different companies designed their marketing, brand and communication strategies,” he said.
About the key findings of the research, he said there is a positive impact of reality TV on consumption related cognition and attitude. “Parents through communication, mediation and instruction positively influence teenagers’ reality TV involvement,” he said about another key finding.