Background One of the authors was attending a service in the Church, when the priest of the church appealed for monetary support for organizing a television shoot in the church, to be broadcast by a popular Christian TV channel. This triggered off a chain of thought as to why a research should not be taken up to study the impact of religious channels on households. This small study is an outcome of this thought. This study is not a rigorous, formal scientific study but is treated as a ‘pilot’ which can be used further for developing and expanding the scope of study for a detailed investigation of the impact of religious TV channels on Indian households. With this background, the authors have discussed between themselves and developed a short questionnaire which was administered to households located in a residential locality in Vellore town. Acknowledgment The authors acknowledge here, the efforts taken by the MBA students of Auxilium College, Vellore who had taken up this task of data collection. Methodology: The impact of media has been studied extensively by many researchers. The print media (for example; new papers, magazines, and advertisement hoardings), the audio media (radio) and the visual media (Cinema, Videos and TVs) have been used as vehicles of influence on the general populace world over. The impact of media on a variety of demographic profile – for example: - infants, children, youth, newly marrieds, middle-ageds, and even the geriatrics have been the subject of various studies. Some of the examples of such studies are listed in the references. To the Researchers, a quick internet survey seeking available literature on the impact of religious channels has not thrown up any significant quantum of studies. The Researchers came across only two published articles[1] on the internet on this subject. With this limited background, the authors have designed an instrument which can be administered to the respondents and data collected; which can be used for analysis. The Questionnaire has been adapted from Anagha (2009). Objectives: (1) To assess the extent to which people in a household watch religious channels on the TV. (2) To find out the viewing habits of household of the religious channels. (3) To find out what is / are the impact/s of religious channels on people. Research Design: The approach picked by the authors is the “descriptive” model. The sample size is 50. The geographical area is “Gandhi Nagar” (a residential area) in Vellore Town. The statistical tests used are: frequencies, correlation, and chi square. The questionnaire is to be administered by the Interviewer and the response given by the respondent has to be marked on the questionnaire sheet itself by the Interviewer. Questionnaire Structure: Part I The first part of the questionnaire is designed to gather the demographic data. The data collected about the Respondent are: (1) gender, (2) religion professed, (3) age range, (4) range of monthly income of the household, (5) marital status, (6) education level, (7) nature of employment and (8) religiosity. Part II The Second Part is designed to capture the TV viewing habit of the respondent. The questionnaire seeks to find out the type of TV connection that the household has, whether the respondent watches religious channels and the extent to which they like watching religious channels, length of time spent on TV watching and the time spent on watching religious channels, the time slots in which they watch the religious channels and ranking of the religious channels – the top three channels according to their perception. Part III Part III is designed to elicit the data about the impact of religious channels on the household member. The following data are sought. (1) The viewing habits with respect to involvement of the other members of the household viz. the frequency, (2) A 10 set questionnaire on a 5 point Likert scale seeking the impact of the religious channels, (3) The propensity of the householder to view religious channels which are of religion/s other than their own, (4) The participation / level of participation in programs run by the religious TV channels, (5) The financial support extended to religious channels, (6) The type of programs that the householder likes to view on the religious channels and (7) The perception of the householder with specific negative factors of religious TV channels. Data Presentation and output of Analysis The demographic data is given in Tables 1 through 7. Research Question (RQ) – 1 In doing this Study one question that the researchers sought answer for is to investigate whether a person who perceives him / herself to be spiritual involves him / herself in spending time watching religious channels. Analysis of RQ – 1 A correlation analysis was done between the perception of the individual about one’s spirituality and one’s propensity to view Religious Channels. The analysis shows a correlation coefficient of 0.49 Research Question (RQ) – 2: Do gender, religion and marital status play any significant role in the habit of persons watching religious channels on the TV? Analysis of RQ – 2: Chi Square analysis results are tabulated in Table 8: Research Question (RQ) – 3 What are the factors of impact seen by the respondents arising out of watching religious channels? Analysis of RQ – 3 Factor analysis was carried out to study the factors of impact arising out of viewing religious channels. The output of the factor analysis is shown in Table 9 Research Question (RQ) – 4: Do gender, religion and marital status play any significant role in the habit of persons financially supporting religious channels on the TV? Analysis of RQ – 4: Chi Square analysis results are tabulated in Table 10: Key Findings:
1.1) From the Study we see that there is a correlation between the perception of an individual about his / her spirituality and his / her habit of viewing Religious TV channels. 1.1.1)It is seen that 92% of the females and 59% of the males who claim to be spiritual have the habit of watching religious channels on the TV. 1.1.2)86% of the Christians and 71% of the Hindus who claim to be spiritual have the habit of watching religious channels on the TV. 1.1.3)93% of the unmarried and 68% of the married, in the sample, who claim to be spiritual, have the habit of watching religious channels on the TV. 1.2)The Study shows that on the overall 66% of the sample state that they are interested in watching religious channels. 1.2.1) 89% of the females and 70% of the males has stated that they like to watch religious channels. 1.2.2) 75% of the Christians and 63% of the Hindus has stated that they like to watch religious channels. 1.2.3) 88% of the unmarried and 62% of the married has stated that they like to watch religious channels. 2.1) From the Study we derive three major factors of impact arising out of viewing religious channels. (a) The impact on the value systems of the viewers (b) The impact on the spirituality of the viewers (c) The impact on the religious traditions of the viewers. 3.1) It is found that there is no significant difference on account of gender or religion or the marital status on the activity of extending financial support to religious channels. 3.2) Overall it is found that 62% of the respondents do not give any financial support (by way of donations etc.) to religious TV channels. This feature of not providing financial support to the religious channels is found to be more pronounced with Hindus (70%) and less with the Christians (56.25%) Other Findings: (1)There is a significant difference in the habit of watching religious channels on TV on account of gender, religion and marital status. (1.a) Females are more interested (or more prone to) in watching religious channels compared to males. The Study shows that while only 43% of the males say that they watch religious channels on TV, 85% of the females interviewed stated that they spend time on watching religious channels on the TV. (1.b) 75% of the Christians watch religious channels as against 57% of the Hindus which shows that Christians have more propensity to watch religious channels on the TV compared to those who profess the Hindu faith. (1.c) Surprisingly, against the expectation of the Researchers, it is seen that while 81% of the unmarried sample views religious channels, only 56% of the segment of the married persons do so. (2) It is seen that overwhelming numbers of people - 85% of those who watch religious channels, spend about 1 hour only watching religious programs. Further study shows that 36% spend half of their total TV viewing time on religious channels and 16% spend about 1/3rd of their viewing time, seeing religious channels. Comparatively females spend a larger portion of their TV viewing time watching religious channels. It is seen that 44% of the females spend half of their time on religious channels. The Study shows that there is no significant difference between Hindus and Christians on the time that they spend on religious channels in a day, but there is a difference on account of marital status. It is seen that while 71% of the unmarried spend quite a good percentage of their TV viewing time on religious channels only 50% of the married persons do so. (3) For males the preferred timings for watching the religious channels falls between 06:00 hrs and 08:00 hrs. For females, the popular timings are: 18:00 hrs to 20:00 hrs and 08:00 hours and 10:00 hrs. Demographically speaking, it is found that Christians are more likely to watch religious channels more number of times in a day, compared to Hindus. (The calculated chi value is 0.801 as against the acceptance value of 0.016. Hence the null hypothesis that there is no difference between Hindus and Christians in terms of number of times in a day that they visit the religious channels has to be rejected.) (4) Study of the viewing habits of the respondents shows that a great number of them prefer not to watch the religious channels alone. Respondents prefer watching the religious channels with their spouse or with their children or with the whole family sitting together. This is seen from the response that only 4% of the males and 15% of the females have selected the option of watching the religious channels alone. (5) For the query asked about the respondent’s viewing of religious channels limited to only propagating their own faith, we find half the respondents saying that they do not abstain from watching channels of other religions. (6) Of the various type of programs broadcast such as: (a) Music and Bhajans, (b) Dramas and Serials, (c) movies, (d) Sermons and Discourses, (e) Interviews and (f) Discussions and debates, the most favorite program with the audience is found to be music and bhajans (selected by 40% of the respondents) followed by dramas, serials and movies (37%). (7) When asked about their participation in the TV programs, 37.5% of Christians and 20% of the Hindus stated that they have participated in TV programs once or twice, from which it is derived that more Christians than Hindus participate in the religious TV programs. (8) Of the people who watch religious channel that which tops their dislike is the repetition of programs. Limitations The main drawback of this Survey is the small sample size. Because of this the law of small numbers will operate, using which one can come to wrong conclusions. The sample has a Christian percentage of 32% whereas the population of Christians in the Vellore Urban area is just below 5%. Therefore the sample cannot be said to be truly reflecting the population. Though this is the case, the conclusions with respect to the impact of religious channels, and the viewing habits of people based on the sample can be expected to hold because they are independent of the religious profile and is arrived at taking the sample as a whole without taking into consideration the demographic profile of the sample element. Conclusion: From the Study it is concluded that:
a)It impacts their value systems b)It supports their spirituality and c)It reinforces their religious traditions. 3.Religious TV channel can consider reducing the re-runs of their programs since it the main cause of aversion of the viewers. 4.Since ‘Bhajans’ and Music programs are the favorite for the people Religious TV channels, such TV channels can concentrate on giving quality video programs of ‘bhajans’ and music. 5.Sermons and Discourses are not liked my almost all the respondents and so religious channels can give the least priority for such type of programs. 6.Since the percentage of household watching alone the religious channels is very low, it would be to the advantage of the channels to broadcast family programs more often. References: Turow, J. (1985). The Effects of Television on Children: What the Experts Believe. Communication Research Reports, 2 (1), 149-155. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/36 Bhattacharya, Samrat and Munasib, Abdul. (2008). Effect of Television on Child Cognitive Outcome, Retrieved from http://spears.okstate.edu/ecls-working-papers/files/0804_Munasib_TVTestScore.pdf Baya, Sammy Yaah and Dr. Mberia, Hellen K., The Impact of Television Viewing in Influencing Adolescents Sexual Behaviour, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 5, May 2014, Retrieved from http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0514/ijsrp-p2961.pdf Depp et al, Age, Affective Experience, and Television Use, Am J Prev Med. 2010 Aug; 39(2): 173–178. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3593658/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Shukre, Anagha, “Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Spiritual Quest Of Religious Channels On Television In Delhi/NCR Region”, www.bvimsr.com/documents/publication/2009V1N2/11.pdf Iyer, Velu and Mumit, “Communication and Marketing of Services by Religious Organizations in India”, www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/faculty/.../Iyer,%20Velu%20and%20Mumit%202014.pdf
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