The Analysis Of Media Cultivation Of Individualism Among Chinese Post-90s Generation

A fundamental framework in cross-cultural research is individualism and collectivism. In individualistic cultures, people emphasize that they themselves are independent and autonomous, and they usually value personal goals more than collective goals; however, collectivistic cultures pay attention to share, cooperation, unification and the harmony of groups, individual is defined as an aspect of a collective group he or she belongs to and group objectives are generally considered to be of more significance than individual ones. In general, the United States is often regarded as a typical individualistic country. On the contrary, China is always treated as a society with collectivism.However, China has changed drastically during the last 30 years, such as the open-door policy in 1979, joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, the Beijing Olympics Games in 2008, and other great events in politics, economy and culture. Chinese and Western cultures impact each other during this process, which may have led to a gradual shift in Chinese cultural values. Lots of scholars found that the cultural value of Chinese younger generation have gradually shifted from collectivism to individualism.Chinese post-90 s generation is rising up while television is popularized and the Internet becomes prosperous, then cultivation analysis may offer an appropriate explanation to the cultural value change among Chinese post-90 s generation. Cultivation analysis is the third prong of the Cultural Indicators approach, proposed by George Gerbner in 1967-1968. Audiences will be unconsciously influenced when they get exposure to media, they will treat the showed “fact” in the media as the true and objective fact, and then their concept is impacted, and they will tend to be consistent with the showed “fact” and give the showed “answers” in their true life. What’s more, the longer they use media, the more manifest this kind of trend becomes. Based on cultivation theory we can suppose that the cultural value change among Chinese post-90 generation is due to their media usage. Besides, many scholars pointed out that cultivation doesn’t only work in the United States, but also work in China. TV dramas, which contain individualism rather than Chinese traditional collectivism, can also cultivate Chinese younger generation.This study conducted a survey to investigate the cultural value change among Chinese post-90 s generation from a cultivation perspective. It concluded that, the longer Chinese post-90 s generation watched TV, the higher level of their individualism in behaviors; the longer they watched American or European TV programs, the higher level of their behavioral individualism; the longer they watched Chinese TV programs, the lower individualistic level they had in their family relationship; and the longer they watched individualistic TV program, the higher individualistic they were in their behaviors. There was no significant difference between the time they used the Internet and their individualism in both behaviors and family relationship.