The Television Medium And The Socialization Of Left-behind Children In Rural Areas

Both as the hope of our country and the future of the nation, the left-behind children in rural areas are equal to be talents with capacity, thought and entreprising spirit. It can be both the responsibility and obligation for school, family and even the whole society. With the widely spread development of science and technology, mass media has spread to thousands of households. The TV and internet are playing an increasingly important role both in urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, mass media become the important tool for left-behind children to get message, learn about the world and enrich their lives.By giving a survey to the frequency that children are exposed to the TV and some other aspects, the thesis analyzed the factors which affect the socialization process of children such as society, school, family and peer groups and so on. And it revealed the advantages and disadvantages brought to thought morals, interactions, language expression, psychologocal development and school life by television. By using the quantitative research method, in ways of questionnaire, interview, fieldwork and statistics, the thesis selected the students from three middle schools in X, Y, Z areas in J village of western Liaoning province. The 1238 samples are from grade 4 to grade 9. The steps of the research are giving number to the samples, setting up a database with Spss18.0, logging data, frequency analysis, chi-square test, analyzing data.By means of entering and analyzing the questionnaire data based on the investigation among 1238 students, the result shows that the TV medium does more good than harm in the process of children’s social development. This conclusion is mainly reflected in the following areas:In the aspects of personality, the TV medium has an positive influence on the development of children’s personality, especially for the one whose father had left the land for urban jobs. In the aspects of study: instead of a fall in study, watching TV makes some left-behind children improve their scores. In the aspects of language expression: by facilitating language acquisition, televisoin helps children form a accurate habit on language expression. In the aspects of interpersonal communicationand life skills: watching the same type of program could increase the common topic between the left-behind children and their partners and then promote their communication. Meanwhile, their capacities of schedule making and solving have been improved. In the aspects of family affective: Watching TV will not lead those children distanced themselves from their relatives. On the contrary, it guides them to close to their families correctly. In the aspects of morality and values: The children who usually connect with TV programs are easily to develop vituous values. TV has a most significant impact on those children whose parents are left the land and worked in urban areas.As a whole, to some extent the TV medium is playing a role as important as the teachers, parents and other guardians on children’s early development. Under the influence of TV medium, the left-behind children acquired more knowledge and new things. It is the televisions that urge children to contact with outside and excite their internal potenials. TV has a positive function on children’s personalities,thoughts and social values,and it makes contributes to the formation of eligible social roles with good morals.