Impact of Television Drama from Audience Reception Perspective

Mass media have influence on the ways people perceive the world. This assumption is entrenched in the Gerbner's cultivation hypothesis of television effects (1969). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand how the rapid process of cultural globalization affects Malaysia television industry and the Malays culturally. Collecting of data in this study adopted: content analysis. Results of the study showed that with rapid process of cultural globalization, Malaysian prime-time television dramas portrayed more Western values and lifestyles. Amongst the Malays, especially the youngsters, there were evidences of the adoption of other Western values like individualism and consumerism.