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Young people captivated by reality TV programs
A new survey has found the majority of Indonesian teenagers prefer watching reality TV shows over other programs
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A new survey has found the majority of Indonesian teenagers prefer watching reality TV shows over other programs.
Lisa, 18, a first-year college student in Jakarta, said she watched TV reality shows almost every week.
"The first time I watched Termehek-Mehek (a reality show on Trans TV) I was hooked and wanted to watch it every week," Lisa told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Lisa said the show was very dramatic and often people were brought to tears from the plots.
"This is more than a soap opera because it's real," she said.
Lisa is just one of thousands of teenagers in Indonesia tuning in to watch reality TV shows every week.
A recent survey from AGB Nielsen Media Research found that young people aged between 10 and 19 years preferred watching reality shows over more traditional programming such as music, comedy, or game shows.
"By using the TV Audience Measurement (TAM) surveying system we were able to determine that the average audience for reality TV programs were young people aged between 10 and 19 years old," AGB Nielsen Media Research Executive for Public Relations Andini Wijendaru told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to the AGB Nielsen survey, the 11 leading television stations have a potential audience of 330,000 people in the 10 to 19 year old age bracket, with nearly 185,000 of those tuning in to reality shows.
"Our study suggests that of the teenagers who watch television, more 56 percent watch those shows," Wijendaru said.
The survey also indicated that the majority of young viewers came from middle to upper class families who spend up to Rp 1.75 million on household expenses every month.
According to the survey, Termehek-Mehek on Trans TV is the most popular reality show for teenagers in the country.
This program helps people track down friends, relatives, and past lovers they have lost contact with over the years, and is renowned for its unpredictable outcomes.
The AGB Nielsen Survey was held in 10 cities throughout Indonesia, including Bandung, Greater Jakarta, Semarang, Banjarmasin, Palembang and Medan.
"We surveyed the audience of the 11 TV networks by equipping more than 2,100 homes with TAM panels to monitor TV programming patterns," Wijendaru said.
She said the trend toward reality TV programs begun in 2008 and had been growing ever since.
"Interestingly, most reality shows are made locally, with only a few being brought in from foreign countries," she said.
The AGB Nielsen survey found Trans TV had the high number of viewers compared to other networks.
The National Commission on Child Protection has urged TV networks not to air reality programs, arguing they could potentially have a negative impact on children and adolescents.
"Young people waste 36 hours every week watching TV, and reality show programs influence their behavior," the commission's secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Arist said reality TV programs are packaged in a way where they appear to be conveying the truth, whereas in fact they are actually incredibly staged.
"None of these reality programs are appropriate for young people. These shows are for adults because they deal with topics like extramarital affairs, deceit and exploitations," Arist said.
"Children should be watching educational TV shows, which is the responsibility of TV station managers.
"More than 80 percent of TV programs have a bad influence on children. TV programmers never think of the impacts because they just want to make a profit," he said. (naf)
