Family Communication Patterns and the Social Uses of Television

Abstract

Audience members "use" television in a variety of ways. The social environment in the family home is a major contributor to differential uses of the medium by individuals. Previous research on family communication patterns, for instance, has demonstrated that families which stress harmo nious social relations at home (socio orientation) differ in many attitudes, activities, and media habits from families which stress the independent expression of ideas (concept orientation). This survey research explores the ways in which socio-oriented and concept-oriented audience members differ in their uses of television as a resource for the accomplishment of interpersonal objectives at home. Differences were found for behaviors which range from structuring daily activities and talk patterns to more complex interpersonal goals such as communication facilitation, affilia tionlavoidance, social learning, and demonstration of competence/domi nance.

Contextual aspects of typical viewing situations: a new perspective for recommending television and video content

“…They describe this part of the evening as a relaxed, inexpensive activity, where TV is not watched all the time, but is switched on. As such, it confirms the traditional role of television as described by Lull [20]: environmental uses of television in the form of ''background noise'', ''companionship'', and ''entertainment''. Other results indicate how people use the features of these new technologies to better schedule the watching of video content with regard to their own needs.…”

Family Communication Patterns, Rebelliousness, and Adolescent Reactions to Anti-Drug PSAs

“…Moreover, concept-or conversation-oriented families claim more independence from television than conformity-oriented families (Lull, 1980). We expect their guarded attitude toward television, and more critical approach to ideas and values, to carry over to how they respond to the anti-drug messages.…”

“…FCP has been predictive of a variety of outcomes and behaviors (Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990) including children's media usage, interest in public affairs, family consumer behavior, consumer socialization, brand preferences, retail stcre patronage, adolescent career decisions, perceptions of interpersonal relationships and discussing antidrug films (Lull, 1980;Meadowcraft & Fitzpatrick, 1988;Moore & Moschis, 1981;Morgan, Alexander, Shanahan, & Harris, 1990;Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990;Time, 1986;Trager, 1976). …”

The examination of parent-adolescent communication motives, relational maintenance and intimacy in the uses of communication technologies

“…Parents and adolescents are also found to have different perceptions and usage patterns when they use social media for interpersonal relationships (Christofides et al, 2011). In addition to communication motives in U&G theory, communication scholars have identified the role of family communication pattern on family relationship and media uses (Lull, 1980). Family communication pattern (FCP) is utilized not only to describe the adolescents' communication contexts in the family (Tims and Masland, 1985) but also used to assess the variance of family relationships (Campbell et al, 1984).…”