Running on Empty:
Cultivating Eating and Drinking Habits on Hong Kong TV
James F. Kenny
&
Yung Chun, Heidi
Address:
Dr. James F. Kenny
Dept. of Journalism & Communication
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, N.T.
Hong Kong
Tel: 852-609-8708
Fax: 852-603-5007
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Running on Empty:
Cultivating Eating and Drinking Habits on Hong Kong TV
Abstract
This study examines the nutritional messages in Hong Kong dramatic
television programs and conducts an exploratory study of its impact
on
local high school students. The researchers took a cultivational
analysis approach beginning with a message analysis of television
dramas and sit coms in prime time and ending with a cultivation study
of the correspondence between eating attitudes and behaviors
exhibited
on television and eating attitudes and behaviors among heavy and
light
television viewers. These findings confirm, first of all, that the
nutritional messages in Hong Kong television dramas are generally
unhealthy, particularly with regard to the portrayal of the eating
habits of the young. Secondly, it demonstrates significant positive
relationships between television viewing and poor eating habits, and
between television viewing and perceptions and intentions regarding
alcohol consumption.
Running on Empty:
Cultivating Eating and Drinking Habits on Hong Kong TV
Overeating and being improperly nourished are widely recognized
problems in advanced countries, particulary in the United States and
Western Europe. Recently, many countires in Asia have been
experiencing an economic boom which has made its peoples more affluent
and more able to afford a variety of local and imported foods
previously unavailable to most of the public. As a result, eating
habits are changing (Chen and Chao, 1989). This is particularly true
among the young who are not as focused on improving their standard
of
living as their parents were, but rather are increasingly concerned
with upgrading their lifestyles. In the omnipresent malls of Hong
Kong fast food restaurants, whether McDonalds or local noodle chains,
are springing up like bamboo shoots in the spring. Obesity is a
growing problem among the youth of Hong Kong as their spending power
increases (Leung, 1990), and there is concern among health
professionals that the diseases associated with poor eating habits
will not be far behind.
Television, a medium which has been said to be a major source of
information for health information in the West, has fast become the
major medium for information and entertainment in Asia as well.
Until
recently Hong Kong only had two broadcast channels, both of which
are
commercial. However, STAR Television, which is now owned by Rupert
Murdoch, began satellite broadcasts in Hong Kong and throughout the
Asian region in 1991 and Wharf Cable began wiring the territory in
1993. Today, television ownership stands at 98 percent and viewership
is at around 3 hours per day. The two commercial broadcast
channels,
which at this time still claim the vast majority of the audience,
offer a variety of mostly entertainment programs, including dramas,
sitcoms, and variety, gossip and game shows, and some information
programs. Although the extent to which these programs contain
health-related messages and the type of messages which they convey has
never been examined, it would seem important to do so given the
curren
t status of television and its potential for influence on changing
eating habits, particularly among the young.
Studies in the United States have shown that both television ads and
programs contain frequent food references, the majority of which
either directly or indirectly promote non-nutritional eating habits.
Lank et al. (1992), for example, found that most commercials aired
during soap operas made confusing nutritional appeals to viewers,
advertising the product as "low in cholestrol" but failing to mention
that they were high in fat. Other studies (Taylor and Guthrie,
1988;
Tucker and Bagwell, 1991; Larso, 1991) offer additional support to
the
inaccurate and misleading nature of nutrition messages in both
commercials and programs. Story & Faulkner (1990) conducted an
extensive study of the types of food and eating behaviors in prime
time programs and commercials and found that there was an average of
4.8 food references per 30 minutes of programming time and that over
half of these references were for low nutrient foods and beverages.
Researchers in the west have also focused on the eating behavior of
television characters because they are potential role models for
eating behavior among viewers. Kaufman (1980) discovered that most
television characters engage in eating foods which are non-nutritious
and fattening. However, most of these same characters are slim and
healthy. Thus, the message is that there is no price to pay for an
unhealthy diet. In fact, eating had its rewards in that it was found
to be a good way to socialize or serve emotional needs. Gerbner,
Gross, Morgan & Signorielle (1981) did a message analysis of prime
time eating behavior and discovered that such behavior was anything
but balanced or relaxed. Snacking was as frequent as meals and
healthy snacks were practically non-existent. In the Story & Faulkner
study (1990) three-fourths of eating behaviors took place between
meals at a rate of 2.2 times per half hour. Meals, on the other hand,
were only seen at a rate of .86 times per half hour. Sweets and
salty
snack foods were the most frequently consumed snack foods, together
accounting for nearly 70 percent of the snacks eaten by television
characters. Coffee (43 percent), alcohol (28 percent) and soft drinks
(17 percent) were the most popular beverages among television
characters.
The extent to which characters on Hong Kong television engage in
similar types of "bad" eating behavior is unknown. Certainly, wide
variations in eating behaviors might be expected between Asian and
Western cultures. The Asian diet has traditionally consisted of less
meat and more vegetables. Rice and noodles are typically staples of
the Asian diet. Alcohol consumption has been less central to the
culture, particularly among the young. However, increasing
urbanization in Asia and growing inroads made by multinational snack
food companies, as well as local entrepreneurs, has altered the
nature
of the eating experience in these cultures as well as the choices of
foods. Hong Kong is an international city which offers tourists and
daring locals a wide spectrum of cuisine from around the world from
pricey restaurants to fast food chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken
and
convenience stores like Seven-Eleven. Although the traditional
Chinese restaurant remains the most popular choice among the local
population, the young are increasingly venturing into non-traditional
alternative eateries. If these young people are regularly exposed
to
television characters who consistently eat non-nutritous food
between
meals, then modeling and and social learning theory would suggest
that
their eating habits may be influenced.
Several studies have examined the relation between exposure to
commercials and food preferences and nutritional knowledge. In an
experiment reported by Atkin and Gibson (1978) frequent exposure to
television commercials contributed little to 4 to 7 year old
children's incorrect understanding of a what constituted a "balanced
breakfast." Donohue, Meyer and Henke (1978) found that 7 out of 10
children thought that fast foods were more nutritious than the food
that they had at home. One highly controlled study (Gorn and
Goldberg, 1982) at a Canadian summer camp revealed that over a two
week period children's snack and beverage choices were significantly
affected after being exposed to food messages on television.
Interestingly, they also found that children knew what they should
eat, but that their behaviors were more related to the commercials
that they had seen. Two other studies (Dietz and Gortmaker, 1985;
Dietz, 1989) revealed a relationship between time spent watching
television and obesity among children and adolescents.
This study examines the nutritional messages in Hong Kong dramatic
television programs and conducts an exploratory study of its impact
on
local high school students. The researchers took a cultivational
analysis approach beginning with a message analysis of television
dramas and sit coms in prime time and ending with a cultivation study
of the correspondence between eating attitudes and behaviors
exhibited
on television and eating attitudes and behaviors among heavy and
light
television viewers. As Signorielle (1990) points out the health
messages imbedded in television entertainment programs are ubiquitous
and audiences who are not seeking such information are exposed
images
which are often in serious conflict with realistic health
guidelines.
Television creates images which may be considered as normative by
many
viewers.
The Hong Kong television context may be an ideal laboratory for
testing the cultivation hypothesis contention that continued exposure
to consistent messages will shape one's world view, particularly
when
one has little direct experience with the subject of the message.
The
fact that there are only two channels in Hong Kong indicates
programming may be even more homogenous than that found in the United
States. This hommogeneity is further enhanced by the fact that
programs in Hong Kong run Monday through Friday rather than once a
week as they do in the United States. Unlike Europe where it has been
difficult to find cultivation effects, Hong Kong television is
almost
entirely commercial and relies on formula plots and program types.
Secondly, the influx of fast food chains is relatively recent and
principally geared toward the young. Children, therefore, must look
to television for guidance in dealing with the new types of food and
related eating behaviors since it is new to their parents as well.
Methodology
Content Analysis
The first part of this study was a content analysis of 30 half hour
samples of dramatic television programs examining the prevalence of
certain categories of food and the types of eating behavior
portrayed.
The programs were randomly selected from the prime time schedules of
the two Chinese broadcast channels, TVB Jade and ATV Home, between
November 7 to December 4, 1993. STAR TV and Wharf Cable were excluded
because they command only very small portion of the audience at this
time. This can also be said of the two English channels, TVB Pearl
and ATV World. All of the programs were regularly scheduled, locally
produced dramatic series featuring regular characters. These
included
realistic dramas, melodramas, action dramas and sitcoms. It was
decided that "ancient dramas," historical dramas based loosely on
Chinas legendary heroes, should be excluded from the analysis as well
since their fantastic characters and situations have little
resemblance to modern Hong Kong and little bearing on modern nutritio
nal eating habits. A total of 30 episodes taken from 10 programs
were
sampled and analyzed.
The main units of analysis were food related scenes and eating
characters. Scenes with food references included those with either a
visual or verbal reference to food in addition to scenes in which
food
is actually consumed or implied that it has been or will be
consumed.
An example of an implied consumption scene would be one in which a
character has an open bag of potato chips in her hand or is stirring a
cup of coffee. Visual and verbal reference scenes in which no
consumption takes place but where food is visible or characters may
talk about food were considered important in measuring the magnitude
of the presence of food in television dramas.
Eating characters, on the other hand, were only those who were
involved in actual or implied consumption of food. Within each scene
coders recorded the number of eating characters, the kind of meal
and
the types of food consumed. The number of eating characters
establishes the social context of these scenes and the amount of
attention that characters pay to what they eat. Meals were coded as
breakfast, lunch, dinner or between meal snacking. If snacking is
as
prevalent in this study as it is in the U.S. studies, then this
would
be considered as promoting unhealthy eating habits. It was also
important to code by general food group categories the types of food
mentioned or consumed by characters to be able to judge their
nutritional value.
Within each food consumption reference scene, each eating character
was recorded and two main kinds of information were noted about that
character: the characteristics of the eating character and their
eating behavior. Characteristics included whether the character had a
major, submajor or minor role, the likability of the character, as
well as sex, age and body size. Each of these characteristics has
implications for the extent of the character's potential impact. A
character's prominence (i.e, major, submajor or minor roles) in the
story makes them more or less prominent in the viewers' minds.
Similarly, a liked character was more likely to invite identification
and, therefore, would be a more likely role model for eating
behaviors
than a disliked or even neutral character. The sex and age of
characters also provide markers for audience members who may identify
more with characters who are of a similar age or gender. Young
people, for example, may be more likely to imitate the eating
behaviors of young characters. Body size, on the other hand, not only
has implications for viewer identification, but also for vicarious
reinforcement of eating behaviors. Previous studies have shown that
despite the nonnutritious eating behavior portrayed on television
very
few characters were fat or obese. The absence of negative
reinforcement might indicate that eating nonnutritious foods has no
negative consequences and would therefore encourage such behavior.
A character's eating behavior was recorded along a number of
dimensions, including the activity associated with food consumption,
the eating location, the types and quantity of food consumed, and
his
or her emotional state while eating. Activities associated with
eating were coded as social, relaxing, thinking, problem solving or
explicitly paying attention to what they eat. If more than one
activity occurred, coders were asked to choose the predominant one.
On one level this is a test of character's attentiveness to their
food. According to nutritionists, we should pay full attention to
what we eat. On another level activities associated with eating may
tell us the portrayed uses of eating and drinking for television
characters. Eating location indicates whether characters are taking
time to eat or whether they are eating "on the go." Coding
locations
included home, restaurant, bar/club, fast food shop, work place, or
on
the street. Coders were also asked to judge whether characters were
overeating by consuming large quantities of food. Finally, the
character's emotional state while eating was recorded to determine if
characters use food and drink to fulfill certain emotional needs.
Emotional states included excitement/ happy, normal, angry, or in a
difficult position/ being frustrated.
Four independent coders were provided instruction and instruction
sheets at a training session regarding the definition of categories.
Each program was viewed by two coders. The coding instruments were
refined twice after each of the two pilot tests until a minimum of
.75
reliability coefficient was reached for each variable.
Cultivation Analysis
This portion of the study was based on the cultivation premise that
television dominates the symbolic environment of modern life
(Gerbner
et al., 1980). It sought to determine if there is a relationship
between amount of television viewing and having knowledge, attitudes
and behaviors which correspond television images of eating and
drinking behaviors. Of course, according to this premise the greater
the viewing the greater the correspondence will be between
television
beliefs, attitudes and behaviors and personal beliefs, attitudes and
behaviors.
This study then tested five related hyptheses:
H1: Television viewing is positively related to having poor eating
habits.
H2: Nutritional knowledge is positively related to both television
viewing and poor eating habits acting as an intervening
variable.
H3: Television viewing is positively related to unhealthy conceptions
about food.
H4: There is a positive relationship between television exposure and
intention to drink alcohol when older.
H5: Those who watch more television tend to perceive more social and
emotional uses of drinking alcohol.
The target population were junior secondary students ranging in age
from 11 to 14 years of age. These students were targeted because in
the Hong Kong school system primary school students generally eat
lunch at home and so have less food choices. As students begin their
junior secondary schooling they eat lunch on their own and,
therefore,
for the first time must make food selections without parental
guidance. In this situation television would theoretically have more
of an opportunity to have an impact on their eating behaviors. A
convenience sample of 232 junior secondary students from six classes
(i.e, three classes from Form One and three from Form Two) was
surveyed. All classes came from one secondary school which is fairly
typical of public secondary schools in Hong Kong.
The survey instrument contained 37 items which could be roughly
divided into seven categories: television exposure, bad eating habits,
nutritional knowledge, perceived normative dietary behavior, future
intention of drinking alcoholic beverages, social models and
demographic data. An additive poor eating habits index was formed
from their responses to eight items which included frequency of eating
in fast food shops, snacking while watching television, studying,
and
playing, eating breakfast, having midnight snacks as well as their
favorite snack and beverage choices. Each item received a score from
1 to 5 with one being the most desirable choice in each case and
five
being the least desirable choice.
A nutritional knowledge index was created from a set of ten questions
which tested respondents knowledge of useful nutritional
information,
such as whether breakfast, lunch or dinner was the most important
one
according to nutritionists and the benefits of Vitamin C. The index
was computed on the basis of the number of correct responses. For
both the nutritional knowledge index and the poor eating habits index
the homogeneity of the responses were acceptable.
Perceived normative dietary behavior index was also created using
five items, each of which asked for respondents opinions regarding
their perceptions of certain eating behaviors. Each question could be
associated with a "TV answer" which would be more reflective of
television reality as opposed to attitudes which would lead to
healthier eating habits. Homogeneity, however, was not present among
these responses so that an index could not be formed. They were,
therefore, analyzed independently.
A number questions regarding drinking alcoholic beverages were also
included. According to the cultivation hypothesis, children are
more
likely to accept repeated messages about things outside their
immediate experience. Drinking alcohol is not common among the young,
particularly among this age group. The potential impact of drinking
behaviors then could be quite large. Six questions were used to
measure any impact. One asked their intentions to drink alcohol when
they are older and the other five asked them what are the social
functions of drinking alcohol. The latter five were used to form a
social contribution index.
Students were also directly asked from what source they received
their nutritional knowledge to discover which social models they
thought had the greatest influence on their eating habits, attitudes
and knowledge. Two questions were used to determine influential
sources of nutritional information. The first asked the frequency of
receiving information from each source. The second asked them to
name
the main source of information on nutritional matters.
Results
Content Analysis
Television dramas in Hong Kong clearly contain frequent references to
food. There are a total of 232 food references in the thirty
sampled
half-hour dramas. Table 1 shows that visual and/or verbal
references
to food without showing consumption appear in approximately half of
all food references, while actual food consumption accounts for
approximately the other half. On average, a scene showing one or
more characters consuming food occurs at a rate of 7.3 per hour.
It is important to note that Hong Kong TV characters are most
frequently seen or are talking about snacking between meals rather
than eating or talking about main meals. Nearly two-thirds (62.6%) of
food references fall within the category "not main meals." The
remaining 37.4% food references are split between dinner (16.6%),
lunch (16%) and breakfast (4.8%).
Table 1: Food references in Hong Kong TV dramas
N %
Visual reference only 27 11.6
Verbal reference only 60 25.9
Visual and verbal reference 35 15.1
Consumption reference 110 47.4
Total 232 100.0
Table 2 illustrates that the type of food most frequently referred to
are beverages. Except for dairy products most of the other food
categories range between 13.5 and 17.7 percent. The dominance of
beverage references are similar to that found in the American prime
time diet (Story & Faulkner, 1990). However, snacks and sweets are
less visible in Hong television than they are in American programs
where they ranked second almost twice as prevalent as the third place
meats, seafood, poultry food group.
Table 3: Food group references in Hong Kong dramas
N %
Beverages 96 31.0
Meat, seafood, poultry 55 17.7
Cereals and grains 53 17.1
Desserts and sweets 51 16.5
Fruits and vegetables 42 13.5
Dairy products 13 4.2
Total 310 100.0
Within each of these groups there are some noteworthy findings. The
most frequent type of beverage references are alcohol (33.7%) and
tea
(32.6%). Meat (beef and pork) and poultry are the most frequently
seen in the meat category and snack chips (39.2%) and Chinese Dim Sum
(25.5%) are the most frequent snacks of choice in TV dramas. It
should also be noted that most frequent consumers of desserts and
sweets were young people below the age of 16. Eighty percent of this
age groups' food choices were desserts and sweets. Interestingly,
alcohol is slightly less prevalent in American prime time programs
taking second place to coffee. On the other hand, beef and pork are
far more visible than either poultry or seafood in the U.S. (Story
&
Faulkner, 1990).
There were a total of 231 eating characters in the sampled dramas.
They were predominantly male (58%) and between the ages of 25 and 44
(60%) which probably reflects the gender and distribution of Hong
Kong
television characters in general. A vast majority of the characters
(84.8%) were classified as "medium" in the body size. None were
classified as "obese" and only 11.7 percent could be said to be "fat."
Thus, although there is a good deal of eating non-nutritious foods
between meals on Hong Kong television very few characters are
overweight. Of those who are overweight they are more likely to be
disliked. In fact, 20 percent of "fat" characters were judged to be
disliked by coders as compared to 5 percent of "medium" characters
and
none of the "thin" characters (p<.000, gamma=.54).
Most food consumption in Hong Kong dramas took place outside the home
(54.3%). In addition, the younger the character the less likely
they
were to eat at home. Only 30 percent of those characters under 25
years of age were seen eating at home as compared to 68 percent of
characters over 44 years of age. The locations of choice outside the
home for young people under 25 years old were restaurants (29.5%),
fastfood shops (19.6%) and on the street (16.4%). For those between
the ages of 25 to 44 it was the restaurant (26.1%) and the workplace
(13.4%) which were the most popular location to eat outside the
home.
Those over 44 years old were primarily seen in restaurants (20%)
when
not eating at home.
Television characters in Hong Kong rarely eat alone (10.8%). Table 4
clearly shows that eating is most commonly a social activity. It is
also useful for thinking, problem solving or relaxing. Only 14.3
percent of the time do characters appear to eat to satisfy hunger or
to even pay full attention to what they eat.
Table 4: Predominant contexts/activities associated with eating
N %
Socializing 143 61.9
Thinking 24 10.4
Problem solving 18 7.9
Relaxing 13 5.6
Satisfy hunger/paying attention 33 14.3
Total 231 100.0
Most TV characters were either in a normal (57.6%) or happy (25.1%)
frame of mind when they engaged in eating activities. The remaining
17.3 percent were either angry or in a difficult position. In Table
5
the amount that characters eat is crosstabulated with their
emotional
state. Generally characters could only be seen eating large
quantities of food 15.2 percent of the time. However, this type of
eating behavior is mostly portrayed when characters are either angry
(44.4%), in a difficult position (25.8%) or happy (22.4%).
Characters
in a normal frame of mind are significantly less likely to overeat
(7.5%). Food in this light functions as a means of giving vent to
one's emotions whether excited, angry or frustrated.
Table 5: Characters eating large quantities by their emotional state
Excitement/
happy
Normal
Angry
In a difficult
position
Row
total
Eats a large quantity
13
22.4
10
7.5
4
44.4
8
25.8
35
15.2
Does not eat a large quantity
45
77.6
123
92.5
5
55.6
23
74.2
196
84.2
Column total
58
25.1
133
57.6
9
3.9
31
13.4
231
100.0
Chi-Square: 17.15 2-tail prob.: .001 Gamma: -0.4
As mentioned previously, alcohol is the most frequently consumed
beverage in Hong Kong dramas. Similar to food consumption drinking
alcohol is also often portrayed as a social activity (32.1%), but
almost equally as often it is engaged in while thinking (32.1%) and
problem solving (25.0%). In addition, drinking is significantly
associated with characters' emotional states. From the
crosstabulation of emotional state by alcohol consumption in Table 6
it is evident that characters usually drink when they are angry
(44.4%) or in a difficult position (38.7%). As in the case with
consuming large quantities of food, drinking alcohol is portrayed as a
way of releasing emotions or coping with problems. However, in the
case of alcohol consumption the emotions associated with drinking are
only negative ones.
Table 6: Alcohol consumption by emotional state
Alcohol consumption
Excitement/
happy
Normal
Angry
In a difficult
position
Row
total
No
57
98.3
122
91.7
5
55.6
19
61.3
203
87.9
Yes
1
1.7
11
8.3
4
44.4
12
38.7
28
12.1
Column total
58
25.1
133
57.6
9
3.9
31
13.4
231
100.0
Chi-Square: 37.14 2-tail prob.: .000 Gamma: .76
In summary the content analysis results indicate that the Hong Kong
television diet largely consists of foods low in nutritional value.
In addition, television characters tend not to pay full attention to
what they eat nor do they eat explicitly to satisfy their hunger.
Instead, they are more likely to snack between meals, eat on the go
and use food primarily for the satisfaction of their social and
emotional needs. The patterns of food choice and eating behavior on
television, in short, are similar to patterns usually associated in
real life with problems in weight control and nutrition.
Characters who eat on television, however, are never depicted as
obese, and fat body types are represented far less frequently than are
medium and thin body types. In addition to their greater
representation, thin and medium body types are also more often
associated with a positive personal image. As a result, television
presents viewers with a misleading message. It suggests that people
can eat in ways to easily get fat, but yet at the same time they
will
remain slim and healthy.
In particular it is younger people who are most likely to be
presented as having poor eating habits in Hong Kong television. They
are the ones who are most often seen frequenting fast food shops in
which they consume high caloric foods. They are also the group most
often portrayed as eating on the street and choosing desserts and
sweets between main meals.
Finally, alcohol is the most frequently consumed beverage on Hong
Kong television. Drinking is portrayed as both a social activity and
as a means to deal with anger and frustration. Characters' use of
both alcohol and food to vent emotions is no doubt a dramatic device,
but it may send the wrong message particularly to the young who are
at
a stage of development when both emotional control and nutritional
habits are important issues.
Cultivation Survey
The sample of 232 junior secondary school students had nearly equal
representations of Forms One and Two grades and of boys and girls.
Most of the these students (56%) say that they watch three or more
hours of television per night. Nearly 80 percent watch over two hours
per night. It would also appear that most of their attention during
viewing is directed to messages from programs rather than
commercials.
When asked what they do during commercials 69 percent said that they
either go away and do other things or change to another channel.
Most
students also say that their main source of nutritional knowledge is
the mass media (33%), followed by parents (21%), books (18%),
doctors(16%), teachers (10%) and friends (1%).
Of the students in our sample 32 percent perceived themselves to be
too fat or a little fat, while 48 percent saw themselves as medium,
and 20 percent said that they were a little thin or too thin. The
girls were more likely (38%) to think that they were overweight than
the boys (26%). Overall, their eating habits are less than healthy.
On average students say that they frequent fast food shops 2.25
times
per week. Most of their food choices during non-main meals are low
in
nutrition with chocolates, candies, chips, french fries, icecream
and
instant noodles (high in MSG) comprising 61 percent of their
selections. Soft drinks (36%) and sugared fruit juices (21%) are
their favorite beverages. For most snacking is an activity associated
with watching television (56%) and less frequently with studying
(32%)
and playing (30%). In addition, less than half of the respondents
have breakfast every morning (44%) and most will have a midnight snack
at least occasionally (57%).
Our sample's nutritional knowledge is also less than adequate. In
responding to ten knowledge questions on nutrition, none had a
perfect
score and only two had all nine correct. The mean number of correct
responses was 5.3. One of the questions revealed some confusion
with
regard to drinking alcohol. Almost half (48%) thought that beer
was
a kind of stimulant and 26 percent said that there was not enough
alcohol in beer to make someone drunk. In a second set of five
questions asking respondents perceptions of normative dietary behavior
students exhibited a mix of healthy and unhealthy attitudes toward
eating and drinking. Only 20 percent felt that one should pay full
attention to one's food while eating, 53 percent said that many
people
will not get fat even though they select a high fat diet and 68
percent believed that having some alcohol and food during a business
discussion can increase efficiency. However, 76 percent did not
think
that most meals should have some meat. This latter response, of
course, is reflective of the Asian diet.
A third set of five questions examined students' perception of the
functions of drinking alcohol. A quarter of the students felt that
it
no function while a sizable number thought that it was a way to let
off one's negative personal feelings (42%) and to divert oneself from
boredom (30%). Many felt that it was indispensible in social
situations (44%). When asked whether they will drink occasionally
when they get older 57 percent said that it was either possible or
very possible while 33 percent that it was probably impossible and 10
percent were adamant that it was impossible.
Tests of the hypotheses
H1: Television viewing is positively related to having poor eating
habits.
As can be seen in Table 7, there is a significant positive and
moderately strong relationship between television exposure and poor
eating habits. For this table and subsequent ones those viewing an
hour or less of television per night were classified under light
exposure while 2 to 3 hours constituted medium exposure and 4 hours
and above was considered heavy exposure. The poor eating habits
index
was formed from the eight items described earlier.
Table 7: Poor eating habits by television exposure
Eating habits index
Light
exposure
Medium exposure
Heavy
exposure
Row total
Better eating habits
20
41.7
32
27.4
9
17.0
61
28.0
Average eating habits
18
37.5
42
35.9
15
28.3
75
34.4
Poor eating habits
10
20.8
43
36.8
29
54.7
82
37.6
Column totals
48
22.0
117
53.7
53
24.3
218
100.0
Chi-Square: 14.04 2-tail prob.: .007 Gamma: .35
A second factor was also found to have a significant positive and
moderately strong relationship (p<.000, Gamma: .42) to poor eating
habits, namely the amount of pocket money students carried with them.
In other words, the more pocket money that students had the worse
their eating habits were. Given the strength of this relationship the
first relationship between television exposure and eating habits was
retested this time controlling on the factor of pocket money. For
this test students were divided into two groups, those having more and
those having less pocket money. Among those with less pocket money
the relationship between television exposure and eating habits was no
longer significant, but it became slightly stronger among those with
more pocket money (p<.000, Gamma: .44). Thus, students who carry a
lot of pocket money have more opportunity to indulge in the poor
eating habits which are associated with being heavily exposed to
television. Television exposure will make little difference when st
udents do not have enough cash to snack at their discretion.
H2: Nutritional knowledge is positively related to both television
viewing and poor eating habits acting as an intervening
variable.
Nutritional knowledge was found not to be related to either
television viewing or poor eating habits. Thus, viewing television
appears to have no relation to having high or low levels of
nutritional knowledge. It can also be said that knowledge of these
nutrition knowledge items has no relation to students eating habits.
H3: Television viewing is positively related to unhealthy conceptions
about food.
No significant relationship was found between television exposure and
the eating attitude index, which was constructed from five attitude
questions described earlier, but since items lacked homogeneity items
were tested separately. Only one of the items was significantly
related to television exposure (p<.005, Gamma: .24). Greater
exposure to television was associated with believing that having some
alcoholic drinks and food can enhance efficiency in business
meetings.
H4: There is a positive relationship between television exposure and
intention to drink alcohol when older.
There was a significant positive and moderately strong relationship
between television exposure and intention to drink when older.
Therefore, the more students were exposed to television the more
likely it was that they would say that they would drink alcohol when
they became older. It should be noted that this relationship was
equally strong for both males and females.
Table 8: Future intention to drink alcohol by television exposure
Future intention
to drink alcohol
Light
exposure
Medium exposure
Heavy
exposure
Row total
Impossible
36
72.0
72
57.6
23
40.4
131
56.5
Possible
14
28.0
53
42.4
34
59.6
101
43.5
Column totals
50
21.6
125
53.9
57
24.6
232
100.0
Chi-Square: 11.00 2-tail prob.: .004 Gamma: .37
H5: Those who watch more television tend to perceive more social and
emotional uses of drinking alcohol.
A significant positive and moderate relationship was found between
exposure to television and the number of social and emotional
contributions which students believed drinking alcohol made to
people's lives. For this test students who agreed with the statement
that drinking alcohol made no contribution were categorized as "no
contribution," whereas those who disagreed with that statement and
selected one contribution of drinking were categorized as "little
contribution" and those who disagreed and chose two contributions or
more were categorized as "more contributions." (see Table 9) It
should be noted that the one contribution which was most strongly
related to television exposure was that drinking is an indispensible
part of social situations (p<.014, Gamma: .33).
Table 9: Perceived contributions of drinking alcohol by TV exposure
Perceived
contributions
Light
exposure
Medium exposure
Heavy
exposure
Row total
No contribution
20
40.0
21
24.8
8
14.0
59
25.4
Little contribution
18
36.0
55
44.0
23
40.4
96
41.4
More contributions
12
24.0
39
31.2
26
45.6
77
33.2
Column totals
50
21.6
125
53.9
57
24.6
232
100.0
Chi-Square: 11.75 2-tail prob.: .019 Gamma: .30
Therefore, light viewers are more likely to think of drinking as being
generally useless. Heavy viewers, on the other hand, can see a
number
of social and emotional contexts where it could be quite useful.
Discussion
These findings confirm, first of all, that the nutritional messages
in Hong Kong television dramas are generally unhealthy, particularly
with regard to the portrayal of the eating habits of the young.
Secondly, it demonstrates significant positive relationships between
television viewing and poor eating habits, and between television
viewing and perceptions and intentions regarding alcohol consumption.
It appears, therefore, that the non-nutritional behaviors portrayed
on television are related to similar behaviors in young viewers.
The
more they watch the more likely it is that they will eat in fast
food
shops, consume low nutrition foods, snack between meals, have
midnight
snacks and not eat breakfast. As was illustrated in the content
analysis findings, these are the same activities which are likely to
be seen on Hong Kong prime time television. It is not unreasonable
to
conclude then that the type of behaviors being modeled in these
television dramas may to some extent be having an impact on young
people, particularly those who view frequently and among those who
have sufficient pocket money to indulge in the modeled behavior. The
influence of modeling may be strong since the television characters
most likely to engage in poor eating habits are the young and viewers
would be more likely to identify with these characters. Modeling is
further encouraged since there appear to be no negative consequences
(i.e, weight gain or health problems) to eating foods high in
cholestrol and fat content.
It is also apparent that young people in Hong Kong spend a lot of
time with television and are, therefore, saturated with its frequent
food references, most of which as we have seen are undesirable.
Television's portrayals of drinking alcohol are equally undesirable in
that drinking is the beverage of choice among television characters
and it is used as a dramatic device to show characters using alcohol
to deal with their problems. Unlike eating behaviors students do
not
engage in drinking alcoholic beverages at this age. Therefore, it
is
necessary to rely upon their intentions to drink when they are older
as a predictor of the future behavior. Once again, higher levels of
television viewing are associated with higher intended levels of
alcohol consumption behavior. Drinking is a frequently modelled
behavior on Hong Kong television and young viewers are shown that it
can be useful in a variety of social and emotional situations.
Characters who drink then not only model the behavior but demonstrate
its potential benefits and rewards. This type of modeling can be
particularly potent among young people who have had no previous
experience with a behavior like drinking alcohol.
It is problematical that no relationship was found between either
television viewing and nutritional knowledge or between television
viewing and nutritional perceptions. According to the cultivation
hypothesis (Gerbner et al., 1980), one would expect that the symbolic
television world would create similar perceptions of the real world
in
viewers. These television perceptions are most directly reflected
in
the nutritional perceptions rather than in the nutritional knowledge
measures. Although one of the individual perception measures was
significant and two approached significance, their relationship with
television viewing is spotty and weak at best. It is possible that
not enough attitude measures were included or that these were the
wrong ones in that they were not perceptions which could be primarily
derived from television. There is also a possibility that
television
has a more immediate and direct impact on easily accessible
behaviors
such as snacking on junk food (provided one has the money) as
opposed
to the complex formulation of general perceptions of the world.
Both
the light television viewer and the heavy television viewer may
share
similar perceptions of eating behaviors, but it is the heavy viewer
who receives repeated reinforcement of the extent and benefits of
these behaviors.
This same argument could also be used to explain the absence of a
relationship between nutritional knowledge and eating behavior.
Actually, this kind of weak association between nutrition knowledge
and nutrition behavior is not unusual. In a Harris poll (1984) of
1700 people in the U.S. two out of three Americans thought that they
could be healthier if they changed their diet, but said that they
would probably not do so. Perhaps even more pertinent is the Born and
Goldberg study (1982) mentioned earlier in which nutritional
knowledge
seemed to make no difference in the impact of commercials on their
eating behaviors. Among Hong Kong students heavy and light viewers
may be equally informed or uninformed about nutritional facts, but
their behavior is less a function of their knowledge than their
exposure to models exhibiting immediately gratifying behavior.
In the case of alcohol consumption a relationship was found between
television viewing and perceptions of the positive contributions of
drinking. The difference between these measures and the attitudes
toward food measures is that the contributions of alcohol measures are
more directly related to the rewards of the activity. In addition,
as
cultivation advocates would point out there is ample room for
television to have an impact on these perceptions since young people
have no prior experience with drinking.
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