ABSTRACT
The title Social Influence and Television has been chosen deliberately in preference to a more traditional one: Television as Social Influence. The difference is important. Despite the emphasis of researchers on the viewers as active processors of the output of the media, both gratification and effects studies have been concerned primarily with the influence of television on the individual and on institutions. The counterpart, that of society's influence on the media (their structure, organization, and output), has received very little attention. Moscovici (1976) in his important book Social Influence and Social Change likens the emphasis that the social sciences place on responses to output to afunctional model of social change. He suggests instead what he terms a genetic model. The former stresses adaptation (even if this implies transformation of the message to fit the individual's needs); the latter, interdependence. He argues that it is through interaction that there is continuous growth and change. Neither institutions nor individuals can stay put or fail to contribute to that change. The difference between the two models is not solely one of emphasis. Depending on which model one adopts, rather different research questions will be raised.
