All of us are subject to the enculturation process, the process through which we learn the “concepts, values, and behavior of a certain culture” (Mosby 1). Of course, we are enculturated so-to-speak in the culture’s concepts, values, and behavior into which we are born. Thus, much through chance we come to adopt the concepts, values, and behavior of a particular culture. In American society, perhaps no other social influence is as responsible for enculturation as is the media. Through television and films the enculturation process occurs in children in a way that is often at odds with the enculturation process they experience via parents, teachers, and others in their immediate environment. Through direct observation and interaction with two pre-teen boys, this analysis will attempt to show how enculturation via the media influences child behavior, thinking, and values.
While visiting friends who were grandparents over a three week period, I was able to observe and interact with the couple’s grandchildren who visited them four times during the three week period. I spent three hours observing and interacting with the boys, ages 6 and 8, while they watched the Star Wars trilogy of films and as they played with their plastic Star Wars action figures. The grandparents were not in the room during these interaction periods, so external influence was limited. Further, when at home the boys are not permitted to have access to television or VCR tapes, so their behavior during time spent at their grandparents often includes access to media influences unavailable to them on a regular basis. This allows not only for their fascination and enthusiasm with VCR films while visiting their grandparent’s home, but also allows for behaviors and thinking not typical of their daily development process.
The two boys immediately retrieved the Star Wars videotapes and put one into the VCR. They sat watching the film on two separate c...