Myths and Masks: Television and its impact on the transmission of cultural representations

Abstract

This study looks at cultural identity in a transnational and global world through the impact of television. In order to understand the influence of television in our lives, a semiotic analysis of how programs make sense and how television presentations and representations are positioning viewers in how to understand and enjoy these senses. During the day there is a type of programs on Salvadoran television that we call sofa programs. It is a global concept with a similar structure, while the content is local. What all sofa programs have in common is the absence of analysis of the political-economic situation and how that affects the topics touched upon such as migration, health, sexuality, education and prices. Confessing something, solving conflicts in public seems popular, besides, Dr. Nancy Alvarez, host of Quién tiene la razón, affirms that her program is the only program that teaches you. The point of view of confession programs is that we should learn something about how to solve intrafamily problems or intimate relationships. Also, there are a variety of programs with the goal of winning something: love, money, fame or the honor of being a good person. These elimination programs fascinate us, the psychological game traps us, a show that from time to time is very cruel. Soap operas represent fairy tales for adults. It is a transmission of myths - myth as a way of "talking". What is significant with television is its capacity to transmit temptations and to create an illusion of belonging to imaginary communities in the construction of an everyday identity, by the encounter with the transmission of the sense of being heard, seen and confirmed, by visual consultations, visual therapy and mythical fairies. It is the social belonging to a global identity without roots in any special territory, but sharing the same interest. The subliminal transmission of information through spectacle not only serves to transform our behavior but is the best form of ideological penetration that is the magic of television. We must know, and not ignore, the impact that television has as a cultural model through its programs in the creation of new lifestyles, the impact on the signs of consumption, in an indirect dialogue that builds identities as masks to function in a mythological world.