Norman Holland theorizes that people seek themes in media which affect them personally and are congruent with topics in their own life's situation. Yet while doing so, individuals try to make sure that they are not confronted with issues that they do not wish to deal with or are emotionally draining. Michail Bakhtin makes similar assertions in his Theory of Appropriation through his research on the influence that language has on the ideas of being to be true to oneself (“ownness”) and to becoming a stranger to oneself (“otherness”). An empirical study of these hypotheses is supported through a collection of 80 observation protocols of pre-schoolers made during their everyday interaction with different forms of media (picture books, cassette tapes, made for TV-movies). Both claim that the connection between personal life topics and media themes as well as the self-preserving reception process, were confirmed in this study.
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