Hollywood films preferred

JAKARTA (JP): Teenagers in urban areas prefer Hollywood television series to locally made films, Latin American soap operas or cartoons, a survey found.

Rusdi Muchtar at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences questioned 300 teenagers in the cities of Medan in North Sumatra, Surabaya in East Java and Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi.

A total of 33 percent of the respondents said they like Hollywood films, 20 percent said they prefer telenovelas (South American soap operas), while the remaining chose either Chinese films or cartoons.

The researcher was quoted by Antara as saying that 59 foreign films were listed among the favorites of the teenagers.

A whopping 97 percent of respondents said "yes" when asked whether they like watching foreign films on television. Of them, 67 percent cited that, compared to locally-produced films, foreign films are "more appealing, more logical and easier to understand".

In his analysis, Rusdi said that most of the teenagers have a lifestyle similar to that of teenagers in Western countries.

"The various elements of culture and technology communicated in the films make it easier for them to imitate the West's lifestyle," he said. (swe)