The Relationship of Watching Television with the Needs of High School Students in Medan (a Study with the Paradigm of Critical Realism)

This study aimed to get a more specific description of the relationship to watch television with the needs of the school. This study used the paradigm of "critical realism" which tried to reveal the fact that on the surface with the (quantitative approach) the reality of the meaning expressed (qualitative) or also called mix research. The respondents/informants were middle and high school students in Medan. There were 49 people set out in purposively. The theory was the theory of cognitive dissonance consistency realm of Leon Festinger and refined the theory of "low and high dissonance" Cotton and Hieser. Quantitative data were analyzed by correlational perform asymmetrical correlation models. Qualitative data were analyzed using analytical models categorization Neuman. The results included (1) watching television set or selected to enhance the learning needs, increase knowledge, hang and support future; (2) the respondent/informant categories including "high disonance" which rejected a television show not suitable for the purpose of learning and increasing knowledge; (3) the respondent/informant was in continuum "consistent" and "inconsistent" was connected with the spectacle on television. This may be because they were still subject to change from time to time.