To the OP... I think the internet is far worse than TV, these days.
Imagine all the brainwashing theories and myths about television and multiply them by 10: that's the internet.
In regards to your original post, where you refer to society's interpretation of life through TV shows, I believe somewhere a certain level of strategic programming is involved. Speaking broadly, it's humanity's attempt to edit and comfort itself--which, if true, would present a valuable philosophical prospect--but I digress. If we had no common understanding of how life was meant to be lived--virtually no social standard at all--governments and people of power would have problems diplomatically making reference to a set style of living, giving them far less control and influence. Things like stereotypes are potentially tools to (groups of) people who know how to use them: i.e. The government. And that can have both good and bad implications, depending on where you look at it from.
Lol... It's complex for me. I can hardly skim the surface of it all with what little articulatory skills I possess, but what I think I'm trying to get at is... it's like ripples in a small pond: When you drop a stone (ideas) it affects the rest of the pond (humanity) in outward momentum, until the ripples either fade out or bounce back inward, depending on the characteristics of the stone.
In other words, people are affected by life in an infinite amount of ways, subsequently influencing the way they think, and enabling tons of new ideas and interpretations of life to arise. When people can relate to a certain new idea or interpretation on a large scale, to the extent that even the authors of the ideas themselves are affected by them (a ripple reflecting back inwards) it can be considered... at least by me... essentially a spontaneously generated... rule.
TV influences and is influenced by life.
I can't seem to summarize my thoughts very well tonight, so I apologize for my wordiness. And realize I tried to restrict myself from sounding too philosophical... I'm hoping at least one person will be able to understand what I'm trying to say, knowing that what I have to say is far from conclusive.