Cultivation Theory
- 01:04
- by
- Joshua Benton
Cultivation Theory
This theory was originally created by G.Gerbner, who began
research in the mid 1960’s on different media effects. He was studying whether television
influences the audience’s ideas and perceptions of everyday life, and if so,
how. This theory explains that high frequency viewers of television are more
susceptible to media messages, and the belief that they are true.
Heavy
viewers, which are more exposed to violence and are therefore affected by Mean
World Syndrome. This means that these people believe that the world is a far
worse, and more dangerous place than it is.
Heavy viewers of TV are thought to be cultivating attitudes
that seem to believe that the world created by television is an accurate depiction
of the real world. This is a problem as watching television for a prolonged
time can increase the amount of violence you choose to see in the world.
The
theorists break down cultivation theory into two main parts. First order is
where it changes our general beliefs around the world and second order is where
specific attitudes are changed, for example you may gain a specific hatred or reverence
for law and order.
Cultivation research is one of the most controversial areas
of media research as there has been many speculations around whether it is true
or not. This is because it cannot be proved. The theory suggests that our
attitudes are based on attitudes already present in our society, and as the
media just take those attitudes and represent them in in the media. This means
that some people claim that media won’t change our perceptions, it might just
reinforce them.
In a small survey in New Jersey around 73% of heavy viewers predicted
that there were more violent crimes in a week, whereas 62% of light viewers
overpredicted. However, as this was a small survey the results may not be
accurate. The same survey also showed that children who were heavy viewers were
more fearful of walking home at night alone.One controlled experiment addressed the issue of cause and effect, manipulating the viewing of American college students to create heavy and light viewing groups. After 6 weeks of controlled viewing, heavy viewing of action-adventure programs were indeed found to be more fearful of life in the everyday world than were light viewers
0 comments:
Post a Comment