The Cultivation Theory

Programming Station

The cultivation theory is a theory that insists that

television is responsible for our perceptions of day-to-day norms and

reality.

It means that every television show that you watch has some sort of hold on the way you perceive

real world situations.

The communication studies of media uses

this theory… television is a form of media. This theory does not exists

without television shows. DUH!

Still confused

?

Let me tell you how this

whole thing got started.

This dude. His name is

George Gerbner.

He tracked the amount of violence

that was being portrayed during

prime time programming and found that 80% of the material had violent content.

Then he classified television

viewers into two

categories.

1. Heavy viewers who watch TV for four hours

or more daily2. Light viewers who watch TV for two hours

or less daily

He predicted that the heavy viewers would perceive the

world as a more dangerous place because of the

higher exposure to violent television

portrayals.

Since then… everyone has pretty much blamed

television for everything.

By watching more television different researchers have claimed

that a person becomes: - more materialistic

- indifferent about environmental issues

- more violent- more racist

- unaware of what is reality and television

Sounds absurd doesn’t it?

Oh don’t worry other people think it’s crazy

too.

Critics have found plenty of flaws with this theory.

Critics claim that Gerbner did not take into account that a person’s

demographics might have an affect on how they feel about the world. Gerbner also focused on television in general instead of

thought that the specific television shows might be what influences their viewer’s opinion

about reality. He also never asked his audiences how they felt about

day-to-day norms BEFORE they started watching television.

And those are just to name a few problems that academics have

found with this theory.

Doesn’t seem too promising if you ask

me.

So in conclusion (and for my presenter’s choice slide), I

just wanted to give you some advice.

FORGET ABOUT CULTIVATION.

There are way too many flaws within

the theory. And for now,

watch whatever you want on TV!