Each day, the average American TV set is turned on more than 7 hours a day.

Authors Avatar

         Each day, the average American TV set is turned on more than 7 hours a day.  Each family member watches more than 3 hours a day, with the elderly and children watching the most.  It is true that there are more Americans with televisions than there are with indoor plumbing.  Try to imagine a world with no television.  It is nearly impossible for most Americans to conceive of.  The truth is, we have turned into a society that heavily depends on technology to thrive.  I think it is safe to say that the television set is really like a member of the family. It entertains, provides information, enlightens, tells stories and acts as a companion for many people. It is the “Wholesale distributor of images and forms the main stream of our pop culture.” (Gerbner, 1972).   Television is unique from other media sources in its ability to share common cultural norms with virtually all members of society.  It is no surprise that people spend more time with TV than with any other media source.  Like anything, spending a lot of time watching television has to have its effects.  George Gerbner’s cultivation theory sets out to explain how television viewing affects our attitudes, beliefs and worldview.  

Cultivation theory, (sometime referred to as cultivation hypothesis or cultivation analysis) was an approach developed by Professor George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg school of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.  Cultivation is the teaching of a common worldview, common roles, and common values. (Severin and Tankard, 2001). This theory seeks to answer questions regarding the effect of television use on behaviors, perceptions and attitudes.  In this paper, I will cover topics relating to cultivation theory and attempt to answer questions from the perspective of a cultivation theorist. The focus of my research is on television violence.

To start, Cultivation analysis is the third component of a research paradigm called Cultural Indicators that was started by George Gerbner in 1969.  The first, called "institutional process analysis," investigates the pressures and constraints that affect how media messages are selected, produced, and distributed. The second, called "message system analysis," quantifies and tracks the most common and recurrent images in television content. Cultural Indicators is the third and it is a term that Gerbner uses to describe the elements in the messages that reflect our culture. Research into Cultural Indicators came about in the 1960’s when the country was in a time of national turmoil.  At this time in history, the nation had just witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.  The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence was set up to examine violence in society and also on television.  The earliest research in Cultivation theory set out to examine the degree of violence in television.    Research related to the effects of television viewing came about just as soon as television did.  The first studies were very simple.  Researchers compared how people acted who watched television to those who were not exposed to it.        

In modern day, the effects of television viewing have become very complex. When television was first introduced, there were three major networks with very little variation in programming.  This made it much easier to study the effects. Today, not only does nearly everyone in the U.S. own at least one television, but they also own other forms of technology, which also come into play when studying the effects.  Everything from DVD players to TIVO has changed the way we view television.  As if that weren’t enough, the programming itself is very broad and diverse. With satellite technology, people can get as many as 800 channels beamed right to their house. With the availability of different programs, come different effects. However, Cultivation analysis is not concerned with the impact of any particular program, genre, or episode. It does not address questions of style, artistic quality, aesthetic categories, high vs. low culture, or specific, selective "readings" or interpretations of media messages. Rather, cultivation researchers are interested in the collective patterns of images and representations to which entire communities are exposed and which they absorb over long periods of time.

Join now!

So what does cultivation theory set out to explain, hypothesize or achieve?  Well basically it is a theory that says “Watching a great deal of television will be associated with a tendency to hold specific and distinct conceptions of reality, conceptions that are congruent with the most consistent and pervasive images and values of the medium.” (Shanahan, 1999).  Basically, this theory states that television viewing effects our attitudes perceptions and worldviews.  Below is a model that help to explain the way cultivation works.

Conceptual Model Of Cultivation Theory

 

                 Cultivation ...

This is a preview of the whole essay