Cultivation Theory

Have you ever binged watched the Walking Dead? Maybe went crazy one weekend and wanted to watch Quentin Tarantino's best hits? After all that bloody goodness, George Gerbner, (the creator of the Cultivation Theory)would say that slowly but surely you the viewer have become more de-sensitized to human violence or gore. When you think about it, the theory makes perfect sense. You watch a movie where violence is permitted, and even in some cases is linked with being cool and soon you now have a different perception of violence than you once did, one where violence isn't as big of a deal as it might have been to you before. This is the idea of Resonance where people feel that their real life environment and also the TV world are very similar, making viewers more effected by what they see. In order to fully grasp the concept I want to show two different clips that are both violent in nature but are also very different. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCMfprPJoA. Here we have the O' so handsome Robert Downey Jr. He is in some type of fighting contest and is losing badly to the delight of the whole crowd who is cheering both men on in a feverish pitch. The tide is soon turned, however, once Downey see's the woman. He tries to call the fight, gets spit on and then he does two things. The first thing he does is completely destroy the guy he was fighting with. With the use of slow motion camera angles, special sound, and audio effects he beats up his opponent in a way that not only myself found awesome but also my 5 roommates I have shown as "bad A**." When you watch the clip it is cool; the way he beats up the guy by walking us through it step by step. I don't know about you but I sure liked Sherlock Holmes a little bit more after. Let's focus though on the second thing he did. He systematically beat up another human, demoted him to nothing more than the parts he is made up of, the man is no longer a man, he is instead four broken ribs, a dislocated/broken jaw, and is hemorrhaging on the floor. What happens after that though? He wins money, and is now "the tough guy" that no one messes with. According to Gerbner the effects of TV and movie violence cultivates paranoia, creates The mean world syndrome and makes people develop exaggerated perceptions of the world. Mean world syndrome is the cynical mindset of general mistrust of others subscribed to by heavy TV viewers (Griffin). For example, after someone watches a CSI episode where a kid who takes ADHD medicine kills someone, they might begin to think that people everywhere who take that medicine are more likely to kill, and even more likely to kill them specifically. This in turn creates mistrust and a skewed perception of the world.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu1MtT_S3bc Can you see anything in common between the two antagonists in the clips? TV and Movies seem to under-represent and over-violate certain racial, sexual, and age groups. Both of our hero's are white males, both of course in real life differ in age but on the screen even their age seems similar. In media the old and the young, the women and the minorities all appear to be victims more often than not. In this scene of Jack Reacher its the young woman that is victim of Tom Cruise's remarks, would it look different if he said his remarks to a man? As I talked about earlier if according to Gerbner media cultivates paranoia than how should one view minorities being overtly victimized? Does that now mean that not only should minorities be extra careful in the world but also that middle aged, white collared, males are more dangerous? It is these perceptions that than carry over to the viewers and create exaggerated world views. In conclusion the cultivation theory theory is based on the idea that prolonged exposure cultivates or creates an environment that can ultimately re shape the way people look at the world. Bibliography Griffin, Morgan. Give your body a boost with laughter. Web M.D., nd. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Path: http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/give-your-body-boost-with-laughter?page=2. Griffin, Em. A first look at communication theory. 8thth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012.