Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend living in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.[1] Cultivation leaves people with a misperception of what is true in our world. Developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross of the University of Pennsylvania, cultivation theory derived from several large-scale research projects as part of an overall research project entitled Cultural Indicators. The purpose of the Cultural Indicators project was to identify and track the cultivated effects of television on viewers. They were concerned with the effects of television programming (particularly violent programming) on the attitudes and behaviors of the American public.[2] Gerbner asserts that the overall concern about the effects of television on audiences stemmed from the unprecedented centrality of television in American culture. The theory clearly posits that the cultivation effect occurs only after long-term, cumulative exposure to television. [1] He claimed that because TV contains so much violence, people who spend the most time in front of the tube develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world. [3] He posited that television as a mass medium of communication had formed into a common symbolic environment that bound diverse communities together, socializing people into standardized roles and behaviors. Today, the TV set is a key member of the household, with virtually unlimited access to every person in the family.[3] He compared the power of television to the power of religion, saying that television was to modern society what religion once was in earlier times. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivation_theory
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 14:09:26 +0000
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