The Cultivation Theory of George Gerbner is a three-pronged approach to analyzing communication. The first prong is institutional process analysis, which penetrates behind the scenes of media organizations in an effort to understand different policies and practices they use. The second prong is message system analysis whish is the careful, systematic study of TV content. The third prong is cultivation analysis which is research designed to find support for the notion that those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to see the “real world” through TV’s lens. This theory focuses on violence and how it easily reaches the audience and does so in huge numbers as it is understood in all languages. This violence then affects people’s view of the world and how “violent” it really is for them in their respective neighborhoods. Because of this violence is incredibly popular and prominent in the most popular TV shows. This can be seen in the link below as many of the most popular shows are centered on violence and influence the large audiences they reach. Such shows are #2 GameofThrones, #3 Scandal, #6 TheBlacklist, #7 NCIS, #8 Homeland, and #9 Sleepy Hollow. That means 6 of the top 10 most popular TV shows reaching audiences who watch a lot of TV are influencing them or “mainstreaming” the audience to view the world in a more dangerous/violent manner.
Cultivation theory is a concept that analyzes the long term effects that television has on its viewers. According to Professor George Gerbner, television is “society’s institutional storyteller” and its stories present “a coherent picture of what exists, what is important, what is related to what, and what is right” (366). Gerbner developed a three pronged process which analyzes the content and effects of television. The first prong is institutional process analysis, a scholarship that penetrates behind the scenes of media organizations in an effort to understand what policies or practices might be lurking there. The second prong is message system analysis, which involves careful, systematic study of television content. It usually uses content examination as a means of research. The third prong is cultivation analysis, which is designed to find support for the notion that those who spend more time watching television are more likely to see the “real world” through television’s lens. Violence is a common target for Gerbner’s process to analyze. It can easily be found in many shows across television. For example in the television series, Dexter, Dexter Morgan lives the life of a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department and a secret serial killer, who hunts down criminals who have managed to evade the justice system. The show often features displays, such as bloody crime scenes or Dexter committing acts of homicide. Violence is a key element in which the show uses to entertain its viewers.
The cultivation theory mainly deals with the world of TV. George Gerbner says that our actions have more to do with how much TV we watch than with the actual risks we face. Today, the TV set is a key member of the household. And violence happens to be one of the major staples of the TV world. Gerbner’s framework can be seen as a three-pronged plug leading to a TV set, with each of the prongs uniquely equipped to tell us something different about the world of TV. The first prong represents scholar’s concern for the reasons why media produce the messages they do. Institutional process analysis is the research concerning the policies or practices lurking through media. The second prong deals with the perceptions of social reality among viewers, in other words, experiencing the cultivation of TV messages first-hand. It deals with message system analysis, the study of TV content that employs analysis as research. The third prong is cultivation analysis. With message system analysis as a prerequisite, cultivate analysis deals with how the TV content affects the viewers. Below I have attached a trailer for Grand Theft Auto 5 video game. This game is one of the most controversial as there has been endless talk about how negatively it affects its users. It constantly is being accused of providing violence that influences its players to commit the same “crimes” from the game into real life. As you can see from the trailer, the life you live in the video game is usually not the regular life you live in the real world.
Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, the developers of the Agenda-Setting Theory, claim that the “mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda” which essentially means that the public pays most attention to the issues or topics that are covered by the majority of mass media. This concept is highlighted in the arrest and prosecution of the “Pussy Riots” in Russia. The Pussy Riots are a Russian feminist punk rock protest group which is opposed to the policies of Russian President Vladmir Putin. Their story was a huge deal in Europe and has been covered by the news for a very long time and therefore the media framed that it was/is very important.
Cultivation Theory is associated with George Gerbner, who claims that people, who spend the most time in front of the TV, develop and exaggerated belief in a “mean and scary world” because television contains so much violence. He also believes that television affects viewers’ beliefs about the world around them and the feelings connected to those beliefs. For example, if a teenager spends the majority of its time in front of the television watching the ID channel, action/thriller movies or TV shows such as CSI Miami or The Following, the teenager will feel scared and insecure about living in this “crime-filled world”. The attached article deals with the consequences of violence in TV shows or movies and shows, that not only does the audience believe in a mean and scary world, it also comes to associate violence with entertainment and therefore accepts violence as a normal part of their lives and teaches children to become violent without teaching the consequences of it.
Cultivation theory talks about howheavy television viewing creates an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world.George Gerbner brought up this idea. Heemphasized the symbolic content of television drama and he thinks that television has surpassed religion as the key storyteller in our culture. He also mentioned that violence is television’s principal message, and particularly for devoted viewers. He concerned thatviolence affects viewers’ beliefs about the world around them and the feelings connected to those beliefs, more than it affects viewers’ behavior. The book talks about three steps to evaluate the content and effect of the media. The first one isInstitutional process analysis, this research addresses scholars’ concern for the reasons why media produce the message they do. The second one isMessage system analysis, this studies onwhat exactly are the messages that TV projects. The third isCultivation analysis, this analysisdeals with how TV’s content might affect viewers. This theory actually reminds me of a popular TV program in China called ‘you are the one’. This is a TV dating show. People from different places in China get to find their date on this show. On this show, we have few girls that appear to be super materialistic, some of them even said that they are willing to cry in the BMW rather than smile on a bicycle. This show is so popular that almost everybody watch it. For sometime, everybody thinks that the girls nowadays are also materialistic just like the girls on the TV show. However, this is definitely not true. Here, the TV produce a fake and scary world.
Cultivation Theory was developed by George Gerbner. and Larry Gross in the 1960’s, coming from an initial project focused on ‘Cultural Indicators.’ The focus was to discover the long-term effects of television on viewers. The central idea was that those who watch a lot of TV see their world through a television-like lens (*violent content of certain television programs was a large concern). Gerbner and Gross found that over all, television does indeed affect those who watch it, but in a small amount that doesn’t dictate their behavior in an overwhelming way.
This project could now be extended into the realm of social media, as many people today use those platforms heavily and nearly convince themselves that they are living more fully and are most aware of the world around them when it’s experience through those sites. In actuality, it is all vicarious living, and all of the information shared through those platforms are curated, selected, filtered and most importantly not always 100% accurate and true. The Cultivating effect of social media on humans is far greater than that found in television, I am sure.
The agenda setting theory talks about the media’s “ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda”. That is, it allows viewers to capture the very essence of its message. I like how the texts talk about the levels of agenda setting. In order to make their message profound and memorable, the media tries to portray its message in a way that it matches the images and the ideas of what we think are important and logical. This method is often used by election campaign, where it frames its message in a way that pleases and connects with our minds. An example I used is the election campaign picture that Obama used to represent himself. The picture is colored in blue and red, which symbolizes patriotism and his love for the nation. The bottom of the image is the word “HOPE”, which reminds that he will assure citizens to fulfill their hopes of eliminating the current hardships that the nation is facing. The word “hope” also represents how he is the current hope for this nation, and in order to succeed, he will need the nation’s approval.
Cultivation theory talks about how media on television influence and shape our cultures and beliefs. It is said that television has replaced religion’s role of storytelling in our culture and reality. The text describes the three step analysis to evaluate the content and effect of the media. The first is institutional process analysis; this is concerned with the purpose and reason for media to display their message. Second is message system analysis; this aspect deals with the content and the central message the media is trying to portray to viewers. The third is cultivation analysis, which captures how media’s message might affect and impact the population. I chose the V for Vendetta news scene, where V addresses and reminds the nation about the corrupted and unequal political system. This recording is broadcasted throughout London and he reminds the people to remember the 5th of November, where democracy and freedom will be born for this nation. As you can see in the example, news and media are extremely effective tools; for it has the potential to completely alter the nation’s belief and bring the nation together on the 5th of November later in the movie.
The Agenda-Setting theory is also a theory about the mass communication. The most important hypothesis of this theory is that “the mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda”. This means the issue that covered by more mass media could get more attention from the public. However, the mass media does not have a very strong effect on shaping people’s views. But by selecting a restricted number of thematically related attributes for inclusion on the media agenda, the picture in the minds of people are actually changed. The arguments in this theory are actually certified by a specific phenomenon in China. In recent years, there is “a group of Internet ghostwriters paid to post online comments with particular content rising on the Internet in China, and they are usually called Internet Water Army. The popularity of this emerging occupations absolutely demonstrates the mass media’s ability to make one issue salient to the public agenda, which is the main point of the Agenda-Setting theory.
