The cultivation theory is a theory about the mass communication. The main part of this theory is about how to determine the influence of TV, which is the representative of mass media, on constructing the social reality. The whole process contains three steps, which are institutional process analysis, message system analysis, and cultivation analysis. These three are about what behind the media is, what the message is, and how the cultivation occurs. And one interesting notion inside this theory is the one called “Equal Violence, Unequal Risk”. In this notion, the different symbolic vulnerability of different social groups is emphasized. It is mentioned that “the symbolic vulnerability of minority-group is striking”. This point is also demonstrated in the motion picture rating system. As we all know, this system is designated to classify films with regard to suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, or substance abuse. Actually, the reason of setting up this system is that more and more people realized the higher symbolic vulnerability of younger age group. Therefore, this is a policy that aims at reducing the cultivation impact of mass media.
Cultivation Theory examines the relationship between TV consumption on social realities, or”those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to see the “real world” through TV’s lens.” Developed by George Gerbner, he started the “Cultural Indicators” project in the early 1960’s to whether and how watching television may influence a viewers’ ideas on what the everyday world is like. Most cultivation theorists believe that in the long term, television has small, indirect but significant effects on a person. Gerbner argues that the media shapes values and attitudes already in the culture and and projects that image to people in the society. He breaks down the type of viewers into heavy users and light users with heavy users watching significantly more television than light users. One of the main concerns Gerbner had was with violence. He believed that many people would view crime differently based upon how much television they watched. For example, if Glenn watches 100 hours of cops, he would be very skeptical to walk home alone at night whereas Tommy, who only watches an hour. It can lead heavy users to assume that there is a significant amount of crime in their area without much evidence. Their reality is based upon the television show they are watching.
Agenda Setting Theory describes how the media “has the ability totransfer the salience of items on their news agendas to the public agenda.” In other words, the media has the ability to tell the public what they should find important. To test this idea, McCombs and Shaw examined three presidential elections; the 1968, 1972, and 1976 presidential elections. In their 1968 study, they considered two elements:awareness and information. They looked at the relationship between the issues that voters in one community found important compared to the content of the media messages. They concluded that the media essentially controls what people find important or are frankly interested in. Consider the “recent” disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370. Major news networks constantly blast updates about potential locations of the plane or where the black boxes are. The media in this case projects to their audience that this is an important issue that they should be concerned with. In addition, consider the O.J. Simpson murder case. Major newspapers, networks, and other forms of media were constantly pumping out new development about the case. During that time period, countless people spent time discussing whether O.J. was guilty or innocent. Regardless of the outcome, the key point from this example is people placed a high level of importance on the issue due to the media.
The Agenda-Setting Theory is a mass communication theory that has many different types and faces. The concept of agenda-setting is the idea that the media as the ability to impact the public’s agenda by telling them of the salience of an event. Another important concept within this theory is the idea of framing which is “the selection of a restricted number of related attributes for inclusion on the media agenda when a particular object or issue is discussed (381).” This concept is highlighted in the current Malaysia Airlines plane search news story. This story is something rare that happens, has been in the news a long time, and has very lengthy stories when it is published showing us that the media is framing it was important. In some ways it also shows the idea of communitarian ethics because it highlighting the event as important because of the seriousness of the event as well as the fact that people are involved. In a way, it shows American’s society’s care that innocence people do not get hurt.
The Cultivation Theory within the communication study is part of mass communication and is likely to be in the socio-cultural or socio-psycholgical traditions. The cultivation analysis is studies to fund “support for the notion that those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to see the “real world” through TV’s lens (pg. 370).” Behind the scenes in this theory is the idea of institutional process analysis and message system analysis which analyze the policies and practices behind media as well as the content in different TV shows. One of the big ideas in this theory is the idea of dramatic violence. This theory says that physical violence in the plot of media stories is overly stressed. This leads to cultivation of ideas such as violence being more prevalent in society than it is as well as people thinking this because the idea is accessible and mainstream. This is obvious in a lot of different shows, but one is in the show NCIS. All of the crime shows make the audience think that the crimes and murder happen always and in a lot of crazy different ways which can lead to mean world syndrome by the heavy watchers of crime shows.
McCombs’ and Shaw’s Agenda-Setting Theory states that the “mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of items on their news agendas to the public agenda (378).” McComb and Shaw believed the public regarded as important what the media regarded as important. McComb and Shaw carried out a study on Chapell Hill residents and demonstrated a strong correlation between what residents of Chapel Hill judged as important in the 1968 election and what the local and national news media reported as important. Since this study, a variety of more studies have been carried out on the agenda-setting theory and some experiments go as far as to demonstrate not only correlation but also causation between the media agenda and the public agenda. The Agenda-Setting Theory reminded me of the “serial killer panic” in the 1980s. The media along with law enforcement agencies misinterpreted data on serial killers and were responsible for disseminating the myth of the serial killer in America. The media led the public to believe that serial killers were a rapidly growing phenomenon, claiming four thousand victims a year. In reality, one out of every 10,000 deaths was and is attributed to serial killers. In the 1980s, the media sensationalized serial killers and made them the top priority on their agenda, which in turn made serial killers the top priority on the public’s agenda.
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory purpose is to research and analyze the effect of television on its viewers. The theory proposes that, “those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to see the “real world” through TV’s lens (370).” Gerbner was especially concerned with the amount of violence portrayed in TV and his goal was to discover how this violence affects viewer’s beliefs and feelings about the world. Gerbner described three different characteristics or “prongs” to help us analyze the long-term effects of TV on its viewers. The first prong is institutional process analysis, which is meant to understand the different practices or policies behind the scenes of media organizations. The second prong is message system analysis, which employs a cautious and systematic study of TV content. Finally, the third prong is cultivation analysis, which attempts to demonstrate through research the premise that those who watch the most TV experience the world through the TV’s perspective. Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory reminded me of the Bobo Doll experiment conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961. The experiment analyzed the behavior of young children after exposing them to two different adult models; an aggressive model and a non-aggressive one. The aggressive model physically and verbally abused an inflatable doll in front of the children while the non-aggressive model simply played with the inflatable doll. The children were then left alone in a room with the same inflatable doll and were observed to see if they would mimic the behavior of their respective adult models. The experiment found that the children exposed to the aggressive model tended to mimic the violent behavior. Bandura believed his experiment shows how easily behaviors can be learned and acquired through observation and imitation. This experiment supports the Cultivation Theory because both the experiment and the theory belief observation, whether through the TV or not can significantly affect the way we act, feel and behave towards others.
Obama’s speech on Mandela’s passing is rhetoric as defined by Aristotle because it is one person addressing many. The type of rhetoric used by Obama is epideictic, or ceremonial in which he heaps praise on another for the benefit of present-day audiences. This is the most common form used for speeches such as eulogies.
Obama’s logical proof comes from his line of argument that Mandela was an inspiration too many others. He uses Mandela’s influence in his own life as an example. Another part of Obama’s logical proof can be seen when he uses the enthymeme that his audience already has an idea of who Nelson Mandela is. Then he elaborates by using quotes as an example of what Mandela stood for. Obama’s ethical proof comes from the very fact that he is the President of the United States. His perceived source credibility comes from his perceived intelligence of being knowledgeable on world matters, having a virtuous character as trying to honestly portray Mandela as a hero, and his goodwill in memorializing Mandela. His emotional proof comes into play when addressing the family of Mandela and the people of South Africa to express his sympathies.
Obama uses the five canons of rhetoric effectively by inventing or re-creating Mandela’s legacy for the audience to remember him by and hopefully work towards carrying on Mandela’s legacy. His arrangement by opening up with quotes and closing by addressing different specific audiences organizes his speech from speaking to the general to speaking to individuals. His style and delivery was very eloquent and heartfelt, and his speech was well rehearsed to give the impression he memorized it.
Semiotics is the study of signs and a sign can be anything that stands for something else. Being in the retail industry, I often see how clothes can be used as signs a person manipulates to give off a certain impression. There’s the obvious signs like clothes with statements on them. The most controversial tees the company I work for (American Apparel) sells are T-Shirts promoting gay rights.
The last T-shirt doesn’t contain words, but instead a symbol. The image itself is a signifier, or a physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses. The meaning we associate with the pink triangle is the signified. The historical meaning with the associated symbol comes from the fact Hitler labeled gays in the community with badges in the shape of pink triangles. The image (signifier) with the meaning (signified) gives us the denotative sign of the T-Shirt.
American Apparel follows the lead of the Gay Rights movement by re-inventing the symbol of the pink triangle and using it as a symbol for empowerment within the LBG community. The new view of the image then becomes a connotative sign system because the sign has lost its historical referent.
