Game of Thrones. Grey’s Anatomy. Once Upon A Time. The Flash.
Upon reading these words, what do you think they have in common? Yup, you’re right. They’re all TV series!
I know that by watching these TV shows you may have had the
feeling that you want to be just like one of the characters you see on these
shows, apparently like the Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryen, the surgeon intern
Meredith Grey, Snow White’s daughter Emma Swan, or The Flash himself a.k.a.
Barry Allen.
Television, commonly known as TV, has become a very
significant part of life – of human experience. TV shows are in the mainstream because
they are easy to access and understand. Every one of us are currently living in
an age where society is reliant on TV, hence, we are a TV reliant society.
TV is such a dominant force in changing the society that it is impossible not to notice its impacts. In the 1960s, the U.S. Federal government became concerned about the media’s influence to society, particularly the television. Studies were conducted which focused on the issue of increased violence among the youth. Among the people involved in these studies was George Gerbner who was tasked to calculate a Violence Index which tracked violence activity on TV.
Now, with his friend Lawrence Gross, Gerbner observed that
people were so “religious” in watching television. These people were even more
religious in watching TV than when they were in church. And so the two came up
with a particular project they called Cultural Indicators Project in the
mid-1960s that identifies and tracks the effects of TV on the audience in their
everyday lives. Derived from this big project was the Cultivation Theory.
The Cultivation Theory, also known as the Cultivation
Analysis or the Cultivation Hypothesis, is a social theory that studies
long-term effects of media on viewers’ ideas and perceptions, especially
through the television medium. Its main causal argument is that “Mass
communication, especially the TV, cultivates concepts of social reality of its
viewers,” giving the theory its name. Gerbner observed on the basis of the
“people religiously watching TV” that we know some things not because we have
experienced them but because we see them on media. Therefore, according to this
theory, there is a direct relationship between TV time, the frequency that a
person watches TV, and reality perception, how realistic a person thinks
something is. The more frequently viewers watch TV, the more they are likely to
believe what they see on TV. Furthermore, in his 1982 Violence Index, the
results showed that violence is at least ten times (10x) more on TV than in
real life. In other words, violence and other “realities” shown on TV are
exaggerated. So if this was what the people were seeing on TV, these people
were likely to have believed a distorted perception of reality.
The Cultivation Theory is considered a stalagmite theory. A
stalagmite is a mass of accumulated deposits that grows on cave ceilings, and
so, it is a metaphor for the long-term effects of media. As stated by the
Limited Effects Paradigm, the media has little to no effect on its audience and
their culture. In response to this paradigm, the Cultivation Theory suggests
that just like the stalagmites that build up on floors of caves for millions of
years, the effects of media, though in tiny bits and pieces, gradually
accumulate through time and eventually become something significant to cause a
tangible impact. Moreover, this theory reflects the transformation of media
from just a message sender to a representative of shared beliefs so as to
maintain society.
As a concept, the Cultivation Theory has several
assumptions to consider. First, TV is different from other forms of mass media.
This concept emphasizes the essential and fundamental uniqueness of the
television as it is the central cultural arm of society which draws together
dissimilar groups so they can show each of their similarities, and as the main
source of widely shared images and messages in history even before the internet
came to be. What made the TV unique is that literacy is not a requirement in
watching it, unlike in print media such as newspapers. It is also “free” in a
sense that after paying for its initial costs like its purchase price, one does
not have to pay per view of a program because it can already be watched on TV.
It also combines the visual and auditory, unlike in the radio where it is all
in audio form and the newspaper where it is just pictures and articles. TV is
also ageless, meaning people of all ages can use and watch television. Second, TV
shapes society’s way of thinking and relating. This pertains to the influence
of TV because of its centralized storytelling, usually through news, drama, or advertisements.
It is a medium of socialization and enculturation, for instance, it broadcasts
current events for a whole people to see since it surpasses geographical
separation. It also stabilizes how things are in the world, resisting change,
but at the same time, it also forms viewer’s social realities, promoting
change, as it affects how a person looks at a certain object, situation, or
idea. To reiterate, realities created by the TV are not exactly based on facts
but on speculations, making it a non-absolute truth. Last, TV is limited since
its effects to people are very minimal to be felt right away. However, minimal
as the effects are, this relatively small change can make a crucial difference,
explained by the Ice Age Analogy by which the slight change of global
temperature have led to the destruction of the gigantic mounds of ice during the
Ice Age.
Based on the theory, there have been steps developed and
products made in relation to Cultivation Analysis which are mainly the
Four-Step Process, Mainstreaming and Resonance, and the Mean World Index. The
Four-Step Process validates the assumptions relating to the TV having an important
effect on culture: 1.) Message System Analysis is the detailed content analysis
of TV programming to demonstrate consistent and repeated presentations of
messages; 2.) Formulation of questions about viewers’ social realities is
developing questions about people’s understanding of their everyday lives; 3.)
Surveying the audience requires questions from #2 to be posed to audience, and
researchers ask them about their level of TV watching; 4.) Comparing the social
realities of light and heavy viewers is comparing what social realities are
experienced by light TV viewers and heavy TV viewers. In terms of cultivating
viewers’ perceptions, there are two different ways: 1.) Mainstreaming – the tendency
of heavy viewers to see a culturally dominant reality to the image presented by
the media; and 2.) Resonance – occurs when a viewer’s reality matches the
reality seen on media. As a result of the study, there came the Mean World
Index which found out three statements: 1.) Most people are just looking out
for themselves; 2.) You can’t be too careful in dealing with people; and 3.)
Most people would take advantage of you if they got the chance. In addition, it
established the idea that heavy TV viewers see the world as a meaner place
compared to light TV viewers.
Now, the theory and the studies conducted to furthermore
investigate the theory has all pointed to one main idea – the world is highly
influenced by the readily available media TV. TV feeds us with stories and
information which are usually fantasized and blown up to become tempting for
the eyes of the viewers. And once we get hooked with a particular TV show, it
would be most likely that we shall perceive what we idolize as a reality that
can be achieved. In that case, one has the discretion to decide whether things
presented on media are true reality or just overrated fantasies.
