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Survey of Communication Theory: Cultivation Theory Cultivations of Reality Through Television
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(Note: This paper was written at the University of South Carolina) by: Carrie Phillips , Jennifer Bonds28 September, 1999 Cultivation Theory is a theory of mass communications that states that society's perceptions of reality are cultivated by what we watch on television. In other words, the theory surmises that because an individual watches "ER" on television, that individual assumes that all hospital emergency rooms are just like the one portrayed in the show. The theory is most famous for its applications to the correlations between media violence and violent behavior, but cultivation research has covered all aspects of television's effects on society. HISTORY George Gerbner was a young Hungarian poet who immigrated to the United States to escape the fascist regime in Hungary in the 1930s. He studied journalism at Berkeley, and after graduation, he worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he originated a column for the wartime consumer. Gerbner went back to school (after fighting and editing newspapers for the American Armed Forces)at the University of Southern California (Lent, 1992). He received his masters degree after writing the first-ever master's thesis on education and television (Stossel, 1997), and then his Ph.D. While completing his Ph.D., Gerbner, under the tutelage of Professor James D. Finn, wrote a dissertation on "Toward a General Theory of Communication."
In 1967, Gerbner began what was to become 22 years of ongoing research, the Cultural Indicators Project. The project focused on "the recurrant and inescapable patterns of the cultural environment that shapes public ideas, actions, and policies" (Gerbner). Cultivation Theory and its ensuing research has a momentous role in the United States (McQuail, 1985). CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS To understand Cultivation Theory and all its facets, one must understand Gerbner's attitude toward television and its viewers. Gerbner sees television as "where the action is" (Lent, 1992), "not a window on or reflection of the world, but a world in itself" (Chandler, 1995), and a "modern day religion. It presents a coherent vision of the world" Stossel, 1997). He sees the modern viewer, then, as "isolated and atomized, thus highly influenceable" (Greek, 1996). This combination leads to the general precept of Cultivation Theory - that society's perceptions of reality are cultivated by what we watch on television. By saying that our perceptions of reality are 'cultivated' by television, the theory covers a very broad spectrum. Not only does that mean that we make assumptions about people, places and things from fictional sitcoms, soap operas, and dramas, but also from the television news media. Our perceptions of foreign governments, wars, and politics come from the televised broadcasts because that is the easiest and quickest way to learn about them. Gerbner's initial research and that of the Cultural Indicators Project sparked the intrest of many other researchers. Polling is a popular way to determine cultivation. In a cultivation annalysis poll, subjects are asked questions on issues pertaining to the amount of everyday violence that they perceive.
Although there have been many studies and experiments done to determine culivation effects, one momentous study was done by Leonard Eron at the University of Michigan. He followed a group of third-graders in suburban New York, cataloguing the amounts and types of television that they watched and their behavior. His observation concluded that the more violent the television viewed, the more aggressive the children were in school. He returned to the children when they were nineteen and again when they were thiry. Both times he found that the boys who had the background in violent television were more apt to be in trouble with the law, punish their children violently, and their spouses described them as more aggressive. "In 1993, at a conference of the National Council for Families & Television, Eron estimated that 10 percent of the violence in the United States can be attributed to television"(Stossel, 1997). Cultivation Research has been most famous for its findings on the effects of media violence. One very famous effect is that of the "Mean World" Syndrome: that because television depicts the world as a cruel and violent place, we assume that it is, and are therefore frightened and overly cautious (Gerbner). On television, women and ethnic minorities are portrayed as mostly victims of violent crimes, and ethnic minorities are also portrayed as the perpetrators of such crimes. Therefore, women and minorities are more likely to see through "mean world" eyes. Gerbner believes that the Mean World Syndrome could have something to do with American political views on capital punishment (Stossel, 1997). Television violence and its effects have always been a hot topic for politicians. However, their attention is rarely focused on the subject for long enough for any drastic change to be made. The contribution of television to violence in society has been shown through commissions, hearings, and a report by the surgeon general (Stossel, 1997). Senator John Pastore asserted that there was a risk to the public and that the government had an obligation to encourage the media to change their standards. As a result, Congress delegated $1 milliion for funding of research on the effects of television violence, resulting in a six-volume Report of the Surgeon General, with content analysis by Georger Gerbner (UCLA, 1997). Muriel Cantor, Thomas Baldwin, and Colby Lewis argued that television violence was a necessary part of plot and character development. They believed it accurately portrayed real life and was no! ! t responsible for actual violence in society (UCLA, 1997). CRITICISMS Gerbner's Cultivation Theory has been subject to criticism over being too simplistic. His critics argue that society's views on certain issues can be affected by a number of things, including their background and other people's influence. A disputing study done by Hawking and Dingree found no proof of a relation between societal views and television. A study by J. Ronald Milasky and associates also failed to find a causal relationship between the two. They agreed to an increase in short term agressive behavior due to television viewing, but found no evidence of a long term effect (UCLA, 1997).Another criticism of the theory is that is neglects the variations, such as age and sex, in heavy and light television viewers (Chandler, 1995). Another point criticised is that cultivation effects are not shown to occur outside of the United States (Chandler, 1995). A British study on the same subject found no evidence of a correlation. However, this can be attributed to differences in media culture in different countries. Also, the susceptibility of a person to believe what they see on television must be taken into consideration. A more skeptical viewer will not garner as much of their social reality from television as a less skeptical viewer. Gerbner's studies can also be criticized for not analyzing the positive effects of television on society. His violence in television studies illustrated the negative effects, but he failed to research whether televsion could have an encouraging effect on society. CONCLUSIONS Georger Gerbner's research initiated a lengthy debate on the effects of television, especially violent television. Though it has become clear that he may not be exactly right on all points of his theory, he has raised some very strong questions that do not look to be answered anytime soon. Is there any accurate way to measure the effects of television on society? Will we really ever know why some people are more prone to violence than others? Probably not. It could be human nature, or there could be too many outside variables for an accurate hypothesis. Cultivation Theory is grounded in a lot of evidence, and its most redeeming characteristic is that it makes sense. Bibliography: Bitner, John R. (1977). Mass Communication: An Introduction (Theory and Practice of Mass Media in Society). Prentice Hall. Chandler, Daniel. (1995) Cultivation Theory. Online: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/cultiv.html. Elridge, John. (1995) Glasgow Media Group Reader Volume 1. Rutledge. Gerbner, George. (1977) Mass Media Policies in Changing Cultures. Wiley Interscience. Gerbner, George. (1969) The Film Hero: A Cross-Cultural Study. Association for Education in Journalism. Gerbner, George. (1996) Letter to the Communication Initiative. Online: http://www.comminit.com/power_point/change_theories/sld013.htm/. Gerbner, George, Larry Gross, Michael Morgan and Nancy Signorelli. (1980) Violence Profile No. 11. Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Gerbner, George. Culture Wars and the Liberating Alternative. Online: Giroux, Luc and Jacques Pietle. (1997) The Theoretical Foundations of Media Education Programs. Transaction. Greek, Cecil. (1996) Media and Reality. Online: Hanclosky, Walter V. (1995) Principles of Media Development. Knowledge Industry Publications. Heath, Robert L. and Jennings Bryant. (1992) Human Communication Theory and Research: Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges. Lawrence Erlbaum Associatess, Inc. Lent, John A. (1995) A Different Road Taken: Profiles in Critical Communication. Westview Press, Inc. McQuail, Denis. (1985) Conflicts of Theory and Issues of New Information Policy. Transaction. McQuivey, James. (1997) Fearing the "Mean World": Exploring the Victim-Offender Relationship's Influence on Fear of Violent Crime. Online: Murray, John P. Impact of Televised Violence. Online: Stossel, Scott. (1997) The Man Who Counts the Killings. The Atlantic Monthly. Online: Tehranian, Majid. (1979) Development Theory and Communication Policy: The Changing Paradigms. Ablex. UCLA Center for Communication Policy. (1997) The UCLA Television Violence Report 1997. Online: Wober, J. Mallory. (1988) The Use and Abuse of Television: A Social Psychological Analysis of the Changing Screen. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. |
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