CULTIVATION THEORY was propagated by George Gerbner.
According to him ‘television audiences (unlike those of other media) view largely non selectively and by the clock rather by the program. Television viewing is a ritual, almost like a religion, except that it is attended to more regularly’. This view of the audience is that of the heavy viewer defined by Gerbner as one who watches TV for more than four hours a day. Thus TV is the media tool most relied upon by such an audience to get their information from.
The study showed that events and characters shown on TV were significantly at variance with real people and actual situations. For e.g. criminals, doctors and the police were glamorized in TV serials while in real life they hardly get any publicity. Not only that, TV has perpetuated stereotyped images of women as always young, beautiful and docile while men are shown as young, macho and assertive. Parents are usually depicted as old, tradition-bound and dependent, physically, financially and emotionally. (This type of analysis did not explain everything, but stimulated the team to probe further and find the answer to the question as to how the audience reacted to the content served to them by TV.)
The main point of the theory is that people who are addicted to television adapt their lives to the value systems and views that are brought to them by this media tool. For e.g. couch potatoes watching comedy shows most of the time believe that life is hunky dory and those who watch programs in which there is a predominance of violence think the world is essentially violent. In short the theory says that those who watch TV extensively cultivate a worldview fashioned by the programs they view.
Gerber said that American households had become so influenced by TV that they accepted whatever it conveyed to them without any questioning. The audiences, especially those who watched television heavily, did not suspect that the picture of society that TV showed was not based on facts and what it called social reality hardly matched the actuality that characterized the prevailing societal setup. He argued that this world view, perpetuated by television usually through soap operas, if allowed to persist would create a parallel social setup which had its own rules and value system and its own adherents. He said as television was a cultural tool it was expected to promote enculturation by stabilizing what was already there and not by introducing change.
According to Gerbner there are three types of viewers – heavy, medium and light – they are categorized on the basis of time they devote to TV watching every day.
Gerbner asked four questions to the respondents comprising of heavy and light viewers.
Were they ever involved in violence?
How many people did they think worked in the government security agencies?
What was the percentage of violent crimes?
Was murder more common among strangers or among people who were known to one another?
The questions were put to two sample groups, adults and adolescents. Their answers revealed that heavy watchers exaggerated the presence of violence in society.
The theory argued that not only did extensive exposure to television result in exaggerating one’s idea of violence in society, it also made a viewer see himself as a potential victim of crime and violence. Creating a world of one’s own, which is closely modeled on the fictional one of television, is going to affect a person’s response to perceived danger. Gerbner's team obtained responses which showed that watching TV was likely to make the watcher afraid of violence which could involve his own person.
No comments:
Post a Comment