This theory can help you to understand the current anti-government frenzy that is being flamed by Fox News as pointed out by Media Matters for America, for deliberately misinforming its audience and promoting conspiracy theories.

Television Viewing and Violence:
It has been estimated that the average American will spend approximately nine years of their life watching television (Noble, 1975; Surgeon General’s Report, 1972). The simple fact that Americans spend more time watching television than participating in any other activity indicates that some fundamental need is being satisfied. Unlike other visual media such as movies, television is usually viewed in one’s own home with the autonomy to produce a comfortable viewing situation. Television allows us to empathize with those characters we see, especially where the same sets of core characters (and actors) appear week after week in continuing series.

As a heavy viewer, I do not need to relinquish my identity to assume that of another, instead, there seems to be a level of interpersonal association. Given the ubiquity and presence of television, there is no doubt that it is a very powerful medium in American society and has many positive consequences. However, critics have expressed concern that some viewers, especially children, are negatively affected by violent and anti-social television content.

This paper examines the implications of television viewing and violence on our personal life and society using George Gerbner’s cultivation theory as the basis for this analysis. According to Gerbner's Cultivation Theory (Griffin, 2005), the more one watches television, the more he/she will start to form expectations about reality based on the represented world, rather than the experienced world. Gerbner's main use of Cultivation Theory is to demonstrate the link between communication media and violence. "He believes that the violence one sees on the screen cultivates a social paranoia that resists notions of trustworthy people or safe environments" (Griffin, 2005). Television acts as a socializing agent that educates viewers on a separate version of reality. By taking into account the process of mainstreaming and resonance, it explores the possible connections between social reality and symbolic reality. Cultivation theory also contends that heavy exposure to television violence cultivates insecurity, mistrust, and alienation, and a willingness to accept potentially repressive measures in the name of security, all of which strengthens and helps maintain the prevailing hierarchy of social power.

Many studies have documented the ability that television has to transmit messages as well as its ability to transform social attitudes. Television is a driving force in influencing the viewers’ perception of social behavior as well as social reality. In addition, television contributes to cultural norms (Gerbner, 2005), and conveys messages that concern the behavior it portrays. Culture stereotypes are prevalent in violence. For instance, consider the new Budweiser commercials. The "black" version depicts the African American men as laid-back, fun, cool guys. The "white" version depicts the Anglos as stuffed-shirt snobs. As explained in the cultivation theory, this can have a tremendous impact on young minds if they are continually exposed to such fixed images of people

Television definitely offers, “scripts” for delinquent or aggressive behavior that are otherwise unknown in their lives. Television can shape the forms that aggressive behaviors can take. It’s true in some cases that television provides skills likely to be used in committing acts of aggression. It also has the potential to direct the viewer’s attention to behaviors that they have not yet considered. For instance, as kids, we used to impersonate Karate or Kickboxing moves that we saw on television without the proper training or knowledge of the dangers that may come from this choice of action and we ended up getting hurt. Viewing television violence may also provide youngsters or criminals with effective tactics for committing violent crimes. This information may provide a direction to those who already have the motivation to engage in aggression.

In relation to the above, television can also influence us by giving the impression that aggression is an acceptable way to solve problems and handle conflicts. This can be made even more significant if the perpetrator is a hero figure and the violent act is portrayed as justified. Images of violence that are accepted as appropriate behavior and lead to positive consequences, can then lead a viewer into incorporating aggressive behavior in his/her own problem-solving scripts. For instance, in one episode of the Sopranos TV series, Tony Soprano was smacking his son on the head after a slight dispute; to some people this can be seen as a way of disciplining stubborn kids. I might not agree with that disciplinary method but this modeling process can potentially increase the probability that a viewer like a child may use a violent method of retaliation instead of nonviolence in settling conflicts.

Likewise, Wrestling has had its share of blame. Lionel Tate said he was imitating professional wrestlers when he killed his 6-year-old playmate, Tiffany Eunick. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a crime he committed when 12. In addition, in May 1998, Ocean City, Maryland, 12-year-old Darron Lawrence Green committed suicide and left a note citing TV Show “South Park” as a reason why he killed himself. He mentioned a character named Kenny, a small boy who dies violently in every South Park episode. The boy did not show any signs of depression before the act (Daily News).

Theory suggests that frequent viewing of television violence may desensitize audiences to violence and lead to a level of indifference to violent acts and outcomes. Viewers that have already had high exposure to violence (like me) through the television are physiologically less aroused by violence on television than viewers that have had low exposure. I fall under this category because I can differentiate from scripted drama form reality TV shows like “caught on Tape or Candid Hidden Camera shows.” Its true desensitization causes a viewer to be less anxious and less sensitive about violence. Our emotions are our physiological responders to what we are thinking. When we are in a scary movie for example, we may be experiencing this same nervous system response to the stimulus from the film. This is because when we perceive scary thoughts, we feel scared. As exposure to television violence increases, some of us became less and less emotionally responsive to the violent stimulus from the television because it’s fictitious.

In addition to the above, it can also be argued that individuals who are minimally aroused by televised violence may be less likely to engage in violent behavior. This is because when you watch TV shows such as CSI Miami, Cold Case Files, or FBI files that heavily use Forensic technology, there is no way as a sane person, I would want to get into crime. And “Prison profile TV shows” especially those that depicts what prisoners go through inside the prison really scares the crime off ones skin. Hence, it supports this theory. However, this theory may be correlated with the steady increase in televised violence since the 1960’s without a significant decrease in the violent crime rate until 1992 (FBI, Uniform Crime Reports).

People not only learn to be more aggressive from watching violent TV programs, they also learn to see the world as a dangerous place (induce fear). The Cultivation Theory argues that television creates a "reality" of its own that can affect the way a person sees the real world. The over-representation of violence on television, therefore, can have the effect of developing an exaggerated fear of victimization. Heavy viewers of television learn to believe that the incidence of violence in the world is higher than lighter viewers believe. Crime dramas like “Law and Order” may actually reduce fear of crime because the stories are resolved at the end of each episode. Perhaps it is television’s practice to frighten and demoralize its audience with one hand (the news) and console it with the other (the drama).

Television creates a power structure in which certain groups are more likely to be portrayed as victims of violence than others. Women and minorities who are at the bottom of this power structure are more likely to see the world as dangerous. Research has also shown that victims are more likely to live in rural neighborhoods as opposed to suburban neighborhoods. People who live in neighborhoods similar to those shown on television are, therefore, more likely to develop a fear of victimization: for instance, the fear of police by minorities is realized when the content on television resonates with real life experience that some of us went through resulting in a more cultivating effect as well as mistrust. This effect applies not only for adults, but also children. Children however, because they identify more strongly to television characters than adults, are more likely to be affected by it.

Another point of mistrust can be depicted from the TV Show “Cheaters”. Women as well as men have been proven to be cheats in their dating, marriage or other forms of intimate relationships. A couple of things can be derived from it. First, being caught in that situation creates a mistrust that might never be repaired especially in western societies. Secondly, if one is a cheat, he/she might stop because of fear of being caught and/or perhaps one becomes smarter maneuvering their tendencies.

Citing other examples, the 9/11 attacks were definitely and quite possibly the greatest disaster to befall the United States in the last half century, due to the thousands of deaths, the huge property losses, and the economic and personal disruptions it caused, directly and indirectly. The media, television in particular covered this incident almost consistently in a negative manner showing the planes crashing into the Twin Towers and the Towers collapsing almost every after five minutes or so. Positively, the media/television coverage of the terrorism emphasized the dangers that it posed, thereby mobilizing support for repression often on a higher scale than warranted by the threat. However, these horrific images that were showed again and again angered a lot of people, and following 9/11, there was widespread backlash against Muslim- and Arab-Americans, who faced increased hostility and discrimination from their neighbors because they shared a loose religious or ethnic affiliation with the attackers.

Furthermore, after the 9/11 attacks, the TV News Talk Shows went on a speculation trend especially exaggerating the possibility and dangers of nuclear terrorism and bio-terrorism. This mixed message traumatized the public by sending them on shopping frenzy for duct-tape and polythene bags or plastic. Likewise, the media speculations often lead to providing information that could be of value to the terrorists perhaps when the terrorist didn’t think of it. For instance, attack on US nuclear plants, bridges and other landmarks using trucks, buses, etc…the 9/11 incident definitely supports Cultivation Theory’s media induced violence, fear of victimization, mistrust, and to some people desensitization when the images were first shown on TV, I said that’s another Hollywood special effects. Then flipping almost all TV channels, I was seeing the same thing and then reality set inn.

While many studies provide evidence that specific forms of aggression or antisocial behavior can be learned from exposure to television violence, these learned behaviors do not necessarily lead to direct imitation. Although there is evidence that the television provides instructional models of behavior for children, an effect such as imitating television violence does not always occur, but instead, appears to depend upon both the individual and the circumstances.


Reference:

"Boy's suicide note cites 'South Park' character who dies." Daily News, May 23, 1998

Federal Bureau of Investigations, Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports, 1994 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995).


Griffin, E. (2005). A First Look At Communication Theory (6th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Noble, G. (1975). Children in Front of The Small Screen. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. http://www.sagepub.com/