Cultivation Theory proposes that heavy television viewers come to see the real world in ways that reflect the most common and recurrent messages of the television world. It suggests that the more time people spend watching television, the more likely they are to believe social realities portrayed on television reflect the actual world. The theory was developed by George Gerbner and focuses on how television shapes viewers' perceptions of violence and crime in society. Later refinements added the concepts of "mainstreaming" and "resonance" to better explain television's influence on viewers' beliefs. While influential, Cultivation Theory has also received criticisms for being an oversimplification and not accounting for other social and media influences.

1. CULTIVATION THEORY OF
MASS AND
COMMUNICATION

3. • Cultivation Theory is a sociological theory, also known
as Cultivation Hypothesis. It was proposed by George
Gerbner. It is one of the fundamental theories of media
effects.
• The theory states that people who frequently watch
television are more likely to get influenced by the
messages from the world of television.
• The influence affects their views and perception towards
the world and they start reflecting what they repeatedly
see and hear on televisions.

5. In practice, images and ideological messages
transmitted by popular media heavily influence
perceptions of the real world.
The more media that people consume, the more their
perceptions change. Such images and messages, especially
when repeated, help bring about the culture that they
portray. Cultivation theory
aims to understand how long-term exposure to television
programming, with its recurrent patterns of messages and
images, can contribute to assumptions about the world.
5

6. —
For many individuals the
distorted and partial reality portrayed on television
represents what the world is ‘really’ like.
They start judging the social reality as it was portrayed
on the television.
—
In more recent times, researchers have delved into other
forms of media such as reality TV and video games, to
study the effects of cultivation theory.

7. TV viewing and fear
of crime:
→ In most of the surveys conducted by Gerbner, the results
revealed a small but statistically significant relationship between
television consumption and fear of becoming the victim of a
crime. Those with light viewing habits predicted their weekly
odds of being a victim were 1 in 100; those with heavy viewing
habits predicted 1 in 10. Actual crime statistics
showed the risk to be 1 in 10,000.

9. The Mean World
Syndrome:
→ During the exploration of the effects of television
viewing, Gerbner (1980) also coined
the term mean world syndrome to describe the cognitive bias whereby
television viewers exposed especially to violent content were more likely to
see the world as more dangerous than it actually is.
→ Because television programming significantly shaped
attitudes toward and opinions of reality, regular viewers of violent content
were likely to experience more fear, pessimism, increased anxiety and a greater
alertness to imaginary threats.
→ Alternatively, those who watched little television were
more likely to view the world as less dangerous.

11. MAIN STREAMING &
RESONANCE
→ As cultivation theory became more established, Gerbner
and his colleagues refined it to better explain the influence
of media by adding the ideas of mainstreaming and
resonance in the 1970s.
→  Between the television message and the real-life crime
rate, cultivation effects will be amplified, enhancing the
belief that the world is a mean and scary place.

12. Mainstreaming happens when heavy
television viewers who would otherwise hold
very different views develop
a homogenous view of the world. In other
words, the attitudes of these divergent viewers
all share a common, mainstream perspective
that they cultivated through frequent exposure
to the same television messages.

13. Resonance occurs when a media message is
especially noteworthy to an individual because
it
somehow coincides with a viewers’ lived
experience. This provides a double dose
of the message conveyed on television. For
example, television messages about violence
are likely to be especially resonant to an
individual who lives in a city with a high crime
rate.

15. CRITICISM
→ The theory is criticized for being
oversimplified as social relationships are
complex.
→ The theory focuses on television only and
have not considered effects of other media
and human
experiences.
→ There is no mention of social situations
affecting media portrayal of images.
→ More fearful people can be watching more
television and not the opposite.
→ Other studies have shown that change in
variables like age, location, education and sex
could have
removed cultivation effects.
→ People rarely compare others in social
situations with people on television.
→ It is also criticized on being entirely about the
US and not getting similar results in Britain.
→ Most people do not
believe what they see on television.
→ Content and choice of programs also change
cultivation in people.

16. THANKYOU
PRESENTATION BY TASMIA MIRZA