Gerbners Cultivation Theory

Theories of Mass Communication and the Culture Industry
Gerbner’s cultivation theory posited that an individual’s behavior is associated with how much TV that person has watched. In other words, media plays an instrumental role in determining how one thinks and acts. Behavior is cultivated by the media in the individual (Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks, 2015). Cultivation theory is part of the larger field of mass communication theories, such as agenda-setting theory. The idea behind cultivation theory is that mass media is the main source of information for people, and so they take all their ideas about the world and themselves from the media. People engage in whatever behaviors they do as a result; if they are violent or fearful it is an effect of their engagement with TV. The message system of TV media deals with the content; the cultivation aspect of the system deals with how the content affects the viewer (Griffin et al., 2015). In my own life, I can see that this is true and I will cite two examples. First, I will cite the example of how spending a lot of time watching romantic movies gave me a certain impression of what to expect in a romantic relationship. Second, I will cite the example of my father who watches TV all day long and how his fear of COVID is very pronounced as a result.
My Experience
Growing up, I spent a lot of time watching TV and movies and it shaped my own worldview and how I believed a relationship should be. I watched a variety of films but in general they were all the same. They were all about two people overcoming some obstacle and living happily ever after. I expected that this is how it would work in real life, but in real life I found that obstacle after obstacle often presents itself and unless two people are resolved to stick it out for the long-term (i.e., till death do us part) it is unlikely that there will be a happily ever after. In this regard, TV set me up for disappointment. I expected one thing, but experienced something else. After this, I began to distrust all mass media and viewed it as a way to sell fantasy to people. There is a song by Operation Ivy called “Artificial Life” that describes how companies sell consumers an “artificial life in the marketplace” and how this is essentially like giving up your own life for a false one that is sold for a profit. I was able to break free from the gravitational force of the TV because I saw that its message did not match the reality of what I experienced in the real world. So I do not pay any attention to mass media any longer. I do not listen to any of the 24/7 news channels or watch any of the shows or movies that come on. If I want entertainment, I pull up something on YouTube that is created by an independent artist.
The message, at first, was that the TV world looks like my world so it must be true, as Gerbner points out (Griffin et al., 2015). However, what I found was that this is just an illusion—a trick. The real world is actually nothing like the TV world. In the first place, the TV world lasts only a few minutes and then it is over. The real world never stops. There is never any “happy ending,” only moments of happiness before the next challenge approaches. I prefer to stay in the real world rather than participate in the illusion of the fantasy of the fake TV world, so I feel that the gravitational hold does not apply to me.
My Father
My father is a different story, as I see him watching TV all the time. He is convinced that COVID is a real, dangerous disease and that people are dying from it because the TV tells him so—even though he does not know anyone in his own life who has died from it. He knows people who have tested positive for coronavirus, but none of them ever got very sick at all. Yet he is convinced COVID is a serious threat, even though his own eyes and lived experience do not confirm this. His is a case where he trusts the TV more than he does his own experience and sense of things in the real world. He is still caught by the gravitational pull of the TV and thus his fear is cultivated by the TV—just as it should be, if one is going to also apply the agenda-setting theory of mass communications—which in this case would be that the agenda setters want the populace to be fearful so that the Establishment can better control them.
My father is convinced that every narrative told to him by the mainstream media is true—even though there is ample evidence to show that the media outlets lie, fabricate and sensationalize constantly. I have even tried to point this out to him, but he refuses to believe it. It is as though his entire world would collapse if it were shown that TV was a lie. He would have nothing to hold onto. It reminds me of the scene in the first Matrix movie when the one character chooses to take the pill that keeps him in the Matrix even though he knows it is not a true reality. He prefers the lie to the truth because the reality is not very satisfying to him. I feel that this describes my father’s situation very much, whereas I took the pill that takes one out of the lie and I accept reality for what it is and do not look for TV to tell me what it is.
Conclusion
Cultivation theory is a powerful way to explain how TV and mass media cultivate feelings and behaviors in the populace. Agenda-setting theory is another mass communications theory that can build on it and explain the purpose behind the cultivation. The Culture Industry is real and powerful, both theories suggest.
References
Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A. & Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory. McGraw Hill.