Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cultivation Analysis in the film Rain Man
This clip is an excerpt from the Oscar winning film Rain Man. To give some background, Charlie (Tom Cruise) is trying to get to Los Angeles and gain rightful custody of his older, mentally challenged brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). Raymond has a certain type of autism, which enables his brain to function at superb speeds in some instances, but unable to perform fundamental tasks at other times. Charlie is attempting to get Raymond on a plane with him to Los Angeles, but Raymond is reluctant because of a study he was made aware of on television concerning plane crashes. Raymond is under the impression that plane crashes are a common occurrence, when in reality; air travel is the safest mode of transportation.
As we have learned, “cultivation analysis is a theory that predicts and explains the long-term formation of perceptions, understandings, and beliefs about the world as a result of consumption of media messages” (Turner 407). Raymond is exhibiting the belief that air travel is unsafe because of his exposure to a news story on plane crashes. Just as a person who is consistently viewing violently themed television programming and believes they are that much more susceptible to violence, Raymond is susceptible to the belief that plane crashes are common due to the programming he has watched.
Mainstreaming is the tendency for heavy viewers to perceive a similar culturally dominant reality to that pictured on the media, despite its countering what actually happens. The concept of mainstreaming can be related to this specific scene in Rain Man. Statistically, air travel is the safest mode of travel. But thousands of Americans are terrified of flying, because of the prospect of a crash. This is due to the fact that when a rare plane accident occurs, the news broadcasts are inundated with footage of it. But the news does not report on the thousands of car accidents that occur daily.
The belief by Raymond that air travel is dangerous is a result of a first order effect. This means that Raymond learned this fact directly from the media, contrary to a second order effect which involve hypothesizing about more general issues and assumptions. So Raymond’s fear of flying is due to direct news results, evidenced by the fact that he quotes every flight accident that has occurred to every major airline in the last twenty years.
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7 comments:
This a very relevant example of Cultivation Analysis because the fear of flying is very common. I myself get very nervous when I fly, but I never think twice before getting in a car.
Individuals have a 1 in 18,585 chance of being killed in an automobile accident, and only a 1 in 10.46 million chance of being killed in a plane crash.
Then why do so many people cry, hyperventilate, shake and pretty much freak out when they board a plan? Yet no one thinks twice before getting in their car every morning...
This phenomenon is the result of Cultivation Analysis. Television and movies constantly portray dramatic plane crashes (LOST, Castaway, We Are Marshall and Jurassic Park are just a few)which result in death, injury or the victims finding themselves stranded on a deserted island.
The news is also another source of media which leads people to believe that plane crashes are a lot more common than they are. The news rarely reports on the thousands of car accidents that claim lives daily, but if a plane crashes the story is guaranteed to be all over every news station for the next week.
Rain Man is a good choice as an example of Cultivation Analysis because anyone who has seen the whole movie knows that Ray is a heavy viewer. In this clip he is sitting in front of a t.v. at the airport, and there are numerous other scenes in the movie in which he is seen watching television.
Ray is a heavy viewer, and as a result his reality (concerning plane crashes at least) has been distorted.
Excellent illustration and excellent comment.
Just one minor misunderstanding: the belief by Raymond that air travel is dangerous is an example of second order effect, not first order effect, because it was Raymond's belief (value, assumption). The first order effect is exemplified through his learning the fact (air plan crashes) from tv.
Great example of Cultivation Analysis and second order effect! As an autistic savant, Raymond has an impeccable memory for events and numbers. He learned about the plane crashes from the media and therefore assumed that air travel is unsafe.
I think many people would empathize with Raymond's fear of flying because plane crashes usually make headline news. Although airplanes crash way less than do cars, people associate danger with flying because these reports are so prevalent in the media. There are so many movies about airplane disasters (Airplane!, Final Destination, Fearless, Airport 1975, Snakes on a Plane, and others), yet it is rare that a film centers around an automobile accident.
One interesting illustration of this second order effect happened to me a few years ago on a family vacation. We were on a cruise ship in the Caribbean and I was singing songs from the movie Titanic. Although we were nowhere near an iceberg at the time, my Mom got rather anxious and demanded I stopped singing those songs until we were home safely. It seems that my Mom was thinking in the same terms as Raymond was in the film.
This example is very easy to relate to. The media is constantly showing us examples of danger in the air, especially in movies, but car chases and dangerous driving usually ends well in such mediums [i.e. in the movies]. We have been trained to fear the worst in terms of flying but feel totally safe driving our cars, which are much more dangerous. If the media showed the norm instead of the rare occurrence then this would not be so.
This clip shows what type of person you would be if you relied solely on mainstream news media as your only, aside from your own perceptions, viewpoint on the world. Though independent studies have shown that flying is indeed the safest form of travel, superfluous media like to excite the notion of plane crashes. Therefore, whenever there is a plane crash, fatalities or no fatalities, much attention is given to them making it seem as though they are a frequent occurrence. The same hold true for child abductions and freak lightning strikes. These things are rare in hurting people or affecting peoples lives but when they do happen they massive amount of attention given to the story worries a heavy viewer.
Although I'm surprised Ray only knew about the negative statistics of plane crash deaths, and not the positive ones about the actual chance of dieing in a place crash, I think this is a great example of Cultivation Analysis and the effects of the media on society as a whole. I have many friends that have a fear of flying, and none that have a fear of driving, but the clear interaction with other cars on the road and virtually none with planes in the air puzzles me as to why people fear flying and not driving. When considering it more, the answer must ultimately be the media. Plane crashes are such a noteworthy thing among the various forms of media in today's culture because of their high casualty rate, making car accidents and deaths easily overlooked. This clip illustrates this concept perfectly, even though Ray has a disability, thus leading to occasional periods of illogical thinking.
This is a interesting example because when most people think of side effects of heavy television viewing the most common response is anti-social behavior derived from exceedingly violent programs. I find this clip very interesting because I never thought about how the media portrays plane rides and how in every mention of a plane ride the plane blows up, becomes hijacked, or crashes. In every plane movie or show most people die so its very understandable for heavy television viewers to be afraid of planes.
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