Cultivation Analysis and the Local News

As stated in the Narrative Paradigm, humans are storytelling beings. Cultivation Analysis posits that television has become the source for the majority of stories in modern culture. Based on this constant influence of television, our world views are shaped by what we see on television. An important aspect of this theory is the idea of light versus heavy television viewers. Heavy viewers, those who watch four or more hours of television a day, are more likely to mainstream, or perceive reality as similar to what is pictured in the media despite the fact that it differs from actual reality. Heavy viewers are also more likely to agree with the statements of the Mean World Index-that most people are looking out for themselves, you can't be too careful in dealing with people, and most people will take advantage of you given the chance. In examining local news broadcasts, it becomes clear why heavy viewers would see the world as a mean place.

The local news is dominated by stories of arson, robbery, and violent crime. As these video clips show, stabbings are always a hot ticket for local news programs. Based on these facts about the medium, heavy television viewers are likely to be strongly affected by the local news. For example, despite the fact that many television viewers live in safe, suburban neighborhoods, they may mainstream their view of their society and view the world as a dangerous place. In other words, despite the fact that these local stories may have no resonance with many viewers, in that their lived realities do no coincide with the reality portrayed on the news, the viewers will still face the world with increased fear.

Additionally, viewers of local news will most likely experience both first and second order effects. Using the video clips as examples, it's easy to examine how such effects would manifest themselves. These clips state factually the events of two violent crimes, specifically stabbings. Viewers learning the facts of the crimes are experiencing first order effects. However, should those viewers take those facts and hypothesize that stabbings are a common occurrence in the area, they are experiencing second order effects. They are making assumptions based on the facts they've learned from the news.

The local news coverage also relates to the three Bs of television. Firstly, it blurs traditional distinctions between people. For example, an unemployed, uneducated man and a successful, well-educated woman would often have differing views of the world. However, if they both frequently watch the news coverage of their area, they could very easily begin to see the world in a similar way. Secondly, television blends people's realities to form to the cultural mainstream. In other words, based on our exposure to television, we agree on what is real. So despite the fact that people in their personal lives have very different realities, television blends everything together into one mainstream reality. Finally, television bends that reality to the interests of television sponsors. In other words, if the local news constantly focuses on stories of violent crime, the home security company that sponsors the broadcasts will benefit.

Clearly when we watch the local news we are doing far more than simply observing the events in our community. We are part of a storytelling experience which subtly but surely influences our perceptions of reality.

Cultivation Analysis: A Portrayal of African Americans on Television

Above you will find three pieces of television media: one music video, a clip from a television show, and a clip from a news station. In the following blog entry, I will explain how each of the videos pertains to George Gerbner’s Cultivation Analysis.

To begin with, a brief explanation of Cultivation Analysis must be given and elaborated upon. Cultivation analysis essentially believes that if people are exposed to media messages over a long period of time, people’s perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and understandings will be shaped and changed in congruence with the media messages.

There is a Four-Step Process that researchers developed and used to help explain how cultivation works. The four steps of the process are message system analysis (analysis of content), formulation of questions about viewers’ social realities (make questions about how people understand their everyday lives), surveying the audience (asking about how much media intake audiences receive AND asking the questions from step two), comparing the social realities of light and heavy viewers (this involves cultivation differential which is the difference between the responses of light and heavy viewers). Although the Four-Step Process is an important aspect of Cultivation Analysis, it will not be used in this particular blog because it is only used by Cultivation researchers.

There are also three products of Cultivation Analysis. The first is mainstreaming, which is the phenomenon that people who watch a lot of television end up viewing the world in terms of how the media messages portrayed the world. The second is resonance, which occurs when the reality portrayed by media messages is reality in the real world. Both mainstreaming and resonance produce effects on two levels: first order effects and second order effects. First Order Effects pertains to learning facts from the media. Second Order Effects pertains to learning values/assumptions from the media. The third and final product of Cultivation Analysis is the Mean World Index, which is an index that is based on three statements: most people are just looking out for themselves, you can’t be too careful in dealing with people, and most people would take advantage of you if they got the chance.

Cultivation Analysis also contains what Gerbner terms as the 3 Bs of Television. These are blurring (traditional distinctions are blurred), blending (“reality” is blended into a cultural mainstream), and bending (the mainstream reality benefits the elite).

Because it is very difficult to find pieces of media that depict the affect of particular media messages on people over a long period of time, I will draw from personal experiences, and experiences of my friends, in incorporating the video clips into the Cultivation Analysis Theory.
In this blog analysis, I will show how black people are portrayed in the media, and how this portrayal affects perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and understandings. The reason that I chose to use three video clips, instead of one, is because black people are mainly portrayed in the media in three different ways. They are portrayed as sexual and materialistic, wholesome and intelligent, and criminal and dangerous.

The first video clip is a music video entitled “Pop Bottles”, and performed by Birdman featuring Lil’ Wayne. This video is categorized as sexual and materialistic. Throughout the video there are many sexual references made and the women in the video are dressed in a very provocative way, and they also seem to participate in provocative actions such as dancing in a very sexual way. I interviewed a close male friend who is a heavy television viewer, and asked him what he thought about this video and the message it portrays about black people. He said that he saw black people as very sexual people, which can be supported by the number of accidental teen pregnancies that are rampant in the black community. This is an example of both mainstreaming and resonance. It is mainstreaming because sexual and materialistic media messages, such as the ones in the video, portrayed about black people has shaped his worldview. It is resonance because he related these views to the real world in the way he described the problem of accidental teenage pregnancies. My close male friend’s response can also be associated with first order effects and second order effects. His response is associated with first order effects because he has learned facts about the consequences that have occurred due to a supposed overly sexual community. These facts (coupled with the many sexual videos featuring black people rampant in the media) then caused him to make the assumption that the whole black community is overly sexual (second order effects). Blending is also part of this example because my friend’s reality was blended into the cultural mainstream of the views on sexuality in the black culture.

The second video is a clip from the popular sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Using comedic effects, this show portrays a family that grows, loves, and learns through different trials and tribulations that happen daily. This is a compilation of three different clip is categorized as wholesome and intelligent. In each of these particular clips Will, the main character, seems to switch role from being wholesome and intelligent at some instances, but at other instances he comes across as abrasive and “ghetto”, especially when making sexual advanced towards women. However, it should be noted that these sexual advances are no where near the level of sexuality of the previous music video. Overall, the show is more wholesome and intelligent than not. I asked a friend (a medium television watcher) that I met at college to view this clip and give me her reactions and what she thought the video portrayed about black people. Her response was that she has many black friends that are both wholesome and intelligent individuals. She said she often watched this show (and other shows like it), and felt that many black people were just as the show portrayed. She also recognized that there were black people (that she knew) that are not wholesome and intelligent, but not many. I found that her response contained resonance. It contained resonance because she could compare the wholesome and intelligent side of Will, and also the non-wholesome and unintelligent side of him, to people she knew.

The last video clip is a 4-minute clip depicting a group of black girls arguing with and beating up a white man on a New York subway. Although this clip is a very disturbing thing to watch, many more scenes like this, depicting criminal and dangerous black people are rampant in the media every day on shows like COPS. Although this clip was originally just a YouTube video, it was played countless times on both local and national television news stations. This clip is categorized as criminal and dangerous. Instead of interviewing someone else to learn their views on this clip, and how black people are portrayed, I decided to use my personal reactions and feelings. Even though I am a black person, and know what it feels like to be stereotyped because of a generalization, after watching this video (and others like it on shows like COPS), I could not help be pulled into the idea that many black people are indeed violent and criminal individuals. I also know black people who act like the girls in the video. Again, this is an example of mainstreaming because I ended up seeing the media messages that black people are criminal and violent, and believing the messages myself, even though I am a black person. This is also an example of resonance because I know people who act like the girls in the video, thus making the two realities the same. The Mean World Index also partly played a part in my views on the supposed criminal and violent aspects of the black community because one of the statements (you can’t be too careful in dealing with people) rang clear when seeing the portrayed violent and criminal aspects of the black girls in the clip.

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.

Cultivation Analysis - NYPD Blue

These three clips are from the police television drama, NYPD Blue.

The three clips are short examples of the common roles women both play in this particular show and on television in general. We have three separate women who are fulfilling common societal misconceptions about women. In the male dominated world of television there is a continuous usage of women and their bodies for a purely sexual aspect. Whether it is a cop's girlfriend, a hooker on the street, or a woman getting ready to shower, each scene is an example of television developing the way people look at the world and each other.

The Cultivation Analysis theory examines the effect television has on its viewers over the course of time. Researchers have found people who watch more TV have distinctly different views of the world. Someone who watches a heavy dosage of TV every day will probably feel they are likely to be a victim of violence or that violence is much more prevalent than it really is. TV can warp viewers feelings about other issues as well. Television that depicts the dangers of inner-city violence may inspire racism in its viewers or television that bombards its viewers with corrupt politicians may find its audience highly suspicious of their governing body. TV blurs and blends the reality of those who watch it. Blurring occurs when educated people see the world similar to those with less education and blending happens when television "reality" blends with cultural reality.

One of the greatest ways television can warp reality is through its consistent use of women in a sexual manner. As shown in these clips and in many others, television that portrays its female characters as sexual objects inspires the same kinds of feelings in its audience. While you can not see the cultivation analysis theory exactly in that it is impossible to see the reaction people will have to these clips, the theory states that over time, people who watch women consistently portrayed in such a manner will see females that way. The audience even seems to have grown to expect such behavior from its television, nearly every night there is a hooker being questioned or attacked in a police drama. Likewise, women are shown without wearing clothing, or much less clothing so much it was become common place. You have to ask yourself why the woman in clip 3 is walking around in a robe, but is at the same time showing her under garments. Or why exactly is the woman in clip 1 have to be naked on camera? It is just as easy to show a woman "naked" without having to actually show her below the shoulders and above the knees. The clip almost seems excessive if not for the fact that women are routinely shown in movies naked for seemingly no cinematic reason.

These clips show the sexualized version of women that far too many people really thinks exist. The clips blur and blend reality enough times that we think it is normal behavior to see a hooker on every street corner or a woman openly showing off her body. Again, it is impossible to find a direct television example of this theory since it is only theorizing the reaction we, the audience, has after watching it! But, these clips are useful for examining the kind of reality TV has created for us, and as a helpful reminder that women are definitely not really like this.

Cultivation Analysis- A Clockwork Orange

The movie "Clockwork Orange" is about a young adult named Alex who is inclined to commit violent acts. He and his friends go around hurting other people and trashing others' properties. After accidentally killing a woman, Alex is sent to prison. In prison, he agrees to become part of an experimental program so that he can have a decreased sentence and be released sooner.

The experimental program entails Alex watching several videos. The second picture posted is a picture of Alex with his eyes held open. The hand in the picture is someone else putting drops in Alex's eyes so that his eyes don't dry up. The videos Alex is watching are all of violent acts of beatings, murders, rapes, war sequences, and other horrible acts of violence. This program lasts for several weeks.

At the end of the several weeks, Alex is scared of all violence despite the fact that he once committed many of those acts himself. To prove that he can be released from prison, someone starts shoving him and punching him to get a reaction. Alex just stood there scared not knowing what to do.

In Cultivation Analysis, George Gerbner talks about television and how it shapes our lives. One of the aspects in which television shapes our lives and opinions is violence. The common thought about tv and violence is that heavy viewers are more likely to be more violent and commit violent acts. But according to CA, heavy viewers are more likely to be afraid and stay away from violence. Heavy viewers are also more likely to view the world as mean.

One of the products of CA is mainstreaming, the tendency for heavy viewers to perceive a similar culturally dominant reality to that pictured on the media although this differs from actual reality. In this experimental program, Alex was a heavy viewer. For several weeks he watched horrifying videos to the point that he was scared of all violence. Although the videos he watched were comprised of violent acts that had actually happened, violence in real life does not occur in a continuous string in the way Alex saw it. So according to Gerbner, the fact that Alex watched these videos on end for several weeks would be the reason why Alex was afraid of violence and getting into a confrontation.

The other product of CA is resonance which occurs when a viewer's lived reality coincides with the reality pictured in the media. After Alex goes through the experimental program and is sent home, he is then faced with the obstacle of trying to start over in his home town. The people that he once hurt and that he once acted violently toward know of the program he went through and how he no longer acts violently. They therefore start acting violently toward him. Alex then begins to experience resonance since the "reality" that was portrayed to him in the videos was now coming to life as people were acting violently toward him. This is also a good illustration of what Gerbner calls "double dose" where Alex is first subjected to violence through the videos and then it is reinforced through getting beat up. It is evident that Alex is a prime example of the concept of cultivation analysis in terms of violence.