Cultivation theory

The Cultivation Theory proposes that the exposure of television could influence audience perception of reality. This theory suggest that if the audience watches a lot of television that they can get manipulated into disbelieve reality and rejecting it. In this theory Gerbner focus on three entities; institutions, messages and publics. Gerbner believed that television had such a huge effect on its consumers that the influence it had on people could be compared to a religion since had such a huge influence on modern society. Overall his Theory focused on the large meaning of heavy TV consumptions over the meaning of specific messages.

The Cultivation Theory has three different view which it analyzed:

Moderate viewers: This look at viewers who watch TV for less than 2 hours a day and don’t bother watching television often. These viewers are unlikely to be influence by television and their perception of reality is a lot stronger. Therefore, they are not impacted when they watch voilance or other influence things since they can make have own perception of reality.

Heavy Viewers: These are viewers who watch television a 4 hours or more each day. These viewers are lot more easily influenced by television and struggle to see reality meaning they see the world how the television portrays it to them. Therefore, television has a huge impact on their life since they spend a majority of their time watching television hence they are more easily influenced.

Light viewers: These are viewers who spend 4 hours each day watching television. These viewers are not influenced by television as much as heavy viewers since they can still see reality as it is. This means that they television could impact them but they can still tell what is real and what isn’t since they do not rely on television to make they own decisions.