Cultivation Theory Summary

A valid complaint about animation that is rarely addressed is the reinforcement of gender roles and racial stereotypes. Though violence, obesity, commercialization, and short attention spans are also legitimate complaints, the issues of race relations and gender roles create widespread effects. This is not an issue specific to animation; it is prevalent in all forms of entertainment. Yet if we, as a culture, are to remove these issues from our media, we should be focusing on changing perceptions of the youngest members of our culture. A large issue with children’s cartoons is a lack of valid representation. (Parasecoli FIND DATE) What little representation that exists borders on stereotypes, and is catered towards white culture. This underrepresentation is prevalent even in the advertisements of children’s programs. Few commercials feature people of color, and those that do typically retain a white child in a position of power. (Merskin 2008) The lack of representation is so great that it has spawned the term “Symbolic annihilation.” (Klien Shiffman 2009) Those who consume more media are more vulnerable to this tacit confirmation of some groups as unimportant. (Klien Shiffman 2009) Because “Children's television exposure begins in infancy and persists throughout their lifetimes… what is learned during the early years is critical.”

It has been proven that the viewing of all the stereotypes becomes so embedded in a child’s mind that they can ultimately affect the career choices, self-worth, and relationships of these children. Therefore, media affects childrens ability to achieve their full potential as a human being because they feel as if it is a necessity to become something they’re

Popular culture is defined as “a composite of all the values, ideas, symbols, material goods, processes, and understandings that arise from mass media” (Atkins 131). It is well-known to the public and reinforces the way people see they world, including aspects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. According to Omi, popular culture “deals with the symbolic realm of social life, the images which it creates, represents, and disseminates contribute to the overall racial climate” (540). The individuals or groups belong to a specific race can be perceived based on their behavior portrayed by the mass media, instead of being recognized for who they truly are. Such effect created by the popular culture contributes to what is known as “racial stereotype”, which is “beliefs about differences in behavior associated with racial differences” (Jones 982).

    As previously stated, the Cultivation Theory is the belief that prolonged exposure to the media will condition your thinking. To be specific, repeatedly seeing something (or the lack thereof) on TV or in movies affects the way you view the world around you. According to “Living With Television: The Violence Profile”, “All societies have evolved ways of explaining the world to themselves and to their children. Socially constructed ‘reality’ gives a coherent picture of what exists, what is important, what is related to what, and what is right.” (Gerbner). This quote relates to the idea of media representation by implying that what is shown on the media is portrayed in such a way that makes the consumer believe it is reality. As an example, if the media portrays homosexuals as sassy and bossy, it will be done repeatedly until that single idea becomes a ‘reality’. The media also uses this tactic in reverse, which is called symbolic annihilation. This concept says that lack of representation in the media equates to lack of existence in society. The less you are seen in the media, the more you are deemed imaginary and will be treated as such.

Media and technology have such a great impact on society and how we perceive social systems and all the factors tied to them. Television shows have always been prevalent in touching upon topics in society pertaining to an array of things such as color, race, creed, interest group, sexuallity, political/religious affiliation, and many more. As time passes, television shows alter the topics in which they touch upon, as society grows and chances. As society becomes more tolerant and accepting of individuality and differences in beliefs, the television programs that we watch change with them. Even through the development, there are still many prejudices and inconsistencies in our society that cause conflict.

Part A: Out of the four theories present in the “Orbe & Harris” reading the theory that stood out the most to me was the Cultivation Theory. I believe that the reason this stood out to me is that I’ve seen firsthand on television racist comments, remarks and bias against minorities. For example, Colin Cowherd an ESPN employee had his show cancelled after making a remark concerning the mass amounts of Dominican baseball players in the MLB. Think about all the young people watching or listening to what he had to say when he made the unwelcomed remark; I guarantee that since a public figure said something on live television that some of the children will now carry a diminished view on Dominicans from now on because their favorite sports radio

To begin with, the exposure to pop culture becomes influential to an individual as soon they are born. The example was given that in a sociology class, when presented a baby boy, the students’ reactions all followed a similar pattern and they said either one of the following: Oh, he’s curious or he’s an adventurer. However, when they put a baby with pink diapers in the center of the room, all the comments were degrading and were said in the following manner: Oh she’s not capable; she needs her mother. Initially, this anecdote seems far-fetched, nevertheless it exemplifies the severity of misogyny within media and culture. Karen Sterheimer, Ph.D., notes that toys are explicitly marketed based on gender and the toy industry goes as far as making you aware which aisle you are in without even realizing it.

(2) Discuss the ways in which power/powerlessness comes into play in the situation of women

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Power: a motive to work, a motive to listen, a motive to kill. Power can make people do anything. Those who have it control those below them. But this is not the case for the women in Those in power (the men) try to make the women believe they have power over each other.

Media has the ability to impact our everyday lives if you allow them to. It can determine how people perceive social norms, morals and values. Media can influence society far more reaching since they are different methods such as television, radio, movies, music, newspaper and many more. Moreover, media demonstrates its influence over the social values and norms through the use of violence, establishing unrealistic body imagery as well as the ability to dictate social needs through advertisements and commercials. Violence in media can affect children of all ages but in different ways. Each group may react differently to violence portrayed in the media depending on how much television they watch, as well as parental input and the media supervision by the parents. As an infant, they would pay attention to television set for short periods of time, if the adult physically directs them toward it. There has been no evidence that indicates media effects on infants, however they show signs of tiredness. Josephson (1978) said that “babies who watched

Media plays a big role in the stereotypes we assign to a particular group and whether those words used to describe that group are positive or negative. My understanding of these concepts of social injustice has changed over the semester in that I never consciously noticed how much of an impact the media plays on teaching these stereotypes and

According to the social learning theory, the influence of the media in the formation of gender roles and identity is known as being indirectly and vicariously reinforced. It states that we can learn gender appropriate behaviour by learning from others. So by having gender stereotypes portrayed in the media, it has a powerful influence on all of us but especially on children because they are currently

Gerbner’s cultivation theory states that television has become the main source of storytelling in today's

Mass media is a form of communication that presents and delivers information to a larger audience. Throughout society, it is evident that mass media is a true determinant in how we perceive different groups of people. This is due to the fact that mass media presents different groups in a specific and stereotypical way, ultimately shaping our perceptions of the outgroup that is based solely on what is presented in the media. The media formats that present groups in stereotypical situations include not only news and television broadcasts, but also movie and film production. Thus, the proliferation and popularity of movies has contributed to the overall shift in our perceptions of different social groups.