In the chapter of Cultivation theory Griffin writes about Gerbner's survey to discover the cultivation differential. Gerbner targeted four attitudes in this survey: Chances of involvement with violence, Fear of walking alone at night, Perceived activity of police, and the general mistrust of people. What Gerbner did was take two groups, the light and heavy viewers and asked them about each category. What he got was the heavy viewers believing that they are more likely to be a victim of violence, they fear that 1 in 10 of them will be of risk of violence on any given day. Light viewers believed that in was more like 1 in 100. Crime statistics actually indicate that 1 out of 10,000 is more likely. Watching shows like CSI and 24 people fear walking alone at night, because the shows make the person believe that something will happen. The other perception is that people who are heavy TV viewers think that police are always out in force patrolling the streets. This is not the case. I can say that this is also not true because my dad is an officer and he often tells me about the lack of police on the streets. The final attitude is that most heavy TV viewers have a general mistrust of people, because of all of the backstabbing going on in most shows that are on TV these days.
In this video from 24, it shows jack and his team entering a suspected terrorist hideout where they end up killing all of the people inside.
This depicts a very violent situation where people are dying and to the heavy viewer they may take this show as being real. they might think that this is actually what happens on a regular basis with our counter terrorism and police forces. This video goes along with the perceived activity of Police. Police normally do not engage in all out firefights with suspects.
This is the problem with people watching to much TV, they gain perceptions of different things which are not substantiated in any way but through TV shows. I do not watch much TV, I probably see about one hour per week for a snowboarding show I watch. To me I can understand why people would have fearful thoughts from TV. If they do not have any other experience than whats on TV, then I think that Gerbner's survey was effective.
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I love 24, Jack Bauer is my favorite television character ever created, so I am totally biased to this show. But Matt makes a good point when he says that police don't normally engage in all out firefights with suspects, and everytime they do it's all over the news how the police used excessive force in taking suspects. I know a lot of heavy TV watchers who I'm friends with, that when we go down to the city or to a club there worried about getting mugged or shot or somthing just from watching tv. So TV defintley does have an effect on people perceptions and is greatly influential.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Matt and Jim in that the violent actions we view on television are many times misconceived as being similar to real life scenarios. I have not personally spent much time watching 24, but I do know that it tends to be a fairly violent show, and I can understand why its viewers would mistake its plotlines on being based on real life situations. I don’t think that it makes much of a difference whether one is a heavy or light viewer, seeing as someone who watches just one hour of television a week, such as a violent show like 24, could easily be as emotionally affected as someone who watches much more. I know I myself watch a number of different shows a week, and so many of them contain violent plotlines for the sake of entertainment for viewers. I agree with Matt’s point that to someone who watches a lot of television, and has no outside viewpoint, would most likely only relate the outside world to that in which they view on the tube. However, in thinking of myself as somewhat of a heavy viewer, and relating back to violent scenes I have viewed on shows in the past, I can honestly say that there have been limited times when I have been fearful of the outside world due to something that I witnessed on television. I think that the world can be a scary place, regardless of what one views or does not view on television, and someone does not need to view violent scenes in shows to realize such a reality.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this chapter I never thought that television had a strong impact on people's perception to violence. When I was little and something scary happened in a movie my mom would always remind me that it was only a movie so it wasn't real. I guess because I always grew up with that notion I assumed everyone was and never gave a second thought to what perceptions people could draw from violent things seen on television.
ReplyDeleteReading the chapter I thought it was a little far-fetched of a theory just because Gerber claimed he couldn't test his theory because it would be "impossible" to test in a lab since the results would show up only after a very long period of time & television watching had passed. But by reading these blog entries and by being able to view the clips, especially this one from 24, I can see how some people could have misconceptions. If you're a heavy television watcher & it's all you know, why wouldn't you have faith in what you were watching?
I agree with Matt in that heavy TV viewers believe that police officers tend to draw their guns on a regular basis. In TV shows, like the one shown, the police officers are made out to get into violent and dangerous conflicts regularly. This is not true, but I can understand why a heavy TV viewers would perceive it to be true. Television shows tend to show a large amount of drama and violence, because that is what gets the audience to tune in every week. Without the violence, the TV shows would most likely lose many of their audience, in certain demographics. It is for this reason that I understand why heavy TV viewers have the perception that police officers get into violent conflicts, on a regular basis.
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