Violence In Television

Jesse Lind

COMM 300

J. Anderson

General Claim

Television has become a form of reality for many people in our day and age. From a survey in 2000, about 98% of homes in America own a TV, without a doubt it has an influence on our perceptions of society. This study also revealed the average household owned 2.4 TVs and watched enough hours a year to equal 102 days (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002, from B. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Davie, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2004). With this mind, the amount of violent media Americans view causes negatively warped perceptions of today's society. This can be clearly shown in George Gerbner's cultivation theory. In his theory, he claims that because the television is such a key element in people's lives, they eventually are affected by its messages.

Theoretical Foundation

Gerbner claims that the violence on TV affects people's perceptions of the real world. He begins depicting this theory by clearly defining what exactly should be considered as violence. Gerbner states that it is, "the overt expression of physical force compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt and/or killed or threatened to be so victimized as part of the plot" (Griffin 381). There was specific cultural indicator research performed to decide how violent a program is rated. This was done by viewing shows during prime time viewing hours and counting every incident that happened. There was then an equation that calculated the total scripts, rate of violence, and number of characters involved. The research concluded that the average drama had five traumatic incidents while children's shows had about twenty every hour. As well as this, it was noted that African Americans and Hispanics were victims of violence more than White people (Griffin 382). The cultural indicators show how the minorities, though often underrepresented on TV, seem to be much more vulnerable to harm. Although, a person who is a heavy TV viewer is supposed to be affected more than light viewers, Gerbner claims that the affects of the media can only be seen after years of exposure. Heavy viewers are defined as someone who watches four hours or more while light viewers watch two or less (Griffin 383). As Gerbner distinguishes between heavy and light viewers, his sole purpose of the cultivation theory is to predict that heavy viewers see "the world as more dangerous" than the people who have light viewing habits do (Griffin 383).

As Gerbner attempts to figure out how heavy viewing affects people attitudes, he begins with the idea of the cultivation differential. Here, he reveals that heavy viewers and light viewers give different answers to questions regarding violence in society. An example of one of the questions is what the odds are of being a victim of a crime. This question's results proved that light viewers said 1 out of 100 while heavy viewers said 1 out of 10. Another sample question was what percent of the population you believe to be a police officer. Here, heavy viewers said 5 percent while light viewers said 1 percent (Griffin 384). This conveys the idea that people who are heavy viewers have a tendency to over exaggerate the number of occurrences of situations in which people are victimized. This embellishment of incidents is also a cause for the mean world attitude to take place. Continuing this study, Gerbner attempts to find out whether heavy viewers do not trust other people as much as light viewers. The heavy viewers made claims such as "most people are just looking out for themselves' and 'Do unto others before they do unto you'" (Griffin 384). These results clearly show there is a reason cultivation occurs from violence in the media.

To explain the cultivation process, Gerbner uses the mainstreaming and resonance hypotheses. Mainstreaming takes place when people view images and labels repetitively. When people view the same thing over and over, they become comfortable with it and relate to it. This can be seen when heavy viewers find themselves relating with one another and having the same attitudes towards the same concepts thus having a "commonality of outlook" (Griffin 384). The idea of resonance portrays repetition as well. However, this repetition is caused by an actual first hand experience with violence. When a viewer has one of these and they are constantly seeing the same actions take place on TV, it causes the trauma they have or are experiencing to be amplified.

Argument Research

Past research has clearly shown that people form certain attitudes based on what they see or hear in the media. People often compare themselves to the media's generalizing statements and visuals. The media is an easily accessible resource for people to make these comparisons. There is a model called the situation model, in which people form while attempting to comprehend a specific incident. This model is very closely related to the cultivation theory which says that a mass amount of media exposure can result in a much altered perception of reality (Cohen and Weiman 2000). When people repeatedly watch a show on television they are constantly forming these situational models. These models allow viewers to have something to relate, represent, and compare to a similar situation that occurs (Magliano, Miller, and Zwaan, 2001; Magliano, Zwaan, and Graesser, 1999; Van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983; Zwaan, 1999; Zwaan and Radvansky, 1998, from B. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Davie, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2004). When a person watches numerous amounts of a crime series, they form a mental model about these crimes; who is involved, where it takes place, and what happens. This constant viewing of different crime series would influence the perceptions people have towards crime in society (Cohen and Weiman 2000). Therefore, this shows the influential effects the cultivation theory has on TV viewers. These models are activated when a situation occurs that is similar to the one viewed on TV. Expanding on the cultivation theory, Brusselle (2001) and Potter (1986) said these mental or situational models have an influential role on the perceptions of reality. Thus, when a person's model already present in their memory has similar characteristics to a situation in reality, their attitude of the original model will influence their perception of reality (Wyer, 2004 from B. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Davie, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2004). Depending on the amount of TV someone watches, they will have more of these models in their memory to compare to more situations in their daily lives. As Gerbner (Griffin 386) states, "people who watch lots of

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