The Cultivation Theory: how does the screen influence us?
A communication theory that studies the effects that television has on our minds.
If you've ever stopped to think about how many hours a day most people spend watching television or surfing the Internet, you may have asked yourself this question: How does what we see on a screen influence the way we think?
This is one of the questions that the social sciences have been trying to answer from the have tried to answer based on what is known as Cultivation Theory..
What does Cultivation Theory consist of?
Although its name may be confusing at first, in its origins Cultivation Theory was basically a theory of communication that served as a starting point to study the effects that prolonged exposure to television had on the way in which society is interpreted and imagined..
Specifically, the premise from which the Cultivation Theory originally operated was that the more time one spends watching television, the more one comes to believe that society is just as it is reflected on the screen. In other words, that becoming accustomed to certain kinds of television content leads one to assume that what we are being shown is representative of the world in which we live.
Although it was formulated in the 1970s, the Cultivation Theory is still valid today, albeit with a slight variation. It no longer focuses solely on the effects of television, but also tries to address digital digital media such as video games and content that can be found on the Internet..
Vicarious learning and digital media
In psychology there is a concept that is very useful to understand what Cultivation Theory is based on: vicarious learning, expounded by Albert Bandura. at the end of the 1970s through his Social Learning Theory.
This type of learning is fundamentally learning by observation; we do not need to perform an action to judge the results of that action and decide whether it is useful or not.. We can simply watch what others do and learn from their successes and mistakes indirectly.
The same can happen with television, video games and the Internet. Through the screen we observe how various characters make decisions and how these decisions translate into good and bad consequences. These processes not only tell us about whether certain actions are desirable or not, they also communicate aspects of how the universe in which we live works. how the universe in which these decisions are made works.and this is where Cultivation Theory comes in.
For example, from the series Game of Thrones one can draw the conclusion that pity is not an attitude that others assume as normal, but one can also conclude that the most naive or innocent people are often manipulated and abused by others. It can also be concluded that altruism hardly exists, and that even displays of friendship are guided by political or economic interests.
On the one hand, vicarious learning makes us put ourselves in the shoes of certain characters and judge their failures and accomplishments as we would if they were our own. On the other hand, the fact of having analyzed the results of an action from that person's point of view makes us draw a conclusion about the functioning of society and the power it has over the individual.
The possible bad influence of television
One of the focuses of attention that Cultivation Theory has delved into is the study of what happens when we see a lot of violent content on screens. when we see a lot of violent content through the screens.. This is a topic that often comes to us through alarmist headlines, for example when we begin to explore the biography of teenage murderers and come to the (hasty) conclusion that they committed their crimes under the influence of a video game or a television series.
But the truth is that the amount of violence to which young people are exposed through a screen is a relevant topic for the behavioral sciences; not in vain childhood and adolescence are stages in life in which are very sensitive to the subtle teachings that are revealed by the environment..
And, assuming that television and digital media in general have the power to make viewers act in "desirable" ways, being influenced by awareness campaigns or assuming the normality of homosexuality by watching the series Modern Family, it is also not unreasonable to think that the opposite could happenthat these same media make us more prone to reproduce undesirable behaviors, such as violent actions, for example.
And it is these risky elements, rather than the beneficial potential of the media, that generate the most interest. At the end of the day, there is always time to discover the good side of digital media, but the dangers must be detected as soon as possible.
It would therefore be perfectly possible for television and the Internet to be leaving a strong imprint on the mentality of the a strong imprint on the mentality of young people.The chances of that influence being good are just as likely to be bad, since it is not based only on the conclusions expressed directly in the dialogues, but on implicit learning. It is not necessary for a character to clearly state that he believes in the superiority of white people for it to be assumed through his actions that he is a racist.
Violence and Cultivation Theory
However, it would be a mistake to assume that, according to Cultivation Theory, televised violence makes us more violent.. The effect of this would be, if anything, to assume more or less unconsciously the idea that violence is an essential and very common component of society (or a certain type of society).
That can make us start to be more violent because "everyone is doing it," but it can also have the opposite effect: because we believe that most people are aggressive, we feel good about not needing to harm others and about standing out in that respect, which makes us more resistant to engaging in such behaviors.
Concluding
Cultivation Theory is not based on an absolute and spectacular statement along the lines of "seeing a lot of racist people on TV makes you start discriminating against black people," but is based on a much subtler and humbler idea: that exposure to certain media causes us to confuse social reality with the society portrayed in that media..
This phenomenon may entail many risks, but also opportunities; that depends on many other variables related to the characteristics of the viewers and to the content broadcast in question.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)