Lit Review

            
             Cultivation theory claims that television cultivates a view of reality that is not consistent with actual reality but is perceived as reality. In other words people seem to believe that television represents real life. This is especially true in the case of heavy viewers of television. This is also true in novice (children) viewers and most research tends to lean toward the idea that heavy viewing of television by novices cultivates an idea that the world is a mean and violent place. Cultivation theorists attribute two mechanisms to explain how television cultivates ideas. Mainstreaming which is televisions ability to stabilize and homogenize views within a society, and resonance, which is the extent to which a person can identify an event on television with something in his/her own personal experience. Repetition of resonance and identifying with the idea of the mainstream culture would cultivate the idea. The idea of violence as a common event has been cultivated by television and reinforced by televisions portrayal of a "Mean World". .
             In a series of articles published in the Journal of communication George Gerbner and his associates claim that heavy television watching cultivates conceptions of reality in viewers which are consistent in the world presented in television dramas but not in reality. (Hughes 1980) The "world" of television is perceived as a violent and mean one where both good and bad people commit violent acts. The televised stories that generate the most concern seem to be those that contain scenes of violence. "Acts of physical aggression are suspected of inciting impressionable viewers to commit similar acts."(Gerbner 1978) One reason people are concerned about television violence is the frequency of aggressive acts. Violence "Plays an overwhelming role in television entertainment children see long before they can read. An American child today is born into a home in which television is on an average of over seven hours a day.