Cultivation Theory Of Television

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Cultivation Theory was developed by Professor George Gerbner dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid 1960’s. His aim was to study how the TV may influence the viewers (Chandler**). Cultivation Theory examines how watching television affects the behavior and attitudes of people (Williams, 1996). Ever since the television was introduced more than 50 years ago, its use has been a subject of controversy in most cultures. Watching T.V has been blamed for various issues affecting the society. Some believe that watching it lowers one’s IQ and wastes time, others say that it is to be blame for the rising epidemic of obesity (Cultivation Theory). Parents monitor and debate on how many hours their children should be allowed to watch TV. As no surprise it’s one of the most popular theory in the base of mass communication that catechize TV’s accumulate the effects on people’s behavior and attitudes (Cultivation Theory). Others say that the television is to blame for the deterioration of moral values among children and adolescents. However, there are also proponents of television who say that watching T.V. is useful for communication, information, and education.
Cultivation differential is a different level of cultivation between television viewers, which are heavy viewers are more likely to think about the competition between people and self-centered as it lead them to “mean world syndrome”, and the light viewers are more likely to
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