cultivation theory

Games

GTA – would be believed to cause harm on a younger audience who may be influenced by this as it mainly promotes violence and crime.

Film

Irreversible – said to have a 10-minute r*pe scene which supposedly caused over 200 people to leave the cinema and about 20 people fainted, which clearly made an incredibly bad influence of the audience of possibly different ages.

 

Bandura – the social learning theory (1965) – he had 66 nursery children split into 3 different groups and had each group watch a video of someone beating up a doll. Group 1 watched the person be rewarded for beating it. Group 2 watched them be scolded. And group 3 watched nothing happen to the person. The children were then left in a playroom with the doll and a lot of toys, and when the first group were left, they messed about and beat the doll as a result of seeing an adult being praised for it. the other groups however were a lot calmer. however, for it to have been more accurate, there could have been a fourth group that they showed nothing to and left them in the playroom to see what happens.

 

Cultivation theory

Suggests that repeated exposure to television over time can subtly ‘cultivates viewers’ perceptions of reality. GG and LG theorised that TV is a medium of the socialisation of most people into standardised roles and behaviours.

Desensitisation - make (someone) less likely to feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty or suffering by overexposure to such images.

Mean world syndrome – an assumption of cultivation theory (GG), to describe the phenomenon whereby violence related content in television and film makes viewers believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. e.g. people who watch a lot of violent stuff are more likely to believe that there are more murderers.

^ Larry Gross and George Gerbner 1976

Audiences now may have become desensitised to

Anderson and Ferguson

high exposure to fast-paced violent games can lead to change in brain function when processing violent images, including dampening of emotional responses to violence.

no long-term link over three years and games are now more important than ever for socialisation, feeling autonomy and control during an uncertain time, and just destressing.