Assignment Two - Cultivation Theory

                                                                   Cultivation Theory

The concept of Cultivation theory helps me to understand the impacts of the images that are shown in the media, (form TV to Movies, to Magazines, etc.) have on our everyday life by showing the biased perceptions that are placed on people, places, and events. For example people of color are depicted on movies and TV as the gangsters, thieves, and all around bad guys in many different forms.

In the movies blacks and Hispanics have been shown as the “hoodlums” they rob banks, steal money, break into cars, and even kill. This is a theme that is shown in movies all around the world, even in “City of God”. Our entire lives we have watched non-whites on TV and movies be the bad guys, and over time that’s how we came to see all people of black and Hispanic descent. This is because of the Cultivation Theory is a social theory which examines the long term result of the media on humans. Studies have shown that what people see on the TV they take on in real life. People mimic the actions and thoughts shown that they see every day.

For example in the YouTube video below a group of students made a video to explain Cultivation theory, in which they showed a boy who had watched several hours of “Most Wanted Criminals”  and then showed his thoughts and reactions to the real world after.

This also relates back to "Tough Guise" because we feel that males need be big and bad to be men. Most Blacks and Hispiancs would agree with the movie and say that a real man is tough, a bad ass, gets stuff done. This shows another reason why people of color are precieved as the bad guys.