As a pre-teen, I spent many summer vacations in the 1980s at my grandparents’ home in Tallahassee, Florida. Even though Tallahassee is its state's capital, the city still has a 'country' feel to it despite the fact the population hovers just over 170,000 and most of its inhabitants live within a relatively few square miles.
For those unfamiliar with Florida, in the summer it rains almost every afternoon. During those rainy afternoons I would spend hours sitting with my grandmother, on their screened-porch, listening to her deliver hours upon hours of advice. Most of it would be in the form of warnings and admonitions. Although a lot of advice came from her years of wisdom, much of her offerings would be influenced by the news reported on the local TV stations. My grandmother watched the morning, noon, evening and late night news broadcasts. She also read The Tallahassee Democrat, which was the leading and only daily newspaper in the city. Both news sources provided ample material for my grandmother to discuss morals and values.
As I neared my thirteenth birthday I no longer wanted to spend my summers in Florida and instead wanted to hang out with my friends and play sports. I spent the next few summers being a kid and growing into adulthood.
It wasn’t until I returned to Tallahassee to attend Florida State University that I realized that although time passes some things remain the same. I would visit my grandmother periodically and our tradition of sitting on her porch and talking during afternoon thunderstorms began again as if it had never stopped. She still doled out advice based on the local news. Her topics included senseless ‘random’ violence, mismanagement in city and state government or crises at one of the two universities. Even though her topics were mostly negative, she was funny. Often, she would tell me not to embezzle money from my job. I would always tell her I couldn’t embezzle money in my job as a Teaching Assistant in a graduate program, even if I wanted to. (Knowing what I know now I would have said that anyone who would spend five years in a doctoral program probably had no desire to embezzle money anyway.)
Cultivation Theory
As a child I knew that my grandmother and I perceived the world differently. As she grew older and became more homebound that difference expanded even more. She viewed the 'world' as more violent, corrupt and unsafe. It was reflected in her advice. Although I sensed it, it wasn’t until I was much older and pursuing a doctorate in Mass Communication that I could attach a theory to her view of the world. As Gladwell likes to say, “people are experience rich, but theory poor.”
My grandmother’s way of viewing the world can be described by Cultivation Theory, which was pioneered by George Gerbner at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s. The theory, which has been refined considerably since then, posits that people who are heavy consumers of television, especially news, tend to view the world as more violent and "unsafe" than those who aren’t heavy viewers. This is especially so if the news is consumed on a local level where the term “if it bleeds, it leads” is often applied to the programming decisions of news editors by scholars. In fact, middle age and elderly women test higher for this type of thinking than any other group.
However, many people develop this outlook and it is not restricted to elderly women. Whether you believe news has a weak or strong influence we have all known people whose conversations, moods or outlook was colored by the news they consumed. In fact, you may have developed a similar worldview as described above.
Final Spin
Yes, random violence and corruption can and does occur, but we can’t let it confuse us and keep us from making sensible and informed decisions in our daily lives. As news consumers it is very important that we are aware of what, how much and under what conditions we consume media.
I appreciate the sound advice and motherly care that my grandmother provided. She helped nurture my ability to use common sense and that has benefitted me on many occasions. But I also know that there is a picture of life that is created by news organizations and another life that exists when I walk out my front door. It pays to know the difference.
(Please be aware that theories are not laws, like the Law of Gravity. Thus, not all researchers and academics agree with Gerbner’s findings and researchers who are adherents of his theory.)
Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is the author of Pop Psychology - The Psychology of Pop Culture and Everyday Life! You can also check out his page on Twitter.
