Cultivation

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation 7

When I am at home, I love to watch Investigation Discovery's shows about murder and other violent acts.  My favorite shows are the ones that involve family and newlywed homicides - something about them is super interesting!  On the flip side of my viewing habits, I have realized that I am less comfortable being alone in my house downstairs and constantly feel as though I am being watched (my house has a significant amount of windows).  When the rest of my family goes to bed, I call for my dog to be in the room with me, I lock all of the doors and close all of the blinds.  Something about watching these crime shows has made me fearful that it could happen to me.

This is exactly what the Cultivation Theory would predict occur.  Because the media has shown me a constant stream of violent acts on the television, I am more fearful that they will happen to me.  The cultivation theory is all about how violence in the media cultivates this fear in us; however, they do not make me more likely to commit violent acts, according to the theory.  These shows have given me an inflated perception of how often homicides occur and how often other forms of violent crimes happen to everyday people.

One piece of the Cultivation Theory that I found to fit into my scenario is the inflated perception of police activity.  After all of my Investigation Discovery binging, I truly do think that police are always out there looking for wrongdoers and trying to help out the good guys; however, I also have seen many shows where the good guys are the ones who are wrongly apprehended.

On the contrary, I under predicted the number of violent acts in Delaware County.  I think this may have to do with the fact that I do not watch television when I am in Muncie and therefore I feel safer and less threatened when I am here.