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Television is increasingly present in our daily lives. We wake up in the morning and watch the news as we get ready for work or school. The TV is on when we get home creating background noise or entertaining us with our favorite programs after a long day. We fall asleep to the dim flickering light of late-night television. For some children, it is a major source of entertainment, and sometimes a baby sitter. So can watching so much TV affect our perception of the world around us? Can it influence our attitudes and beliefs, as well as our interpretation of reality?
George Gerbner, founder of the cultivation theory, suggests that "television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history" (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, 1986). Television has become the most common source of everyday information in a heterogeneous population. As many different races, ethnicities, cultural and demographic backgrounds as there are in the world, television is sharing a common image, repetitive ideals and notions of how the world works. These common images and ideals work together to help reinforce or establish common beliefs, identities, and even shape one's perception of reality. Television brings the same images to all that watch it. "The heart of the analogy of television and religion, and the similarity of their social functions, lies in the continual repetition of patterns (myths, ideologies, "facts", relationships, etc.), which serve to define the world and legitimize the social order" (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, 1986).
"The stories of a culture reflect and cultivate its most basic and fundamental assumptions, ideologies, and values. Cultivation analysis explores the extent to which television viewers' beliefs about the 'real world' are shaped by heavy exposure to the most stable, repetitive, and pervasive patterns that television presents." (Museum of Broadcasting)
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