Thriller Task - Research: The Cultivation Theory

A theory we looked at is the Cultivation theory. This is an audience theory that was looked into by George Gerbner and Larry Gross. The theory looked at how people are influenced by the media in negative way. This can be when violence is used in media such as video games and films, and it influenced the audience to commit similar actions. This theory is useful as it makes creators think about what the audience may do in response to the film, and how it should be avoided.

In its most basic form, cultivation theory suggests that exposure to television, over time, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality. Gerbner and Gross say: "television is a medium of the socialization of most people into standardized roles and behaviors." - (Source: Wikipedia)
  
Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli argued that school and religion influenced people, it ws as influential as television now was. Television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history. Due to its accessibility and availability to the masses, television has become the central cultural arm of society. Gerbner observed that television reaches people, on average, more than seven hours a day. While watching, television offers “a centralized system of story-telling”.Gerbner asserts that television's major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change. We live in terms of the stories we tell and television tells these stories through news, drama, and advertising to almost everybody most of the time.

This will be beneficial in us understanding not only the positive but also the negative effect our thriller opening might have on the audiences that view our opening. As a result, we will be taking the plot and narrative into consideration to make sure that the effects our opening will have on the audience will not be catastrophic.