CTP BLOG #4 Testing Cultivation Theory- Morgan Raddatz

 After watching a thirty minute local television news broadcast on WISN  and reading about the Cultivation Theory I saw first hand how the media can influence the messages they broadcast towards their viewing audiences. In addition I found most of what I viewed supported the Cultivation Theory.  According to  “Functions and Theories of Mass Communication”, section 15.2 from the book A Primer on Communication Studies states: "Cultivation theory is a media effects theory created by George Gerbner that states that media exposure, specifically to television, shapes our social reality by giving us a distorted view on the amount of violence and risk in the world. The theory also states that viewers identify with certain values and identities that are presented as mainstream on television even though they do not actually share those values or identities in their real lives". This statement reflected on several of the news segments I observed while watching the news. Since I recorded the news on my DVR I do not have a link to view but I do have pictures to display my findings: 

News Stories 1 to 4

The type of  “reality” that is presented to the viewing audience according to the log results is manipulated to fit the norms of a majority-minority society.  This is due to all the segments containing at least one individual who is a non minority with minority individuals while it is not reversed. Therefore my findings reflect what I have read about this week from the assigned readings (15.2 Functions & Theories of Mass Communication and 15.3 Mass Communication & Ethics). For example many of the news segments neglected to show individuals who belonged to the mature age group (people over age 50). Most of the news stories showed individuals who were either adolescents or young adults and five of the news stories dealt with adolescent/young adult issues in educational settings  . 

                                                        
One finding that contradicted what I learned from the readings is that most news segments pertain to the male gender. However quite a few of the news segments I saw dealt with prominent  gender issues for females such as combating against sexual assault and the reduction of health care services provided by Plan Parenthood (news showed two pregnant females getting ultrasounds). Although these were issues that tended to deal towards the female gender; males were still seen in the news story or they even gave their own opinion on the topic (Male Carroll University student gave reason about the promotion of sexual assault awareness on campus).

News Stories 5 to 7

News Stories 8 to 10

While looking at race in the news segments the majority of the news segments contained a mixture of races. But white was the prominent race in all of the news segments. Out of the ten news segments I viewed only two of the segments had Latinos represented. But these Latinos were accompanied by black and white individuals in a group setting. Surprisingly there were more news segments with black individuals than what I thought would occur due to what I read. There were black individuals identified in seven of the ten news segments. But out of the ten news segments there were no Asians or Native American individuals represented. This finding shows there is a dire need to have more Asians and Native American individuals represented on the news.

For the news segments being about a good news story or a bad news story it was evenly split between five good news stories and five bad news stories. Half  of the stories had the theme of violence or being a victim of a crime behind them.  Three of the bad stories depict the convicted individual to be black (Greenfield  Robbery, and Marquette rescinds Bill Cosby's honorary degree)  or as a victim (Missing teen).  Although the focus should be on the news segments themselves sometimes certain individuals (predominantly from minority groups) can cause their groups to be viewed in a negative way due to being the dominant race seen in the bad news story. However individuals from majority groups can be viewed the same way too but they are seen more as an individual who acts alone versus their whole race group being suspected of crime. But viewers should understand blaming a whole race of people due to one person's actions is a bias act. Instead viewers need to understand one person's actions do not represent a whole group's actions no matter the race of the individual depicted in the news segment. 

Overall WISN 12's  news segments related to what I read about the Cultivation Theory. However some of the results surprised me because it seems as if the news is progressing how they promote information. This is by including more individuals from minority groups and females into their news segments. However they are still progressing slowly due to  having men and majority group individuals accompany minorities and females as a main focus; even when they are in the same news segments. Hopefully as the future progresses there will be more news segments that show a greater emphasis of older individuals, females and non represented minority groups; so that the news can show more opinions and contain different points of view.