Cultivation Analysis

Cultivation analysis is first proposed by George Gerbner and it claims that individuals who watch heavy amounts of television are hyper conscious to issues of danger and violence in their everyday lives. Sadly, there is some truth to this because it is humans are motivated by fear, and when they sense fear they will believe that is is more prevalent in society and when it comes to responsibility, they push it away and put the blame on a scapegoat.

Just think about World War II when the Nazis were systematically exterminating Jews due to antisemitism and other reasons that lead to the decision that someone is responsible for the mess. That blame was brought upon the entire Jewish race and the only way it was made possible was because the population had fear plus the persuasive speeches that their leader has made.


After many years, this problem is still present. An example is when Marilyn Manson (real name: Brian Hugh Warner) got blamed for the Columbine shooting incident in 1999 just because his music has some dark elements and a little bit of violence. The big massacre was blamed entirely on one person by the public because supposedly it was his music that encouraged people to start a shootout at a high school? I don't think so. Like how someone said that "if you keep watching car commercials, it doesn't mean that you will actually go and buy that car/or keep buying cars".

It is ridiculous to blame it on one person who had done nothing related to the Columbine shooting. This shows that people never reflect on themselves for what has happen and instead, put the blame on someone else so that they don't feel bad and forget about it after.

This is problematic because the more people find a scapegoat for their responsibilities, the less they will contribute and reflect on their mistakes. This will allow more mistakes to be made again and this vicious cycle will just go on and on again.