Brad J. Bushman's Cultivation Theory

As a freshman in college, I remember reading Cultivation Theory for the first time. One of the facts that I found most interesting dealt with violence in television. It is argued that by the time a child enters kindergarten they will have witnessed 100,000 acts of violence on average, via television. Many video games advocate for violence, and even incentivize it argues Brad J. Bushman As violence is the basis of many of these games, it is likely witnessing 100,000 acts of violence in a game would be an underestimate. Brad J. Bushman believes that the effects of video games are much worse because the player is active where, when watching television, the viewer is passive. Those in favor of video games would argue they are fictitious and

Social media and news have vastly increased the reach that journalists and sources can have. Thus, the framing of events and people are not innocent because it can influence perceptions and both public discourse and policy. Brad J. Bushman argues that people assume that the media has little effect on them. As humans, there is an innate desire to justify one’s thoughts and actions. Thus, regarding video games, people assume that the effects presented in research have little effect on their behavior. Those who play video games will not admit that video games are making them more aggressive. Rather, they will assume that they are more immune to those effects than other people. This illustrates Sheufele’s idea of individual frames as it impacts audiences’ beliefs and actions. Like Entman, his project considers and attempts to understand the influences that can affect individual processes. Outside of video games, the framing and words used to describe issues can vastly impact how individuals view them. In the Otto Santa Ana article, it argued that labeling and describing immigrants as animals affected the way they were treated by individuals and in public policy. Like Van Gorp, Scheufele’s project assumes that realities are socially constructed. Thus, the descriptions used about people and events are not innocent and can maintain a level of