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CruellingTo cruel somebody is to make them cruel, or at least crueler than they would otherwise be. It is to seduce them into the idea that it’s alright, even good and praiseworthy, to belittle others and cause them suffering. The others can be peers, migrants, minorities, political rivals. If someone encourages us to treat them unkindly, we've been cruelled. And if we encourage others to be cruel, we ourselves are cruellers. Often cruelling is justified by the idea that it is counter-punching: that is, a cruel response to having been treated cruelly.
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Media Cultivation Theory"Media cultivation theory refers to a gradual process by which heavy television viewers come to view objective reality as closer to the “television reality” depicted on screen (Gerbner, 1969, 1970; Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Cultivation theory suggests that, compared to light television viewers, heavy viewers are more likely to perceive real life as being more like the symbolic life portrayed on television via dramas, comedies, news, sports, and so on. Heavy TV viewers gradually become immersed in the symbolic world depicted on the television screen, becoming enculturated by its images and implicit and explicit messages. For instance, because television programming tends to portray countless more violent acts than an ordinary individual would encounter in real life, heavy television viewers tend to perceive their chances of experiencing a violent crime to be higher than do light viewers (e.g., Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Beliefs and attitudes about solutions to violent crime often follow from these perceptions, implying that cultivation is a particularly powerful force in shaping public behavior and policy." |
Fox News"Today’s cable and network news programs are easily distinguished. Network news is targeted toward politically moderate audiences, is dispassionate, and provides viewers with short, 30-min or 1-hr bursts of news. Conversely, cable channels purposefully target partisan audiences, possess an overtly emotional presentational style, and provide audiences large blocks of original news content. While network and cable audiences do not always make mutually exclusive channel selections, individuals who watch television news tend to self-select into a particular type of programming and spend long amounts of time with that channel (Stroud, 2011). Viewers who prefer Fox will therefore be provided with the type of lengthy, combative programming offered by Fox, whereas CBS news viewers will frequently receive shorter, relatively unemotional news programming. Even allowing for some news channel crossover, Gerbner and Gross’s (1976) media cultivation theory suggests that general adherence to one type of programming will create differing perceptions of American politics over time—straightforward and calm for network viewers, contentious and uncivil for cable viewers. |