Cultivation Theory/Torture

During this weeks class, we studied the topic of media violence progressing and changing into a more advanced epidemic throughout the United States. One of the most famous researchers behind this was George Gerbner. One theory created by Gerbner and his colleagues in the study of media violence was the Cultivation theory. The idea behind this theory is that the more we see something in the media, the more the view of reality starts to align with the version we view the world.

In John Oliver's skit on torture, we see how our own judicial, CIA, and citizens revolve around the Cultivation theory on Torture. One example used by Oliver is that 57% of Americans believe waterboarding and torture will help stop terrorism, even when it is proven and confessed by former CIA agents in reports of terrorist, that the suspects confessed before the torture began. The biggest piece of evidence that American citizens fit in the category of Cultivation theory is the former Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia, who used the television program "24" as evidence behind torture working to retrieve information from terrorist suspects. These facts show that from over watching media and believing everything we see, the more we fear our own reality and what happens outside of a TV screen.

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