Wednesday, September 26, 2007
  Confusing Fiction with Realtiy
I'm not really into "reality TV," Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, any of the CSIs, and National Geographic and Law and Order are more my style. I know that probably makes me a nerd, but whatever. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the occasional reality TV show...I do.

Anyway, I was watching CSI: Las Vegas last night. The episode centered around a family of six, four of which were killed rather gruesomely. As it turns out the oldest daughter had one of her "boyfriends" murder her mother, father and her two older brothers; because as a child she was sexually molested by her father, and apparently neither her mother nor her brothers tried to stop it. Then at the age of 13, the oldest daughter become pregnant...with her father's child, Brenda, and subsequently her sister, and still no one noticed. So when her father and Brenda's father started molesting Brenda, the eldest daughter decided to step in and protect her daughter, so she killed the rest of her family.

When the entire plot was finally revealed, one of roommates commented on how utterly sick some people are in our society. I laughed at him and told him that not everything on TV is reality...at least I hope not and that he had acted under the cultivation hypothesis.

My roommate didn't really seem like he believed my theory. But it was really funny to see the cultivation hypothesis at work.
 
Comments:
Good post.

One point of grammar: Cultivation theory can be used to describe the phenomenon you observed.

It's not what's CAUSING the phenomenon, it's just how we can talk about it.

But the discussion you brought out on this topic is right on. Keep it up.
 
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This blog is a companion piece to CCJN4394:Media Effects taught by Dr. J. Richard Stevens at Southern Methodist University.

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