Taylor Topham, Dixie State University
Communications
With the new generations comes new forms of entertainment. Rarely is there a home without a television. The Cultivation Theory presented by George Gerbner and his colleagues states that television is so common in our society that it has an affect on our perceptions of the world. The Cultivation Theory specifically looks at violence on television and its effects on the viewer. Those that are heavy viewers of television often have what is known as mean-world syndrome. Because of the violence they watch on television, they are more likely to see the world as a violent place (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011). Along with a television often comes some type of video gaming system. Studies state that over 65% of North American households now have a video gaming system (Chiawen, Aiken & Huang, 2012). The purpose of this research is to determine if video gaming effects the perception of individuals similarly to that of television as described by George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory.
Some of the aspects under scrutiny are the effects of playing violent video games, the social ramifications of those who are considered high gamers, the effects of gaming on self-concept clarity and flow and the effects of gaming on critical thinking skills. Overall, the goal of this research is to determine if a high amount of time playing video games does in fact alter the perceptions of the world.