Gerbner’s Theories/ How do popular arts influence people and societies?

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Gerbner’s Theories: How do popular arts influence people and societies?
To what extent are our behavior, attitude and action altered by what we see? Gerbner’s analysis claims that popular art can change an individual’s behavior over time. Most popular arts are created based on the things that we see, hear or experience in our daily lives. Popular art, such as films, maintain and propagate the events to the viewers, hence binding their minds to the facts. Wood (293) explains that we human beings tend to experience Gerbner’s mainstreaming effect. Popular art can shape how people and society construct their perception of the surrounding within extreme ends of violence and safety.
According to cultivation theory, individual perception of the world and their surrounding are shaped by the type of art they are exposed to (Shrum 1). Prolonged exposure to popular art describing violent events can create fear within an individual and make them find the world as a dangerous place to live. Weldon (2) explains that the pictorial elements of art can cultivate our conception of social reality. A case of a child being made to see or watch popular forms of art depicting ogres and witches will eventually make the child believe in their existence. Thus the child will always be scared more than she was before viewing the art.
Most popular forms of art we experience depict scenes of murder violence, rape, and torture (Bond 2). For the instance of heavy viewers, the pictures and ideas are cultivated in the minds hence altering their attitudes and perception about the real world.

Westra, Janice, and Antonio (261) explain that heavy viewers are highly affected more than light viewer by any form of art and are more prone to mean world syndrome, that is, the fear that the world is a cruel and dangerous place.
For some time now, I have been a fan of horror forms of art including horror movies and painting. Most of the scenes and pictures I see consist of elements such as blood, knives, mass murder and evil-like creatures. Recently, I have been having a tough time sleeping in the dark as I have occasionally hallucinations of the creatures on the wall when lights are turned off. I am occasional afraid that something terrible might happen anytime.
In summary, popular art forms can inject fear in the mind of the viewer making them develop a sense of cynicism. The mindset limits one’s freedom to live freely. Moreover, people tend to become more mistrustful of others and form a defensive attitude when exposed to the real world.

Works Cited
Bond, Paul. “Study: TV Violence Linked to ‘Mean World Syndrome’.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 June 2014, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/study-tv-violence-linked-mean-712890.
Shrum, Larry J. “Cultivation Theory: Effects and Underlying Processes.” Rössler, Patrick et al. (Hg.): The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. Chichester, West Sussex, UK (2017): 1-5.
Weldon, Laura Grace. “Fighting ‘Mean World Syndrome.’” Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2011/01/fighting-mean-world-syndrome/.
Westra, Laura, Janice Gray, and Antonio D’Aloia, Eds. The Common Good and Ecological Integrity: Human Rights and the Support of Life. Routledge, (2016): 259-262.
Wood, Julia T. Communication Mosaics: An introduction to the field of communication. Cengage Learning, (2013): 290-294.