“Being able to tell the difference between fiction and reality” is kinda… not the point. At all.
It’s a lousy argument that completely misses the point entirely.
Cultivation theory, at it’s baseline, doesn’t say that consuming, say, violent media makes you wanna kill or hurt people. What cultivation theory IS is saying “the proliferation of excessive violent media can influence how the people who consume that media perceive about the world” ie a person with already violent tendencies might be more likely to act on those violent tendencies because, due to the sheer glut of violent media, violence might seem more acceptable than it actually is culturally.
And this shit is subconscious, you can’t say you’re not affected by it because “you know the difference between fiction and reality”, because often time you don’t actively register that it IS influencing you. Or, in the case of many ads, you do know it’s trying to influence you and you put up guard walls - but that burger on screen DOES look delicious and the Burger King is only down the road so why not grab something to eat? The decline of sharks due to Jaws is people perceiving the sharks as inherently dangerous to human and, thus, to keep people safe, need to be culled. The rise of the KKK in the late 1910′s and early 20′s was due to Birth of a Nation portraying the KKK as sympathetic and cool. The decline of the KKK in the 40s can be attributed to their mocking portrayal Superman radio serials. This shit all matters.
This shit is all people being influenced by fiction even if they can acknowledge that fiction isn’t reality.
To expand and reiterate. Yes, not everyone is going to be affected by cultivation theory the same way or in some cases, even at all. This varies from individual to individual and from society to society, and the effects of said “cultivation” can be stronger or weaker, once again, depending on the individual. To name the name of one of the most famous studies on the subject “Some Genres have Some Effect on Some People”. However When content is consumed by thousands, or in the case of big budget stuff, millions. “Some Genres have Some Effect on Some People” has a non insignificant chance of impacting society. And just because you know this, and can tell yourself “Pfft, I’M not being affected! It’s only IDIOTS and KIDS who get affected by this stuff!” You’re not as ironclad and immune as you think.
The third-person effect is a very real and prevalent type of cognitive dissonance. Sometimes people who say “I’m immune to being influenced by media” are the ones being influenced the most.
