Cultivation theory – Gerbner

Cultivation theory is the long-term effects of television. “The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television.” The theory is that the more you see things in the media, your perspective or the way you view things changes. Letter to the freedoms this by using the genre of hip hop to gain an audience as it is a popular genre to listen to. This is a way to persuade the world that their message is right. The music video is a part of a hegemonic struggle of black people in America and how they face racism and discrimination. This theory can be portrayed in Letter to the free because of the black lives matter message that it promotes.The fact that the song was also made in a music video format and used for a documentary

figures: letter to the free 2016

Common is an American musician and actor who has a net worth of $45 million

The music industry distributes their songs in different formats. For example the music video for letter to the free and the documentary. They do this to gain an audience.

The song letter to the free was used for a Netflix documentary on how America has private prisons which are required to be full. This caused especially black people to be put in prison for money. “Shot me with your ray-gun, And now you want to trump me, Prison is a business, America’s the company” are lyrics that refer to this. This also goes with the message that racism is still relevant today as there is more black people in prison today than there were slaves when America allowed slavery.

Knowledge to use

• processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context
• the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation (streaming services, piracy, etc)
• the impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the role of individual producers.
• the significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification
• the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products
• how media organisations maintain, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
• the interrelationship between media technologies and patterns of consumption and response

• How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences
• How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated: widely distributed on video hosting sites aimed at a youth audience but also consumed by the audience for political documentary.
• How audiences interpret the media, including how they may interpret the same media in different ways (Hall Theory of Preferred Reading)
• Cultivation Theory
• Uses and Gratifications Theory

• how your knowledge of the institutional details of the text ie specifics facts, figures, names, dates etc about the text. At this point show your knowledge of the music industry and use key terms (see above)
• Next, show how audiences may (theoretically) interpret media texts ie audience theory.
• Follow this up with specific ideas that suggest how certain audiences may interpret this particular text (ie apply the theory to this CSP)
• Finally, make some summative conclusions based on your knowledge and understanding that show the importance of culture in terms of engaging with issues of power and control. For this you could reference Gramsci & his concept of ‘hegemony’ and/or Habermas and his concept of ‘the public sphere’

Facts:

Common works under Def Jam, which is owned by Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi (french conglomerate). Vivendi also owns Vevo.

letter to the free released 2016 for the documentary 13th. it got the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song – Contemporary

hall’s theory of preferred reading with examples

hegemony and the public sphere