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.