the lifetime movie network is on its way in making women paranoid schizophrenics

Cultivation theory basically argues that exposure to mass media fosters a view of the world that corresponds with the mediated “reality.” Many people who watch heavy doses of sensationalized local news (usually people who are inside most of the day) are more likely to be more frightened than others since they believe that these things on the television are consistent depictions of the real world, and when just a few real life incidents confirm what they have seen on television, they believe it is true.  What is “normal” in the real world is also distorted – based on typical local news, it is more “normal” for an African American to be the perpetrator of a crime, it is more “normal” for a teenager to shoplift, it is more “normal” for a woman to be victimized, and it is “normal” for such incidents to happen so frequently.

The epitome of a Lifetime Movie Network movie.

In my experience, the best way to explain cultivation theory is through the dramatized women’s television network, Lifetime.  I always found it ironic that this network was named this since the incidents are occur in every movie they show happen to few to no people in the world and are definitely not things that occur in an ordinary lifetime.  In a typical Lifetime movie, an above-average looking woman is always the protagonist, one who either gets raped, is lured into an unhappy, abusive marriage, is being stalked, has a torrid affair, witnesses a murder or commits a murder, or all of the above (including the occasional haunting).  According to a TIME magazine article (click here) , in the early 2000s about 1.9 million households watched this network and in 2001 it was the number one cable-network based on ratings: this means over 2 million women were exposed to at least one of these unrealistic movies in a year.  The network even attempts to make the viewer think that these incidents happen regularly in real life by creating “True-Movie Thursday,” in which they air movies which are based on actual stories, such as the Natalee Holloway case.  These movies create paranoia in the viewers, typically female audiences above 20, altering their perceptions on who to trust and instilling a sense of misandry (since men are usually the antagonists in these films).

For example, in this Lifetime Original movie above, “The Tenth Circle,” a girl gets raped by her ex-boyfriend, there are fatal twists and turns in the plot, and an extreme range of emotions (almost to the point of parody). Such movies induce a sense of mistrust of people one considers close and ultimately paranoia. In many cases, people accept what these mass-mediated movies tell them as if they were actual first-hand accounts.  The constant tragedies which occur in these films make it seem as if it is a certain reality that a girl, without doubt, will get raped if she takes a walk alone outside or that a woman will be murdered if she trusts a man without an extreme amount of caution. These irrational fears are played with by the network and increase the more and more one watches such things.