Television has a crazy way of making us believe that we can do anything. With 3 seasons of
Law and Order we can crack any case in real life. A few episodes of
Grey's Anatomy seem to be the only qualifications to be able to properly diagnose friends and family. I won't deny that after binge watching
Breaking Bad that I definitely grew more paranoid. But why?
According to a 2009 study done by Brian Quick from the University of Illinois involving the affects of viewers of
Grey's Anatomy concluded that "heavy viewers of
Grey's Anatomy perceive this program to be credible" (Quick, 2009). This means that the way the doctors, surgeries and procedures on the show are perceive as truth to the people that watch the show consistently.
During this study, Quick discussed cultivation theory and how it connects with the amount of television that is being watched by users. According to
masscommtheory.com Cultivation Theory is the idea that "high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid...heavy viewers of TV are thought to be 'cultivating' attitudes that seem to believe that the world created by television is an accurate description of the real world."
The more television people watch, the more they believe messages to be real, and their perceptions of how the media portrays different characters also have the potential to be engrained into the minds of its viewers as truth.
Knowing the impact that television has on our perception of everyday life, the content of these messages can be detrimental. Even if TV consumers watch a program and are aware that the source is invalid that is sometimes not enough. According to the "sleeper effect" we can "hold onto a piece of information while gradually forgetting it came from an unreliable source" (
alternet.org). So while television consumers are being cautious of the inaccuracy of portrayals and information, eventually it can become truth in our minds.
For example, the legal drama
Boston Legal showed an episode in 2007, where a child had an allergic reaction to which the teacher used an EpiPen on the student. In the episode the EpiPen did not work, and the child died soon after. EpiPens are helpful and effective ways to help an allergic reaction, however people had a new image of this device after watching the episode. A study led by Jakob D. Jensen from the University of Utah showed a number of students this episode, and afterwards there was a significantly higher amount of doubts about the effectiveness of EpiPens. The media is not guaranteed to have 100% accuracy, but upon watching the media on a regular basis we can believe its messages as truth, as well as changing our perceptions of the world dependent on what we are watching. Keeping this in mind it is important to remember that portrayals in the media are not always accurately describing reality, and watching
Grey's Anatomy incessantly does not make you a licensed doctor, but a regular television consumer.
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