The Cultivation Theory is the idea that a person's perception of the world around them is altered by mass exposure to various forms of media (e.g. television, internet, newspaper). The theory suggests that television and media play a small but significant influence on the attitudes and beliefs of society about society.
An example of this is the fact that due to programs such as Crimewatch, more exposure would influence the viewers who watch it more so and may impact them subconsciously to fear danger if out at night and it's dark. They may anticipate because of what they've seen in the media that they could get mugged, murdered, raped, etc. because this is what they've been cultivated to believe by exposure to this form of media text.
Skins is an example of how young people are cultivated to be perceived as disrespectful drug fiends who do little more than party and have sex. In many of the series, they are also seen engaging in violent behaviour towards each other or to other people, such as drug dealers or aggressive men in pubs/clubs. This is a negative portrayal of young people and an older generation may be cultivated to believe that all of the younger generation are like this, inflicting a negative impression of youth culture in their heads. Not only that, the majority of the attention that the younger generation receive in the media (e.g. newspapers and news reports) is negative. This reinforces the idea of young people being disrespectful, lazy and in some instances, violent.
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